A Holy Remedy

I love hiking in the woods! Every week I spend hours plodding along dusty, tree rooted paths beside the Wolf River. In the wee hours of the morning, I rush to grab a front row seat to marvel at the crescendo of God’s glory rising east above the horizon. Darkness to glorious light, God’s orchestra of praise fills the sky! My heart can’t help but to sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see!”

 

I love the beauty and peace of being at the epicenter of God’s creation. As I walk along quiet, winding trails through acres of trees and wildlife, I often think about Jesus walking from town to town. What did He ponder as He saw the glory of His Father’s creation? (All of which where created for Him and through Him! Colossians 1:15-16) Did Jesus marvel at the chorus of birds and buzzing insects? Was He captivated by the thousands of tiny details that are often overlooked and go unnoticed? I wonder if the disciples were struck with the same amazement and awe that fills my heart. Did they ever lean over to capture the gaze of Jesus and exclaim, “Your Father did that!”? Who but God has the creativity and imagination to create a world full of intricate sights and sounds in a million tones and variations?!

All for His glory! All for His praise!
Who but God!

My love for hiking, however, can be easily tainted with fears & dangers – snakes, heat exhaustion (Memphis in the summer, y’all!), steep terrains, and ticks. This week I fell prey to one of those dangers. I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. One tiny little tick (that went unbothered and unknown for weeks) took root in my back and wasn’t discovered until I suddenly came down with hike-halting symptoms. One tiny little tick turned everything upside down.

My Bible reading for today landed in Colossians 1. The apostle Paul is writing a letter to the Colossian church, a church he neither planted nor visited. Yet, out of his love for Christ and “the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae”, Paul (from his imprisonment in Rome) rushes to the aid of this young church. He has heard that its members are falling prey to a particular danger. Like a doctor, he begins scribbling (“with his own hand”) his diagnosis and remedy. He prescribes a holy antidote, an antibiotic to fight off the infestation of false teaching.

This week I was prescribed an antibiotic to treat an infestation of bacteria from a tick. But what IS an antibiotic?

Britannica defines an antibiotic as:

a chemical substance produced by a living organism, generally a microorganism, that is detrimental to other microorganisms.

We use antibiotics to inhibit the growth of or destroy microorganisms. In other words, we use a living substance to overpower another, more detrimental, substance in our bodies. Paul knew the Colossian church needed an antibiotic to destroy tiny mistruths that would harm, and even kill, the church. But what can kill a parasite that threatens the soul? Paul knew the remedy well … “the grace of God in truth”. The LIVING Word of God is the only cure to stop the spread of danger.

Paul prays for the church in his letter:

[I] have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (1:9-12)

Paul prays for the church to be filled with “the knowledge of [God's] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”.

Charles Spurgeon, in light of this passage, says:

“If you read this epistle through, you will observe that Paul frequently alludes to knowledge and wisdom. To the point in which he judged the church to be deficient he turned his prayerful attention. He would not have them ignorant. He knew that spiritual ignorance is the constant source of error, instability, and sorrow; and therefore, he desired that they might be soundly taught in the things of God.”

God must be central, and for God to be central we must know Him.

J.I Packer in his book, Knowing God, exhorts Christians to have a biblically informed grasp of God and His attributes. Knowing God is foundational to everything in Christianity. To allow God to “become remote, to look at God, so to speak, through the wrong end of the telescope, so reducing Him to pigmy proportions,” can only result in “pigmy Christians” who fail to grow up into the fullness of Christ Jesus. Packer goes on to say:

We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.

So, we pull out our holy Z-pak (that’s the BIG GUN of antibiotics) and pop the first of three capsules from the wrapper.

Day 1: We swallow our first dose – a tightly packed capsule full of the knowledge and holiness of God. We open the Word and draw the entirety of our being on the beauty, glory, and power of Jesus – the living Word of God! He is the only one who can attack and destroy our infestation of sin.

Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Paul then prays that the church would “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”. Knowledge and understanding of God and His will enables us to walk in faithful obedience. But how does this play out? Works (obedience) do not save, but they ARE a fruit of living faith.

John Piper says the following:

If you want to be an obedient person and live the Christian life the way Paul conceives it, then work on your faith. Don’t try to work on your works, because you’ll wind up being a legalist. Work on your faith; focus on the Lord. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And so, focus on Christ, know Christ, delight in Christ, meditate on Christ; get the whole Christ before you. Faith will rise because grace would be coming through it, and then obedience flows out from it.

Day 2: We shallow another dose. It is the same tightly packed capsule which is full of the knowledge of God through Christ Jesus. Yet, we begin to slowly feel a change within in our body. The slow, on-going, faithful remedy of God is piercing the soul to cause our affections to find another host – Christ Jesus! 

Paul then supplies a third remedy, “endurance and patience with joy”. Through the knowledge of God (the Word of God) and faithful obedience (found in the grace and model of Christ), we are called to endure patiently and joyfully. Sickness is no picnic in park. We groan in pain and cry out for relief; some days we feel like our bodies are incapable of bearing anymore. But we have hope! We haven’t been given a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. We aren’t left to spend the rest of our existence in hopeless rounds of chemo. Our diagnosis has a sure remedy … Christ Jesus! He beats the cancerous cells of sin. Every. Single. Time. Our hope in Christ enables us to patiently, faithfully, and joyfully endure.

James 1:2-4 - Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Day 3: Rising from the bed, regaining strength, we swallow another capsule. The stronger microorganism (the knowledge of God) is taking over the weaker (our sin infestation). Aches and pains lessen, enabling a slow return to our original state – the holy state in which God created us. However (and this is where my Z-Pak illustration breaks down), we are not completely restored. Though we live in the already, we must continue to endure patiently because we still live in the not yet.

James 5:7 - Therefore, be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.

Paul concludes his prayer with an exhortation to “give thanks to the Father”. He also urges the Colossian church to do the following:

Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (2:6-7)

 From the Westminster Catechism:

Question #1: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

Day 4: Our Z-Pak treatment is complete. There are no more capsules to swallow. We have digested the knowledge of God, which have caused deeper affections for Christ, which have then spurred us on to faithful obedience. Having regained our health, we press on in gratitude and thanksgiving … giving thanks to the great Creator, Healer, Sustainer, and Helper – our great and glorious God!

 

Come! Let us sing to the Lord!  Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
_____________

Psalm 103:1-2: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Ephesians 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Psalm 29:2: Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 

Psalm 24:8-10: Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

**The photos in this post were taken this past month from my hikes along the Wolf River.