Dear Parsiphony,
I have written and sent
this letter quickly to arrive with the first I sent because there is one thing
I would amend within the first.
In my previous letter, I
mentioned the Christian woman who entered into a union with a non-Christian with
her eyes open, but sincerely repented afterwards. It is certain she will have
trials; possibly that is what drove her to repent. But God is often more
merciful than we give Him credit for, and perhaps through the mercy of God she
may have more to hope for than a combative relationship with her husband.
Surely if there was ever a
generation which abandoned God with its eyes open, it was the generation in Judges
10:6-16. They had a national history of a faithful generation receiving the
blessings God had promised for an obedient nation in the generation of Joshua
(Joshua 23:14), and of at least a generation at this point who had incurred God’s
wrath by turning away, and then experienced His deliverance when they began
again to seek Him with all their heart. That is the context of Judges 10:6-16,
which I have reproduced for you below.
6 And the children of Israel did evil
again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods
of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the
children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and
served not him.
7 And the anger of the LORD was hot
against Israel, and he sold them into the
hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
8 And that year they vexed and oppressed
the children of Israel: eighteen years,
all the children of Israel that [were] on the other side Jordan in the land of
the Amorites, which [is] in Gilead.
9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed
over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the
house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.
10 And the children of Israel cried unto
the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken
our God, and also served Baalim.
11 And the LORD said unto the children of
Israel, [Did] not [I deliver you] from
the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the
Philistines? [<-- talking about easily memorable times He had delivered
Israel in the past]
12 The
Zidonians also, and the
Amalekites, and the Maonites, did
oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered
you out of their hand. [<-- MORE past deliverances!]
13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served
other gods: wherefore I will deliver you
no more.
14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have
chosen; let them deliver you in the
time of your tribulation.
15 And the children of Israel said unto
the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
16 And they put away the strange gods from
among them, and served the LORD: and his
soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
It is easy, when God brings one of His
children low, for that child to despair of ever reaching the same trust and
intimacy with God she used to have again. When God brought me to repentance
about my young man, I was too upset to do anything except read my Bible, even
though it was finals week. I read for hours and hours. My reading included these
verses:
Revelation 3:1-2
1 And unto the angel of the church in
Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the
seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which
remain, that are ready to die:
for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
“Strengthen the things which remain.” Oh
how those words stung! Was I always going to be like I was, a doubter, far from
God, away from His presence? Would I always be strengthening what remained,
never gaining again what was lost, never building beyond that point? God had
delivered me from many enemies before (metaphorically), but I had taken this
young man as a new idol. Would He tell me what he told the Israelites in verse
13 (“wherefore I will deliver you no more”)?
For months those words tormented me. But
what did God do after the children of Israel repented and “put away” the
strange gods to which they had married themselves? God raised up Jephthah, who
retrieved once again for Israel twenty cities from the Ammonites (Judges
11:33)! Retrieved again! Funny that I didn’t notice this when I went past it.
What really struck this home to me was I Samuel 7, verses 3-4, 7-8, and 13-14.
3 And Samuel spake unto all the house of
Israel, saying, If ye do return unto
the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and
Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare
your hearts unto the Lord, and serve
him only; and he will deliver you
out of the hand of the Philistines.
4 Then the children of Israel did put away
Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
7 And when the Philistines heard that the
children of Israel gathered together to Mizpeh, the Lords of the Philistines
went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
8 And the children of Israel said to
Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that
he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
Between here and the last two verses I
cited, God discomfited the Philistines and the Israelites pursued after them in
battle.
13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coasts of
Israel: and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days
of Samuel.
14 And
the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel,
from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the
hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
The people’s hearts were not right with
God, but they repented, and ceased not to cry unto the Lord. And not only did
the Philistines no longer come into the coasts of Israel for all the days of
Samuel, but the cities which before were taken were restored to Israel again!
God truly is merciful. He doesn’t owe us
anything, but if we turn to Him, He is a merciful God. We can say with the
Israelites “We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee.”
But because of the great mercy of God, we can also intreat, “deliver us only,
we pray thee, this day,” and perhaps the day after as well, from our other
enemies.
Much love, and God bless,
~Dinah Greyhorn
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Keep Thine Heart Faithful
Dear Parsiphony,
I commend and encourage you to continue on your path of obedience. I know your heavy heart. But we have to stick with what is certain and most assuredly good, mainly Christ and His love, which conquers all things. Recently I was encouraged by Luke 6:20-36. Whatever we suffer for Christ's sake is well worth the bounty of having Him.
Beyond that, it is love for our young non-Christian men that keeps us from them. God works through the means He has established, mainly by expositing Himself through the obedience of those who are His. If, when we disobey, Christ chooses to be merciful straightway, He will make sure we have no peace until we become obedient to Him again, and thus having not held our tongues we hurt both ourselves and our young men. By the mercy of God, this was my fate.
Then there is the next option, where He chooses in His sovereignty to withhold His correction, and to allow the Christian to, in folly, marry the non-Christian. Perhaps their marriage is even happy by the world's standards, because the Christian has learned to "trust in God's love" without living in obedience. But it is evident that if a Christian wants God to bless a thing (i.e., to see her husband safe in Christ), then that Christian must use the means God has established. What the unconverted learns when a Christian woman marries him against the word of God is that she is obedient in all things except those things next her heart, of which especially she should have given to God, and not to have left the other ungiven (Luke 11:42). By the mercy of God, this was my terror.
There is also the question of how to raise the children in such a home, where such a union was entered into with open eyes. God grants special grace when one who was married before becomes a Christian while their husband remains without, but what can be said for the Christian who, unrepentant, enters in? Perhaps if her eyes were blind to the unequal yoke she would have some consolation, but what justification is there for seeing eyes? Surely it will mean compromise and damnation for someone, unless sincere repentance soon follows. Perhaps they will live a happy life together, but will be separated for eternity in the next life because of her apathy. Or perhaps in the manifold mercies of God her husband will be saved. But then she shall have to live in the bitter reality that God saved her husband from the fires of hell despite her instead of through her, despite the woman who thought the happiness of her flesh more important than seeing the soul of the man who she professed in an assembly of witnesses to love safely in the bosom of Christ. Perhaps God has already led her to repentance, but the man she loves is still unsaved, and her godly character provokes a most painful and combatant relationship between them, two who should have been one flesh, and who should have raised godly seed together. In the selfishness of youth, she has forgotten her children, and her grandchildren. By the grace of God, these too were terrors to me.
My dear Parsiphony, on these grounds I do commend once again your obedience, and I would add that if Christ and God is real, then disobedience is not worth the risks involved for your young man, and even for yourself. Even utter misery on this earth is a happy price to pay for Christ forever, and some unsatisfied hopes for the present are worth eternal satisfaction in Christ. There every tear shall be wiped away (Revelation 21:4), and Christ shall not leave us miserable even on this earth, because He is with us even now, even in our hearts, a constant comforter and a constant friend. The Devil will try to tell you that you cannot live without your young man, but if he were to die, you would have to. Not only would you discover you were able, but you would continue to live simply because time progresses. Beyond that, remember that you are perhaps preserving him from eternal death by separating yourself from him.
For all intents and purposes, the Christian life is really the most reasonable life there is to live, both in terms of wisdom in this life and in the next. Though I am thoroughly convinced we wait for life after death, even if Christ were not there we would not have lost much by living this way, because happiness is uncertain and fragile, and seeking it constantly as our goal does not necessarily make us more likely to obtain or to keep it. Even if we lived our entire lives serving others in love alone, we would have lived a more fulfilling life than many. By all standards, a Christian life in obedience is most excellent, both for edification in this world, and fulfillment in the next.
In all things, remember that Christ is with thee, and I love thee, sister,
~Dinah Greyhorn
I commend and encourage you to continue on your path of obedience. I know your heavy heart. But we have to stick with what is certain and most assuredly good, mainly Christ and His love, which conquers all things. Recently I was encouraged by Luke 6:20-36. Whatever we suffer for Christ's sake is well worth the bounty of having Him.
Beyond that, it is love for our young non-Christian men that keeps us from them. God works through the means He has established, mainly by expositing Himself through the obedience of those who are His. If, when we disobey, Christ chooses to be merciful straightway, He will make sure we have no peace until we become obedient to Him again, and thus having not held our tongues we hurt both ourselves and our young men. By the mercy of God, this was my fate.
Then there is the next option, where He chooses in His sovereignty to withhold His correction, and to allow the Christian to, in folly, marry the non-Christian. Perhaps their marriage is even happy by the world's standards, because the Christian has learned to "trust in God's love" without living in obedience. But it is evident that if a Christian wants God to bless a thing (i.e., to see her husband safe in Christ), then that Christian must use the means God has established. What the unconverted learns when a Christian woman marries him against the word of God is that she is obedient in all things except those things next her heart, of which especially she should have given to God, and not to have left the other ungiven (Luke 11:42). By the mercy of God, this was my terror.
There is also the question of how to raise the children in such a home, where such a union was entered into with open eyes. God grants special grace when one who was married before becomes a Christian while their husband remains without, but what can be said for the Christian who, unrepentant, enters in? Perhaps if her eyes were blind to the unequal yoke she would have some consolation, but what justification is there for seeing eyes? Surely it will mean compromise and damnation for someone, unless sincere repentance soon follows. Perhaps they will live a happy life together, but will be separated for eternity in the next life because of her apathy. Or perhaps in the manifold mercies of God her husband will be saved. But then she shall have to live in the bitter reality that God saved her husband from the fires of hell despite her instead of through her, despite the woman who thought the happiness of her flesh more important than seeing the soul of the man who she professed in an assembly of witnesses to love safely in the bosom of Christ. Perhaps God has already led her to repentance, but the man she loves is still unsaved, and her godly character provokes a most painful and combatant relationship between them, two who should have been one flesh, and who should have raised godly seed together. In the selfishness of youth, she has forgotten her children, and her grandchildren. By the grace of God, these too were terrors to me.
My dear Parsiphony, on these grounds I do commend once again your obedience, and I would add that if Christ and God is real, then disobedience is not worth the risks involved for your young man, and even for yourself. Even utter misery on this earth is a happy price to pay for Christ forever, and some unsatisfied hopes for the present are worth eternal satisfaction in Christ. There every tear shall be wiped away (Revelation 21:4), and Christ shall not leave us miserable even on this earth, because He is with us even now, even in our hearts, a constant comforter and a constant friend. The Devil will try to tell you that you cannot live without your young man, but if he were to die, you would have to. Not only would you discover you were able, but you would continue to live simply because time progresses. Beyond that, remember that you are perhaps preserving him from eternal death by separating yourself from him.
For all intents and purposes, the Christian life is really the most reasonable life there is to live, both in terms of wisdom in this life and in the next. Though I am thoroughly convinced we wait for life after death, even if Christ were not there we would not have lost much by living this way, because happiness is uncertain and fragile, and seeking it constantly as our goal does not necessarily make us more likely to obtain or to keep it. Even if we lived our entire lives serving others in love alone, we would have lived a more fulfilling life than many. By all standards, a Christian life in obedience is most excellent, both for edification in this world, and fulfillment in the next.
In all things, remember that Christ is with thee, and I love thee, sister,
~Dinah Greyhorn
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)