Nick’s Walk

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world —1 John 2:2 Propitiation is God’s Wrath Appeased and it’s the key to the missionary’s message: His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. That’s why it’s so important that we don’t shortcut the gospel message. It begins with God’s justifiable wrath for our SIN. Starting with anything else: His love or His “plan for our life” undermines the message. Christ’s work is multifaceted:  healing, saving, and sanctifying. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation. A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the […]

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ’All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .’ —Matthew 28:18-19   Interesting that the reason we should “go” is because of Jesus, His authority and not because of the need. He doesn’t say “The world is lost. Go and give them the good news.” The focus should always be on Jesus. When we look to Him we seek the solutions, not the problems. We know what can be and not what has been. We see the power and not the powerlessness. It is so easy to give too much focus to the lost or to ourselves. Salvation is in neither place. It is in Him.  Notice what He does say to the needy and the missionary, “all you who labor and are heavy laden . . .”: “Come to Me . . .”— that is the place to meet Jesus— (Matthew 11:28). We first come to Jesus. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . .” (John 15:7) We abide in Him but we don’t stay, while abiding, we go. “Go […]

. . . when Moses was grown . . . he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens —Exodus 2:11 Is it time to go to our brothers and look at their burdens. When we first come to Christ we may feel that call to spread the joy we have found to those we love; but it doesn’t work out. We fail to convey the joy and our enthusiasm is met with skepticism. We are considered “odd” or “fanatic” and a slow separation begins as we live our lives with our new Christian family. A period of discouragement in the desert begins. That call doesn’t die. Maybe it’s time to move on it again. Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. But it didn’t work out. He was sent into the  the desert to feed sheep for forty years. He was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God. Have we grown to the point that we are into God’s stride. Check […]

Enoch walked with God . . . —Genesis 5:24 One of my first memories is of walking with my dad. I don’t remember where we were walking. I just remember trying furiously to keep up with his long strides. I had to take at least three steps for each of his. I remember he would stop or slow down or look in a shop window to give me a chance to catch up. That’s a little like walking with God.  It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited. It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and […]

Those of us in the West are uncomfortable with silence. In the East it is not unusual for long periods of silence to be honored during meetings and discussions. With us, silence is a potent tool to force the other person to talk. We abhor silence so we speak to fill it. Police Interrogators make good use of this method. Silence has long been practiced as a spiritual exercise. For years I enjoyed an annual silent men’s retreat. One year we had a particularly popular speaker and decided to invite the women. There went the silence and eventually the annual retreat. Silence is part of our communication with God. If we ask for something and hear nothing, we assume He has not answered. There could be other explanations. For one, we may not be hearing the answer. For another, silence may be the answer. In our close personal relationships, we learn to interpret silence in the other. My wife and I know very well what the other’s silence means, depending on the circumstances. In an intimate relationship, speech is not always necessary. In fact, comfort with silence is a sign of the intimacy of the relationship and the level […]

Jesus answered and said, ’I thank You, Father . . . that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes’ —Matthew 11:25   I am amazed by the knowledge of young ones, even babes. My two-year old great grand-child can find and play her favorite game on my phone. My eight-year old grand son daily says things that amaze me.  So it is with great truths, they come to us not by study but in a way we would never expect. I know by obedience. I don’t learn the truths of God by study or scholarship. I learn them through obedience. Once I obey, a flash of light comes immediately. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, […]

. . . present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God —Romans 6:13 The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. We  build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ by our trust in that atonement. And that trust is exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God. When we keep trying to do without first faith, we fail. When we place faith first, works arise from our belief. A novel I am reading asks an important question. What are you willing to die for? For the Christian, we are willing to die for our faith, for Our Lord. That death may be a physical martyrdom; but more likely it will be a death to control over our lives and a substitution of a faith in the controlling love of God and the grace that flows from it, presenting our members as instruments of righteousness to God. A violin makes beautiful music; but only in the hands of […]

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28 A young  child as no problem coming to  its parent. In fact, it seems they will never cease coming. But as they grow, coming to mom or dad is embarrassing and uncool. Later in life, a child turns to a parent only when it has so messed up things that there seems to be no alternative. The parent’s response, “If you had just come to me earlier, before all this happened.” We shouldn’t be surprised; it’s the way we act with Our Lord. Coming to Him is second nature for a brief while. Then we “mature” and believe we can handle things on our own. Hopefully, before it is too late, we learn to go to Him first. Are we expecting God to tell us to do something very big, and yet all He is saying is  “Come to Me . . . .” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. It is pride that keeps us from going to our parents and it is pride that retards our response to Our Lord’s call to come. No matter what we […]