For Father’s Day
Sunday, June 21, 2009
By Hope Smith
CD Votionals
Dear friends,
It seems appropriate to me, on Father's Day, to honor our Father in
heaven. My last two emails have focused on the tribe of rebels who think
they can hide their wickedness under the cover of darkness and pledges of
secrecy and anonymity, but God is not taken in by such childish pranks.
Stephen Charnock, in “The Existence and Attributes of God,“
(published
posthumously in 1682) had it right, when he said: "Though God be invisible
to us, we must not imagine we are so to Him; it is a vanity, therefore, to
think that we can conceal ourselves from God, by concealing the notions of
God from our sense and practice.
...We are often deceived; we may take wolves for sheep, and hypocrites
for believers; for the eyes of men are no better than flesh, and dive no
further than appearance; but [God's] infinite understanding, that fathoms
the secret depths of the heart...can discern whether we have His mark upon
us; He can espy the treason of Judas in a kiss; Herod's intent of
murdering under a specious pretense of worship; a Pharisee's fraud under a
broad phylactery...
Hypocrisy, then, is a senseless thing, since it cannot escape unmasking
by an infinite understanding. As all our force cannot stop His arm, when
He is resolved to punish, so all our sophistry cannot blind His
understanding, when He comes to judge."
The Almighty Himself, our Heavenly Father, says: "Woe to those who seek
deep to hide their counsel from Jehovah, and their works are in the dark,
and they say, 'Who sees us?' and 'Who knows us?'" [Isaiah 29:15] And what
will their woe be? "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the
rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman,
and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains [you've heard of their massively defended concrete bunkers
underground and buried inside mountains, right? no safety for them
there...], and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us
from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to
stand?" [Revelation 6:15-17] Certainly not those who 'sell the righteous
for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes'! [Amos 2:4-7] Passing by the
local abortion mill today, I thought an appropriate sign would be:
"Convenience Store: Bring cash-- a doctor will kill your baby for you, no
questions asked."
"...the highest treason of which mankind are capable is treason against
the authority and law of the Divine government itself; and the most deadly
enemies to human government are they who, with a great pretense of
loyalty, are nevertheless daily insulting the majesty of Him who has power
to destroy nations at His will.
...our Christian duty requires us also to set our faces as a flint
against the current of social and moral degradation which flows in the
popular fashions, tastes, customs, and amusements of the day-- in the
factitious [sham, artificial] and dishonest principles of business life--
in the whole circle of immoral and dangerous practices and
pursuits which ensnare the multitude and draw them on to ruin.
...Christian men have been unwilling or afraid to unite upon the
distinctive principles of a common Christianity, and have shrunk from the
sacrifice, scarcely ready to suffer whatever of temporary defeat, expense,
or reproach it might cost, and tamely submitting to be
over-ruled by the boldness, the assiduity, and energy of the
evil-minded who assume to control and dictate the public policy and
manners of the nation. In this way we have been swiftly sinking into the
grossest perversions of ethical truth and the obligations of duty." [Byron
Sunderland, 1863, in the introduction to Benjamin Morris' "The Christian
Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States"]
"I would rather be a fool and do what Christ tells me than be the wisest
man of the modern school of thought and despise the Word of the Lord. I
would rather lay the responsibility for my life at the feet of Him who
commmands me to live according to His Word than seek out a purpose in life
for myself and feel that the responsibility rested on my own shoulders.
Let us be willing to be under orders to Christ, willing to persevere under
difficulties, willing to begin anew in His service from this very hour."
[Charles Spurgeon, "Being God's Friend"]
Our love to our heavenly Father is shown in our obedience to His
commandments, our reverence for His word and law-- not in word only, but
in deed and in truth. [1 John 5:3; 3:18]
For the truth and the glory of the God of truth,
Hope Smith
“As a father pities his children, so Jehovah pities those who fear Him.” [Psalm 103:13]
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