The Bruised Reed

Isaiah 42:1-4
"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope".

This month I had the chance to read through an amazing little book by the great Puritan preacher and writer, Richard Sibbes. The book is entitled, "The Bruised Reed". Sibbes takes the verses listed above in the book and talks first about Christ from these verses. Then after he writes about Christ as the bruised reed, works through the union the Christian has with Christ as a bruised reed and how Christ as a victorious bruised reed gives the Christian hope, which is the larger portion of the book.

The book was such a great encouragement to me. For any Christian who feels like life is bruising them or that they are in a serious dry season of life, this book would be a great read. But I am not in a season of life like that. Right now I feel totally blessed, energized, and excited for what God is doing in and through me. I also feel very assured in my salvation and confident in my work for Christ. Yet this book still impacted me greatly. In fact, this book gave me more confidence and assurance than I already had.

And this happened becasue the greatest treasure I found in the book was Sibbes truth that becasue Christ was bruised but never broken, we also who are in union with Christ will be bruised but never broken. This truth gives me full confidence because I know that as life beats me up and bruises me, I will never be broken down and the season that I am in, is guaranteed to be over at some point. Like I shared last week in my posts about our union with Christ, this book and our bruising in life cemented more in my mind what a great union with Christ we have. Our Savior was bruised for our transgression so if we align with Him, we are guaranteed to also be bruised. But our Savior was never broken, and as Sibbes points out, was guaranteed to have victory. We also in union with Christ then are guaranteed to also have victory and we can hold to this truth in those bruising moments of this life.

Here are some quotes from the book that touched me;
-"After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks".
-"After we are gained to Christ ourselves, we should labour to gain others to Christ".
-"...the more sin is seen, the more it is hated, and therefore it is less".
-"The first and chief ground of our comfort is that Christ as a priest offered himself as a sacrifice to his Father for us".
-"Those that can bring their hearts to delight in Christ know most of his ways".

Structure of Psalms

This month for my Bible reading plan, I have been reading through a number of Psalms. As I have been reading through I have come to realize that the book has a very unique and important structure to it. Knowing this structure has really helped the book become more alive to me as I read it. So I wanted to share a few important structural points that have made an impression in my mind.

First, Psalms is one large book but with an introduction, 5 chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction to Psalms as a book is, Psalms 1 and 2. Psalms 1 gives instructions for those who would delight in the law of the Lord. This Psalms is telling the reading that if they saturate themselves in the Word of God, they will be blessed. Psalms 2 tells of a coming messianic King will save His people one day when He arrives. This is a Psalms that points to Jesus and almost at times acts like a prophecy about His future coming. Then after this introduction 5 chapters unfold in the meat of the book (3-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-145). Each of these chapters deal with either the law of God and the worshipers relationships with God and His Word. Or the chapters and the psalms in them, focus on this coming messianic king and deliverer. The conclusion of the entire book of Psalms is the last 5 Psalms. These 5 closing Psalms point once more back to the introduction, but they do it in such a way that it is all about worship. These final 5 repeat much of the same truths as the rest of the book but do it in the context of corporate worship of the people of God. Finding this structure has not only lead me to cherish the first few Psalms better, but it has also lead me to understand in a greater way the connected nature that the entire book has.

The second important structure point that I found very helpful this month, is understanding the mood or type of psalm I am reading. There are many different moods of the Psalms. Some psalms are lament or grieving in mood, some Psalms are praise in mood, others are worship and glory type Psalms, and some psalms are thanksgiving in mood. The different types of Psalms go by different names. The list of types is; lament, thanksgiving, hymns of Praise, salvation-historical, celebration-affirmation, wisdom, and songs of trust. Knowing which type or mood the Psalm is helps me understand the Psalm in a great way. So this second structure tool does not help with the book as a whole, but it helps frame each Psalm better, which then in turn leads to me to understand the connected nature of the psalm to the whole.

We are like Christ

So this week I have tried to work through the many different levels of our union with Christ. I looked at many of the passages that teach we are in Christ. I also worked through the thought that Christ is in us. And yesterday I worked a little understanding better what it means to have fellowship with Christ. Today I want to think for a few moments about the fourth part of our union with Christ, and that is becoming like Christ.

Here is the sad reality of the church today. Many of us have heard the expression, "what would Jesus do". Maybe even some of us have the WWJD bracelets that were popular back in the 90s. But here is the fact that our union with Christ teaches. We are never God, so we can never truly do what Jesus did. But becasue of our union with Christ, we have all the blessings in Christ, fellowship with Christ through His Word, and we grow to be more like Christ through His Word and our fellowship with Him. So rather than asking what would Jesus do, here is a better question to ask, what would Jesus want me to do? To answer that question, we need to be in fellowship with Christ through His Word and we need to be growing more like Christ, through His Word. So what does it mean to grow to be more like Christ?

1 John 2:6 states, "He who says he abides in Him [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which He walked". So becoming like Christ means that we walk like Christ, talk like Christ, be like Christ in our character, attitudes, actions, and words. Like that song from the 90s that said "I want to be like Mike", it is the same for "I want to be like Jesus, walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus". So for example, Paul says that husband are to love their wives, as Christ loves the church (Eph. 5:25). This means as a husband I must have the same sacrificial and leadership love that Christ has for His church. This becoming like Christ also means that "as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive (Col. 3:13). Becoming like Christ even means that we suffer like Christ and follow His character in what a life of obedience to the will of the Father looks like (1 Peter 2:21).

But here is an important point to make. Our growing like Christ is not just to follow the example of Christ, becasue that would be just WWJD. No, our growing like Christ is a becoming like Christ. And when we become like Christ, yes His example is good to follow, but we are more importantly adopting His character, His desire for the will of God, His delight in the will of God, and His passion to see the glory of the Father spread. When we become more like Christ, we no longer ask the question, but live a life of godliness flowing out with Christ character from us. There is no longer a pause or asking a question. When we become like Christ in our union with Christ, our actions and response immediately start to become how Christ would respond and act. All of a sudden our character becomes like Christ character. Slowly and gradually our will becomes the will of Christ. Christ was perfect and was God, we are not. So we must never try to do what Christ did, becasue we can't. But we can become like Christ, so that our spiritual fruit is the same spiritual fruit that Christ has. And becoming like Christ in that way is letting Christ work though us and asking the right question, "what would Christ want me to do for Him".

This final piece of becoming like Christ then is what our union with Christ entails. We are in Christ so we experience and are given all the spiritual blessings that Christ has from the Father. We have Christ in us, so we have the resource and power of the God-man, in us to live a life to spread the glory of God. We have a unified fellowship with Christ, so that when we spend time in the Word, Christ is still speaking and teaching us today. And as we have seen today, we begin to become like Christ in our growth, so that when we act and live, we are doing the will of God through Christ. So what a glorious blessing and gift it is to be in union with Christ. And what an amazing privilege God the Father has bestowed on us, to view us as His Son when we are in union with Him.

Fellowship with Christ

So far this week, I have written about our union with Christ in the aspects of being "in Christ" and also Christ being "in us". The third aspect of our union with Christ is Christ being with us or a better way to say it might be our fellowship with Christ. Yes, after Christ earthly ministry was over, he ascended back into Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father and rule as our Lord and Savior (Acts 1:8-10). So this fellowship with Christ is not a physical fellowship, but a spiritual one. Even though this fellowship is not flesh and blood, it is very real and just as close as our flesh and blood fellowship with God's family. As Jesus said in His final command to His followers, "I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20). So what else does the Bible teach us about this third aspect of our union with Christ?

The Bible has a ton to say about our fellowship with Christ. First, as Philippians 3:8, 10 point to, because we have fellowship with Christ, we also can know Christ. Christ is not some mystical spiritual being that is outside of our understanding or mind. The Bible is very clear that becasue we are unified with Christ and now have fellowship with Christ, we can truly know Him in an intimate way. We can know what Christ is like. We can know His character. We can know His life and actions. We can know His will and desire for us. We can know Him as our Lord and Savior. And we come to know Christ intimately all these ways, not by spending time under a tree meditating, but by spending time in the Word that Christ wrote to us for this union and fellowship to truly work.

The second aspect the Bible speaks of, about our fellowship with Christ is the truth that we have comfort by Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 speak to the fact that becasue of our union with Christ and the fellowship that it brings, we now have comfort for not only this life but also the life to come. And as these verses connect, not only do we have comfort from Christ, but we receive hope through this comfort we find in our Savior.

Matthew 11:29, among other verses, teaches that the third way we have fellowship with Christ is being taught by Christ Himself. We must remember that Christ is God and God has given us His desire and will, through His Word. That means when we spend time in our Bibles we are spending time with Christ. As we learn from our Bibles, we are being taught by Christ. And when we take the application and will of God's Word, we are a student of our Savior through the fellowship with have with Him, through His Word.

A fourth truth about our fellowship with Christ taught by the Bible is that this fellowship with Christ includes His very presence with us. Again, this is not a physical presence with Christ, as in we can not see Him or touch Him. But this is a very real presence with Christ, as in He is very present with us in a spiritual sense in all that we do (2 Cor. 2:10, 1 Tim. 5:21, 2 Tim. 4:1).

1 John 1:3 proclaims, "so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ". This verse makes clear, in closing for today, that not only do we have fellowship with Christ, but we also have fellowship with the Father and also with the Spirit. We can interact and have fellowship with them through prayer, and they in turn can have fellowship and talk with us, through Their Word. So not only are we in Christ and Christ is in us, but being in union with Christ also means that we have fellowship with Christ, and by extension have fellowship with the Father. What a great gift salvation is, in that a part of this gift to us is being in fellowship with our Savior and Creator.

Christ is in Us

Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in Me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God".

This week we are working through 4 main truths about our union with Christ. Yesterday I worked through many of the Bible verses that teach about our relationships or union "in Christ". Again to be very clear, this is not a physical union and we are not becoming God. This is a theological and spiritual union "in Christ". Today I want to unpack a little the second point of our union with Christ, and that part is the reality that not only are we "in Christ" but Christ is also in us, if we are saved by God.

Jesus Himself spoke of this second aspect of our union with Him when He taught His disciples in the last supper, "He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit" (John 15:5). This means that not only then do we get benefits ad blessings becasue we are in Christ, but all of the power we have to live as believers, comes through Christ living in us. Yes, the Holy Spirit is very present in us and is bearing gifts through us as well as fruit through us. But when we are unified with Christ, when we receive our union with Christ, He now is also present in us. As Paul makes clear in Colossians 1:27 when he says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory".

These verses teach us then that not only are we going to become like Christ and agree with Christ (like we will see on Friday), but it also means that Christ in His full glory is now living in us, spiritually speaking. This means the power we have spiritually speaking to have faith, find strength, love others, love God, and to do God's will, is all found not only in the Spirit, but also found in the Savior Himself. As one of the most quoted (and at times misquoted) verses says, "I can do all things through Him [Christ] who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Paul is making it very clear that that because Christ lives in us, we now have the strength to withstand and have faith through any of life's problems and hardships. And this is the blessed hope we have as children of God.

So, once we are saved by God, He then unifies us with His Son, Jesus. This means that not only do we have all the benefits as the Son, being in Christ. But it also means that we now have Christ living in us. So we can take those benefits and share them with others. We can find the strength we need each day to glorify God. We can find the power to defeat temptation. And we can have the hope of glory, knowing all that is taking place in our lives is in union with Christ. The Bible is clear, Christ lives in us which is a blessed union that carries us from day to day into an eternity of glorious hope.

Shame go away

I was recently reading an interview from a Christian who had an abortion before she was saved. After she had been a Christian for a few years, one day in her church service, the Pastor said a prayer for all those babies who had been aborted. The Pastor then asked a few individuals to come also and pray for the mothers who had an abortion and the fathers who played a hand in them. The service then broke, she said, into a few quiet moments of healing and love being shared by members as they rallied around those in their church who had been connected to abortions. After she shared this story she had this to say, "the blood of Christ took my guilt away but today the body of Christ took my shame away". This line struck me.

Webster's defines shame as, "the painful sense of having done something wrong". My dog feels shame when I see that it pooped in the house. My children feel shame when I catch them doing something bad. I feel shame when I am caught in a lie. The reality is, we all feel shame when someone else finds out or sees us doing something sinful. But this all points to the truth that shame only comes when it is noticed by someone else. We personally feel conviction and guilt when we do something wrong, but the feeling of shame comes from another set of eyes on us. We would never feel shame if no one would see. The dog would never feel shame if I never saw the poop. My children would never feel shame if I never caught them. We only ever feel shame becasue we are found or seen by someone else.

Which means shame, and the feeling of it, is always connected to others. Which also means that only shame, as this woman explained in her story, can be taken away by others. When we look at others through our self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant attitude, we bring shame on them. But if we look at others, realizing that we are sinners just like them and look at them with love and joy, we will remove the shameful feelings and bring them peace.

Which means the feeling of others shame, falls on us. We, in our actions and attitudes, will affect others feelings of shame. If someone else around us is feeling shameful because of a past sin or mistake, then the responsibility is on us to help them remove that shame. And that is a huge reason why the church is commanded to be loving and forgiving to one another. As the woman explained in her story, her feeling of shame was removed by her church body. That is a huge factor in the love that Jesus commands His church to have. So when was the last time we helped remove the feeling of shame from others around us?

Be real

Realizing

The first key in protecting others, from the impact of sin, is to realize that we are sinful and broken, just like everyone else. Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Everyone is a sinner. The Bible is clear about that and just one glance around our family or neighborhood can tell us that. But when we are dealing with the sin of others, many times we forget this simple verse from Romans. We become hurt by others sin. We become angry by the sin done to us or the ones we love. We, at times, even become self-righteous and think we are above the sin that is being done. We begin to either rationalize our own sin or even worse make excuses why we are different. The sad reality is that making excuses or rationalizing our own sin, makes that said sin much more impactful and able to have a greater effect, on both us and those in our lives we love and called to protect.

So protecting our children, teaching them about the consequences and effect of sin, begins at the same place where the protection and care of our spouses must begin. This might sound selfish, but without this realization, it could have dire consequences. We must begin with caring, protecting, and teaching our children, at our own feet and our own sin nature.

The root of all sin is an act and thought of unbelief. In the case of adultery the core root of unbelief is that God is not in control of our happiness and joy. We find when we begin to pursue another, we are telling God that He does not have our best interest in mind and does not have our joy in His plan. We pursue another person, in sin, because they present in our broken mind, a great joy and pleasure, more than what God can give us in our spouse. In the simplest form, adultery is an unbelief that God is our highest pleasure and joy and we think we need to find that joy and pleasure somewhere else.

But this act of unbelief is in every sin. When we steal something, whether it is time or material, it is an act of unbelief that can God gives us all that we need. When we lie or use our mouth to put others down, we are committing an act of unbelief that we are more important than God or others. And this unbelief truth runs through every sin.

I say all that about sin and the root of unbelief to show the sad reality that every time I sin, I am committing an act of unbelief in God. Which then means that my unbelief is just like everyone else's unbelief and my sin is just like everyone else's sin. Yes, I have Christ as Lord of my life, but as Paul shows in Romans 7, having Christ as Lord does not mean we will always do good and not sin. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing”. This means that I still struggle with sin and will still, may more times than I would like to admit, sin and commit an act of unbelief in my own life.

And this is the first step in caring and protecting my children. I must be real with the sin in my life and realize that I sin, just like the sin that is done around me. This being real with sin, must also include the truth that I will commit the same act of unbelief, that I am trying to protect my children from. For the example of adultery, I might not commit the same sin of adultery, the sin I am trying to protect my children from. But I will very much commit the same act of unbelief that adultery is rooted in. I must be real and understand that I will not believe many times that God has my greatest joy, happiness, and pleasure in mind. I must realize that adultery is rooted in lust and I too will commit the same lust in my mind, that formed in another as adultery. I must be real that the same unbelief lives in my mind, as the flesh and as Paul says later in Romans 7, “wage war… in my mind”. Sin still lives in me, even the same sin and unbelief that has lived in others, which has impacted me and my children greatly.

If this reality and realizing, is not found, then any other hope of protecting my children, caring for my children, or even teaching my children is lost. If I do not become real with my sin, then I will either become self-righteous or become a hypocrite. Being a hypocrite is being the opposite of a teacher, it is being a false liar. Being self-righteous is the opposite of a protector, it is being an abuser and exposer of others to harm. So to begin, I must realize that I am just as much as sinner as the one who has just sinned against me.