Substitutionary Repentance; February 27, 2024

Posted on February 28, 2024 by jgarrott

Nehemiah 1:6-7 “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.”

What jumps out about Nehemiah, as it does about Daniel, is the matter of substitutionary repentance. He was personally a very straight-up guy, earning a position of great trust in the Persian court, even though he was a Jew. However, he includes himself and his family as he confesses that the Jews have not been faithful to the laws laid out by Moses. Hearing the situation in Jerusalem from his brother Hana­ni he was very upset, but he attributed it all to the sins of the Jews, not accusing God of being unjust in the slightest. I’m reminded of the situation in Gaza right now. As multiple people have said, every death on both sides can be laid directly at the feet of Hamas, because they not only attacked Israeli civilians, they have consistently placed their own civilians in harm’s way, hoping for mass casualties to turn international opinion against Israel. There is no evidence of Nehemiah’s sort of repentance there! Society today doesn’t like to attribute anything to Divine action, but that is more willful blindness than anything else. We would do well to examine our circumstances and the world around us in the light of God’s clear instructions and our own lifestyle. We might not have contributed directly to things as they are, but at the least our own inactivity has failed to restrain the negative influences. That can certainly be said of America today, because if the Church had consistently stood up for Biblical standards and morality over the past century, we would live in a very different world indeed. The thing is, none of us is innocent; we all need to keep our repentance up-to-date. We also need to do as Nehemiah did, and acknowledge the sins of our extended family, our social grouping, and our nation. We tend not to allow our hearts to be broken over sin, when even Jesus wept over Jerusalem. (Luke 13:34-35) We say we desire revival, but then we try to avoid the repentance that is essential for it, thinking we are personally OK. How foolish! We need to learn from Nehemiah and Daniel. If we will do so, I believe we will see God act as dramatically on our behalf as He did for them.

I have had the huge blessing of generations of forebears who loved and served God, but they were no more perfect than I am. I have relatives who are stuck in intellectual pride and treat religion as a desirable accessory. I’ve been that way myself! Personally, I have taken God’s grace for granted, thinking I was entitled to it instead of living in grateful obedience. And I certainly haven’t spent time agonizing over the sins of my nation, whether that be the US or Japan. I need to delight in the joy of the Lord, certainly, but I am also not to run from heartbroken repentance, on every level the Lord directs. I don’t yet have a sufficient grasp of the holiness of the Lord, to be appropriately horrified and disgusted at sin. I’ve still got a lot of growing to do!

Father, thank You for this Word. Thank You for Your recent call to regular fasting, and that I’ve gotten started on that in a small way. May I be Your agent to do Your will in Your way, exactly as You desire, so that Your plans may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Death as Reward; February 26, 2024

Posted on February 27, 2024 by jgarrott

2 Chronicles 34:27-28 “Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.”

As verse 28 indicates, this is one of several places in the Bible where people are rewarded for their faithfulness with death. We have a lot of trouble with that! We forget that, as Paul said, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” (Philippians 1:23) Our focus is almost exclusively temporal, and so we see death as entirely negative. I am no advocate for suicide or euthanasia, but we need to realize that this life is no more than a prelude to eternity. It is an opportunity to experience God’s grace and love and commit ourselves to Him in faith, but even a hundred-year lifespan is no more than an instant compared to eternity. Paul wrote about this a good bit, and as he said, “We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) When we understand that Jesus didn’t die and then rise again just for himself, but so as to conquer death itself for all who believe, then death loses its terror completely. Those who are left behind do suffer loneliness, at least to a degree, and grief itself is real and not to be put down, but there many times when, for the one dying, death is a huge victory. We act and pray as though we don’t believe that, because all too often that’s the case! Our goal should be, not to live a long time necessarily, but however long we live, to hear our Lord say, “’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21, 23) When that is the case, then physical death is a glorious celebration indeed!

My strong shift to this way of thinking happened when my father went to the Lord after heart surgery at 64, and my first, honest reaction was, “He won’t have to retire.” I was terribly lonely about it, having had about 2½ months of genuine fellowship with him as adult to adult, but I knew that it was glory indeed for him. Since then I have lost count of how many people I have “seen off,” and I have seen a wide variety of responses to death. Faith makes all the difference in the world! At 75, this is a far more immediate anticipation for me than it was at 26 when my father graduated, but it is not a sad one at all. My wife has quite a list of physical issues, and there have been specific prophecies that she would go first. That is certainly not anything I look forward to, but I know that when it happens, she will be liberated from all those physical issues, and I am not to begrudge her that. I have no doubt whatsoever as to her destination, or mine. She had a foretaste of heaven when her heart stopped at 27, but the Lord had mercy on me and our daughters and sent her back. That wasn’t the easy course for her, though! I am certainly grateful to have been able to live with her all the years since, and she has touched countless people with the love of God. For her and for me, the question is simply when the Lord will say, “That’s enough. Come on home.” Like for Josiah in today’s passage, that will be a reward.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the privilege of being able to walk with You all these years, in spite of my many failures. I pray that I would be faithful indeed, making full use of all the time You give me in this body, so that Your purposes for me may be accomplished on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Invitation to Repentance; February 25, 2024

Posted on February 26, 2024 by jgarrott

2 Chronicles 30:9 “If you return to the Lord, then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”

What a lovely invitation to repentance! The Northern Kingdom had been wiped out by the Assyrians as a judgment from the Lord, and King Hezekiah was inviting those who were left to recognize why all this had happened and turn to the Lord. Sadly, many declined the invitation, but some accepted it, and were greatly blessed in consequence. Precisely the same thing is seen today. We all have trials in our lives, just as Jesus pointed out, (John 16:33) but such things are opportunities to turn more closely to God and allow Him to adjust our attitude, so to speak. As many people have pointed out, it’s not what happens to us that matters, so much as it is how we respond to it. Conversely, repentance isn’t just a feeling, it’s how we act on that feeling, the changes we make to correct what is wrong. In this case, the people of the Northern Kingdom were being invited to literally put feet to their repentance, walking all the way to Jerusalem, which probably most of them had never done before. I would guess that over the days of the journey that anticipation must have risen in them for what was going to happen, and the record is that they weren’t disappointed. When we too repent in truth, actively making the changes indicated by Holy Spirit, we too can look forward to blessings we probably haven’t imagined, because God is so incredibly gracious and merciful.

I too have experienced the blessings of repentance, but that’s no reason to sin so that I can then repent! I have learned that the path of greatest blessing is the one of walking in step with Holy Spirit, listening attentively to Him all the time. (Galatians 5:25) As a pastor I have run into numbers of people who were reluctant to repent, either because they loved their sin or they were afraid of what would happen if they discarded it. To be honest, I’ve had moments of such feelings myself. However, such hesitation shows that we don’t know God very well. He is totally holy and perfect, which is why repentance is necessary, but He is also merciful and gracious and love itself, which is why repentance is possible. My task is to invite people to repent, just as in this verse, and speak the truth of God to them in love.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the fruit of repentance! May I be more and more effective in calling people to repentance so that they may come into right relationship with You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Humbling Ourselves; February 24, 2024

Posted on February 26, 2024 by jgarrott

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Around 1980, Rock Church in Virginia Beach started quite a movement centered on this verse. It strikes me that if such a movement was appropriate back then, how much more appropriate is would be today! But then, there is a great deal of irony built into the whole passage, because if Israel, and for that matter, Solomon personally, had taken to heart what the Lord spoke to him so clearly, great disaster and heartache would have been avoided. Solomon himself had to have been the one to record this, either writing it personally or dictating it to a scribe, yet he wandered from the Lord in his later years, with terrible consequences for the whole nation. That said, this verse is still true. There is an interesting difference between the usual English translation of the first part of the verse and how the Japanese renders it. The Japanese says, “My people who call upon my name.” In the traditional English translation it might seem that this promise is limited to Israelites, but God claims as His own all who seek Him, who call upon Him as the Creator He is. In any case, it is clear that we are to humble ourselves. External circumstances can humble us, but that is different from recognizing our position before God and acknowledging it by our words and actions. The term was often applied to fasting, which is certainly out of fashion these days, at least for religious purposes. Religious fasting denies our flesh in a recog­nition that God is supreme and a right relationship with Him is far more important than anything physical. We don’t like to deny our flesh anything! When Solomon, with all his intellectual gifting, could fall so badly, it should be obvious that we need to acknowledge our low position and act accordingly. This is a passage of great grace and mercy, but we must not take such grace and mercy for granted. There are countless problems in society today, but we need to start with ourselves, recognizing how we have contributed to the mess and repenting indeed.

Writing this, I realize that it has been years since I have fasted for the sake of prayer and drawing closer to God. I just spent three days as the speaker for a conference on the Holy Spirit, and I ate, even overate, at every meal. If I am to grow as God intends, so as to be more useful to Him, then I need to consider such things and order my priorities accordingly. I have little idea how many years I have left, but I want to spend them doing what my Lord desires of me, so that His name may be acknowledged as holy and His kingdom come as His will is done, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me act on it, and not just give it intellectual assent. May I keep growing as You intend for as long as You keep me here, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Being Worthwhile; February 23, 2024

Posted on February 25, 2024 by jgarrott

2 Kings 17:15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.

One phrase in this jumps out at me every time I read it: “They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” The Japanese doesn’t say “idols,” but just “things,” which makes this even more broadly applicable. This seems like a remarkably appropriate description of society today. When the opinion of an entertainer can be expected to influence the outcome of a national election, something is seriously out of alignment! The hopeful note is that more and more people seem to be waking up to the state of affairs, but society as a whole seems to be set on ignoring, or outright denying, God. America is not Israel, much less a replacement for Israel, but in its founding it was based more on the Bible and Biblical principles than any other nation on the planet, yet it is currently the origin of the vast majority of the pornography on earth, to give just one example. Repentance is certainly called for! Many people seem to be pinning their hopes on the election this fall, but as Andrew Breitbart famously said, “Politics is downstream from culture.” American culture is currently degraded to a sickening degree, but repentance and dedication have to happen on an individual level before society as a whole is changed. Those who still have a head on their shoulders – and a heart in their chest – need to examine themselves and see how they have contributed to the current situation by their passivity and conformity, and stand up on the side of righteousness. Otherwise, the nation as a whole will indeed be worthless, just as this says.

I am geographically speaking an outside observer to the situation in the US, since I live in Japan, but I see the same rot in Japanese society and in the Japanese Church. As a believer and as a pastor I need to stand up and say what is right and what is not, speaking the truth in love but not backing down for fear of offending someone. Over the past three days I have had the privilege of speaking to people about life in the Spirit, but I’ve got to live it out myself or my words will be completely hollow. There is no substitute for obedience to the Lord! Looking at my datebook just now I see that the next three weeks have a lot to be done, but then the schedule is much more open. Regardless of external demands, I need to spend each day as the Lord directs, being worthwhile to Him and not being distracted by external factors. He is my everything, just as Dennis Jernigan wrote in You are My All in All.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I indeed want to be worthwhile in Your eyes, not carried along by society but being Your agent in it to bring Your Kingdom by doing Your will for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Spiritual Leadership; February 22, 2024

Posted on February 25, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Kings 8:61 “But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

There is one difference in the Japanese here that caught my eye. In the NIV it says, “be fully committed to the Lord our God,” but the Japanese says, “your heart be totally one with the Lord our God.” We don’t usually think of commitment in those terms! I think it’s a valuable way to look at it. It brings to mind Paul’s statement that “We have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16) It’s not that we bend God’s will to match ours, even though our prayers often seem like we’re trying to do that, but that we surrender our will to Him, accepting His view of what is and what should be. Solomon was obviously speaking prophetically, because he himself failed to do this. Like we too often do, he let his flesh and his intellect control what he did. Having many women pleases the flesh, and making alliances by marrying the daughters of foreign kings and being tolerant of their religions seems all too logical to the human intellect. Failing in those areas made Solomon into what I consider to be one of the most pathetic figures in the whole Bible, totally wasting the enormous promise and abundant gifting with which he started. He is certainly an illustration of the sad reality that some leaders are to be listened to but not imitated.

I am increasingly in a place of spiritual leadership, and I’ve got to be fully careful not to follow Solomon’s example. Being the only speaker at a conference like this can feed the ego, and that is dangerous indeed. I need to focus on keeping my heart one with the Lord, not thinking and planning things on my own, but humbly seeking His face at every turn. Six sessions are frankly a lot, and two of those are yet to go. I can think of Church leaders I’ve encountered who were good examples, and some who were not. I am not to think of myself as “the expert,” but humbly share from the riches the Lord has poured out on me. I am not to deny what the Lord has showed me, but I’m certainly not to place myself on a pedestal. The fall from such a location can be disastrous! My goal is for my heart to be one with the Lord indeed, and speak and act only as He directs.

Father, thank You for the privilege of speaking at this conference. I don’t know what You have for me in the future, but so far this has been a real blessing, certainly to me and I think to the attendees as well. May the two sessions today likewise be what You desire and intend for all involved, building up the Body of Christ for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Awareness of God; February 21, 2024

Posted on February 24, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Kings 8:27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”

Sometimes Solomon got it right. We tend to think in spatial terms, when such vocabulary is totally inadequate to describe the Creator of the universe. Logically, we exist in God’s imagination! God has giv­en us a degree of autonomy, giving us free will and responsibility for what we do with it, and He has placed us in a physical universe that obeys discernable laws of physics. That said, we are constantly discovering more about those laws, and how they don’t always apply in all cases. All of that is beside Solomon’s major point here, which is that God couldn’t possibly be contained in anything we could create, since He made everything to begin with. Some people have grasped that all along. Paul was quoting a Greek poet/philosopher when he said, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) The point is, what do we do about it? As I was quoting Dr. John Kiwiet just last night, if our theology doesn’t affect the way we live, it is meaningless. If we really see God as He is, then we will live in grateful obedience to Him. The problem is that in practical terms, we either imagine God too small, or else forget Him entirely for much of the time. It is only when we live each moment aware of Him that we fulfill our full potential, in every way that can be described.

I was raised with an awareness of God, for which I am deeply grateful, but I can hardly say I have lived each moment of my life in line with that awareness. One of the best things about growing old in the Lord is how that awareness has expanded and deepened, so that it indeed permeates all of my life. That said, it would be very dangerous for me to presume on that, because the devil is always waiting to pounce. I am to be active in my pursuit of God, knowing that He desires fellowship with me even more than I do with Him, and let Him order my days, and my priorities, as He knows best, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your presence and guidance in both services yesterday. Thank You for the good reception I feel I’m getting, despite the small numbers. I pray that everything about today would likewise go as You intend, so that the Body of Christ may be built up, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Repentance; February 20, 2024

Posted on February 24, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Samuel 12:20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”

The devil is quick to tell us to give up if we make a mistake. He actually loves legalism, because it gives him so many opportunities to accuse us. That’s what the name, Satan, means: the accuser. Of course, he also loves libertinism, the whole philosophy of, “If it feels good, do it.” However, even if we’ve tripped up going that direction, repentance is still possible, and certainly necessary. What Samuel is saying here is, no matter how bit a blunder you have made, don’t give up on seeking the Lord. God is incredibly merciful and compassionate, but we do need to repent to experience that. And we certainly shouldn’t “go on sinning so that grace may increase,” as Paul put it. (Romans 6:1) We need to realize that God knows fully well how foolish we are, and He loves us anyway. When we stumble, when we fall, we need to acknowledge what we have done, stand up, and keep following God. That is precisely what Samuel is saying here.

I have stumbled quite a few times, but the Lord has kept me from the sort of dramatic falls we have seen some people make. That said, I must never presume on God’s grace, but rather let it motivate me to ever deeper devotion and obedience. I’ve got to remember that as James said, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10) Like Paul, I need to live so that “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” (1 Corinthians 4:4) I am to delight in God’s grace and extend it to others, but not presume on it. My record certainly needs the “Whiteout” of Jesus’ blood.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for its timing. In the past, solo trips have been a temptation to fantasies that didn’t honor you. I’m grateful that they were no more than fantasies, but Jesus made it clear such things are very real sins. I pray that as I make this trip, and on any future trips, I may be totally submitted and obedient to You on all levels, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Generational Transfer; February 19, 2024

Posted on February 20, 2024 by jgarrott

Joshua 24:24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

This passage is certainly an illustration of the truth that virtually everything of real value is only one generation away from dissolution. Traditions are set up to try to counter this, but unless that translates to personal conviction in the next generation, it is futile. We are seeing an illustration of that in America today on the dual fronts of religion and a democratic republic. The enemy has infiltrated the educational system and stolen perhaps two generations, and we are seeing the fallout all around us. The people with Joshua were sincere, and for a while they were indeed true to their word, but it really didn’t take long in generational terms for them to fall away pretty thoroughly. This chapter indicates that Joshua understood them all too well, because he said, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” (Joshua 24:19-20) He had heard the things that Moses had said and probably had the original manuscript of the Pentateuch, and Moses had been prophetic along the same lines. However, he did give the people the opportunity to choose, and they chose rightly this time. We aren’t to deny people the opportunity to choose, just because we know they will slip up, but we are to emphasize personal faithfulness and commitment and make it clear that repentance and forgiveness are available. Our expectations are to be in God, and not in people. After all, we have our own track record to look at!

I thankfully come from several generations of people who were careful to pass their faith along. However, looking at all my relatives, I see that each generation was not equally successful at that with all of their children. I have had relatives that strayed pretty far from the fold! I can only be grateful for God’s grace and mercy with me. I am not to be judgmental toward people, but I am to make it clear that all of us are on equal footing before God, blessed by ancestors perhaps but not given a “free ticket” by them. That particular awareness was central to my major repentance when I was 24, and thankfully it seems to be present in my children. They have their own challenges with their children, but that’s out of my hands, apart from prayer. I have the additional factor of my many spiritual children. I am to keep teaching and coaching them, so that they may in turn teach and coach others, just as Paul said to Timothy. (2 Timothy 2:2) I am to remember human weakness, and keep my expectations in God alone.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I lead a 15 minute session in today’s online Coaching seminar, and then from tomorrow I will be speaking morning and night for three days straight. Help me communicate Your truth in Your words so that it will remain with my hearers, genuinely drawing them to You and opening their hearts to all that You want to do in and through them, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Choices; February 18, 2024

Posted on February 19, 2024 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Salvation and blessing are choices. That might seem like a strange thing to say, because who doesn’t want to be blessed? Who wants to go to destruction? Sadly, the answer to both of those is, many people. It’s not that we choose the negatives directly, but that we choose the things that lead us to those negatives. Our flesh and the devil can make a deadly “tag team,” convincing us that various pleasures are preferable to what God offers us. The theme of the readings from today is Repentance. Repentance and forgiveness are absolutely essential to every human being, because we all stumble and fall. The issue isn’t whether we will do so, but what we do when that happens. 1 John 1 is a marvelous chapter on the subject, written in the full knowledge of the atoning work of Christ on the cross, but the principle of repentance goes all the way back to Creation. That’s why Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” God had to provide the legal justification for forgiveness, because nothing less than the death of His Son was sufficient. However, it all comes back to our choice. God doesn’t force anyone to be His child, to live in eternity with Him, but He makes that outcome available to all who will choose to acknowledge their sins and repent, so that they may be cleansed. (1 John 1:9) For those who have discovered that cleansing, telling others about it becomes a matter of utmost urgency, because our time and opportunity to choose is limited. We can’t force anyone to choose life, but at least we can let them know that the choice is available.

I too am constantly presented with choices, and sometimes I choose wrongly. Sometimes my repentance has been instant and genuine, and sometimes it has perhaps been suspect. However, as Paul quoted to Timothy, in his last letter that remains to us, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) He has been growing me over the years, and I am certainly not the person I was before. There’s a light and breezy, almost cheesy chorus that says this very accurately, but I think many people miss the truth in it (if they know the song) because of its mood and tempo. At this point in my life people have trouble believing I was as I used to be, but God certainly knows, and He is more than gracious. I am never to think I have outgrown susceptibility to the devil’s lies, but always be actively submitted to Christ alone, listening to Holy Spirit and not the devil, choosing God’s kingdom and His righteousness at every turn, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. You’ve given me a message on listening to You to deliver this morning. With COVID, flu and the like we’re going to have very small physical attendance, but others will be watching online. I pray that my choices every moment would put me in perfect line with You so that Your word may flow clearly and cleanly through me into many hearts, changing them as You know they need, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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