Division...

Let me start today’s post by asking a very pertinent question.  How many of you like to eat?  Please fill in the circle next to your choice.  YES ○  NO ○

I was thinking in the shower this morning of how much I enjoy eating.  But Gee Whiz… the older I get… the less of the foods that I really enjoy… like deserts… can I eat.  Or maybe better said, the older I get… the less AMOUNTS of those sweet, trans-fat loaded, and refined carb filled delights can I handle… without showing and feeling the negative results!  Any-body (pun intended) out there know what I am talking about?

For some strange reason, I can’t just eat everything that I want… like I could do a few years back.  Nowadays I have to watch my daily food intake, make sure that I am eating the right kinds of foods, show GREAT self-control when it comes to desert after dinner and make sure that I get my daily walks in and maintain my corresponding step count up in the higher ranges… Thank God for Fiver.  If it wasn’t for his need for exercise, I am not so sure that I would get my daily mileage count in!

But… thanks also be to God!  For there are other things in my life that I can hunger for without overloading my negative calorie count.  In the familiar story of the Beatitudes, Jesus taught us that, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Mark 5:6 EMTV)  

In thinking back of my wonderful 46 years with Piper, I can honestly say that Piper and I always seemed to have a craving appetite for more of God.  I realized today as I read from Luke 12:51, that our continual hunger for the things of God drew us to certain family and friends over the years and later on… also served to pull us apart from them.

Jesus kind of shocked His audience in Luke 12:51 when He revealed a eye-opening aspect of His teachings by declaring, “Do you think I came to bring peace to earth? No! I can guarantee that I came to bring nothing but division.” (God’s Word ©)  And in the next couple of verses He describes how divisions in families were likely to occur due to the individual way in which their members received and matured in the truths of the gospel message.  Robertson’s Word Pictures explains this by saying how “family feuds are inevitable where only part cleave to Christ.”

According to John Gill, Matthew likens the gospel to a sword stating Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:34 as, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (KJV)  Gill explains,

“By the ‘sword’* may be meant the Gospel, which is the means of dividing and separating the people of Christ from the men of the world, and from their principles and practices, and one relation from another; as also of divisions, discords, and persecutions arising from it…”

This was one of… if not the most difficult of the many experiences, lessons and divisions that I was forced to grapple with when I had my eyes opened to this reality in our family support system during Piper's last years.  Many of the differences in what or how strongly we believed in portions of the gospel message were suddenly too wide to traverse.

But as I think about all that today, I can’t help but to be GLAD and REJOICE as I marvel in the personal and intimate knowledge of just how smart, all-knowing and faithful God is.  Many of you are probably thinking, “Well Duh, Jim!”  But again… I just can’t help to be amazed and celebrate how good God is to us His children… EVERYTIME I see it happen… over and over again!

I am glad that God gave Piper and I the fortitude and tenacity to stay focused on Him throughout all the battles we fought along the way in Piper’s final earthly battle.  We fought the good fight the way I believe that He wanted us to… and in the end… Piper received the greatest award and benefit of our fight of faith.

I suddenly burst out laughing last night just before I turned the light out, when I gave a final glance to one of my favorite pictures of Piper on the wall next to my bed and thought… “Well, if she had to leave me for someone else… it can’t get any better than knowing that I lost out to The King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s!”

And now let me close this in a positive vein… by saying that I have come to believe that Piper’s and my stick-to-it-ness in our faith in God and the truth of His Word, ended up being a great example for those who were formally divided from us.  Sticking with Him and His truth always wins out in the long run!

Have a great week and keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life… and I hope that you are enjoying the cooler fall weather just as much as I am!

 

 

*This is collaborated in the epistles where Ephesians 6:17 describes the Word as “The sword of the Spirit” while Hebrews 4:12 says that “God's word is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and cuts as deep as the place where soul and spirit meet, the place where joints and marrow meet. God's word judges a person's thoughts and intentions.”