The Power of the Word of God In Defeating Temptation

In no way can we — in what we say, think, do, and are — resist every temptation perfectly. Only Christ was able to achieve such an end. And he is the means to that end for us.

As we read the famous recounting of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew’s gospel (4:1-11), we can’t help be struck by the fact of Jesus’ reliance — he relies on the Word in diligent service of the Father.

That’s our task; to be of diligent service to the Father. We rely on Jesus, our Mediator before the Father, to do that very thing, by the Presence of the Holy Spirit impelling us forward.

Jesus always operates principally through the Word. He is the Word. But his power comes channelled via the Holy Spirit. And when we bring the invocation for the Spirit to bear through his Word — the Bible — we find that we have our foundation for power, through poverty, meekness, humility, and fatigue — in sum, weakness.

The Revelation of Temptation In the Mode of Weakness

The Holy Spirit can help us know we need him because of our temptation.

When we are weak, we are closer to the revelation of temptation — Jesus is trying to tell us we are close to the line of disobedient offence. The Holy Spirit is trying to pique our conscience toward action. That’s power! Add to this power of awareness, the power of faith. Then add to the power of faith the power of an insistent peace.

That is, the choice to be at peace!

We cannot do that of our own volition or will. We can only achieve such a thing as the experience of peace by rejecting the desire to covet such a thing. If we ardently wish for it, and, are prepared to do anything to obey Christ to get there, we will have it.

A fine line is this: the bearing of weakness without succumbing to it. What a balance!

***

We only know the help of God when we are pressed in by temptation — when we perceive testing. It’s only then that we rely. We must not reject our weakness but embrace it.

In being tempted, whereby we rely, we show the work of the cross of Christ, the raising of Christ by the Father, and the power of the Spirit, in our lives.

It is good to be weak, for then — by Christ, the Father, and the Spirit — we are strong.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

The Father and Mother Heart of God In Grief Through Love

Grief is the child of love — and, in that way — love bears what grief brings.

Love is the parent, so love does what needs to happen to ensure grief isn’t left stranded. Love is necessarily strong, but not in the traditional way. It is strong in the way of God. Love is God.

The Father Heart of God is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving. The Mother Heart of God is all-tender, all-nurturing, and all-providing. God is all these, indeed, everything.

The Father Heart of God in grief through love is the empowerment to get through a self-perceived hell. God is our righteousness. He will not let us down if we obey him by joining right action with his blessed intent over our lives. God is the Lord of the heavens, the Lord Almighty. Nothing is beyond his touch. He sees everything and knows everything, and everything will be repaid. He who does not leave nor forsake us will get us every last inch of justice, if not now, in the time to come. His righteousness underpins his justice. In this justice there is a safe and provident love.

The Mother Heart of God in grief through love is the equipping of the sufferer, and their encouragement. God as Mother cannot let us go without what we need. God provides and heals. God is present. God is our peace. God is practical. As we devote ourselves to this peculiarly maternal shape of love, we notice that our cooperation with the Father’s will bequeaths us the blessings of the mother’s touch. In the nurture of God — that which perfects every depth of kindness in a mother’s love — is the sense that God never lets go, and is ever reliable like the best of mothers is.

God is the completeness of love, as also love is the completeness of God. Love is perfection sacrificed for imperfection. Love is so devoid of fear, but replete with wisdom, that if treads boldly and securely exactly where it should.

***

If grief is the child of love, love must be strong to bear it.

Love never gives up and never lets up. It continues patiently and faithfully no matter how unfaithful and impatient her children are.

Grief is the reality of the pain having been birthed because love was lost. Yet, love is so perfect it cannot resent grief, because it is one of her precious children.

Love suffers the bruising incredulity of loss meekly by soothing the pain through acceptance. Love wishes to do a work of acceptance in every one of us.

If life was fair it would not give us over to grief, but, then again, without grief there can be no love! And with no love there is no life.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Enduring the Tests of Life Tougher Than Any We’ve Faced

Courage is a virtue that comes into its own when we need it; not beforehand. It stays dormant until the time of testing arrives. And though we may hardly ascribe our responses to the tests of life as “courageous,” the simple fact of our being under trial is the very testimony of courage — to withstand the temptation to give up by giving in.

Tests have about them the character of burden to the extreme. It is rubbish that ‘God won’t allow us to be tested beyond what we are capable’. That’s an awful representation of Paul’s 1 Corinthians 10:13.

The truth is we are blessed to finally be overtaken by testing, for finally we discover we cannot do this life on our own. It never feels good in the process, however, and that which is excruciating is ultimately the making of us, spiritually.

It is never a good thing that a life would go untested. Most of us cannot learn proper empathy until we have passed through the flames of our very own incineration. There are some, however, who are blessed with such empathy and compassion to not need humbling. That certainly wasn’t me!

God will get our attention one way or another if we are genuinely his subjects. In a massive irony, God will show lesser interest in the ‘Christian’ (of appearance) than a Christian who has avowed to growth. Shudder to think that we pray very serious prayers of discipleship to then be tested.

But now this: Christian character must be tested. Testing is the approval process.

I have written a little poem on the present subject below:

***

The biggest fight for life,
Isn’t against a treacherous foe,
It’s the battle of inner strife,
Within each of us we should know.

Not depending anymore,
On our strength of independence,
It’s shattered what’s more,
Upon God now is our dependence.

Finally life starts again,
From safer and certain ground,
Better women and men,
Upon God we are finally found!

Faith’s biggest test,
Isn’t borne on the wings of ease,
Faith comes out best,
When it’s only God that we please.

So it beggars our belief,
Now to stand up in the trenches,
To rely on God what’s more,
On Him alone who avenges.

Against the flow of sense,
Our faith learns to stand on its feet,
Only faith withstands offence,
Learning to sit still within our seat.

Despite threats of insane thought,
Where clamour and despair are ours,
Recall the price with which we were bought,
Endure through the darkest hours.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

The Interdependence of Grief and Sacredness of Memory

Pain’s perspective is hardly something accurately portrayed across the expanse of humanity. We all experience pain so diversely given many variables at play.

As I’ve written about before, I have a ritual of visiting with the memory of my deceased son — a journey through photographs, videos, journal entries, articles I’ve written — all as a means of keeping his precious memory alive. Such a ritual causes me no ‘pain’ so-to-speak. I’m blessed. This is the case because God never fails to touch me in my innermost parts. I’m shown different nuances of the journey as I go back there and enjoy the memory of my son, in collection with the memories we, as a family, had of that time.

One such recent revelation involved the photo above (that has been cropped by request of my wife). This photo was taken the moment I held Nathanael Marcus for the first time.

I was, of a very real sense, meeting him. I was meeting him how any of us new mothers and fathers meet our babies—“Well, who do I have here then?” The relationship begins! From that moment, the ‘getting to know you’ processes blossoms and we are forever cast as divided again in our identities to assume room for this little one. It’s about as precious as life gets.

And there is also a very special nuance to this particular photograph.

My son had passed away some six to eight hours beforehand, due to a prolapsed cord with shoulder presentation. He had died. I have the corpse of my son there, and I do hope by saying it that way that I do not bring you, the unsuspecting reader, any pain.

I was meeting my son, thinking, “Just what have you been through?” “My poor little man, I wish it could have been different for you.” “I love you, sweet Nathanael.” These are the types of things I could write as captions to describe this photo.

And then, as I look at myself, remembering how weird the experience was, and how much courage it took for Sarah and I to traipse that road together — the delivery, I mean — I am thankful to myself for the courage I had, but ever more thankful to God that he got me/us through!

***

Our pain is precious to God, and our Lord will bring healing from within the site of our pain if we will let him.

This pain that I experience is a most precious grief that I cannot live without, because it is the sacredness of memory that has come to be part of me now.

There is an interdependence between the enduring grief of missing Nathanael and the sacredness of his memory. This is such an ingenious gift to carry through my days; a most treasurable compensation for our loss.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Hold On, Hold Fast, Breathe, Keep Stepping

Never think that this literature, below, is navel-gazing stuff. There is a whirlwind for one and a torrent for another. Whether we are buffeted into oblivion by the whirlwind or swept away with the torrent matters little — the same consequence is borne.

It comes to most at least once in their lives... great pressure and strain, with pain unrivalled in previous experience. We feel worse than death, for in death at least the pain is over.

***

Something never leaves you,
As you boldly face the dark,
Uncertainties may be stark,
But God holds you ever true.

Silent faith it faithfully stands,
Humbly meek yet ever so strong,
The pain may well be long,
But our lives are in God’s hands.

And what of this noxious pain,
Just how will we contend?
Let’s certainly not pretend,
So as to let this evil reign!

Loneliness there it’s borne,
In the depths of this wry grief,
No sure direction to relief,
Left groaning and forlorn.

Now we may also see,
How the tumult of dire being,
Is the precursor of a state that’s freeing,
Ironically it’s the place to be!

Hold on in that hope,
For all this, too, shall pass,
God will turn around this farce,
If only in between we can cope.

Don’t give up in the trial,
Don’t despair when all at sea,
Afloat He will ensure you’ll be,
His covenant He’ll not defile.

Let’s surrender all our baggage,
So God can bring around our ship,
Stiffen the bottom lip,
And don’t allow Satan to disparage!

As one day makes for night,
And we rest there humbly content,
Life is much more than lament,
When we believe in the Saviour’s light.

***

Faith will do with the impossible what is only possible with God.

And, whilst we necessarily fall in love with this sort of hope-fuelled literature, there is a purpose in it, at least for the present season — be it a day, a month, a year, a life.

There is no estimating what God will do for the person who has suffered for his Name’s sake. Don’t we think that bearing our weaknesses patiently will get us a reward? Surely it will. One hundred fold will be the reward for the losses incurred in this life, with rewards gained here, but with persecutions, said Jesus (Mark 10:29-30).

Jesus never promises us a trouble-free life; indeed, he promises trouble! But he was also overcome the world! (John 16:33)

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

What Self-Fulfilling Prophesy Are You Curating?

Much thinking is good, but, with much thought inevitably comes a fall into the pit of despair. The capacities of the mind’s heart are not so easily overwhelmed, but when they are, great is that collapse!

The shimmering beauty of the mind rendered obedient to the development of virtue.

The dark disgust of a mind given over to the realm of evil; the production of hate.

The horrible waste of a mind sacrificed to the gods of games and recreation in the name of relaxation — to the ends of nothing.

And the splendiferous majesty in a mind of the one who hears God’s call for their life and thinks with purpose to strive for that destiny.

What do we consume ourselves with in our thought lives?

What is it we spend most of our time thinking about? Is it the share price, or the temperature tomorrow, or of delusions of grandeur, or the sensibilities of space? Is it the glory of God’s creation, how you’ll get through the week without money, or why life has come to be the way it has? Maybe it’s the fact of your busyness and tiredness? It could be your unbridled joy — thankfulness for such a season. Perhaps it’s envying and striving and cursing that has your cognitive attention. You may just be tired of thinking. Or it could be that you’ve striven to overcome the propensity to analyse everything, and you’ve found some strategies that work? Have I nailed it, or is there something else? You’re obsessed about a relationship issue; something that’s not quite right, irredeemable, scary, or unjust... perhaps.

The point I’m trying to illustrate is, if we are to pounce upon the capacity of our thinking to help us in the way we are going, we need to become aware of the thoughts we are preoccupied by.

What we think about most will influence us incredibly.

If we are virtuous in a feministic way, where we defend the rights of women, if we haven’t handled our own brokenness we may well be tarred with the wrong brush. We see this being done and it reinforces our worldview: “Men are pigs.” But if we are a man, beaten down by a life where “everything goes to the woman,” we are bound to attract a reputation as angry and obtuse.

What he and she are broken by, and are still resistant to be healed of, becomes their worldview, and they come across as damaged goods. And every time they come to be “judged” they find themselves further and further pigeonholed. They hate what they have become deep down, but they are equally unable to claw their way out.

It is best to make our thoughts captive to Christ; to debunk our baggage; to seek his healing touch.

When our thoughts become healthy, we begin to nurture a productive self-fulfilling prophesy for our lives.

What we ponder most becomes us. Ponder God. Become God’s you.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

The Spirit Who Is With Us In Truth

Reflecting on a conversation with one I consider the epitome of men, I felt hurried in my responses to his questions as to “how things are.” As a result I offered a mishmash of answers, part truths, due to good intent, were the best of it.

Some questions — particularly the answers of which may most betray our truth, and hence our cause, because they are not thought over — require more deliberate consideration.

Whenever we cannot fundamentally represent the truth — because we are hurried and feel there isn’t the time, or if we feel guilty or ashamed for some reason, or we are tired, etc. — the Spirit’s Presence might as well have departed.

The Holy Spirit will only abide in us to the extent of truth. The Spirit of Truth gives us cues and motives to speak our truth, but we must trust his Presence and act out the divine nudge we have borne.

***

We know it is God’s Spirit leading us when we obey with conviction and poise. We should only ask a question in public if we genuinely seek the answer. Sometimes I’ve been tempted to ask a question to show off some way. But the lack of authenticity shown has meant there was a lack of conviction and poise in my delivery of what I said. I was acting not as an agent of my own carefully nurtured truth. Such contriving faith is the sin of attention; the seeking of approval.

But, the Holy Spirit will make it certain what a believer is to do.

If we do what the Spirit tells us, we abide to the truth in us, but if we do not do it, we betray our very own truth. In effect, we, of our subconscious and our own integrity with ourselves, judge ourselves.

This is not to say that there are not times when the Spirit might nudge us for someone else.

The context of this article, though, is the communication of the Spirit in and through a believer, for that believer’s own obedience — for Truth has spoken.

To enjoy the Holy Spirit’s empowering we must first honour our truth. The truth that is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

God’s Presence is manifest powerfully when we are at accord with his revealed truth in us.

QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     When do you find it hardest to obey God’s call to speak or act out the truth he’s spoken to you? When is it easiest?

2.     Ideally, we are to wait until the Spirit calls us to speak. How easy or hard is it for you to restrain yourself? Have you experienced this calling nudge, and, if so, how?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Grief Like a Thousand Tiny, Very Diverse Knives

Grief comes in so many different nuances — each ordered for the uniqueness of the day, and experience is hardly something gathered confidently. Indeed, we may well lose every semblance of confidence because of the very unpredictability of the chasm we’re lost into.

We will only grow through our grief as a product of reflecting, later, when all of the pain’s dealt with. Sure, growth occurs through the process of grief, but we can’t possibly see the fruit until we have passed all the way through hell.

Yet, one day we are rendered distraught, and despatched to the abyss. The next day might have a tinge of hope with it. The next betwixt and between with anger and anxiety. The next doing anything to make of the future what we can. And then there are the days when we are just simply too depressed to get out of bed.

Charting each one of those knives of pain is important as each one pierces the skin, bringing a fresh wound to bear on the soul seeking rest and resolution. Another knife is the restitution we wish for in another’s life. Another again relates to the betrayal that severs our sanity.

How many different nuances of this agony must be endured?

The answer is possibly infinite, at most, and the number we’ve actually experienced, at least.

The experience of the former day, the new information we have on board, the possibility of a mounting despair, or an impatience for God’s justice; all this, and more, makes for the extrapolation of the grief experience at play.

It is so common to scream to God, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13)

How long, and in how many different ways, will this anguish continue to strike at the flesh of our souls? This is such a reasonable question, for grief always lasts longer than we wish it to. We always feel we should be over it ‘by now’.

But the point is, we are not.

God must still have for us to learn some things. No matter how angry it makes us feel our anger won’t coerce God’s engineering of our circumstances.

***

We are forgiven for wanting life back to normal — whatever that now is. But there is more to learn, and that’s way the grief experience is so unpredictably messy and lengthy.

God does a work in and through us when we continue journeying by faith in our grief. It’s the response of humility God’s after; for that we receive his compassion.

God’s best works in the human soul are his severing of our dependence on ourselves and others. Through grief, perhaps for the first time, we are depending on our Lord.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Living Intentionally For Eternity (L.I.F.E.)

Living intentionally for eternity is about viewing everything, certainly every life experience, from the context of eternity—as in, how each and every event will be reviewed—in what light—when we grace the courts of heaven? More and more, consequentially, the way we live life is influenced by this perspective.

It is about living for truth, upholding justice, and investing in love.

It is seeing life from a post-physical-death viewpoint; doing what we do now with the very end in mind.

Importantly, it is not viewing life fearfully for judgment.

This is one of the barriers we need to overcome; worry for judgment. We know we do bad things. How will God view them? At this point we must be reminded, if we are saved, that we have already been forgiven. Grace covers all our sin; past, present, and future. Therefore, we do not tread with fear when approaching heaven. We should not fear judgment. But in the same way we should live for truth.

As we operate from this perspective we are employing wisdom, for we take counsel from God with the aim of living for him. The more we can shift our motives in viewing life from this perspective the less psychological indifference we will suffer.

Living intentionally for eternity has impact on how we handle:

Truth and Lies – we have additional reasons, and maybe the ultimate reason, to side with truth. Truth and lies play themselves out in our relationships. There is no benefit in siding with non-truth. And if there is no benefit in siding with non-truth in this life, we can taste even a little of the gravity of siding with non-truth for eternity. Whilst we shouldn’t fear judgment, we will face only truth in eternity—the inflow of God’s perfect justice.

Justice and Injustice – flowing on from truth, because truth informs equity and fairness, justice is another chief test. We learn a lot about God’s thoughts on justice and injustice through reading Proverbs. God loves justice and hates injustice, and we are to be the same, advocating social justice issues and fighting the good fight of faith upon areas of injustice.

Love and Fear – we, as normal human beings, experience both in copious quantities. Rare it is that people would experience no love, but sadly it still happens all too often. A human being not loved is a horrible travesty in a world God created. Yet we are vessels for love, and we contain the material and the motive to love. Still again, we are bitten by fear and our own sense for rejection. At many levels fear spurns love; it spoils our experience of life. Yet some fear is good—it warns us of danger. If we are heading to eternity, and there’s nothing more certain, our fear should convert into an awed respect for God and life.

***

Life is a one-day-at-a-time adventure, mystery and challenge. We can be sure that life leads to death and, therefore, eternity. Living intentionally for eternity is about planning for that eventuality and living life accordingly.

© 2012, 2015 S. J. Wickham.

A Threefold Theology of Modern Idol Worship

What are the common sources for worship — other than God — in our contemporary culture?

Try these: sport, savings, and sex. Sport includes not simply playing, but spectating, and gambling. Savings includes the covetousness of building our own kingdom, but it also refers to our modern day worship for spending. Look at so many economies around the world; so many countries are in the fiscal mess they’re in because of undisciplined and unconscionable economic wisdom of the day. Sex is probably the most hidden of all the sins. But how close are the temptations of the flesh toward making sex a dangerously pervasive god?

What underlies all these categories of sin?

It must certainly strike us disciples as odd that we can control our own lives, and regulate our desires.

“First John denies the commonplace assumption that human beings create themselves or are competent to assume final responsibility for their individual and collective well-being,” C.C. Black says in his commentary on 1 John.

What the human nature craves for, what the eyes crave for, pride over one’s possessions; these are commonplace encumbrances of sin that tell us we cannot assume final responsibility for our individual and collective well-being. So why do we negate God and do it on our own?

Sport, savings, and sex are notorious sectors of taking life as we see it and assuming the final responsibility for our well-being.

When we prefer to focus a lot of time and energy on those things that are not inherently of God, we need to ask whether we have put some distance between us and our Lord. Whenever we begin to think selfishly we will naturally put more distance between us and God. Indeed, it may be argued that to think selfishly is to have put a massive gulf between us and our Lord in the most fundamental way.

It’s not just things purely of typical worship that are in focus. Whenever we give ourselves for the things of our relationships we are worshipping God. If we spend time investing in our learning, or making money to adequately support our families, or make the effort to genuinely rest up from fatigue, we are carrying out God’s wishes.

***

If there are three key expressions of idol worship today, they are sport, savings, and sex. Our challenge is to enjoy sport in moderation, to be good stewards with our money and possessions, and to embrace sex within our marriages.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.

Acknowledgement: to Paul Forman for the Spirit’s revelation behind this article. He calls it the Doctrine of the Three S’s.

Bearing Up Under Spiritual Attack

Enemies are foes because they work strategically and tactically and operationally — at all levels of threat engagement — to bring a land, a people, a kingdom, an entity, even a person, to their knees. It can seem there are enemies littered through life, but truly most of the time the litany of threats perceived are not from a physical entity, but from a spiritual nemesis.

Satan is in view, here; with his legions of agents and angelic aggressors.

His agents are those who speak and act — whether knowing so or not — in his name. His angelic aggressors have simple, focused roles; to bring us down in a little way; to destroy us through discouragement or fear. And their very best weapon is to make us self-conscious — to the point it plays on us.

Spiritual attack comes in myriad form, and one obvious sign is the felt experience of a destruction of functional self-confidence. Note, I don’t just say “self-confidence,” because Satan often wills us on from there through pride. There is no need of attack when we are already his agent. When we are in pride, we speak and act in his name, not Jesus’. Functional self-confidence, on the other hand, is what gives us the belief and creativity to act for the Kingdom, when we might otherwise shun the idea of being a servant.

Satan hates — with a perditious passion — anything done for Christ’s Kindgom.

***

So, if we are agents for God and we are given to serve the Kingdom, we will be subject to attack, whether we perceive it or not. Perhaps better are we when we serendipitously go about our work without any awareness of the evil that lurks! But, no, that is not really so.

It is better to wrestle with the idea of competing spirits — the battle that rages silently and invisibly. It is better to wrestle with our fears; to bring them into subjugation to Christ. It is better by far to wrestle with the knowledge that, there in eternity, a war has raged since almost the very beginning.

The battle continues today.

We may, in our own little lives, feel almost invisible ourselves. But each of us is equally fought for in the realms of eternity — even as we live and breathe. Nothing is insignificant. Everything is part of our Lord’s (his) story.

So, the battle continues today. It’s nothing to be fearful of, just to be aware of. It’s nothing to stop us, just knowledge to keep us going. It’s everything to assure us that everything we think, say, and do is powerfully significant.

***

When the enemy of God,

Tries to knock you off your course,

Know that the Spirit who defends us,

Doesn’t need us to react with force.

Simple awareness is the end of the matter,

As we turn within and say,

“I know what you’re up to, Satan,

And you won’t be having your way!”

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.