Introduction
In my previous blog I wrote about Jesus assuring the apostles that they should rejoice because their names were written heaven (Lk. 10:20). None of them understood at that time, however, that this assurance was so because Jesus very soon would die for the sins of the world and then arise victorious from the grave three days later.
Did you notice that this assurance of their salvation was given prior to the events that were soon to follow? Jesus declared that their names were written in heaven based on the certainty of His own promises! His work of salvation was never in doubt. Because He knew what He was doing and because He knew His apostles from the foundation of the world, He could declare their salvation to be secure based on the certainty of God’s promises.
Through the fulfilled promises of God that cannot and will not fail, promises which lead up to Calvary and beyond, we learn to trust God. In fact, we learn to trust Him for more than just our justification but also for our ongoing fruit of salvation: sanctification—and we learn that His promises provide even for our needs of ordinary daily living.
Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! (Ps. 105:1-2)
God Is Trustworthy
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (Ps. 18:2).
In this psalm, along with many of his other psalms, King David places his trust in the Lord who is his rock. A rock is a commanding high place of safety that cannot be moved. In Psalm 40:1–4 we learn that King David even acknowledges his sin while reaffirming his trust in the Rock. The unfailing strength and security that defines God’s care for His people is so certain that David can even be vulnerable in repentance without fearing that God will reject him.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1–5, Paul brings the Old Testament metaphor of the Rock into the light of the gospel and defines that Rock as Jesus. He tells the church in Corinth that when the Israelites “were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” and “drank the same spiritual drink”, their “Rock was Christ”. In other words, the Rock that led Moses and Israel through the wilderness is the same Rock upon which King David took refuge, and it is the same Rock of which the Apostle Paul speaks in 1Corinthians. The Rock has always been Christ—and Paul identifies the Lord Jesus as God who led His people through the centuries even before the church was formed.
This is the Rock where I place my trust.
Biblical Axiom of Trust
The manner in which Jesus uplifted Peter, a very ordinary person, into a position of servant leadership in the building of the church is an example of the trust all the saints of God can have in the promises of God. I find confidence in focusing on the the promises given to the Apostle Peter.
In Matthew 16:13–15 Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They responded with a variety of answers. Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Bar-Jonah replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In other words, he knows that Jesus is the promised Messiah for whom all the prophets of Israel had been looking. Next Jesus says:
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:17-19).
The Father revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Messiah. This divine revelation is the axiom supporting the Lord Jesus’ giving Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven”. Interestingly, the name “Peter” means “rock”; Jesus gave Peter a name that reflected His own identity. Peter’s role, appointed by Jesus, was to represent Jesus who is our true Rock as he preached to the Jews and ushered the three people groups—Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (Acts 8), and Gentiles (Acts 10) into the born-of-the-Spirit body of Christ!
Some weeks later, Peter the rock sat in the Upper Room for the last Passover meal with Jesus. After their supper, Jesus and His disciples (minus Judas) adjourned to the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30-35). Jesus said to His remaining eleven disciples that they “will all fall away because of me this night”. Peter denied that he would ever fall away from Jesus! Yet just a few hours later, he found himself doing the unthinkable:
Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly (Matt. 26:74-75).
On the night Peter denied Jesus he was anything but a “rock”, yet Peter is the name Jesus had already given him. Much later, as recorded in Galatians 2:11-14, the Apostle Paul opposed Peter because “he stood condemned”. Clearly Peter never became perfectly free of sin, yet he was a “rock” and is a member in the kingdom of God.
I am just like Peter in one important way: I am simply a redeemed sinner assured that I’m in the kingdom of God. I see my sin, but I also see and trust God’s promises because of what Scripture records of Peter. My security and peace are based on God’s promises, and I see His faithfulness to unfaithful Peter as the evidence that He will be faithful to me as well.
True peace hinges upon where we place our trust, but I realize that my Adventist past taught me to distrust God and the shed blood of Jesus.
Ellen G. White lied when she declared a person must become perfectly free of sin to be allowed entry into the kingdom of God. Peter was obviously already in the kingdom of God, even before the night he denied Jesus three times. His standing in God’s kingdom was not dependent upon his becoming sinless.
In the same way, our righteousness, as Peter’s was, is grounded on the covering shed blood of Jesus and nothing else.
If we think about all the sinners the Bible describes, we can go all the way back back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned it was God who covered their nakedness with animal skins (Gen. 3:21). When they tried to take care of their nakedness themselves, they vainly tried to hide behind coverings of fig leaves.
Practicing Adventism is like attempting to cover sin with fig leaves instead of trusting God. I tried that once with real fig leaves and ended up with a bad rash.
DO NOT BE ANXIOUS
In Luke 12:13-21 someone requested Jesus to arbitrate concerning an inheritance. He responded by warning against covetousness which he illustrated through the parable of the Rich Fool where God says; “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Jesus ends this parable by saying, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Jesus then says this concerning where our treasures of eternal importance are located:
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:22-34).
Many times I am anxious, but then I am reminded of the faithful promises of God and where my treasures of eternal importance are located. I am reminded to live daily by adding to these treasure that are laid up in heaven.
My Life That Began In Adventism
In the fall of 1947 at age of four, Shermy my brother died of leukemia. I was two years older than he was. We as a family had just returned to the Napa Valley from a year of living in the logging camps of Oregon, and we had gone back to the Napa Valley because of Shermy’s yet-undiagnosed illness. Shortly before he died our Grandmother Myrtle introduced the two of us to our Savior Jesus Christ. I witnessed great peace come over my brother, a memory that is with me to this day. He expressed joy knowing he would soon be with Jesus.
To understand how Adventism affected my life it is important to know that our grandparents, Chan and Myrtle Harris, had met and were married in 1911 at the St. Helena Sanitarium while taking their nurses training there. This information is significant because Ellen White was still alive and living in that same town. Consequently, both of my grandparents had personally known “The Prophet”. Because of this personal exposure to Ellen White, whenever Grandmother said to me; “Sister White said…,” it was as if I were hearing the very voice of God speaking directly to me.
At the time of Shermy’s death I had been enrolled in the St. Helena Adventist elementary school where my Adventist training had just begun. This immersion into Adventism would prove to be an ongoing curse because of trauma and false guilt that I would soon experience. Being told I must be perfectly sin-free when standing before God at His judgment seat became on ongoing nightmare.
I have often wondered since those early days how Grandmother could so clearly present the gospel to my brother and me and yet also believe and teach Adventist doctrine.
It was about twenty years after the time of Shermy’s passing into the arms of Jesus and shortly after Janeane and I had been married that I finally heard, understood, and knew that I was forever secure in the kingdom of God. However, it was even longer yet before I realized and dealt with the hidden grip Adventist teaching still had on my inner emotional and spiritual life.
Present Day
In 1980 Jan and I moved from Napa, California, to the western shores of the Puget Sound in Washington state.
About thirty-two years ago as of this writing, after having been apart for several years, Jan and I purposed to put our marriage back together and become a family again. Our vow to each other and before God was that we would now do things His way, basing our decisions upon the teaching of Scripture alone.
Although Jan was more of a city-person than I was, we agreed that we should live in the country. Therefore, we searched and prayed for property which the Lord provided. The challenge then was to have a home on the beautiful property we had acquired, land that was bare of all else except for brush, trees, creek, and a peat bog. The Lord provided a mobile home and all else that was needed, including the volunteer help to make living here a reality.
Soon after settling in our new home as a family again, it was time for me to change jobs. I prayed only for a “short commute” and ended up with a temporary trucking job with a six-minute commute from home. I will illustrate with just one example from among many how God’s providence was now a central part of our lives together. I was still doing most of the company trucking, and I was on a supply run up north near the Canadian border when God demonstrated His very real, ongoing leading and protection.
As I passed under a freeway pedestrian overpass, something that later proved to be a bag of apples fell from the overpass onto the truck. It shattered the driver-side rearview mirror without harming me or the windshield. However, the impact was as if a bomb had gone off in my face.
I was driving a twenty-six-foot box van, and it was vital to have both side mirrors to see to the side and rear. After the impact I realized I was ok, and I was soon able to get a replacement rear view mirror in a nearby town. At that moment, I could only praise God and continue on my way. That incident became a marker in my life of God’s clear care for me as I committed to live according to His word.
In the process of time our home and property became fully paid, a fact which has made it possible for us to live on a limited income in retirement with all our needs fully covered.
Six years ago I finally retired from this temporary twenty-three year job because I was now needed at home to care for my ailing wife full time. Even before retirement, in what I call God’s providence, if I got a call for help from home, I had standing orders from my boss to drop whatever I was doing and go to Jan. Now, in retirement, health issues for both of us have become a dominant part of our lives.
One recent providence of God centered on Jan’s need for surgery that could only be done in Portland, Oregon, more than 160 miles south of us. Since our own vehicle couldn’t safely make the trip, a friend volunteered to take us there as many times as was needed. For him it turned into three trips to Portland; consultation with the surgeon, pre-surgery, and then the actual day of surgery.
On our first trip we got lost, but because I had researched an online map of the whole area, an image was in my mind of how to get to our destination even on totally unknown streets—and we arrived on time. On surgery day it turned out I would not be able stay with Jan as I had been told I would, nor would I be able to come down to visit during her recovery because she needed an extended hospital stay. Nevertheless, five weeks from the day of surgery she had recovered beyond what even the surgeon anticipated.
Some cousins of mine found out that I couldn’t be there with her. Without my even having to ask, they provided for her personal needs, visited with her almost daily, and even brought her home in comfort in their motor home. Even though I had prayed for Jan and her welfare while so far away, this provision far surpassed what I had even thought to petition God to provide.
Now that Jan is back at home, the challenges continue as usual—yet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ meets all our needs daily.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Ps. 91:1-2).
If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence (Ps. 94:17).
When I do pass out of this life, my soul will be alive and well right there with my brother Shermy in the arms of Jesus.
Summary
As a young child I was introduced to our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Adventist training eroded away trust in the simple gospel and work of Jesus Christ. Not until I understood that nothing could remove me from the love of God would I grow in daily sanctification. For all the saints who live in this sin-filled world, sanctification is an ongoing daily work of our Savior. At the sure hope of our Savior’s return, glorification is simply the fulfillment of this salvation we already have in Jesus Christ. For the saints there is no investigative judgment for sins that have already been covered by the blood Jesus shed at Calvary.
(All biblical quotes taken from the ESV)
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