Word Weld

“This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

That is one of my favorite riddles of all time, and one of my favorites from The Hobbit. The answer, of course, is time. Time is so fundamental to the world we live in, and indeed our very being, that we can scarcely imagine a world without time. In religious contexts, we speak of “eternity” but the word is but letters on a page or sounds in the air. The concept of the time of which our lives are comprised is sometimes too much for us to really, deeply think about, or we would not be so surprised as it appears to speed up or slow down with our perception. C.S. Lewis said it this way, in one of my favorite quotes:

‘We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. “How he’s grown!” we exclaim, “How time flies!” as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.’

C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

Part of us, our flesh, is tied and rooted so deeply to this process of decay and change that we call time that we can hardly talk about anything without referencing time in some way. The past is so near us, even just a moment ago when I wrote that last word, and the future so near to us, that it is in the next word I’m thinking to write, that we go through life without realizing how much we assume the presence of time. But there is a part of us, as Lewis noted, to which time has no bearing. There is an eternity within (an article in and of itself) that we call the soul or spirit, which does not decay, which does not age or change over time. Our eternal self, as the fish in Lewis’ analogy, is at odds with our physical self, longing to get out and be free of time. Sounds poetic, but it has a basis in Scripture.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Romans 8:18-23

When we try to wrap our minds around the concept of time, we fail utterly, but we know that part of us yearns (“groans,” as the Apostle Paul put it) for a time when there will be no time, no corruption or decay, and no constant state of change.

And that decay over time is what we long to be free from. Notice he says that the creature (mankind) was made subject to vanity (corruption), but not willingly. Our very being rejects the notion of the corruption that time brings with it, but because of sin we endure it, though not without hope for an eternity to come.

The Most Persistent Enemy

In the end it is not the giants or the adversaries that have caused the most damage to the Body of Christ. It is not the false teachers or the assaults of the unbelievers. I submit to you that it is the effect of time upon human nature. It was not the barbarians or the Goths who ultimately caused the downfall of the Roman Empire, or the American Revolution or numerous other revolutions that ended the British Empire. The Empire of Egypt with its mighty pyramids and armies was not overthrown by a single hero, nor the atrocities of the Azteks ended by a handful of Spanish Conquistadors. All of these things were the result of human nature applied across a great many years. America is yet another of the many casualties of sin’s greatest ally: time. When we look back on the end of the American Revolution, and the state of the Union immediately after the Great Awakening, we quickly see that America has fallen over time, and fallen quite far. It’s strong, idealistic men and women replaced gradually with weaker children, their ideologies far afield of their forebears.

This concept is found in the Bible as well. The word “remember” is found well over 200 times in Scripture, applied often of God remembering (as He is incapable of forgetting except by choice, which is a completely separate article), but more often referring to men, and in particular God’s people, forgetting Him, His laws, or His deeds.

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.

Deuteronomy 4:23

And what a tremendously sad and comprehensive testimony of Israel is found in Hosea:

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

Hosea 13:6-9

While this was spoken directly to the backslidden Israelites, could this not be accurately said of the Once United States? Have we not been filled with our prosperity (our “pasture”)? Have we not been filled and is not our heart exalted, even against God? And have we not forgotten Him? Can we not lament, as the Word does in verse 9: “America, thou hast destroyed thyself!”

Thank the God of heaven that we can claim the promise at the end of verse 9, that “in me is thine help.” Yet, our enemy remains, and the church is not immune to the moral decay caused by human nature’s exposure to time. The church has experienced tremendous decay over the decades, from the corruption and atrocities of the Catholic church, to Christianity look-alikes and borrowers like the Mormons (LDS) and Latter Day Saints (Jehovah’s Witnesses), to Hyper-Calvinism, and the rise of the prosperity gospel, until now we are faced with brazen false teachers like Brandan Robertson preaching a new gospel born in Sodom and Gomorrah, but conceived in Hell itself.

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:

Judges 2:10-11

One way that we lose ground to the Enemy and to the World through the catalyst of time is, as Judges reveals, through generational loss. We are taught less than our parents about God and in turn are further from fellowship with Him. Our children see this and continue the cycle of loss, until we reach the point of Judges 2:11: “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim.” And we now serve Baalim in this country: we seek material wealthy and ever more fleeting earthly pleasures while neglecting to built strong families and teach them the things of God, leading to more and more tolerance of evil, until our nation now treats the slaughter of children in the womb as a righteous act and promotes racism in the present as a weapon against racism that occurred in the past. And Christendom has bought into it as well. We have been the victim of time preying upon our own nature. As Tolkien wrote, time has devoured us, worn us down like the great waters carving out the Grand Canyon, until we are so removed from where we were that by the time we realize it, we marvel.

And what can we do? What hope is there?

Stirred Up

The answer is found in the Bible of course, and the main passage I find is in II Peter.

Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

II Peter 1:12-15 (Emphasis Added)

Note the phrases I have highlighted in bold. Peter understood that human nature was forgetful. He understood that time would eventually wear down the Christian. He understood what God did, that to be able to stay along the narrow path that leads to life, Christians would need to be reminded. But more than this, they would need to be Stirred Up. The word that translates “stir you up” is the Greek word diegeiro, a blend of two Greek words, one of which means “through” or “by” and the other (far more interesting) meaning “to waken” or “rouse.” It is often used and can indeed mean to “raise the dead” or to “rise again.” Peter is telling us, we need to be roused, reminded, woken up, even revived. When do we need this reviving? Well, Peter says he thought it was fitting to rouse them as long as he lived. And this, even though, as he says in verse 12, “…ye know them…”

I like the analogy of the paint bucket. Whenever you get the old paint bucket out to touch up a spot on the wall damaged by some collision or marked up with pen by your toddler, you take that wooden stick and you stir it up. Paint separates slowly over time, the heavier parts settling near the bottom and the top being watery and runny. For the paint to be useful it needs to be stirred up, or the heavier things of God will get forgotten and you’ll end up with a thin and empty life. I put it to my children this way: it’s like making chocolate chip pancakes. You make the batter and then you put the chocolate chips in the batter, but when you start scooping out individual pancakes, you’ll find you don’t get many chips. This is because the heavier chocolate chips slowly sink down to the bottom of the bowl over time, clumping together far out of sight. In order to get chocolate chips evenly all throughout every pancake, you have to deliberately stir up the batter. The batter is like the stuff that makes up our material life, while the chocolate chips are God and His blessings. If we don’t take heed to Him, to consciously stir up that batter, we won’t get God throughout all of our life, and will end up doing most of our life without Him, until we’re at the end and it’s too late.

This is why we read and re-read the Bible. Because we forget. This is why we need to hear the gospel, read the story of the nativity every Christmastime, read the story of the crucifixion ever Easter (and often in between). We need to reread the passages we know well, as well as the ones we don’t. We need to pray for the same things until we see those prayers answered. We need to keep on, to keep what we have learned.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 14:23

The word translated “keep” in John 14 is an interesting word. It means to guard by constantly watching. It also means to prevent from escaping. If we don’t keep our focus on the Word of God, and God Himself, we will succumb to the eroding influence of time upon our nature, but not if we keep our eyes fixed upon God, and constantly are reminded of the things we already know… not if we are regularly stirred up.

I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

Psalm 16:8-9

David said that he had set the Lord in front of him, where he could see Him. He had taken God from wherever He had slipped in David’s thoughts and mind, and deliberately placed (set) Him before him in David’s thoughts and mind, and not just once a week, or once a day, but always. We can only defeat the eroding nature of time upon us by actively combatting it. How? Read the Bible daily; think of God consciously, when you’re going about your day; pray often, even if you imagine that you have everything under control; go to church and be among God’s people hearing God’s word preached; get involved in Bible studies or do your own at home with your family or even privately. Remember God, and realize the consequences of forgetting Him.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Romans 1:26-32

Remember too, what Jesus himself said:

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Mark 4:18-19

It is not simply a matter of mindlessly reading passages of Scripture or reciting the same prayers until we find ourselves thanking God for the food we’re about to eat when we’re not even eating. Our consideration of God must be an effort to become familiar with Him, to know as much as we can about Him, and then to try to use that knowledge to please Him in whatever we’re doing.

Remind me, Dear Lord

Peter mentions this same concept at the end of his second letter, perhaps the last thing he ever wrote. At the beginning of chapter 3 he says this, successfully concluding the entire affair:

This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

II Peter 3:1-2

He said that all of the Bible, from the Holy Prophets in the Old Testament to the Apostles in the New Testament, is there to remind us and stir up our minds toward God. That is why it is so important to regularly read and study it, to become saturated with it, to learn to love and need it, because it will keep us, guard us, and remind us.

I’ll leave you with the lyrics for an old song, attributed to Dottie Rambo, which my wife and I have often sung in church, and is one of my favorites because of how important this topic is to me and how I have become aware of it. I can say it scarcely better than this:

The things that I love and hold dear to my heart
They are borrowed and not mine at all
Jesus only let me use them to brighten my life
So remind me, remind me dear Lord

Roll back the curtain of memory now and then
Show me where you brought me from and
Where I could have been
Just remember I’m a human and human’s forget
So remind me, remind me dear Lord

Nothing good have I done to deserve God’s own Son
I’m not worthy of the scars in His hands
Yet he chose the road to Calvary to die in my stead
Why He loved me I can’t understand

Roll back the curtain of memory now and then
Show me where you brought me from and
Where I could have been
Just remember I’m a human and human’s forget
So remind me, remind me dear Lord