Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [69] Home Alone (2)

Box Theology

I will never forget one earnest couple coming up to me after a sermon many a year past, with a question. I had given an illustration from the life of my father, a veteran missionary whose  practise was to spend an hour in spiritual excercises each morning. He read through the Bible each year and told me that every single time he read a chapter of God's Word, though he had read it fifty times before, God spoke afresh to him and he learnt something new.

How could God, enquired my friends, have new things to say each year? Surely the meaning of a verse is fixed and invariable?

My friends suffered from a spiritual malaise we could call box theology which puts God in a small box, prescribes the limits of what God can and cannot do, be and cannot be, say and cannot say.

The motive of box theology is noble; it wants us to avoid error and stay within the truth of Scripture.

The method of box theology is accurate: the box is the Bible. We don't want to stray outside of God's revelation to us.

The error of box theology, however, is two-fold. First, it often limits God to what can be understood by the human mind. And second, it tends to limit God to our own personal experience: if I have not experienced it, it cannot be valid.

But there are mysterious - and one might even say mystical - events and experiences recorded in Scripture. And just because we can't understand them or have never experienced them personally doesn't exclude them from the realm of possibility.

Here's one: Paul says in Colossians 2:5, "For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit." Paul was in prison unable to be with his friends, and yet he was with them in spirit. He says much the same in 1 Corinthians 5:4, "I am with you in spirit." In some mysterious way Paul believed that he could fellowship with people who were not in the same room.

To borrow a line from Shakespeare, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Alone with God

What shall we say?

Could it not be true that when believers are forcibly isolated from their Christian friends that God draws near to them in a special way? And the experiences they pass through are unique to the situation of human aloneness?

Alone from people, but closer to God?

The apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, but there on the Lord's Day he was in the Spirit and saw things wondrous and blessed (Revelation 1:3,10) Yes, I know that he was the recipient of revelation from God for all time and all people, but could it not be that when a child of God cannot meet with other believers, they might experience something special of God?

I believe so. If apostles Paul and John experienced new things when they were forcibly isolated, could not we?

Richard Wurmbrand certainly did. There are spiritual experiences in his "Sermons in Solitary Confinement" that are just way out of the experience of most Christians. He went through extreme spiritual lows and highs. He was convinced that he could bless and help people "in the spirit" who were far away from him (remember he was a pastor deeply concerned with the sheep entrusted to his care) and even dedicates a whole chapter to the way he did this.

Shall we write just write all of this off because we have never experienced it?

Summing it All Up

We are trying to say two things today.

First, if we cannot meet with other believers in person, the Lord can draw near to us in ways that we have never experienced before. (If we can meet with fellow believers and refuse to do so, I do not believe the Lord will bless our solitary efforts: we were designed to be a brick in the temple of God, an arm or leg in the body of Christ.)

Second, we may sometimes have spiritual experiences way out of the normal. They must always be inside the orbit of Scripture, our supreme guide, but they may be outside the experience of many if not most Christians.

Let's not draw a box around spiritual experiences which makes us judge others and limit our own personal relationship with the Lord. 

In these days of enforced personal isolation, we can expect God to draw near to his lonely people in unusual and wonderful ways.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

My choice of song for today was written by a Christian lady who developed a spinal condition that confined her body to home for many years. Clearly it did not imprison her spirit.

More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of his saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.

More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.

More about Jesus let me learn,
More of his holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me. 

More about Jesus in His Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing his voice in ev'ry line,
Making each faithful saying mine.

More about Jesus on his throne,
Riches in glory all His own;
More if His kingdom's sure increase;
More of His coming, Prince of peace.

E. E. Hewitt

I wish some musical genius would bring these older songs to life with better and more contemporary tunes! I've struggled to find an adequate version to share, here is the best I could find.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our loving Father in heaven,

We bring you our worship and praise today. If the apostle Paul could sing your praises from a prison cell, we have no excuse!

We thank you for your many good gifts to us.

We thank you for your Spirit who lives within our hearts and brings us joy and the hope of heaven.

We pray for brothers and sisters who are on their own today. May they know your presence with them and may they know they are loved by their brothers and sisters in Christ.

We remember especially those in prison for their faith, and today we pray for Pastor Wang Yi, imprisoned in China for his trust in Christ.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus

Amen.

Photo by Tom Winckels on Unsplash