Things aren't always as they appear to be!

For many years I have started my morning by drinking a tumblerful of warm water, with some added lemon-juice. This, I have been assured, is very good for the condition of my liver - an important organ in the human body. Yesterday, I followed my usual routine, but decided to put the lemon juice into the water prior to warming it. When I started to drink, I was instantly aware that there was a strange taste. However, I persevered, and drunk the lot - about 250mls!

This was followed by my customary bowl of porridge, with added prunes (!), and a tumblerful of fresh orange juice. Five minutes later, the porridge, prunes, and orange juice were being ejected into the toilet bowl!

It wasn't until our return from the worship service that my wife discovered what had happened. The bottle from which I had taken my tumblerful of water actually contained distilled vinegar!!! All that I can say is that it looked like water! All is not as it appears to be!

Israel has been in the news - again - over the past few days as the Muslim terrorist organisation, Hamas, fired almost 700 explosive rockets from the Gaza Strip, resulting in death, injury, and destruction. Understandably, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) retaliated, carrying out air strikes on arms and ammunition warehouses located in the homes of Hamas terrorists in Rafah and Khan Yunis and a warehouse in Gaza City in the home of a member involved with Hamas’ rocket infrastructure. Yesterday, the IDF said that it was starting to attack arms and ammunition depots deliberately placed by the terrorists in areas populated by civilians, and that it was targeting terrorists themselves.

It was also widely publicised that a woman and child, in Gaza, had been killed in an IDF attack. There was little, or no, mention of the Israeli deaths as a result of the rocket barrage - nor of the later established, and now confirmed by the Islamic Jihad terror group, fact that the woman and child were not the victims of IDF action, but were killed by a misfired Islamic jihad rocket! This, of course, is typical of  the propaganda distributed by these men of violence. All is not as it appears to be! (This paragraph has been updated: May 7th)

Sadly, the same principle applies to the church. My current personal devotions are based on the letters from Peter. He, like other of the New (2nd) Testament writers warns about false teachers who "... will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." (II Peter 2:1). Not only do these false teachers bring destruction upon themselves, but "... many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled." ( II Peter 2:2). Indeed, "... they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved." (II Peter 2:18-19).

All is not as it appears to be!

How we need the Holy Spirit gifting of spiritual discernment in the church today - especially in what is often referred to as "the West"! Warren Wiersbe, who died on Thursday - just two weeks short of reaching 90 years of age - comments: "The false teachers use our vocabulary, but they do not use our dictionary." In other words, the false teachers use all of the right words - but what they actually mean by some of those words is questionable! All is not as it appears to be!

It was Charles Spurgeon who said that discernment is not knowing the difference between what is right and what is wrong; but knowing the difference between what is right - and what is almost right!

May all of God's people have a measure of spiritual discernment in these last days. Drinking distilled vinegar instead of water may make one physically sick; fake news may confuse; but false teaching in the church can mean, quite literally, the difference between eternal life, and eternity cut off from the Father Who loves us enough to let us do our own thing!

My utmost for His highest.

The heading to this post is also the title of a book of daily readings from the pen of Oswald Chambers - a Scots Baptist minister who was converted, in his mid-teens, under the ministry of Charles Spurgeon.  In 1915, shortly after his marriage, and the birth of a daughter, he volunteered to be a Chaplain to the Army.  He died on November 15th, 1917, in Egypt, as the result of a ruptured appendix - having suffered the extreme pain of appendicitis for three days before seeking medical attention, because he refused to take a hospital bed needed by wounded soldiers.

Physical Energy

The title of Chambers' best-known book is very similar to the motto that, I read recently, was adopted by the artist George F Watts - "My utmost for the Highest".  Possibly Watts' best-known sculpture - done in bronze - is that of a youth astride a horse, and which he entitled "Physical Energy". Apparently, in his preparations, he altered the the pose of the youth's head several times - from a straightforward upright position  to one in which the face of the young rider is no longer looking out upon the world but, rather, upwards towards God.

In Psalm 5:3 the shepherd-king of Israel, David, writes these words to the LORD: "...  in the morning will I address myself to Thee, and will look up." (J.N.Darby translation) - apparently similarly impressed with the need to set his sights on eternal things if he was to properly conduct himself in this present world.

It is said of another painter, the 17th-century portrait artist, Sir Peter Lely, that he made it a rule never to look at a bad work of art as he had discovered, from his own experience, that he would be disturbed and hindered in his own work, by the ugliness that he had seen.  As a result, his own brush would reflect the partially-warped complex that the unworthy scene had produced in his mind!

The same principle holds true in the pursuit and cultivation of inner purity.  It can be preserved only by refusing to look upon evil. If we fail to fix our attention on the Lord Jesus, and on heavenly things, our imaginations will be poisoned, and our old, carnal, nature stirred to improper action.

It would be good for all of us to make our own motto "My utmost for His highest". If we do, let us remember that nothing keeps the heart so pure, and the hands so busy, as the "upward look"!  There is an old chorus, much-loved by many of my generation, that goes like this: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."    

The writer of the great Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus wrote: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:1-2; emphasis added). 

David also wrote: "I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to Him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed." (Ps 34:4-5). 

Whatever the outlook, be sure to maintain the uplook!