November 2002 chaplain's corner

The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Chaplain's Corner - November 2002

Rev. Rich Hines

This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Christ as their own Lord and Savior, and are serving as correctional or rescue mission chaplains within the United States.

This November with the Thanksgiving holiday and the Christmas holidays to follow in December, I want to suggest that you chaplains capture inmates attention, and have them answer two very important questions.

Their honest answers to these questions will ultimately aide them in understanding their true spiritual condition and their relationship to eternal salvation only available in Christ Jesus.

1. Are they truly thankful? Not for their condition in prison, although they should be, but in general for what they have in this life, are they truly thankful?

Romans 1 - in presenting the sinfulness of mankind, note:

18 ...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress (literally "hold down") the truth in unrighteousness,

19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, NOR WERE THANKFUL, (there it is, sinful man became ungrateful to his Creator) but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23 and CHANGED THE GLORY OF THE INCORRUPTIBLE GOD INTO AN IMAGE MADE LIKE CORRUPTIBLE MAN - ... Note what is at the top of the exchange list here, "corruptible man."

When sinful man makes a false god, he makes it like he is, to agree with what he thinks and does. That's why to most people who even say "Yes, I am thankful," the next question has to be asked and answered. It must be dealt with.

2. To whom is their thankfulness directed? WHO do they thank?

Most "thankful" people honestly have to answer I am thankful to myself, or to some other man, or to my abilities, or to education, or to something or someone else besides the incorruptible Creator, God.. All that other thankfulness falls short of His standard.

We tend to think of salvation from sin as only God's deliverance from His judgement and wrath, deliverance from hell. But God saves sinners to make them eternal worshipers. That's really why He saves. He saves out of His love and grace, and certainly He has compassion on lost sinners headed for hell, but the purpose of God's salvation in Christ is not just to redeem men from their sin, but to purify unto Himself His own special people who will honor and glorify Him.

The eternal activity of the saved in heaven as seen in the book of the Revelation is worship. When Jesus evangelized the sinful Samaritan woman at Sychar's well, He said something momentous:

John 4:23,24

23 ...the hour is coming, and now is, (the reference is to the special time of Christ's first advent) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (The Father sent the Son into the world to save those He had chosen for salvation. Not just to save them from His wrath, but as we see here to make worshipers.)

24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

They must worship in genuineness from their heart and according to His truth, revealed most of all in and through Jesus Christ. In who He is, and what He has done. All other worship falls short, and is not acceptable.

We can only come to God through Jesus Christ, and no other. Our worship is only acceptable to God as it is in the prescribed approach. That approach is in Jesus name, in the authority and the adequacy of the One who died and rose again, to bring unworthy sinners to a holy God.

Going back to around 1000 BC, we see God's directive to thanksgiving and praise in Psalm 100, in 5 short verses and a superscription (title).

Psalm 100 (Salvation from sin - remember it's all about worship - compare John 4:23,24)

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!

2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

What a wonderful Psalm! There are seven imperative verbs in these five short verses. They are commands to us from God. We must do these things.

Make a joyful shout to the LORD.

Serve the LORD with gladness.

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the LORD, He is God.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name

Two of these commands have something to do with the cognitive, with thinking, knowing something about the LORD (verse 3), and being thankful to Him (verse 4, you have to ponder what the LORD has done to be thankful). But even these two don't stop there, they are not just to be in the mind, because all seven commands involve action and involvement with the LORD in worship by the obedient believer.

I want you to look a little closer at these seven verbs, at what they really mean.

TO MAKE, comes from an ancient root, "to put." Put out a joyful shout to the LORD.

In our English translations the object of the shout is always capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That always conveys that the original is "YHWH," Yahweh. The covenant making God. The Jews disguised this word as Jehova, Yah-ho-way-ah, the great I AM that I AM.

Ultimately this covenant making and keeping God is Jesus. In John 8:58, He said: "Before Abraham was, I AM." He meant I am the great I AM! I am Yahweh! Jesus is Jehova. The Old Testament believers didn't know His human name, "Jesus, of Nazareth," but they knew by prophecy that He, the great Deliverer was coming, and that"s who they worshiped. So this Psalm can be applied to today"s Christian.

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, Jesus - and notice this, ALL YOU LANDS. This command and invitation to salvation which means to become a true worshiper, is to all - to all that the Lord our God shall call. Praise God His salvation in one sense, extends to all races of mankind, who will hear and respond.

We see in Revelation 5:9, some form "every tribe and tongue and people and nation (race)." in heaven praising Him for what He has done through His death and resurrection.

Then in verse 2, there is the command TO SERVE with gladness. The Hebrew word is always used toward God. The basic thought here is not to work for the LORD, but service in the sense of worshiping Him. Hence we call our worship times "services." Serve Him in worship with gladness, from the heart (in spirit and in truth).

Hence, we have the next command, in verse 2, TO COME. "Come before His presence with singing." The word (come) means to go in to or enter in, this verb connotes movement in space from one place toward another. Enter into the realization of His presence. In August, our Chaplain's Corner dealt with the omnipresence of God. Yes, He is always present, BUT our plight is that we do not always realize it.

So the command is to come to that realization with gladness and singing. According to the Psalms, the singing of praise should be about salvation, and with a loud voice. There are 63 references in the Psalms to God's salvation. Especially note Psalm 96:2 and Psalm 98:4.

Ps. 96:2 "Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day."

Ps. 98:4 "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise." (KJV)

And then in Psalm 100:3, there is the cognitive TO KNOW. Know something about the LORD. Know something about the God who alone is to be worshiped.

"Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture."

The word means to know by observing and reflecting (thinking). Worshipers are to know that the covenant making God, the I AM that I AM God, the eternally existent One, is the only God. They are to know that this is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the God who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, and yet one with Jesus.

In addition to the essentially cognitive knowing already presented, in the Hebrew this verb has a purely experiential side. We are to also know Him by experience. The "knower" has actual involvement with and in the object of the knowing. So we are to have interaction and relationship with Jesus Christ, the great I AM. He is God and we are to know that. We're to know that He is our Creator. It is He who made us and not we ourselves.

When we forget God, we tend to think all that we are depends on us, and we enter in to Satan's sin of pride that refused to praise and thank and worship God. He said of himself "I will be like the Most High." No, the truth is we are truly dependant on Him who alone is our Maker, as sheep are of their shepherd. We are to experience these things as well as think about them.

Then in verse 4 - we are TO ENTER (same word as "to come" in verse 2) His worship (His gates and courts) "with thanksgiving." Giving of thanks and praise are often linked in Scripture.

Then still in verse 4, finally the verbs "BE THANKFUL to Him and BLESS His name." As I said earlier, there is a thought process to this, but it must not stop there in the mind, it must come out of the mouth. The popular Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll recently said on one of his radio programs: "Thanksgiving is not thanksgiving unless you GIVE IT. You have to give thanksgiving or it isn't thanksgiving." That was well said.

We are to tell Him we are thankful. We are to loudly bless His name so that others can hear it. We are to be thankful for His goodness, "For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." (Psalm 100:5). Like Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22,23 "Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

"His truth endures to all generations." It never grows old and cannot be amended or replaced by a better idea.

I would like to suggest four New Testament passages to consider, and even post for the inmates and residents to see. Especially to remind the true believers among them to ever be thankful to Jesus Christ for His grace and mercy.

2 Cor 8:9,

"...you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

An extension of that same thought and passage says in

2 Cor. 9:15,

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (The gift of a Redeemer and a Savior)

1 Peter 2:9,

"But you (true believers in contrast to disobedient people that reject Jesus Christ) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, so that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;"

Possibly the best verse to sum up this whole attitude of constant worship is

Hebrews 13:15,

"Therefore (because of what Jesus has done for the true believer) by Him (Jesus) let us CONTINUALLY offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

So challenge your flock chaplain with these two questions. Are they truly thankful in any situation, and are they thankful to Jesus Christ? If they are truly thankful to Him, and in and through Him to God the Father, then they will know no matter what their current circumstance is, that they are on the right side of salvation.

To illustrate what I'm saying, I want to relate something that recently happened here in Bradenton, Florida. A friend of mine visited some poor Christian people with a gift that will relive some of their suffering. They were so humble as they received it and gave their thanks for it. They were not feeling they deserved it. They didn't feel they had a right to demand it. As he gave it, their response was "Gee, all this and heaven too! Praise the Lord" What an example.

My prayer in all this is that you and I and your inmates and residents would be truly thankful, praise giving people.

Rev. Rich Hines,

Minister To Chaplains

Aurora Ministries