July 13 - He Who Promised is Faithful

 Read today’s texts first: Isaiah 15-18; Hebrews 10

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Most of God’s promises are better understood
from an eternal perspective. 

A recent chapel at Buchanan focused on this passage:  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful (10:23). There are more than 8,800 promises in the Bible, 85% of them from God to His people. But they can be confusing. When you are addressing seniors who are suffering from various chronic physical and mental conditions, your context must extend beyond this very temporary life on earth. Most of God’s promises are better understood from an eternal perspective (Heb. 11:13-16).

While I was reading through these passages and reflecting on that recent chapel, Jan was having her own church service via TV. She was listening to a popular prosperity teacher who bragged about God using him even though he had no seminary training, and then promptly took some promises of healing out of context. Maybe a course or two on hermeneutics might have helped him, his congregation, and TV audience avoid a sense of spiritual disillusionment the next time they experience a season of suffering.

During that chapel service we sang two classic hymns with very different back stories. The first was written by Kelso Carter, the epitome of real success. He could do it all: excellent student, star athlete, coach, teacher, pastor, musician, song writer, and medical doctor. His biggest challenge was an incurable heart condition, but after memorizing and quoting God’s promises on healing he was dramatically healed. His song “Standing on the Promises” came out of that miracle.

The other hymn was written by Thomas Chisholm, a very ordinary man born in a humble log cabin in the back woods of Kentucky. He too tried ministry as a career, but lasted only a year. He suffered from a chronic illness his entire life, selling insurance when he could to barely survive financially. Most of his senior years were spent in a nursing home in New Jersey. Among the few songs he wrote was one of my favourite hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”

“Lord, I will hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful, to sustain us during this temporary testing ground on earth and on to our promised destination in the life to come.”