The Story Behind ‘From Mason To Minister: Through the Lattice’

From Mason To Minister: Through the Lattice is an autobiography at heart. It is about one man’s lonely journey in his quest to find the meaning of life. Therefore, in some ways it’s a journal. As I began writing down some of the events that led me to my present place in life I began to see that I had a rather interesting life story. I have lived in Scotland, Canada, and Australia. These places seem exotic to those who have never lived there. I could see that even just with that I could have an interesting book. However, it was when I started adding it all together that I began to see that it was more about the invisible leading of God than the haphazard journeys of a young adventurer. So, God was the inspiration for my book!

The Through the Lattice part of the title has to do with a verse of Scripture: “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall; He is looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice” Song of Solomon 2:8-9. Along the way on my journey, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was catching glimpses of God through the lattice as He watched me through the lattice. The Bible says that God is reflected in the things He has made (Psalm 19; Romans 1). In my search for God I was actually catching glimpses of Him at every turn.  He was like that elusive highland stag on a Scottish mountain…

When we were growing up people would refer to God as “the man upstairs.” The school I attended as a kid was next door to a church. There were dormer-like windows on its steeple. We thought that God was upstairs watching us through those windows! (A friend of mine actually wrote a poem about this very thing!) At times we were sure that we saw someone looking out the window at us! Anyway, the fertile imagination of my young mind has stayed with me now that I’m much older.

The idea of God looking at us through the lattice was very inspirational to me. I entered into Freemasonry where the Omnipresence of God is spoken of as “the all-seeing eye”, like that depicted on an American one dollar bill. Some people don’t like the idea of God watching them, while others, find it a reassuring comfort. My trouble was that I had begun to wonder who God was. Was he some old guy with a long white beard that lived up in a church steeple? Who is God? That’s what inspired me to write From Mason To Minister: Through the Lattice. I want to tell people about God, about how He can be seen in the things He has made. As strong as an ox, as graceful as a gazelle, as gentle as dove, as wise as an owl, I’m sure you’re getting the picture. All of God’s creation reflects something of God. I found this to be amazing and I wanted to tell others.

In Freemasonry I learned a lot about symbolism, how certain objects and ideas can be used to illustrate other things. At theological college I learned about typology, how certain themes and principles are played out or contained in the Bible. For example, David slaying Goliath is also a picture of Christ tying up the strongman, i.e., Satan. Solomon and his Temple is a picture of Christ and His Kingdom. All the Old Testament sacrifices and the shedding of animals’ blood pointed to THE sacrifice and the shedding of Christ blood to take away our sins. The list of Old Testament types and New Testament anti-types is almost endless. I wanted to share a lot of these in my book.

So, in summary and in conclusion, I was inspired to write my book because I was just bursting to tell others about God in Jesus Christ and how God can be seen in the things He has made. However, my book is peppered with Biblical references because it was in the pages of the Bible (the Masonic Lodge had presented me) that I found the One to which everything in creation and in Scripture points, i.e., Jesus Christ.

(Read the original article at):   http://thestorybehindthebook.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/the-story-behind-from-mason-to-minister-through-the-lattice/

Purchase From mason To Minister at: http://www.nordskogpublishing.com/book-through-the-lattice.shtml

GROWTH!

Growth

Christianity is not an armchair religion from which we pontificate about the rest of humanity’s poor performance. Rather it is about rolling up your sleeves and loving God and your neighbour as yourself. This is your way of showing thanks to God for forgiving you your own poor performance. However, slavish commandment-keeping is for slaves. Christians are free, having been freed forever from God’s condemnation. The freedom comes with knowing that God knows you fail to measure up to His perfect standard. That is why He sent us a perfect Saviour who kept God’s Commandments as our representative and died to pay the price we owe for our breaking of His Commandments! This is what believers’ believe. This is the good soil into which we, as new shoots, have been planted.

The great Gardener talks to His plants as He feeds and waters them. Christians are to, ‘be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves’ James 1:22. Notice that the Christian is not to make it up as he/she goes along. First he/she is to hear the Word (i.e., understand, heed and apply what the Bible teaches), then he/she is to practice it. The whole Bible teaches us about God’s grace being extended to undeserving sinners, i.e., a humanity that keeps on breaking every one of the Ten Commandments. However, the Bible’s emphasis is on God’s grace! Grace is the sunshine in which Christians grow.

What does God’s grace have to do with growth? The Christian is to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ 2 Peter 3:18. To grow in grace is first to learn what grace is and secondly to practice it. What is grace? Grace is God giving you what you do not deserve while not giving what you do deserve. Without God grace is nigh impossible for human beings to begin to understand. Thus growth for the Christian begins when the meaning of God’s grace begins to sink into the heart and waters the good soil into which God has planted the seed of His Word. This is where the knowledge of Jesus Christ comes in.

Who is Jesus? Jesus Christ is God’s gift. He is God’s grace to fallen humanity. He is the Light of the World that is sitting in darkness. We remain in darkness without Him. We wither and die on the vine without him. We become straw and stubble without Him. If we are to be saved from the great bonfire on the Last Day we need to understand who He is and what He has done for us. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. He is the ideal mediator, being God and man in one divine Person forever. Our sin separates us from God. If we are not reconciled with God we remain separated from Him forever in Hell. However, God and mankind have been united, reunited, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus kept God’s Commandments perfectly as representative of those He is saving. God poured out His judgment on Him instead of those whom He represents. He represents, i.e., He is the Saviour of all who believe in Him alone for salvation.

New Testament believers are grafted into the same tree as Old Testament believers (Romans 11:16-24). All believers are to grow and to bear fruit. Jesus says, ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.’ John 15:1-2,5-6.

HOME IS HEAVEN

Home Is Heaven

It is certainly true for the Christian that home is where the heart is.: Heaven! Whenever a Christian dies someone is sure to say that they have ‘gone home to be with the Lord.’ Perhaps the most famous ‘going home’ story in the Bible is the ‘Prodigal Son’ parable. After squandering everything he had in a life of debauchery he returned to his father’s house with a penitent heart. Even though he had turned his back on him his father welcomed him home. The picture here is, of course, that all humanity (which includes you) has turned its collective back on God and lives life as it sees fit. However, there are many who hear the Gospel and by the grace of God repent and return to the Father’s house. Jesus says, ‘In My Father’s house there are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go there to prepare a place for you.’ John 14:2. Jesus had Himself slaughtered at a Roman abattoir to prepare a place for each one of His people. He raised Himself from the dead and ascended into Heaven to go and prepare a place for them.

Scripture says that God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that those who repent and believe in the Gospel will spend eternity with God in Jesus Christ (Mark 1:15; John 3:16). But where exactly is the house with many mansions? Where is home for the Christian? First, God converts the individual, i.e., causes them to be born again, born spiritually, enabled to see and to enter His kingdom (John 3:3-8). Second, when the Christian dies he or she temporarily departs his or her body and goes to be with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:21-24). This temporary period is the ‘Intermediate State.’ Some mistake this as Heaven for Christians and Hell for God-rejecters, forgetting about the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15:13). The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus speaks of the ‘Intermediate State.’ ‘Then he [i.e., the Rich Man] cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” But Abraham said, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.”’ Luke 16:24-26. Third, the Lord returns to earth and the graves give up their dead, i.e., all humanity is resurrected on the Last Day which is Judgment Day (John 6:39; 12:48; Acts 17:31; Revelation 20:11-15). This means that the souls in Heaven and in Hell regain their bodies (albeit raised with different qualities, 1 Corinthians 15:39-45). The question arises at this point: If there are people in Heaven and Hell before Judgment Day, then what is Judgment Day? It is the day when God makes His face shine grace upon believers while His justice pours consuming fire upon unbelievers (Revelation 21:6-8). Jesus says, ‘Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.’ John 5:28-29. Fourth and finally, the house of ‘many mansions’ is on the new earth (Revelation 20:1).  This is the eternal home of resurrected Christians. This is where the heart is. This is Heaven.

‘But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.’ Matthew 6:33.

 

THE COVENANT OF WORKS

The Westminster documents (i.e., the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Sum of Saving Knowledge, etc.) refer to the everlasting Covenant as it applies to Adam (and mankind as represented by him) as the Covenant of Works (or Life). In this pre-Fall administration of the eternal Covenant God graciously condescends to enter into this Covenant of Works (with the promise of life) with Adam.

Upon Adam’s creation God has written His Covenant Law (or Ten Commandments) on Adam’s (and therefore mankind’s) heart in positive terms (Romans 2:14-15). The outward test of this probationary Covenant with Adam was that Adam was not to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for disobedience was death, i.e., “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die” Genesis 2:17.

To be sure there was grace in abundance involved in this Covenant of Works (in which was the threat of death for disobedience and, conversely, the promise of life). God laid on everything in a beautiful garden for Adam, gave him a wife and gave dominion over all creatures of the air, land and sea. We call this the Cultural Mandate, (sometimes referred to as the Dominion Mandate), “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” Genesis 2:28.

As Scripture attests, Adam, of course, broke the Covenant of Works, e.g., “Like Adam, they have broken the covenant” Hosea 6:7 (NIV). By breaking the Covenant of Works Adam forfeited eternal life (but not his everlasting existence). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23. Thus, had Adam kept the Covenant of Works, then Adam (and mankind with him) would have received the eternal life that we now have in Jesus Christ who is “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45).

As God’s replacement-Adam, Jesus Christ kept the Covenant to Works perfectly on behalf of all who the Father has given Him (John 17:12) and received the promised reward (which was life). Therefore when Adam was threatened with death upon breaking his Covenant probation, he was conversely promised life – the eternal life that we receive from Jesus Christ.

Had Adam kept the pre-Fall covenant he would not simply have kept on living as he had been living before he broke the covenant. Thus had Adam not broken the covenant he would have received the bliss and blessings that we have in Jesus Christ, e.g., “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ” Ephesians 1:3.

The Land flowing with Milk and Honey was merely a token of the bliss and blessings that we have in our new Adam, Jesus Christ. For the covenant promise made to Abraham, the father of believers, was the whole cosmos. E.g., “For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” Romans 4:13.

Adam, by breaking the Covenant, disqualified mankind from receiving eternal life (i.e., everlasting bliss and blessings) by keeping God’s Covenant Law. However, Jesus Christ is without sin and as such is able to keep the Covenant of Works (and thus receive the life promised in that covenant). Scripture says, “Do this and live,” e.g., “The man who does them shall live by them” Galatians 3:12.

Jesus Christ kept every jot and tittle of God’s Covenant Law perfectly on behalf of those whom the Father has chosen (i.e., had elected before the foundation of the world) to give Him. Jesus by His death on the cross some two thousand years ago has redeemed them from God’s justice. He has purchased their redemption from death and Hell. God raised Him from the dead as proof of our redemption. Jesus “was raised because of our justification” Romans 4:25.

Yes, God was kind and gracious to enter into a Covenant of Works (with the promise of everlasting life upon probationary fulfilment) with Adam as our pre-Fall representative. However, He was even more kind and gracious to enter into a Covenant of Grace with Jesus Christ as our post-Fall representative. Thus the Covenant of Works that condemns us became a Covenant of Grace in which Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Covenant of Works, and paid the (death) penalty we owed for breaking it.

Jesus is the new Man. It was as a Man that He kept every jot and tittle of God’s Covenant Law. We are saved by His Law-keeping. Therefore it was as a Man that Jesus Christ, the new Adam or Federal or Covenant Head of mankind, saved us.

BEAUTY

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ is a well-known way of saying that beauty can be subjective. As I pondered this aphorism I began to wonder if the other four senses could be included with the eye. A piece of music can be beautiful to the ear, food to the taste, perfume to the nose, and silk to the touch. So, why just the eye? Before we try to answer let us consider the nature of beauty. Let us just say that beauty is something that excites the senses. Perhaps a truly beautiful meal is one that excites all five senses? When a gifted chef prepares a dish he/she considers how it looks as well as how it smells and tastes and also how it is going to feel to the tongue. Do top chefs take sound into consideration? Crispy lettuce, crunchy nuts and squeaky green beans spring to mind. We are sensual beings. A fresh red apple excites all my senses all at once. Beautiful!

‘So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.’ Genesis 3:6. We do not know what kind of fruit it was but what Eve fed to her husband was edible, beautiful and desirable. However, more importantly, it was forbidden. The gratification sought after by eating this meal was wisdom, but, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.’ Proverbs 9:10.

The LORD God could have as easily drawn a line in the sand and told Adam and Eve not to cross it as an outward test of the covenant He had made with mankind, (Adam being our representative). However, He chose the fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as the outward test of their covenant faithfulness to Him. There may be some truth to the old adage, ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’ The Serpent seemed to think so. He seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit but Adam knew exactly what he was doing when he ate (1 Timothy 2:14). However, notice what the Scripture says, ‘Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.’ Genesis 3:7. Yes, their eyes were opened. However, darkness not light poured in. Jesus says, ‘But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.’ Matthew 6:23. Thus the sensible became sensual. The eye of the beholder became untrustworthy, unable properly to distinguish good from evil, unable properly to discern the beauty of holiness from the ugliness of sin.

Is beauty really only what the beholder’s eye decides it is? Is the beholder able, for example, to distinguish between love and lust? When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they wanted to be the ones to determine what was good and evil without God’s interference. It was then that mankind’s eye of discernment grew a cataract resulting in our collective spiritual blindness. ‘But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.’ 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Only a mature Christian is equipped to truly appreciate beauty in God’s creation. God’s Word is likened to good food. ‘But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.’ Hebrews 5:14. We need God to renew us before we will be able properly to discern and really appreciate beauty in all five of our senses, for He made us. And, ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’ Ecclesiastes 3:11a. ‘Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good’ Psalm 34:8a. And may you give thanks to Him whenever your eye beholds beauty!

CHRISTMAS

Christmas

It may seem redundant to say that Christmas is about Christ. However, surely in a consumerist society we need to be reminded of this annually. Christians have the Secularists agreeing with them that Christ is the reason for the season, for, after having had some success they now wish completely to remove Christ from Christmas. Why? because they have no room for Jesus in the type of society they envisage. However, this is nothing new. Christ is used to being shunned.

Joseph and Mary, when she was just about to give birth to Jesus, were turned away from an inn because there was no room for them (Luke 2:7). Therefore, Jesus was shunned even on the very first Christmas. Indeed, lots of people had no room for Jesus, ‘He is rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him’ Isaiah 53:3. And, ‘He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him’ John 1:11. Why all this rejection at His birth and at His death? Well, this is where the Gospel comes in.

The Gospel is the good news that God has reconciled mankind to Himself through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God (the Middle Person of the Trinity) in the flesh (John 1:1-2; Matthew 28:19). He is the Mediator between God and men (1Timothy 2:5). Now, if we need to be reconciled to God and if we need a mediator then this must mean that we are having a dispute with God. It must mean that we have no room for Him. Having no room for God began in the Garden with our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. They exercised their free will and decided that they wanted to live in a state exactly as that sought after by today’s Secularists. They, and all mankind after them, wish to live their lives without any interference from God (Romans 3:11-12; 5:12f.). Therefore, is it any wonder that God in the flesh, i.e., Jesus, is rejected? God became a social outcast in the Garden. He became a social outcast when Israel rejected Him over and over throughout the Old Testament years. In the flesh He became a social outcast on the very first Christmas Day. Indeed, He was a social outcast as He hung dying on a cross, ‘But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people’ Psalm 22:6. Yet many, who perhaps would not ordinarily, awaken on Christmas morning in Western societies and take the time to consider the plight of social outcasts and even desire to give them food and clothing. Christmas has that effect on some people!

The Hebrews became a nation under Jacob when Joseph enabled his family to enter Egypt to live there (Genesis 42). In Egypt Israel settled in Goshen (Genesis 46:34). Why Goshen? The Hebrews were shepherds, and, ‘Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians’ Genesis 46:34b. Why Israel’s fixation with sheep? It was because of the Old Testament sacrificial system. It prefigured the shedding of Christ’s blood as, ‘The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). On the day of His birth Jesus, the Lamb of God, was visited by shepherds (Luke 2:15-17). Afterwards, Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod who wished to murder Jesus (Matthew 2:14-15). The baby Jesus, ‘that great Shepherd of the sheep’ (Hebrews 13:20) was rejected by King Herod on the very first Christmas Day. He is rejected by many today. Do you have any room for Jesus in your world this Christmas?

KILLING JESUS - A History

Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have done it again! Killing Jesus is right on par with their two other bestselling page-turners, viz., Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy.

As a Christian (Presbyterian and Reformed) I was a wee bit apprehensive while reading Killing Jesus. I wondered how O’Reilly and Dugard were going to handle such an emotive subject as the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I need not have worried. They did a fine job.

The Baptist will be happy that in Killing Jesus Jesus is dunked under water by John the Baptizer and the Roman Catholic will be pleased that Jesus has retained His long hair as depicted in Roman Catholic iconography! However, unlike these old chestnuts, some other controversial issues were footnoted.   

As the title suggests, Killing Jesus – A History, is just that. Its focus is on the history rather than the theology pertaining to Jesus. However, it is impossible to separate the two because Jesus did everything according to the Scriptures and fulfilled the same. Therefore, readers who know the Scriptures may see the occasional question mark appear before their eyes.

Bottom line: Thank you Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard for taking the time to present your diligent research in such a readably interesting fashion. Your book would not leave me alone until I had devoured it!