LAM 141-147: 7 Persons who do not Understand Lamentations
“Let us search and examine our ways that we may return to the Lord!” (Lam 3:40)
Lamentations is not easy to understand. The book of Lamentations is challenging and, without proper understanding, can be depressing. One problem in all this is that our thoughts and ways are so far from God’s (Is 55:8-9). Thus, even as His commands to us are often plain and simple, we easily misunderstand, and thus go astray. Many Christians do not actually have the mind of Christ.
This year, at the start of our next 25 years, God has brought us to Lamentations, pointing us to our covenant. For us in CFC, the reasons why God brought us to Lamentations for 2007 can be totally missed. Indeed, God’s ways and consequently the lessons of Lamentations are profound. Many do not understand or see what God is doing. This is entirely our fault.
We should examine ourselves to see if we are any of 7 types of people who do not grasp what Lamentations is all about. Perhaps we can then understand why we do not understand.
Lamentations 141 – The Guiltless One
There are those who say they are blameless and so have no part in the collective guilt of CFC and so have no need to repent. Lamentations for them is totally irrelevant.
But “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We all fall short of God’s call to holiness and perfection. “Can a man be righteous as against God? Can a mortal be blameless against his Maker?” (Job 4:17). Compared to a holy and perfect God, who calls us to be holy as He is holy, any infidelity we have is an abomination.
Besides, who among us has been perfectly faithful to our covenant in CFC? In the light of God’s intent to continue using CFC powerfully for His own purposes in the world, our infidelity adversely affects our mission, and thus thwarts the fullness of God’s plan.
Lamentations 142 – The Stiff-necked One
There are those who, despite the call to repentance and fully living out the covenant, persist in their infidelity.
While there are few (we hope) CFC members who are into overt, serious, unrepented wrongdoing like murder, rape and the like, there are many who are into sin nevertheless, including works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) and unfaithfulness to our covenant. They may think their sin is not that serious, that it will not really matter that much in the overall life and mission of CFC. They would be wrong. Any infidelity, no matter how small, helps to clog the full flow of power from the Spirit. And if many have many infidelities, this starts to choke the flow. And of course, the time may come when the flow is totally blocked.
Could CFC in fact have done so much more in the last 25 years? Yes, certainly, if we had been more faithful. But that is past, and we now face the future. Lamentations then is intended by God for CFC to precisely do so much more in the next 25 years. It all depends on the free and full flow of power from the Spirit, unclogged by any infidelity.
Lamentations 143 – The Impatient One
There are those who say let us get Lamentations over with and just move on, not pausing to learn the lessons God wants to teach.
These would even caricature Lamentations as being in sackcloth, putting ashes on our head, and just striking our breast. While Lamentations is indeed about repentance and returning fully to God, it is a cause for hope and joy.
Further, we do not stop the work we are doing so that we might instead go into Lamentations. It is not either-or. Rather, both happen simultaneously. We continue the work we are doing, and even intensify it. But at the same time, we enter into Lamentations. Lamentations can even be looked at as a lifestyle, since it is a posture before God, where we recognize our shortcomings, we repent, and we allow ourselves to be restored to Him. Until we are perfectly holy, which we will never be in our lifetime, Lamentations ought to be an integral part of our life of faith.
Lamentations 144 – The Shallow One
There are those who understand what repentance is, but who cannot appreciate the much deeper purpose of God in bringing us to Lamentations.
Repentance has been with us since we went through the CLP or the Youth Camp. We have been called to repentance every now and then, in our teachings, recollections and conferences. It has become such that at times it is just taken for granted. It is like going to confession for certain sins and then continuing to commit the same sins and then going to confession again, and the cycle just goes on and on.
But this point of transition between our first 25 years and our next 25 years is crucial. We are at the crossroad. God is fully with us, and wants to empower us even more for the work ahead. It is not just about repentance, but it is about our covenant and how God wants to impress its importance in our individual and communal lives, so that we might become even purer instruments for the awesome work ahead.
As such, it is important for God’s people, especially the elders, to talk about, reflect on, discuss and pray about what God is doing. Bringing issues into the light and surfacing the truth is crucial. The enemy works in darkness. The enemy uses gossip, slander and other forms of malicious speech, used behind people’s backs. The enemy wants us to just smooth things over, often justified for the sake of peace and unity, knowing that he can continue to inflict pain, mistrust, doubt, hurts, anger, division and the like, without his works being challenged because they are not brought into the light.
Lamentations 145 – The Comfortable One
There are those who have no problem professing to obey God, but cannot appreciate the need at times to be purified by fire, through trials and even persecution.
Lamentations is a great gift for restoration and renewal. It is also a fitting warning, that those favored by God, like His people Israel, can lose it all through infidelity. Thus, to lament is to have a posture by which we know more about the deeper purposes of God. Lamentations is especially effective when it is accompanied by pain and crosses in life. Job lamented and learned a lot, and ended up being doubly blessed. The beatitudes teach us about those who mourn and those who are persecuted, but who are blessed (Mt 5:3-12). Paul endured the burdens of his labors, which enabled him to boast of his weakness (2 Cor 11:23-30).
Our life is of God, our way is the way of Christ, and so we need to see things with God’s eyes. Trials, crosses and even persecutions are welcome. They purify us. They make us totally dependent on God. They help us learn the lessons of Lamentations.
Lamentations 146 – The Clueless One
There are those who do not understand the concept of command responsibility for collective guilt.
God calls us to individual holiness, but He also calls us to communal holiness. This is because we are the one body of Christ. If I am called to holiness, it cannot be my right side that is holy but my left side is not. If that were the case, Jesus tells us to cut off the part that causes sin and throw it away (Mt 18:7-9)! So as the one body of CFC, we all need to move forward in holiness. This is why we have our intense life together. Through our households, prayer assemblies, teachings, recollections, conferences, services, etc., God provides a support environment where we are able to help one another move forward in the Lord.
So we are one body. As CFC, the sin of one affects the whole body. Now when everyone in the body falls short of living out our covenant fully, then there needs to be repentance on behalf of the whole body. And there should be sufferance of consequences for sin, to satisfy the justice and righteousness of God. Some at the top then have taken this on. This is command responsibility for collective guilt.
This act actually is the key to arresting the slide into infidelity and preparing the way for the next 25 years. It is that turning point, that metanoia, that paves the way for everything else that is to follow. For CFC, it is at the core of our call to Lamentations. As such, it is a great blessing.
Lamentations 147 – The One on the Other Side
There are those who are the hecklers and attackers, taking advantage of the present confusion and instability to do the work of the enemy in trying to destroy CFC.
The evil one actually is scared of what God is doing. He knows how God has used CFC in the past 25 years, and he is apprehensive about how God will continue to use CFC in the next 25 years. He is going all out to thwart the plan of God. He is taking advantage of the current confusion and instability.
Our response is to be intently focused on Christ, and to understand that our work is all about evangelization and mission. Then we relate to one another as brethren, doing the one work of God, and moving in unity of heart and mind, with love and loyalty for each other. Finally, we need to learn the lessons of Lamentations. As we all do these, God will accomplish His plan in our lives and in the life and mission of CFC.
Are you any of these seven?
Ask the Lord to enlighten you.
Learn the lessons of Lamentations.
