It was quite a chilly morning as we stepped back out of the ‘bunk house’ and walked toward the pick-up truck to head out into the hills that day.
October in the Chilcotin is cool and crisp and when there’s a little frost at night the trees glisten like hundreds of candled Christmas trees as the rays of sunlight come streaming through the forest. I had to smile to myself just a little as I thought how loggers are supposed to be so tough, and that only sissies and tourists are supposed to enjoy beautiful scenery.
George and my cousin Randy and I had been cutting trees for the local mill (actually it was Randy’s mill) and that day was especially exciting to me as I had run across a gorgeous clear ‘yellow cedar’ without knots, that I had a special plan for. This was fir country and this ‘cedar’ was a long way from home. I was some excited to discover it the day before.
It was common knowledge that our pastor was in need of a new pulpit as the old one had been pounded so much that it was developing a strange lean to it. Both the pastor and the pulpit leaned to the same side so you never really knew if you were sitting up straight or not. Something had to be done as some of the people were staring to complain of having a sore back.
I began to realize that there was no point in rebuking the devil for something that could be fixed by some ‘good ole’ common sense. I myself was tired of tipping my head to one side so took it upon myself to rectify the situation. “New pulpit,” I said. Said it to myself that is. Not everything has to go through the church board.
So as we drove into the hills that bright October day I had a special feeling of being personally involved with at least one of the trees I was going to fall that day.
As all the logs were loaded out and were slowly pulled off the mountain, it was hard to tell which one was special and I alone knew that one of the logs on that truck had a bright and eventful future, as it was going to be ‘in the ministry’.
A new, brightly varnished pulpit, for our pastor, in our little country church.
All that needed to be done now was to have this special log cut into special dimensions, have a skilled craftsman fashion it together… contrasting the glowing red fir (not too gaudy) with the warm yellow cedar. A nice conservative pulpit for a nice conservative preacher (only a joke); yellow cedar with rich red fir trim. Right on!
So in a few short weeks our pastor will be so blessed to have a beautiful desk to stand beside to bless his people with the ‘word of God’.
Be patient with me please, as I go along, dreaming of how splendid this piece of work will be. I think that God–our creator–must be like this. Planning our lives ahead of us. Philippians 2:13 “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
I’ve been thinking about this pulpit for some time now. A place on the top for drinking water; maybe some flowers; also a drawer for pencils or whatever. A small lip to keep Bible and notes from slipping off. Alright already. Enough already.
So here we go to church this one Sunday morning and… hey… new pulpit!
Do we see a tree here? No way. This is not seen or even thought of as being a tree. There are no branches, no leaves, no nests, no bark, knots or pitch.
We never gave it a thought–that this was once a tree. And if someone even suggested “what a lovely tree” you’d really wonder what ‘tree’ they had fallen out of. This is a pulpit… no doubt about it. Beautifully constructed, sanded and varnished; with our smiling, shining pastor standing erect, ready to bring us ‘the word’.
This is a pulpit, no doubt about that! And we are also a ‘new creation’ in Christ, no doubt about that!
This pulpit is still wood but no longer considered to be a tree. We are still human but should no longer be considered ‘sinner’. Not by nature. Not since we have been given a new nature. II Peter 1:3-4 “according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…”
Man was created by God, in the image of God. He was like God; and then fell. At that point his nature was changed to a different nature. He took on the sinful nature of Satan himself and needed not to change his mind but to change his nature.
Most houses are made of wood. Now if you stood on the outskirts of town and looked this way: forest. Then you turned and looked this way: house. Is there a difference? But because we can’t see into the spirit we don’t see change. We look at a sinner and we think: sinner. We look at a Christian and we think: sinner. We don’t see a change on the outside so we don’t see that there has even been one. Believe me (believe the Bible) there has been one.
Having our wrong nature (Adam’s) changed back into a right nature (Jesus’) is at least as different as a pulpit is from a tree. II Corinthians 5:17-18 “therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new and all things are of God… ” Read right through to the end of the chapter. We can plainly see here that as surely as Jesus was made ‘to be’ sin, we have been made ‘to be’ righteous.
How was I made right by not doing right? Well let me ask you this. How was Jesus made wrong by not doing wrong?
I was born wrong–in Adam; and then was born again (right) in Jesus.
Jesus did no sin but received my nature (sin) that I might receive His nature (righteous).
How was this pulpit made into a pulpit? Easy: by a carpenter. Did this house just up and decide one day that it got tired of being a tree… standing in the cold and heat, day and night, with bugs and woodpeckers boring holes in it? No; the carpenter made the decision and it was he who made the house. It was he who made the pulpit. It was He who made us.
God made you and I. If we’ve been born again we’ve been born from above; born of His Spirit. Quickened and made alive. Not healed; raised.
We need to begin to see ourselves this way. The way our father in heaven sees us. Not to judge others ‘after the flesh’ or to even judge ourselves ‘after the flesh’, but to see things in the spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” John 3:6-7
