Tag: Reflections

Unbelief’s Heart of Stone

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”  27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”  28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”  John 9:26-29 NIV      

        

A  blind man healed by Jesus was cast out of the temple because he attested to the fact that Jesus healed him. These very words riled the religious leaders:   ” Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind” (John 9:32).   

The Pharisees would not accept the miracle even though he was staring them in their faces with eyes that were blind from birth but now are able to see.  They had hearts of stone, fixed, immovable, unpersuadable; they had hearts of unbelief.

What is unbelief?  Dr. Lloyd-Jones expounds upon it as a power that controls and manipulates men, a state and a condition that leads to wrath.  The Pharisees were so filled with indignation at the testimony of the man who was healed by Jesus that they cast him out.  There were other accounts of this consuming animosity, including one time when the Pharisees were so enraged at Jesus that they took Him to the brow of the hill in order to throw him down the cliff.

Unbelief  is a power based on prejudice.  Here was the undeniable evidence of the miracle healing power of Jesus, but the Pharisees would not acknowledge it.  They came up with reasons, from saying that Jesus was “merely” the son of Joseph the carpenter,  to the accusation  that Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath.

It can be argued by persons who reject the message of the Gospel, that it is a matter of intellect; they would say that they cannot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because their understanding won’t allow them to do so, that they would be committing intellectual suicide if they did.  Not so, says Dr. Lloyd-Jones.  It is not a matter of intellect, it’s a matter of prejudice.  This is his argument:

” If the possession of intellect and understanding and the capacity for reason makes it impossible for men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, well then I can say that no man of intellect has ever been a Christian. But the fact is of course that some of the mightiest intellects that the world has ever known have been great Christians and saints adorning the life of the church.”

“Christ and the Gospel and the way of salvation that were able to satisfy the intellect of Paul and Augustine, of Luther, Calvin, Knox, Whitfield and a whole lot of other intellectual giants is at least worthy of your careful and serious consideration”.

The other element of unbelief is pride.  What is holding people back from believing the Gospel message is that they are concerned about themselves, their standing and reputation.  It is intellectual pride and fear that the rest of the unbelieving world would call them fanatical, that they have “lost their capacity for reason”.

Pride and prejudice are the pillars of unbelief.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes that unbelief is a tragedy.  It blinds us to God’s most glorious blessings in time and eternity: His gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ Who came into this world to preach the gospel to the poor:  the poor in spirit, the down and out and the broken, the lost whom nobody else could help because they have made such a mess of their lives; He came to bind the broken-hearted, to give them beauty for ashes, to open prison doors, to deliver people from their sins and the many things that ruin people’s lives.

Unbelief makes one hate and revile the Son of God, much like the Pharisees when, face to face with Jesus, they had so much loathing and abhorrence for Him,  that they were blind to His glory and majesty and they rejected Him, accused Him wrongfully, and put Him to death on the cross.

The good news is that hearts of stone can be transformed to hearts of flesh, as in the conversion of the apostle Paul’s stony heart to a heart of love; from breathing out murderous threats against Christ’s followers, to preaching the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

Originally posted 2012-02-05 00:50:50.

November the Penultimate


November the Penultimate

Never was a month so motley in its days:
November, penultimate month
of a year that frames the seasons,
when leaves in early days
turn to brightest garnet,
blazing topaz,
illuminated gold —

the latter days arrive
with the fire of the winds,
and the burning leaves take the plunge
from infernal towers of the branches
to the burial grounds of a gun-
metal, brumal earth —

November, November,
calves ache from the marathon,
hearts pound the door
to another December

when holly berries huddle upon the petals
of the soft-spoken snow,
and the fallen leaves breathe again
at the sound of the carols of the children,
the children rejoicing.

D. G. Vachal © 2013

Photography Credit: November’s Decline by Bucaneve

Momentary Blooms

Momentary Blooms

Are there memories
senseless
to logical sentiments,
written off as never-
happenstance hypotheses
by mountain goat-bearded
wise sages —

why then
do rainbow whirlwinds
hover over peripheries
of my befuddled mind,
radiate
in the recessive
penumbra
of my tranquil heart —

thoughts of loves
long forgotten
momentarily bloom
like purple
crocus petals
on the frigid soil
of weather-beaten
March gardens —

why then
do they disappear
in April.

D. G. Vachal © 2025

Image by Couleur @Pixabay

Emeralds and Sand


Emeralds and Sand

Upon the sand will I not build my house
for when rains descend and floods overflow,
the winds will howl and beat upon its walls
and it will crumble, great will be its fall

I need no chandeliers, nor porcelain
china, hand-painted with silver and gold,
no dinner dainties with a fattened ox,
content am I to dine on herbs with love.

I seek a shelter strong with warmth and light
where rains and winds and floods can’t topple down
and love burns bright in apple wood hearth fires
and nightingale songs fill the evening air —-

Upon solid rock will I build my house,
there will I find emeralds and rubies.

D. G. Vachal © 2024

Teach Me to Number My Days

Teach Me to Number My Days

Teach me to number my days
the way You number
the hairs on my head,
the way You are mindful
of petals and sparrows
as they fall with the leaves
in the mist of autumn rain —

was it only this morning
when my hair was in pigtails,
as I dressed my dolls
in pink dresses,
dreamt of a fairytale prince 
upon a white stallion
awaiting to take me to a castle
hidden in emerald forests —

towards noon
when I felt butterflies 
fluttering in clandestine chambers 
of my youthful heart,
I met my first love
and time was suspended,
drowned in ivory clouds
and endless blue oceans —

i can still feel the afternoon warmth
when the children came
and their laughter mingled
with the melody of songbirds,
the hum of restless cicadas —

at sunset my love and I
rowed the silent rivers,
built a bonfire upon the sand,
held each other’s hand
for warmth —

and now at twilight
wrapped in the lavender glow,
i treasure the dwindling vestiges
of tender moments,
the faint beloved
song that will remain
when evening falls.

O teach me to number my days.

D. G. Vachal @ 2024

Image by Liuksena @ Pixabay