Jesus faced an emotionally charged, spiritually potent, and physically impossible task. He stood before the grave of his good friend Lazarus. In the eyes of some he had come too late. Had he been there just a few days earlier he might have prevented this death. They had seen him heal, had witnessed the outpouring of compassion and power that rooted disease from its stronghold and set troubled bodies free. He could face down disease and win, but death, who could win over death?
Jesus loved Lazarus. He wept on his way to the tomb. Everyone saw it in his eyes, in the tears coursing down his face. He did not hide his emotions. He let them be just what God had created them to be, mini-revelators laying bare the depths of his heart.
The crowd was marked by diversity. The sisters were there, the real mourners, the ones whose hearts were broken by a loss they could not prevent. The mourners were there, the ones who spilled empty tears, paid to weep and wail but not to feel. The skeptics were there, posting their notes of disbelief on the hearts of any nearby listener. The stone was there, unreasoning, unmoving, a guard and an obstacle all at once.
And Lazarus was there. Dead. Four days decomposed. Smelly but not smelling.
We face occasions like this. Occasions of pain, difficulty, impossibility. Occasions that break the heart and try the soul. Occasions when dreams die, careers give up the ghost, hope fades. Occasions when we stand before an unmoving and unmovable obstacle and thinks to ourselves, "What do I do now?" Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave. A stone lay against it. A dead guy, his friend, was sealed away inside.
"Take away the stone," he said.
"But Lord, he stinketh," they said.
"Don't miss the glory of God," he said. Don't let the seeming impossibility and unpleasantness of the moment prevent you from seeing the glory of God at work. You see, Lazarus might be dead, but God ain't dead. Not then. Not now.
So they took away the stone.
Then, oh then, Jesus lifted up his eyes. And he said, "I thank you Father that you have heard me." He hadn't said anything yet. He knew that God knew the outcry of his heart. That was the nature of Christ's relationship with the Father: utter confidence that God the Father would know without error or need for explanation the desire of the Son's heart.
E.M. Bounds wrote in his classic little book The Reality of Prayer, "As it was with Christ, so ought we to be so perfect in faith, so skilled in praying, that we could lift our eyes to Heaven and say with Him, with deepest humility, and with commanding confidence, 'Father, I thank thee that thou has heard me.'"
What do you do when your heart is broken and the task at hand bears all the marks of the impossible? Do you lift up your eyes to heaven? Do you speak forth confidence in wisdom, insight, and power of God? Do you plead for life or surrender to death? Do you share with Christ an utter confidence that your Heavenly Father has already heard what only your heart has uttered?
"I knew that you always hear me," he said to his Father. Then he spoke to his friend, "Lazarus, come forth." Right confidence led to right action. I will lift up my eyes in faith. Will you?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
A Second Time (Hebrews 9:27-28)
A Second Time
Hebrews 9:27-28
I want to introduce you this morning to a simple but profound comparison that should change the way we live, the way we think, and the way we love while we walk in this world. Throughout this book of Hebrews it has been the Holy Spirit’s purpose to encourage and motivate God’s people to fall so deeply in love with Jesus Christ that we are removed farther and farther from the possibilities of spiritual drifting, practical indifference, nominal faith, and utter ruin that can easily beset of the unconcerned.
The Spirit has pointed out to us the superiority of Jesus over such spiritually exalted beings as angels and over such spiritually exalted persons as Moses and Joshua. Jesus provides a more effective sacrifice than the Old Testament Law, a more powerful ministry than the Old Testament priest, a more personal covenant than the Old Testament covenant. Not only does Jesus transform the nature of our relationship with God, through his sacrifice, our nature itself is changed as we trust in Christ. Our guilt is removed, our shame is healed, our conscience is cleansed and we are adopted, through faith in Jesus Christ, as God’s own sons and daughters.
Besides all this, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, permanently residing in the presence of the Father, offering himself as God’s reason to bestow grace and mercy and forgiveness and love upon weak and willful human beings. The ministry of Jesus that God loves and that God loves through is not merely a thing of the past, but a present reality through which each of us receives the fullest measure of God’s grace right now.
James reminds us in his New Testament letter that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) Every good and perfect gift comes from God and it comes through Jesus Christ by virtue of his superior sacrifice and ministry over the sacrifices and ministries under the Old Covenant. This is the fulfilment of Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God has made a way for us, in Jesus, to walk in this world with focus, victory, and hope, and I want to show you the way in these verses in Hebrews 9:27-28.
The comparison included in these verses is quite simple but incredibly profound. It is a comparison between you and Jesus, between Jesus Christ and all other human beings. The comparison is made with the words “just as” in verse 27 and the word “so” in verse 28. “Just as it is appointed to man” “so Christ.” There is the basis for the comparison. But let’s look at the three degrees of comparison in these verses and ask how so simple a comparison should so utterly change our lives. We’ll follow the form the Holy Spirit uses here in Hebrews: first we’ll talk about us, then we’ll talk about Jesus.
In setting up the comparison, the Spirit first describes the universal conditions under which every human being lives from the moment they are born. First, every human being dies. It is appointed for man to die.
Romans 5:12 reminds us, “ Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” A chapter later in the same letter the apostle Paul reiterates this truth when he writes, “The wages of sin is death.” These verses tell us that death is included in the life process because of sin. God applies death in response to sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, human death entered the world and God appointed the curse of death for all their descendants, for every one of their ancestors. Every human being has a God-set appointment with death.
God told Adam and Eve, when he showed them the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden and told them not to eat of it that if they did so, they would die. Well, guess what. God wasn’t kidding. He did not misrepresent his intentions. He desired and required their obedience and he held to the consequences when they disobeyed. They ate and they died, spiritually and physically, and God appoints the same consequences of sin to all their offspring, including you and including me. Our appointment with death comes not merely by natural process as evolutionary reasoning would have us believe, but by divine appointment. I like what one pastor said, “God plans our birthday and our death day.” This is what God means in Psalm 139:16 when he has the Psalmist write, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Our first day and our last day are all determined by God. Our appointment with death is appointed by God. Now listen, there is hope here. Our lives are in God’s hands. There is no room for despair here. No room for discouragement. It is not illness or accident that determines our death. It is not some Satanic or demonic influence that determines the shortness of our days. Fate does not arbitrarily cut the threads that end our life. There is no meaningless ending just because some natural process runs its course. God, the great God himself, Creator of heaven and earth, upholder of the universe and Savior of the world determines our appointment with death and sees that we keep it in his timing, the time he has set for us.
Do you see this? Without having to be concerned about the capricious nature of death, we can trust God all the more for our life! Henry Martyn, a long ago missionary to Persia said, “If [Christ] has work for me to do, I cannot die.” he was right to say this. It is not man or Satan or fate that determines our day to die. It is Christ himself.
But let us take note here that not only is it appointed unto every man to die, it is appointed unto every man to die ONCE. Anyone dreaming of reincarnation and thinking they can come back and try again needs to surrender that dream. It ain’t going to happen. Death happens once and only once. Death doesn’t happen “once in a lifetime” or “once in a while.” Death happens once, period. No next time around. No second chances. The entire point of including this word “once” is to highlight and emphasize the finality of death.
You have once chance to get it right, one opportunity to get right with God. The Scripture tells us, “Today is the day of salvation. Now is the appointed time.” Most of us avoid thinking about death. We don’t care for it. It doesn’t make us happy. But we have to think about it because we have an unavoidable appointment for which we must make preparation. Death is huge. Death deserves some serious consideration. It’s time to stop daydreaming in the now and take some action for forever.
There is an added weight to the need to consider the future. It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Death is not the end of our existence. We are not merely organic masses that simply “go out of consciousness and decompose int eh ground.” We have a future beyond death. Beyond death we face God.
Consider Paul’s words to Timothy. He has just admonished his younger protégé to “keep himself pure” and then he writes, “The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.” He means that some people confess their sins and repent of them and take care of their guilt before they appear before God and in that manner establish their hearts pure in faith. Others however, hide their sins, and when they appear before God, their hands are full and God’s judgment is just. Hebrews 10:27-31 describes the judgment that people face, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Wake up and see what lies ahead. See what God in all his mercy reveals to us. Take account of what really matters in this world.
Now, what about Jesus? What is his part in this comparison that should change the way we live, think, and love in this world? Verse 28 takes up this question. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Please be encouraged by what the Holy Spirit sets before us in his word. Just as men die, so Jesus died. Just as men come to judgment, so Jesus will come to the judgment. But there is an infinite difference here that ought to make our hearts sing out in praise and thanksgiving.
Compare Jesus' experience with our experience and we will discover that though he has similar experiences, they do not parallel our experiences, they transform our experience!
First, Jesus died: “having been offered”. This is good news! We know from the previous verses in this chapter that Someone had to die in order for God's "last will and testament," his covenant with us to be put into effect. Jesus died and all the good that God intends for his heirs to inherit is now available to them.
Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus died once to bear the sins of many. This is also good news. Jesus death to bear the sins of many means that for those who put their trust in him, their death is no longer punitive. He took our sins and suffered the death our sins deserve. Through faith in Jesus we can send our sins on ahead for judgment in him, so that when we arrive at judgment through the doorway of death, we can enter without fear for our sins will already have been judged in Christ on the cross. Christ has transformed death from an occasion of dread to an occasion of joy! This is how we can get right with God in spite of being sinners. Christ took our punishment in his death on the cross.
Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus appears a second time, not to deal with sin, but to rescue sinners who by faith have trusted him for their salvation, not to be judged but to save those who are eagerly waiting. He has dealt with sin once and for all. There is nothing left for him to do in regard to sin. We need to confess our sin to God and trust him to forgive us through Christ, but there is nothing left for Jesus to do to make forgiveness available. He is done dealing with sin. His work cannot be improved upon.
But there is more here. We had to face death, and so Jesus faced death and bore the punishment of death for us. But we also have to face judgment, so Christ comes a second time for us, this time not to deal with sin but to save us from judgment. He will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” This is not salvation in addition to the cross but the application of the salvation gained through the cross. This is the fulfilment of God’s word in Romans 5:9-10. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Finally we need to ask to whom does this rescue from the wrath of God come? According to verse 28 Jesus bore the sins of “many.” Those “many” are further identified as “those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Those who are eagerly waiting are those who putting their faith in Jesus deeply long for his return, for their rescue from this world and their establishment in his kingdom forever.
This is how “those who are eagerly waiting for him” are described elsewhere in the New Testament:
Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
1 Corinthians 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
These people have faith that is eager for Christ to come, earnest in their desire for him and for his return. These are people who trust Christ in such a way that makes them eager for him to come. Many people who profess Christ today are not eager for his return. They love the world and the things of this world and they are reluctant to release their grip on the temporal pleasures this world extends. Many who profess Christ are quite happy with the delay in his return and rarely if ever pray, “Even so, Lord, come quickly.”
Eagerness for Christ’s return is an indication, a sign that we love him and believe in him authentically. Can there be any real love for someone whose presence we do not desire? There is a “phony faith,” a false faith that wants to escape hell but has no desire for Jesus. That kind of faith does not save. That kind of “fire insurance faith” that desires deliverance but not the Deliverer is not the faith of those who are saved, those who are “eagerly waiting for him.”
Paul wrote, in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Do you wait eagerly for Jesus to come? Do you love his appearing?
I urge you this morning, as one who share with you an appointment with death, turn to Jesus. Trust him. Trust God to forgive your sins on his behalf. Turn to him as your eagerly awaited Savior.
Hebrews 9:27-28
I want to introduce you this morning to a simple but profound comparison that should change the way we live, the way we think, and the way we love while we walk in this world. Throughout this book of Hebrews it has been the Holy Spirit’s purpose to encourage and motivate God’s people to fall so deeply in love with Jesus Christ that we are removed farther and farther from the possibilities of spiritual drifting, practical indifference, nominal faith, and utter ruin that can easily beset of the unconcerned.
The Spirit has pointed out to us the superiority of Jesus over such spiritually exalted beings as angels and over such spiritually exalted persons as Moses and Joshua. Jesus provides a more effective sacrifice than the Old Testament Law, a more powerful ministry than the Old Testament priest, a more personal covenant than the Old Testament covenant. Not only does Jesus transform the nature of our relationship with God, through his sacrifice, our nature itself is changed as we trust in Christ. Our guilt is removed, our shame is healed, our conscience is cleansed and we are adopted, through faith in Jesus Christ, as God’s own sons and daughters.
Besides all this, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, permanently residing in the presence of the Father, offering himself as God’s reason to bestow grace and mercy and forgiveness and love upon weak and willful human beings. The ministry of Jesus that God loves and that God loves through is not merely a thing of the past, but a present reality through which each of us receives the fullest measure of God’s grace right now.
James reminds us in his New Testament letter that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) Every good and perfect gift comes from God and it comes through Jesus Christ by virtue of his superior sacrifice and ministry over the sacrifices and ministries under the Old Covenant. This is the fulfilment of Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God has made a way for us, in Jesus, to walk in this world with focus, victory, and hope, and I want to show you the way in these verses in Hebrews 9:27-28.
The comparison included in these verses is quite simple but incredibly profound. It is a comparison between you and Jesus, between Jesus Christ and all other human beings. The comparison is made with the words “just as” in verse 27 and the word “so” in verse 28. “Just as it is appointed to man” “so Christ.” There is the basis for the comparison. But let’s look at the three degrees of comparison in these verses and ask how so simple a comparison should so utterly change our lives. We’ll follow the form the Holy Spirit uses here in Hebrews: first we’ll talk about us, then we’ll talk about Jesus.
In setting up the comparison, the Spirit first describes the universal conditions under which every human being lives from the moment they are born. First, every human being dies. It is appointed for man to die.
Romans 5:12 reminds us, “ Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” A chapter later in the same letter the apostle Paul reiterates this truth when he writes, “The wages of sin is death.” These verses tell us that death is included in the life process because of sin. God applies death in response to sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, human death entered the world and God appointed the curse of death for all their descendants, for every one of their ancestors. Every human being has a God-set appointment with death.
God told Adam and Eve, when he showed them the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden and told them not to eat of it that if they did so, they would die. Well, guess what. God wasn’t kidding. He did not misrepresent his intentions. He desired and required their obedience and he held to the consequences when they disobeyed. They ate and they died, spiritually and physically, and God appoints the same consequences of sin to all their offspring, including you and including me. Our appointment with death comes not merely by natural process as evolutionary reasoning would have us believe, but by divine appointment. I like what one pastor said, “God plans our birthday and our death day.” This is what God means in Psalm 139:16 when he has the Psalmist write, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Our first day and our last day are all determined by God. Our appointment with death is appointed by God. Now listen, there is hope here. Our lives are in God’s hands. There is no room for despair here. No room for discouragement. It is not illness or accident that determines our death. It is not some Satanic or demonic influence that determines the shortness of our days. Fate does not arbitrarily cut the threads that end our life. There is no meaningless ending just because some natural process runs its course. God, the great God himself, Creator of heaven and earth, upholder of the universe and Savior of the world determines our appointment with death and sees that we keep it in his timing, the time he has set for us.
Do you see this? Without having to be concerned about the capricious nature of death, we can trust God all the more for our life! Henry Martyn, a long ago missionary to Persia said, “If [Christ] has work for me to do, I cannot die.” he was right to say this. It is not man or Satan or fate that determines our day to die. It is Christ himself.
But let us take note here that not only is it appointed unto every man to die, it is appointed unto every man to die ONCE. Anyone dreaming of reincarnation and thinking they can come back and try again needs to surrender that dream. It ain’t going to happen. Death happens once and only once. Death doesn’t happen “once in a lifetime” or “once in a while.” Death happens once, period. No next time around. No second chances. The entire point of including this word “once” is to highlight and emphasize the finality of death.
You have once chance to get it right, one opportunity to get right with God. The Scripture tells us, “Today is the day of salvation. Now is the appointed time.” Most of us avoid thinking about death. We don’t care for it. It doesn’t make us happy. But we have to think about it because we have an unavoidable appointment for which we must make preparation. Death is huge. Death deserves some serious consideration. It’s time to stop daydreaming in the now and take some action for forever.
There is an added weight to the need to consider the future. It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Death is not the end of our existence. We are not merely organic masses that simply “go out of consciousness and decompose int eh ground.” We have a future beyond death. Beyond death we face God.
Consider Paul’s words to Timothy. He has just admonished his younger protégé to “keep himself pure” and then he writes, “The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.” He means that some people confess their sins and repent of them and take care of their guilt before they appear before God and in that manner establish their hearts pure in faith. Others however, hide their sins, and when they appear before God, their hands are full and God’s judgment is just. Hebrews 10:27-31 describes the judgment that people face, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Wake up and see what lies ahead. See what God in all his mercy reveals to us. Take account of what really matters in this world.
Now, what about Jesus? What is his part in this comparison that should change the way we live, think, and love in this world? Verse 28 takes up this question. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Please be encouraged by what the Holy Spirit sets before us in his word. Just as men die, so Jesus died. Just as men come to judgment, so Jesus will come to the judgment. But there is an infinite difference here that ought to make our hearts sing out in praise and thanksgiving.
Compare Jesus' experience with our experience and we will discover that though he has similar experiences, they do not parallel our experiences, they transform our experience!
First, Jesus died: “having been offered”. This is good news! We know from the previous verses in this chapter that Someone had to die in order for God's "last will and testament," his covenant with us to be put into effect. Jesus died and all the good that God intends for his heirs to inherit is now available to them.
Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus died once to bear the sins of many. This is also good news. Jesus death to bear the sins of many means that for those who put their trust in him, their death is no longer punitive. He took our sins and suffered the death our sins deserve. Through faith in Jesus we can send our sins on ahead for judgment in him, so that when we arrive at judgment through the doorway of death, we can enter without fear for our sins will already have been judged in Christ on the cross. Christ has transformed death from an occasion of dread to an occasion of joy! This is how we can get right with God in spite of being sinners. Christ took our punishment in his death on the cross.
Verse 28 also tells us that Jesus appears a second time, not to deal with sin, but to rescue sinners who by faith have trusted him for their salvation, not to be judged but to save those who are eagerly waiting. He has dealt with sin once and for all. There is nothing left for him to do in regard to sin. We need to confess our sin to God and trust him to forgive us through Christ, but there is nothing left for Jesus to do to make forgiveness available. He is done dealing with sin. His work cannot be improved upon.
But there is more here. We had to face death, and so Jesus faced death and bore the punishment of death for us. But we also have to face judgment, so Christ comes a second time for us, this time not to deal with sin but to save us from judgment. He will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” This is not salvation in addition to the cross but the application of the salvation gained through the cross. This is the fulfilment of God’s word in Romans 5:9-10. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Finally we need to ask to whom does this rescue from the wrath of God come? According to verse 28 Jesus bore the sins of “many.” Those “many” are further identified as “those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Those who are eagerly waiting are those who putting their faith in Jesus deeply long for his return, for their rescue from this world and their establishment in his kingdom forever.
This is how “those who are eagerly waiting for him” are described elsewhere in the New Testament:
Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
1 Corinthians 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
These people have faith that is eager for Christ to come, earnest in their desire for him and for his return. These are people who trust Christ in such a way that makes them eager for him to come. Many people who profess Christ today are not eager for his return. They love the world and the things of this world and they are reluctant to release their grip on the temporal pleasures this world extends. Many who profess Christ are quite happy with the delay in his return and rarely if ever pray, “Even so, Lord, come quickly.”
Eagerness for Christ’s return is an indication, a sign that we love him and believe in him authentically. Can there be any real love for someone whose presence we do not desire? There is a “phony faith,” a false faith that wants to escape hell but has no desire for Jesus. That kind of faith does not save. That kind of “fire insurance faith” that desires deliverance but not the Deliverer is not the faith of those who are saved, those who are “eagerly waiting for him.”
Paul wrote, in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Do you wait eagerly for Jesus to come? Do you love his appearing?
I urge you this morning, as one who share with you an appointment with death, turn to Jesus. Trust him. Trust God to forgive your sins on his behalf. Turn to him as your eagerly awaited Savior.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Come, All You Worn Out, Weary Laborers
Who knows for certain where dreams come from or why they have the content they have? I sure don't (even though I suspect pan fried tilapia coated with flour and Emeril's Original Essence at 9:00 PM could have something to do with it.) Last night I had the stupidest dream. I don't remember it, I just remember how dumb it was, silly, nonsensical.
I've been having a lot of dreams like that lately. I wake up early, between 4 and 5 o'clock not really remembering the details, just a lingering impression that these dreams made less sense than a prime time comedy sitcom. They have had two good side effects though. They're waking me up early and each time I've awakened from one in the last week or so (so far), I've awakened with a specific Scripture in mind that I have not been thinking about previously.
This morning's verses were Matthew 11:28-30. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, andyou will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Some mornings I've gotten up and spent a couple hours pondering the verses. This morning I stayed in bed and laid there thinking. I have stopped wondering, "Why this verse?" and have started focusing on the content of these words themselves.
It is interesting to me that Jesus' words here are both an invitation and a command. So often we interpret invitations as having a built in rejection button, kind of like the end user license agreements on software packages: if you don't agree simply click "decline" and you have no further obligation. Jesus' words don't seem to carry an "if." Come! he says. Yes, you are welcome to get off your duff and get moving. You're weary. You're burdened. Make a bit more effort and do something about it. Come.
But how? That's the question I always ask. When Jesus is speaking to the people who surrounded him, they could make arrangements, pack their bags and take a walk with him. He was right there for them to see and touch and follow. How do I come to him now, when he's in heaven, invisible, not physically here? I'm weary. It's hard to keep the faith sometimes. But how do I come to Jesus now?
It's probably the preacher in me, but I think there are three ways plus one we come to Jesus. I think three happen simultaneously and one rightly follows the others, but I also think we can talk about them separately.
First, we come to Jesus by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
I saw a PowerPoint presentation the other night that included slides of people praying at a Shinto shrine in Japan. The presenter said that those who are there praying have no idea if there is anyone out there hearing,and they have little expectation to receive anything in relation to their prayer. Praying is merely ritual that must be followed. No faith is involved. How different is our relationship with Almighty God who sent His Son to die on the cross for us, so that by faith in him we may be certain that our prayers are heard and will be answered. We approach God in faith, certain of what we do not see, certain that he exists, that his "eyes are upon the righteous and his ear is inclined to their prayer."
We come to God in faith. We also come to God in humility, leaving false pride at the door. God "rewards those who earnestly seek him." I find it hard to understand Christians who think that acknowledging God's goodness and his promises to them is sin. These are Christians who proudly decline to ask God for his blessing because to ask anything for themselves is "prideful." Brethren, to refuse to open our hearts and lives to all God has to offer his children is to present ourselves as knowing better than God, being more humble than God, more righteous than God. Is our refusal to accept what God so graciously offers not a greater expression of pride than opening our hands and hearts and receiving with thanksgiving what is so lovingly offered? This preference for "my duty to obey" over God's delight in giving to us is surely not less than sin.
God rewards those who "earnestly seek him" with himself. He gives his Spirit to us. The Spirit of God invests in God's people the full measure of God's life and grace and goodness and compassion. The power that enabled Jesus' sinless life, the authoritative teaching, the miracles, the devotion, the obedience, these all come through the Holy Spirit who is himself given by God to those who earnestly seek God as an act of faith. Come to Jesus by faith, find Jesus by faith.
As we come to Jesus by faith we will also be coming to him in obedience. Come is a command. So are "take up" and "learn." To take his yoke is to join him in relationship and mission. To learn of him is to invest our time and energy in discovery of his person. I remember my first real date with my wife. We went on a harbor cruise in Norfolk, VA. I asked question after question trying to discover whatever I could about her (including what I would need to know to get a second date!) In our conversation, I asked questions and I waited for answers. I probed her answers with more questions. I couldn't get enough of her and the insights she was giving into her heart.
Learning Jesus is not so drastically different. We learn him through the word, through prayer, and through service. The Bible gives us the concepts about Jesus. Prayer provides the personal conviction that what we have learned is true. Service / ministry demonstrates our consecration to the One we have learned the truth about, the One who is True.
Faith and obedience should create expectation, the third way we come to Jesus. he described his "yoke" as easy and his "burden" as light. We should expect that our experience will conform to his revelation. We come to Jesus expecting him to make it easy to know him, easy to love him, easy to relate to him. If we come some other way, without this expectation, or with a different expectation, then we are approaching on our terms rather than his and are not really "coming" to him at all.
That's three ways we come to Jesus. The "plus one" is praise. Jesus opens this invitation to come to him with a prayer of praise to God. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children. Praise God for opening the way for us to "come to Jesus" and find rest, and for making it so simple, a child can do it.
Alright, all you worn out, weary laborers. Come to Jesus in faith, in obedience, in expectation and with praise. Simple. Come.
I've been having a lot of dreams like that lately. I wake up early, between 4 and 5 o'clock not really remembering the details, just a lingering impression that these dreams made less sense than a prime time comedy sitcom. They have had two good side effects though. They're waking me up early and each time I've awakened from one in the last week or so (so far), I've awakened with a specific Scripture in mind that I have not been thinking about previously.
This morning's verses were Matthew 11:28-30. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, andyou will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Some mornings I've gotten up and spent a couple hours pondering the verses. This morning I stayed in bed and laid there thinking. I have stopped wondering, "Why this verse?" and have started focusing on the content of these words themselves.
It is interesting to me that Jesus' words here are both an invitation and a command. So often we interpret invitations as having a built in rejection button, kind of like the end user license agreements on software packages: if you don't agree simply click "decline" and you have no further obligation. Jesus' words don't seem to carry an "if." Come! he says. Yes, you are welcome to get off your duff and get moving. You're weary. You're burdened. Make a bit more effort and do something about it. Come.
But how? That's the question I always ask. When Jesus is speaking to the people who surrounded him, they could make arrangements, pack their bags and take a walk with him. He was right there for them to see and touch and follow. How do I come to him now, when he's in heaven, invisible, not physically here? I'm weary. It's hard to keep the faith sometimes. But how do I come to Jesus now?
It's probably the preacher in me, but I think there are three ways plus one we come to Jesus. I think three happen simultaneously and one rightly follows the others, but I also think we can talk about them separately.
First, we come to Jesus by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
I saw a PowerPoint presentation the other night that included slides of people praying at a Shinto shrine in Japan. The presenter said that those who are there praying have no idea if there is anyone out there hearing,and they have little expectation to receive anything in relation to their prayer. Praying is merely ritual that must be followed. No faith is involved. How different is our relationship with Almighty God who sent His Son to die on the cross for us, so that by faith in him we may be certain that our prayers are heard and will be answered. We approach God in faith, certain of what we do not see, certain that he exists, that his "eyes are upon the righteous and his ear is inclined to their prayer."
We come to God in faith. We also come to God in humility, leaving false pride at the door. God "rewards those who earnestly seek him." I find it hard to understand Christians who think that acknowledging God's goodness and his promises to them is sin. These are Christians who proudly decline to ask God for his blessing because to ask anything for themselves is "prideful." Brethren, to refuse to open our hearts and lives to all God has to offer his children is to present ourselves as knowing better than God, being more humble than God, more righteous than God. Is our refusal to accept what God so graciously offers not a greater expression of pride than opening our hands and hearts and receiving with thanksgiving what is so lovingly offered? This preference for "my duty to obey" over God's delight in giving to us is surely not less than sin.
God rewards those who "earnestly seek him" with himself. He gives his Spirit to us. The Spirit of God invests in God's people the full measure of God's life and grace and goodness and compassion. The power that enabled Jesus' sinless life, the authoritative teaching, the miracles, the devotion, the obedience, these all come through the Holy Spirit who is himself given by God to those who earnestly seek God as an act of faith. Come to Jesus by faith, find Jesus by faith.
As we come to Jesus by faith we will also be coming to him in obedience. Come is a command. So are "take up" and "learn." To take his yoke is to join him in relationship and mission. To learn of him is to invest our time and energy in discovery of his person. I remember my first real date with my wife. We went on a harbor cruise in Norfolk, VA. I asked question after question trying to discover whatever I could about her (including what I would need to know to get a second date!) In our conversation, I asked questions and I waited for answers. I probed her answers with more questions. I couldn't get enough of her and the insights she was giving into her heart.
Learning Jesus is not so drastically different. We learn him through the word, through prayer, and through service. The Bible gives us the concepts about Jesus. Prayer provides the personal conviction that what we have learned is true. Service / ministry demonstrates our consecration to the One we have learned the truth about, the One who is True.
Faith and obedience should create expectation, the third way we come to Jesus. he described his "yoke" as easy and his "burden" as light. We should expect that our experience will conform to his revelation. We come to Jesus expecting him to make it easy to know him, easy to love him, easy to relate to him. If we come some other way, without this expectation, or with a different expectation, then we are approaching on our terms rather than his and are not really "coming" to him at all.
That's three ways we come to Jesus. The "plus one" is praise. Jesus opens this invitation to come to him with a prayer of praise to God. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children. Praise God for opening the way for us to "come to Jesus" and find rest, and for making it so simple, a child can do it.
Alright, all you worn out, weary laborers. Come to Jesus in faith, in obedience, in expectation and with praise. Simple. Come.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Labor Day seemed as good a day as any to begin the landscaping around the new building. We've been talking about it, planning for it, envisioning what it would all look like. Finally we had a day when we could concentrate on working the plan and digging the holes.
First we gathered tools. Then we gathered the shrubs and got them onto the truck , moved, and unloaded at the church. Then we went back and loaded mulch, which we also unloaded at the church. Then we went and picked up, by hand, several hundred pounds of rock for the border. I decided not to unload that until we were ready to use it. Then it was time to take the machine and dig the holes.
The first hole was not so bad. We planted a Russian Olive in memory of Linnie Quarles. The second hole posed no problem. We planted another Russian Olive. The third hole went smoothly as well. In went a Pagoda Dogwood. (That's going to be a beautiful tree.) Then came "the fourth hole."
The tines of the scoop bit into the packed dirt of the gravel parking lot. We had already anchored the backhoe by dropping the bucket and the stabilizer legs. The scoop began it's short journey from starting position to full. It moved four inches out of the expected twenty-four and stopped. The hydraulically powered, mini-mammoth, stopped in mid-scoop. We were digging in Cook County. We found a rock.
What a rock it must have been. The teeth on the end of the bucket hooked on and brought the entire backhoe six inches closer to the hole. The rock didn't budge. Tried again. Once again the backhoe, heavier and anchored, moved but the rock didn't. I envisioned a boulder the size of Massachusetts, or that perhaps we'd tied into bedrock and were pulling against the entire North American continent.
We took a different approach and after some artsy maneuvering managed to get the scoop under the rock and lift it free. It was about fourteen inches long, four inches tall, and six inches wide. (Think four Subway sandwiches stacked two abreast and two high.) It probably weighed ten pounds. The backhoe is twenty feet long, eight feet tall, and weighs a ton. But the rock moved the backhoe before the backhoe could move the rock.
A well entrenched sin, a long standing destructive habit, a deeply rooted lie, these things aren't removed easily from the heart. Like a small stone in a densely packed parking lot, they take extreme force to remove. What force moves these "rocks" lodged in the heart? God's loving grace applied through the death of his Son, Jesus.
Take the lie that many of us buy into: "You're no good. There's no way God could love you." It worms its way deep into the heart, affecting spiritual, emotional, psychological, and even intellectual development. We learn to live in the context of this lie. We build our lives, in one way or another, as an attempt to negate its effect. Words don't dislodge it. Self-effort doesn't remove it, but instead draw us only closer to the abyss of despair. We need more.
So God sent Jesus to die on the cross to show us undeniably that he loves us, to dislodge the lie from our hearts. God's love, demonstrated, proven, in the death of his Son, gets under the lie and provides the spiritual force necessary to remove the lie. His love is the force. Your faith is the machine that applies the force.
First we gathered tools. Then we gathered the shrubs and got them onto the truck , moved, and unloaded at the church. Then we went back and loaded mulch, which we also unloaded at the church. Then we went and picked up, by hand, several hundred pounds of rock for the border. I decided not to unload that until we were ready to use it. Then it was time to take the machine and dig the holes.
The first hole was not so bad. We planted a Russian Olive in memory of Linnie Quarles. The second hole posed no problem. We planted another Russian Olive. The third hole went smoothly as well. In went a Pagoda Dogwood. (That's going to be a beautiful tree.) Then came "the fourth hole."
The tines of the scoop bit into the packed dirt of the gravel parking lot. We had already anchored the backhoe by dropping the bucket and the stabilizer legs. The scoop began it's short journey from starting position to full. It moved four inches out of the expected twenty-four and stopped. The hydraulically powered, mini-mammoth, stopped in mid-scoop. We were digging in Cook County. We found a rock.
What a rock it must have been. The teeth on the end of the bucket hooked on and brought the entire backhoe six inches closer to the hole. The rock didn't budge. Tried again. Once again the backhoe, heavier and anchored, moved but the rock didn't. I envisioned a boulder the size of Massachusetts, or that perhaps we'd tied into bedrock and were pulling against the entire North American continent.
We took a different approach and after some artsy maneuvering managed to get the scoop under the rock and lift it free. It was about fourteen inches long, four inches tall, and six inches wide. (Think four Subway sandwiches stacked two abreast and two high.) It probably weighed ten pounds. The backhoe is twenty feet long, eight feet tall, and weighs a ton. But the rock moved the backhoe before the backhoe could move the rock.
A well entrenched sin, a long standing destructive habit, a deeply rooted lie, these things aren't removed easily from the heart. Like a small stone in a densely packed parking lot, they take extreme force to remove. What force moves these "rocks" lodged in the heart? God's loving grace applied through the death of his Son, Jesus.
Take the lie that many of us buy into: "You're no good. There's no way God could love you." It worms its way deep into the heart, affecting spiritual, emotional, psychological, and even intellectual development. We learn to live in the context of this lie. We build our lives, in one way or another, as an attempt to negate its effect. Words don't dislodge it. Self-effort doesn't remove it, but instead draw us only closer to the abyss of despair. We need more.
So God sent Jesus to die on the cross to show us undeniably that he loves us, to dislodge the lie from our hearts. God's love, demonstrated, proven, in the death of his Son, gets under the lie and provides the spiritual force necessary to remove the lie. His love is the force. Your faith is the machine that applies the force.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Finders Keepers
John Schnatter found his car. No, he didn’t forget where he parked at the mall. No, someone didn’t take off with his car while he was stopped at a downtown stoplight. No, John sold his gold and black 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 in 1983 to help save his father’s business. He also used part of the money to open a business himself, a restaurant chain now known as “Papa John’s.”
Here’s the deal. Schnatter apparently did what he had to do in 1983, but he missed his car. He spent years looking for it. He created a website specifically for the purpose of assisting in the search. He made promotional appearances to talk about his lost car. He offered a $250,000 reward to whoever found his beloved car. (Schnatter had a replica installed in the company headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, but apparently, it just wasn’t as good as the real thing.)
I don’t know about you, but if I was a car with feelings, I’d feel pretty special and very loved to know that someone missed me that much and loved me that much to go to all the trouble and expense to find me and bring me home! Well, guess what, you don’t have to be a car with feelings to experience that kind of love.
Jesus told a parable (a short story that uses a familiar object to convey a spiritual truth) that makes exactly that point. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:4-7, ESV).
This is a parable about God’s love for you, about his efforts to find you and bring you home, about his great joy when someone leaves their old, sinful life behind and returns to God. Imagine, God looks for us. He searches for us. Finding us when we are lost is of primary concern to him. Such love does he have for us that he went as far as sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. (That’s worth inestimably way, way more than $250,000!) And when he finds us, God rejoices! It makes him happy! Our return makes him happy! (So much for the gloom and doom old guy with a big stick ready to beat the rebellion out of us.) He even draws all the rest of heaven into the party. All this over one sinner, one person like you and me, who reaches out to God and says, “Love me. Help me.”
When John Schnatter found his 1971 Camaro, he was one happy camper. He was so happy that Papa John’s restaurants all over the country planned to offer all Camaro owners a free pizza at stores on Wednesday. Listen, if John Schnatter can be that happy over a lost car, imagine how happy God is when he finds his lost children. That’s one serious happy!
Here’s the deal. Schnatter apparently did what he had to do in 1983, but he missed his car. He spent years looking for it. He created a website specifically for the purpose of assisting in the search. He made promotional appearances to talk about his lost car. He offered a $250,000 reward to whoever found his beloved car. (Schnatter had a replica installed in the company headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, but apparently, it just wasn’t as good as the real thing.)
I don’t know about you, but if I was a car with feelings, I’d feel pretty special and very loved to know that someone missed me that much and loved me that much to go to all the trouble and expense to find me and bring me home! Well, guess what, you don’t have to be a car with feelings to experience that kind of love.
Jesus told a parable (a short story that uses a familiar object to convey a spiritual truth) that makes exactly that point. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:4-7, ESV).
This is a parable about God’s love for you, about his efforts to find you and bring you home, about his great joy when someone leaves their old, sinful life behind and returns to God. Imagine, God looks for us. He searches for us. Finding us when we are lost is of primary concern to him. Such love does he have for us that he went as far as sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. (That’s worth inestimably way, way more than $250,000!) And when he finds us, God rejoices! It makes him happy! Our return makes him happy! (So much for the gloom and doom old guy with a big stick ready to beat the rebellion out of us.) He even draws all the rest of heaven into the party. All this over one sinner, one person like you and me, who reaches out to God and says, “Love me. Help me.”
When John Schnatter found his 1971 Camaro, he was one happy camper. He was so happy that Papa John’s restaurants all over the country planned to offer all Camaro owners a free pizza at stores on Wednesday. Listen, if John Schnatter can be that happy over a lost car, imagine how happy God is when he finds his lost children. That’s one serious happy!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The "Living" God
Four times in the book of Hebrews the inspired author refers to God as "the living God." I realized that while I was reading through Hebrews again, looking for recurrent words. Apparently it was a description the author knew his readers would recognize, understand, and appreciate.
I didn't. I sat there looking at the phrase and realizing I'd never really given it any thought. What does it mean, that God is the "living" God? Intuitively I assume it means he offers some advantages over a "dead" god. But that goes without saying, doesn't it? So then, why say it? And why say it four times in one letter?
I got out my trusty ESV concordance and picked out every occasion when God is referred to as "the living God." Some of the accounts are redundant, the same record in two or more places. But there were four Old Testament uses that stood out as singularly helpful.
The phrase first appears in Deuteronomy 5:26. This is the retelling of the Mount Sinai meeting between YHWH and his people. The mountain rumbles with thunder and smoke. The people are terrified at the voice of God and very, very aware of the death sentence incurred should any of them touch the mountain while God is present. In their reasonable panic they approach Moses with their desire that he risk his life for them and be their spokesman. Verse twenty-six captures their awe and their fear: For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have, and has still lived?
The comparison is life and death and who is subject to death and who is not. They live in fear for their lives before a God who has no fear of death. The living God is the God who causes death but does not die himself.
I like that. I like it that God is subject neither to death nor fear of death. I like it because I'll never, ever turn to God with my fears, or hopes, or sins, or praise and hear, "I'm sorry, sir. God died two weeks ago. We held a lovely memorial service for him, but he is no longer available. Is there someone else that can help you? An angel? A saint?" The living God is eternal, unchanging, constant, and consistent. He will always be there when I turn to him (and he will always be watching when I don't turn to him.)
I love the next time the phrase "living God" is used in the Bible as well. It's in Joshua 3:10, And Joshua said, "Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites."
Replace all the "ites" in the passage with the things in your life that keep you from fully enjoying the immensity of God's blessing. Sin. Bad attitudes. Disappointment. Disobedience. Weak faith. These are the things that not only exist as obstacles to true joy, but actively oppose real joy in our lives. And here in this verse God makes it clear that he is more than merely adequate to uproot and eliminate opposition to joy in our lives. He "will without fail drive out." I take that to imply that God, the living God, is not subject to failing health or diminished strength. He, the living God, will always at all times retain the capacity and the ability to accomplish his good pleasure in your life! There will never be a moment when he is incapacitated, winded, exhausted, or otherwise unable to work the work that makes us holy.
Third, this living God who is not subject to death or failing health, is not subject to social expulsion either. Remember David and Goliath? Remember the nine foot tall guy who terrorized the armies of Israel and mocked their God? David asked, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" It's not just that Goliath challenged Israel. Goliath challenged God and all God's ability to deliver victory to his own glory and his people's joy.
And you know how God responded. One kid, one sling, one stone, and one dead giant! Goliath attempted to convince God's people that God was irrelevant, absent, foolish, powerless, disengaged, unimportant, a force not to be reckoned with by the enlightened in the culture of the moment. We hear echoes of his mockery even now, but let us also hear the all-powerful voice of the living God who will not be expelled from among his people by the uninformed and faithless ranting of cultural giants. The living God will not be silenced just because some fool says in his heart there is no God. The living God does not slip away into oblivion just because some finite earthling says so. He lives, and he will demonstrate his life on behalf of his people!
Finally, the living God is not subject to deprivation. Psalm 42:2 says, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Imagine a man dying of thirst being handed an empty flask. Imagine crawling through the burning sands of a desert to an oasis with trees but no spring, no water. Now imagine the same oasis with cold, clear water bubbling savingly to the surface. God, the living God, is not an empty well or a dry pitcher. He is streams in the desert, the fountain of living water.
Do your own concordance search for the "living God" and you'll find a few more references that deepen the understanding and appreciation for God as the living God. Idols are "dead" gods unable to move or feed themselves or help those who serve them. Not so the "living God." Other gods fall to the machinations of evil men. Not so the "living God." Other people die without hope. Not so the people of the "living God."
We need to be reminded that God is more than we think he is. We need to be reminded that there are depths of his person and his revelation we have not yet plumbed. We need to open our minds and our hearts so that he can teach us about himself and his Son. The more we know of him the more we shall be like him. The more we are like him, the more we will fit into his kingdom, both now and forever.
I didn't. I sat there looking at the phrase and realizing I'd never really given it any thought. What does it mean, that God is the "living" God? Intuitively I assume it means he offers some advantages over a "dead" god. But that goes without saying, doesn't it? So then, why say it? And why say it four times in one letter?
I got out my trusty ESV concordance and picked out every occasion when God is referred to as "the living God." Some of the accounts are redundant, the same record in two or more places. But there were four Old Testament uses that stood out as singularly helpful.
The phrase first appears in Deuteronomy 5:26. This is the retelling of the Mount Sinai meeting between YHWH and his people. The mountain rumbles with thunder and smoke. The people are terrified at the voice of God and very, very aware of the death sentence incurred should any of them touch the mountain while God is present. In their reasonable panic they approach Moses with their desire that he risk his life for them and be their spokesman. Verse twenty-six captures their awe and their fear: For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have, and has still lived?
The comparison is life and death and who is subject to death and who is not. They live in fear for their lives before a God who has no fear of death. The living God is the God who causes death but does not die himself.
I like that. I like it that God is subject neither to death nor fear of death. I like it because I'll never, ever turn to God with my fears, or hopes, or sins, or praise and hear, "I'm sorry, sir. God died two weeks ago. We held a lovely memorial service for him, but he is no longer available. Is there someone else that can help you? An angel? A saint?" The living God is eternal, unchanging, constant, and consistent. He will always be there when I turn to him (and he will always be watching when I don't turn to him.)
I love the next time the phrase "living God" is used in the Bible as well. It's in Joshua 3:10, And Joshua said, "Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites."
Replace all the "ites" in the passage with the things in your life that keep you from fully enjoying the immensity of God's blessing. Sin. Bad attitudes. Disappointment. Disobedience. Weak faith. These are the things that not only exist as obstacles to true joy, but actively oppose real joy in our lives. And here in this verse God makes it clear that he is more than merely adequate to uproot and eliminate opposition to joy in our lives. He "will without fail drive out." I take that to imply that God, the living God, is not subject to failing health or diminished strength. He, the living God, will always at all times retain the capacity and the ability to accomplish his good pleasure in your life! There will never be a moment when he is incapacitated, winded, exhausted, or otherwise unable to work the work that makes us holy.
Third, this living God who is not subject to death or failing health, is not subject to social expulsion either. Remember David and Goliath? Remember the nine foot tall guy who terrorized the armies of Israel and mocked their God? David asked, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" It's not just that Goliath challenged Israel. Goliath challenged God and all God's ability to deliver victory to his own glory and his people's joy.
And you know how God responded. One kid, one sling, one stone, and one dead giant! Goliath attempted to convince God's people that God was irrelevant, absent, foolish, powerless, disengaged, unimportant, a force not to be reckoned with by the enlightened in the culture of the moment. We hear echoes of his mockery even now, but let us also hear the all-powerful voice of the living God who will not be expelled from among his people by the uninformed and faithless ranting of cultural giants. The living God will not be silenced just because some fool says in his heart there is no God. The living God does not slip away into oblivion just because some finite earthling says so. He lives, and he will demonstrate his life on behalf of his people!
Finally, the living God is not subject to deprivation. Psalm 42:2 says, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Imagine a man dying of thirst being handed an empty flask. Imagine crawling through the burning sands of a desert to an oasis with trees but no spring, no water. Now imagine the same oasis with cold, clear water bubbling savingly to the surface. God, the living God, is not an empty well or a dry pitcher. He is streams in the desert, the fountain of living water.
Do your own concordance search for the "living God" and you'll find a few more references that deepen the understanding and appreciation for God as the living God. Idols are "dead" gods unable to move or feed themselves or help those who serve them. Not so the "living God." Other gods fall to the machinations of evil men. Not so the "living God." Other people die without hope. Not so the people of the "living God."
We need to be reminded that God is more than we think he is. We need to be reminded that there are depths of his person and his revelation we have not yet plumbed. We need to open our minds and our hearts so that he can teach us about himself and his Son. The more we know of him the more we shall be like him. The more we are like him, the more we will fit into his kingdom, both now and forever.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Simple . . . but not easy
Cook County News-Herald THE GOOD NEWS for 7-08-2009
Jesus defined "Christianity." He said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23,ESV). While "Christianity" today often seems encumbered with various mutually exclusive interpretations, unaccommodating traditions, and diametrically opposed propositions, Jesus kept it pretty simple. "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me."
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible. Each phrase Jesus used challenges basic human assumptions about who we are and what we are entitled to. Especially here in our culture of leisure and abundance where every want and whim is within reach of a Visa card and a low monthly payment, the idea of self-denial seems alien and unnecessary. Why deny when I can so easily have? Perhaps at this point in the current economic downturn we have begun to understand the wisdom of Jesus' words.
Self-denial, however, points past possessions. Self-denial points to self-surrender, to giving up our will, our future, our sense of value and purpose for Someone else and Something higher. So Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me." One surrenders one's life on a cross. One surrenders one's authority to lead when one follows. Specifically a Christian gives up their life and their right to self-determination to Jesus. Jesus defined "Christianity" as self-denial, self-sacrifice, and self-surrender.
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible. That's why he implied that not everyone would want to be "Christian." Jesus opens this sentence with a conditional "if." "If anyone would come after me," implies a choice that not everyone will make, not everyone will want. Jesus understands what he invites people to do. He understands how extensive a "self renovation" he proposes. He understands the major re-outfitting necessary for self-centered human beings to dwell at peace with God in God's kingdom. And he does not hide the truth with self-serving platitudes.
If you want to gain what Jesus gained, the favor and glory of God; if you want to live as Jesus lived, in mercy, compassion, love, faith, and spiritual power; if you want to make a difference in this world and in the lives of people on an eternal level, as Jesus did; if you would come after him, then deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus.
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible.
That's the Good News.
Jesus defined "Christianity." He said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23,ESV). While "Christianity" today often seems encumbered with various mutually exclusive interpretations, unaccommodating traditions, and diametrically opposed propositions, Jesus kept it pretty simple. "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me."
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible. Each phrase Jesus used challenges basic human assumptions about who we are and what we are entitled to. Especially here in our culture of leisure and abundance where every want and whim is within reach of a Visa card and a low monthly payment, the idea of self-denial seems alien and unnecessary. Why deny when I can so easily have? Perhaps at this point in the current economic downturn we have begun to understand the wisdom of Jesus' words.
Self-denial, however, points past possessions. Self-denial points to self-surrender, to giving up our will, our future, our sense of value and purpose for Someone else and Something higher. So Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me." One surrenders one's life on a cross. One surrenders one's authority to lead when one follows. Specifically a Christian gives up their life and their right to self-determination to Jesus. Jesus defined "Christianity" as self-denial, self-sacrifice, and self-surrender.
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible. That's why he implied that not everyone would want to be "Christian." Jesus opens this sentence with a conditional "if." "If anyone would come after me," implies a choice that not everyone will make, not everyone will want. Jesus understands what he invites people to do. He understands how extensive a "self renovation" he proposes. He understands the major re-outfitting necessary for self-centered human beings to dwell at peace with God in God's kingdom. And he does not hide the truth with self-serving platitudes.
If you want to gain what Jesus gained, the favor and glory of God; if you want to live as Jesus lived, in mercy, compassion, love, faith, and spiritual power; if you want to make a difference in this world and in the lives of people on an eternal level, as Jesus did; if you would come after him, then deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus.
Simple . . . but not easy. Essential . . . but not convenient. Radical . . . but not impossible.
That's the Good News.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
