If you would like to have the teaching for the Altar Team preparation it is here:
http://word-of-grace.blogspot.com/2010/04/prayer-ministry-at-altar.html?spref=fb
Thanks,
Leonard
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Faith in God!
2 Corinthians 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,
What confidence Paul had in God! This is where faith is to be placed. This is what faith is.
Notice he did not live a life of "blessing" in the current definition of that word:
2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
He went through such a severe trial in Asia that he was thinking he would die. In fact I think he may have died but was raised to life by prayer.
Acts 14:18-20 (Amplified Bible) Even in [the light of] these words they with difficulty prevented the people from offering sacrifice to them. 19 But some Jews arrived there from Antioch and Iconium; and having persuaded the people and won them over, they stoned Paul and [afterward] dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead. 20 But the disciples formed a circle about him, and he got up and went back into the town; and on the morrow he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
The clear thing we see from Paul's life was it was very difficult. He was continually persecuted. Yet he was a man who responded in faith toward God in all these trials. I believe he did so because he knew God.
Faith is based on knowing the truth about someone. It is knowing their character, thier abilities and their role in the world. These three things are what we build faith in other humans by. they are to be what we build faith in Him by/ So when we think of Faith in God it has at least three components that we are to put our complete trust in God in.
Today I was meditating on the first component - Faith in His Character:
Above all else faith in God's character is faith that His Wod is given in integrity and that He will keep what He says. His Word given in Jesus is His full revelation. He is completely worthy of our trust. Further, As we read His Word expressed in scripture we can place the full weight of our faith that it is trustworthy and will lead us in the right direction even when everything in the world screams it won't. God honors His Word even above the second component we can trust in His Name.
Psalm 138:2 (Amplified Bible)
I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!
God is perfect in His Character. There is nothing hidden or perverse in Him.
James 1:17 (New American Standard Bible)
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
He cannot lie.
Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
When we place our trust in God and his word we trust in one who is completely trustworthy. He is more trustworthy than our selves.
This is what Paul understood to be the redemption of his perils - "Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead," he writes. And he meant it. When we trust in ourselves we trust in one who cannot give life. When we trust in God we trust in the only lifegiver.
What confidence Paul had in God! This is where faith is to be placed. This is what faith is.
Notice he did not live a life of "blessing" in the current definition of that word:
2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
He went through such a severe trial in Asia that he was thinking he would die. In fact I think he may have died but was raised to life by prayer.
Acts 14:18-20 (Amplified Bible) Even in [the light of] these words they with difficulty prevented the people from offering sacrifice to them. 19 But some Jews arrived there from Antioch and Iconium; and having persuaded the people and won them over, they stoned Paul and [afterward] dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead. 20 But the disciples formed a circle about him, and he got up and went back into the town; and on the morrow he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
The clear thing we see from Paul's life was it was very difficult. He was continually persecuted. Yet he was a man who responded in faith toward God in all these trials. I believe he did so because he knew God.
Faith is based on knowing the truth about someone. It is knowing their character, thier abilities and their role in the world. These three things are what we build faith in other humans by. they are to be what we build faith in Him by/ So when we think of Faith in God it has at least three components that we are to put our complete trust in God in.
Today I was meditating on the first component - Faith in His Character:
Above all else faith in God's character is faith that His Wod is given in integrity and that He will keep what He says. His Word given in Jesus is His full revelation. He is completely worthy of our trust. Further, As we read His Word expressed in scripture we can place the full weight of our faith that it is trustworthy and will lead us in the right direction even when everything in the world screams it won't. God honors His Word even above the second component we can trust in His Name.
Psalm 138:2 (Amplified Bible)
I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!
God is perfect in His Character. There is nothing hidden or perverse in Him.
James 1:17 (New American Standard Bible)
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
He cannot lie.
Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
When we place our trust in God and his word we trust in one who is completely trustworthy. He is more trustworthy than our selves.
This is what Paul understood to be the redemption of his perils - "Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead," he writes. And he meant it. When we trust in ourselves we trust in one who cannot give life. When we trust in God we trust in the only lifegiver.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Leadership and Truth - web address
I have posted a teaching about leadership and truth on my other blog:
http://word-of-grace.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-and-leadership.html
http://word-of-grace.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-and-leadership.html
Thursday, April 22, 2010
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14 : 25 33
The modern version of the gospel does not recognize the revolutionary aspect of these words of Jesus. If I were to ask the normal Christian on the street if he thought Jesus had said these words (given that we left out the fact that they were from the Bible) he would probably say that Jesus would never say such things. The idea of a gospel that costs anything, much less "everything" does not suit the modern believer. He/she has been steeped in a philosophy that has taken the ethical demands of the Lord and in effect thrown them out the window. We are sold a free gospel that gives free grace and all we need do is accept it.
In my few short years I have learned a few things. In observing people I have seen that the surface value they ascribe to something is not always the real value they hold it in.
Thinking that the gospel is free can lead us to value Jesus as nothing. Thinking that it places no demands on us can lead us to never invest ourselves in Jesus.
The gospel is not today nor has it ever been "free".
First of all it cost God His only son.
It cost Jesus his life.
It will cost us ours to follow him.
He directly said it would six times in the Bible.
Matthew 10:39
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Mark 8:35
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Luke 9:24
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Luke 17:33
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
John 12:25
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
What Jesus said would be ours if we did lay our lives down in love for him is more wonderful than anything we could know. It was what we were created for.
But the Bible does say it is a free gift.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
To say that we can obtain what Jesus bought on the cross by any work we do is completely unbiblical.
The Bible is not contradictory. But when it seems to be so we have to look deeper to understand what is actually being said to find the truth.
So let's start with the word free. No gift is free. Anything that is given to someone else costs the giver. It is free to the one it is given. It is not bought by the one who gets it.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Some gifts are free yet cost us to receive them.
When we receive Jesus we are not getting a present we are entering into a convenant relationship with him. This is why it costs us everything.
I could never have entered into the relationship I have with my sweetheart if I had not been willing to lay down my life for her. I did not pay for her. She gave herself to me as a gift. But it was a gift that required that I do the same with her. That is because it is a covenant we share.
In the same way, Jesus laid his life down for me first as the most costly gift ever given. But the only way I can obtain that gift is to give my life as a gift back to him. This is because we are called into a covenant relationship with him.
Jesus agapes (Unmerited love) us to bring us to phileo (An intimate covenant relationship as friends) 1. Nothing could buy his love but nothing short of our full surrender is demanded as the way we enter into what he offers us.
We can see plainly how someone values something by the way they treat it. You can always tell how valuable something is perceived to be by their care for it. Do they protect it? Do they invest themselves for it? Almost always things that we get for nothing are valued by us as worthless - even if they are a treasure of great value. If we think something is worthless we don't bother to protect it. If we feel it is worthless we don't put it away in a safe place. Simple principle, yet profound when it is applied.
1 For a more indepth look at Agape and Phileo go to: http://word-of-grace.blogspot.com/2010/04/agape-and-phileo.html
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Faith?
James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
When we think about faith there are so many ways the word is used.
I have noticed a trend in the public sector to see faith almost as a end in itself. It has taken on an almost deified persona of its own. In music this is especially true. Perhaps it is the general influence of Christian thought that has led to this kind of expression.
I have often thought that many of the songs were written with some attempt by the writers to present faith in God in a more palitable way to the general public. Christians have done this since the third century A.D. when, because Christianity became a forced state religion, it became inportant to include the masses in the message.
The consequences have not always been helpful. What tends to happen is a lowering to the least content possible.
Biblical faith is very specific. It is never faith that is the object. The devils have faith and what is the result? They are terrified when they encounter the oblect of their faith - God.
James is arguing against a view of faith that has troubled the church from the beginning.
Christianity was "Hellenized" early on. As long as it grew in the soil of Hebrew thought it was impossible for their to be a separation of faith and its object.
Hebrew understanding of life never allowed for a disconect between believing in God, or for that matter anything, and our actions. There was no need of adding adjectives like "true" to faith. The Hebrew understanding of life was what you believed was shown by what you did.
The Greek mindset was very different. They believed in a spliting of the human being into segmented parts which could behave autonomously with out reference to one another. A person could have faith but not act on it.
While I would like to say that the Hebrew simplicity is true, reality and history show us that the association of the spirit, mind, emotions and will of a human is a little more complex than most would like to admit.
One of my mentors in my early years was a wonderful pastor who was also a professor at the Christian university I attended. I knew him and his wife on a personal level. He was the one who first challenged me to spend seven minutes with God in the morning. He helped, with Dawson Trotman, to found the group now known as Navigators. He taught me to memorise scripture and to meditate daily on it. Then his wife died of cancer.
At first it seemed that he was fine. He went through the normal grieving process. Then one day as he was speaking with someone he said things which were directly opposed to everything he had ever taught. Within a year he ended up in psychiatric care. Finally he was institutionalized. He would go through periods where he was as zealous for God as ever and other times he was a man you could not believe had ever had a relationship with God at all.
Some might say that he was never committed. some would say that the things he expressed were always there and only in a time of crisis they were finally coming to the surface. Some said he was possessed of a demon.
But I knew him well and understood that, while all of those things might have been true they did not seem to fit the reality of his life.
But what troubled me most was what my fellow believers who he had invested so much in were willing to do to him in the name of faith. They were quite sure that if he had faith none of what occured would have.... including the death of his wife.
When I saw this response I began to look into a part of Christian history that most people do not ever want to admit. Some of the greatest men and women of God had their stories rewritten to remove these kinds of situations. As I began to look into the actual histories of so many that seemed to have a mythic faith I found many had extreme difficulty during periods of their lives.
The writer of perhaps one of the greatest testimonies of faith, "It is Well with my soul" Horatio Spafford is an extreme example.
I have heard many stories of his life before he wrote the hymn but almost none afterwards.
As a very prosperous convert of D.L. Moody he lost almost everything in the great Chicago fire October 8, 1871. He was planning a trip to England that year but in order to take care of the business of reclaiming his property he sent his wife and children on while he remained in Chicago. On the trip their ship the Ville du Havre sank and his four daughters drowned. He recieved a telegram saying "Saved alone", only his wife had survived.
On his passage to join his wife he passed the site where his daughters died. As he looked out over the final resting place of his children he wrote the poem that became the Hymn, "It is Well with My Soul."
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul,
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
His story of overcoming faith ends there for most biographers. Unfortunately the story has a tragic ending which is, to me, an even greater story of faith.
Almost immediately after Horatio's girls died people around him, mostly from his own church, began to abandon him and his wife. They were sure that some great evil was in their lives to be deserving such a horrible "judgement" from God.
The tragedy concerning his children did not end with the ship wreck. His wife had three more children. His only son born shortly after the ship wreck died tragically in childhood. This only deepend the suspicions that some deep sin was being punished by God.
Within a few years Horatio became mentally ill though, like my teacher and pastor, he himself was not aware of it. He began having delusions. He even thought at one point he was a second messiah.
He went to Jerusalem and set up a cultic group that did wonderful things for the poor but had a terrible theology.
He entered in to a deep depression and at his death had what they called "religious melancholia."
Yet he never lost his love for or faith in Jesus.
Neither did my teacher. He went for several years through a severe depression which left him a broken man locked away in a psychiatric hospital. But he still loved and believed in Jesus.
As I said earlier, when you look into the stories of many of those we esteem as saints there often have been these kinds of periods in their lives. Their historians felt it would dimish their greatness if the whole truth were told. But does it?
Every time I sing "It is well with my soul" I do not think that Horatio Spafford's life was a testimony of unbelief. Knowing the whole story actually speaks to me of the greatness of our God and Horatio's faith.
I cannot imagine the suffering he felt in the loss of his children, the turning of his own loved fellow believers from him and his struggle with mental illness. But all alone and through intense grief he believed what he wrote about Jesus.
He believed in the one who would someday wipe away all the tears from his eyes.
I believe that when we don't tell the whole story we set people up for doubt at the time they most need Faith. Faith is what takes us through the darkness even when the darkness seems to overtake us. Listen to Jesus' last words....
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Matthew 27:46
Might I suggest that Jesus was not expressing unbelief or just citing the Bible. He was crying out in the agony of his flesh to the God he had perfect faith in. His expression was one of suffering beyond our understanding.
Horatio tasted some of that suffering. So did my teacher. Why are we not concerned that perhaps we too will one day taste it, even though we believe?
We trivialize the work of God in our lives when we make Him a genie in a bottle come to meet all our needs and give us perfect lives without tragedy.
We break faith with those who walk through desperate times who we know to be committed to God and see them as an act of discipline from Him.
True faith believes when no sight gives evidence of its reality.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
I have seen the cruelty possible in our fellowships when we allow our hearts to become convinced that bad things cannot happen to good people.
I have seen the lack of compassion when believers think that physical, emotional or mental illness is somehow an affliction that no one who has "faith" will experience.
But I believe that one day we will be looking back at the lives of those who walked through the valley of the shaddow of death and we will see that even when it seemed the darkness of hell itself overcame the light of God their faith looked beyond the darkness to a light they could not see at that moment. I believe that will make them a part of those who God say's "Great is your faith."
We will esteem them even more highly than we did here but might not of if we had heard the whole story.
Their faith tested by the fire of affliction will be what God calls true Faith.
When we think about faith there are so many ways the word is used.
I have noticed a trend in the public sector to see faith almost as a end in itself. It has taken on an almost deified persona of its own. In music this is especially true. Perhaps it is the general influence of Christian thought that has led to this kind of expression.
I have often thought that many of the songs were written with some attempt by the writers to present faith in God in a more palitable way to the general public. Christians have done this since the third century A.D. when, because Christianity became a forced state religion, it became inportant to include the masses in the message.
The consequences have not always been helpful. What tends to happen is a lowering to the least content possible.
Biblical faith is very specific. It is never faith that is the object. The devils have faith and what is the result? They are terrified when they encounter the oblect of their faith - God.
James is arguing against a view of faith that has troubled the church from the beginning.
Christianity was "Hellenized" early on. As long as it grew in the soil of Hebrew thought it was impossible for their to be a separation of faith and its object.
Hebrew understanding of life never allowed for a disconect between believing in God, or for that matter anything, and our actions. There was no need of adding adjectives like "true" to faith. The Hebrew understanding of life was what you believed was shown by what you did.
The Greek mindset was very different. They believed in a spliting of the human being into segmented parts which could behave autonomously with out reference to one another. A person could have faith but not act on it.
While I would like to say that the Hebrew simplicity is true, reality and history show us that the association of the spirit, mind, emotions and will of a human is a little more complex than most would like to admit.
One of my mentors in my early years was a wonderful pastor who was also a professor at the Christian university I attended. I knew him and his wife on a personal level. He was the one who first challenged me to spend seven minutes with God in the morning. He helped, with Dawson Trotman, to found the group now known as Navigators. He taught me to memorise scripture and to meditate daily on it. Then his wife died of cancer.
At first it seemed that he was fine. He went through the normal grieving process. Then one day as he was speaking with someone he said things which were directly opposed to everything he had ever taught. Within a year he ended up in psychiatric care. Finally he was institutionalized. He would go through periods where he was as zealous for God as ever and other times he was a man you could not believe had ever had a relationship with God at all.
Some might say that he was never committed. some would say that the things he expressed were always there and only in a time of crisis they were finally coming to the surface. Some said he was possessed of a demon.
But I knew him well and understood that, while all of those things might have been true they did not seem to fit the reality of his life.
But what troubled me most was what my fellow believers who he had invested so much in were willing to do to him in the name of faith. They were quite sure that if he had faith none of what occured would have.... including the death of his wife.
When I saw this response I began to look into a part of Christian history that most people do not ever want to admit. Some of the greatest men and women of God had their stories rewritten to remove these kinds of situations. As I began to look into the actual histories of so many that seemed to have a mythic faith I found many had extreme difficulty during periods of their lives.
The writer of perhaps one of the greatest testimonies of faith, "It is Well with my soul" Horatio Spafford is an extreme example.
I have heard many stories of his life before he wrote the hymn but almost none afterwards.
As a very prosperous convert of D.L. Moody he lost almost everything in the great Chicago fire October 8, 1871. He was planning a trip to England that year but in order to take care of the business of reclaiming his property he sent his wife and children on while he remained in Chicago. On the trip their ship the Ville du Havre sank and his four daughters drowned. He recieved a telegram saying "Saved alone", only his wife had survived.
On his passage to join his wife he passed the site where his daughters died. As he looked out over the final resting place of his children he wrote the poem that became the Hymn, "It is Well with My Soul."
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul,
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
His story of overcoming faith ends there for most biographers. Unfortunately the story has a tragic ending which is, to me, an even greater story of faith.
Almost immediately after Horatio's girls died people around him, mostly from his own church, began to abandon him and his wife. They were sure that some great evil was in their lives to be deserving such a horrible "judgement" from God.
The tragedy concerning his children did not end with the ship wreck. His wife had three more children. His only son born shortly after the ship wreck died tragically in childhood. This only deepend the suspicions that some deep sin was being punished by God.
Within a few years Horatio became mentally ill though, like my teacher and pastor, he himself was not aware of it. He began having delusions. He even thought at one point he was a second messiah.
He went to Jerusalem and set up a cultic group that did wonderful things for the poor but had a terrible theology.
He entered in to a deep depression and at his death had what they called "religious melancholia."
Yet he never lost his love for or faith in Jesus.
Neither did my teacher. He went for several years through a severe depression which left him a broken man locked away in a psychiatric hospital. But he still loved and believed in Jesus.
As I said earlier, when you look into the stories of many of those we esteem as saints there often have been these kinds of periods in their lives. Their historians felt it would dimish their greatness if the whole truth were told. But does it?
Every time I sing "It is well with my soul" I do not think that Horatio Spafford's life was a testimony of unbelief. Knowing the whole story actually speaks to me of the greatness of our God and Horatio's faith.
I cannot imagine the suffering he felt in the loss of his children, the turning of his own loved fellow believers from him and his struggle with mental illness. But all alone and through intense grief he believed what he wrote about Jesus.
He believed in the one who would someday wipe away all the tears from his eyes.
I believe that when we don't tell the whole story we set people up for doubt at the time they most need Faith. Faith is what takes us through the darkness even when the darkness seems to overtake us. Listen to Jesus' last words....
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Matthew 27:46
Might I suggest that Jesus was not expressing unbelief or just citing the Bible. He was crying out in the agony of his flesh to the God he had perfect faith in. His expression was one of suffering beyond our understanding.
Horatio tasted some of that suffering. So did my teacher. Why are we not concerned that perhaps we too will one day taste it, even though we believe?
We trivialize the work of God in our lives when we make Him a genie in a bottle come to meet all our needs and give us perfect lives without tragedy.
We break faith with those who walk through desperate times who we know to be committed to God and see them as an act of discipline from Him.
True faith believes when no sight gives evidence of its reality.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
I have seen the cruelty possible in our fellowships when we allow our hearts to become convinced that bad things cannot happen to good people.
I have seen the lack of compassion when believers think that physical, emotional or mental illness is somehow an affliction that no one who has "faith" will experience.
But I believe that one day we will be looking back at the lives of those who walked through the valley of the shaddow of death and we will see that even when it seemed the darkness of hell itself overcame the light of God their faith looked beyond the darkness to a light they could not see at that moment. I believe that will make them a part of those who God say's "Great is your faith."
We will esteem them even more highly than we did here but might not of if we had heard the whole story.
Their faith tested by the fire of affliction will be what God calls true Faith.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
He is no Fool....
Mark 8:35 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
I continued to meditate this morning on the wonderful fact that having God's presence in our lives is the best life we can ever know. What we gain by moving beyond ourselves is life itself. As thought about this I remembered something Jim Elliot said years ago.
On October 28, 1949 he wrote "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
On January 8, 1956 he was killed, along with four of his friends, by the Aucas who they were seeking to evangelize.
I have heard his wife Elizabeth Elliot say that had these five wonderful men been more cautious in their approach to the tribe that they would most likely be alive today. She would know the real cost of the failed mission. She and her daughter eventually made contact with the tribe and successfully finished what Jim and his companions began. Her own life's work centered around Jim through her writings of his biography and his Journals which he meticulously wrote for most of his life.
But had he been more cautious I would have never known him.
I have read everything there is to read about Jim. He was one of those who I looked to as a role model. His life deeply influenced me at a pivotal time of my life. Reading his journals planted within me a passion to give my life fully to God. I saw in Jim's life a fully surrendered soul. That was and continues to be my heart's commitment.
Jesus said what Jim said years before. he said it in a parable about treasure and a pearl.
Matthew13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
We cannot keep our lives but we can exchange them for his life.
We can give our lives for Jesus, the kingdom and the gospel's sake and obtain his life forever.
Losing our lives for him is the only way to find life.
If you would like to read about Jim, "Through Gates of Splendor" is his biography. "The Journals of Jim Elliot" are his spiritual journals.
I continued to meditate this morning on the wonderful fact that having God's presence in our lives is the best life we can ever know. What we gain by moving beyond ourselves is life itself. As thought about this I remembered something Jim Elliot said years ago.
On October 28, 1949 he wrote "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
On January 8, 1956 he was killed, along with four of his friends, by the Aucas who they were seeking to evangelize.
I have heard his wife Elizabeth Elliot say that had these five wonderful men been more cautious in their approach to the tribe that they would most likely be alive today. She would know the real cost of the failed mission. She and her daughter eventually made contact with the tribe and successfully finished what Jim and his companions began. Her own life's work centered around Jim through her writings of his biography and his Journals which he meticulously wrote for most of his life.
But had he been more cautious I would have never known him.
I have read everything there is to read about Jim. He was one of those who I looked to as a role model. His life deeply influenced me at a pivotal time of my life. Reading his journals planted within me a passion to give my life fully to God. I saw in Jim's life a fully surrendered soul. That was and continues to be my heart's commitment.
Jesus said what Jim said years before. he said it in a parable about treasure and a pearl.
Matthew13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
We cannot keep our lives but we can exchange them for his life.
We can give our lives for Jesus, the kingdom and the gospel's sake and obtain his life forever.
Losing our lives for him is the only way to find life.
If you would like to read about Jim, "Through Gates of Splendor" is his biography. "The Journals of Jim Elliot" are his spiritual journals.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Beyond Ourselves
Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
This morning as I listened to the Father he said, "Beyond Yourselves." I knew exactly what He was saying. He was telling me that the answer to all of life is to look "Beyond Ourselves."
That looking starts with looking from ourselves to God. It ends with looking beyond ourselves to others.
In an ironic twist of the expected order that very looking beyond ourselves is what brings ourselves into a proper perspective.
I have often shared with people that in my personal experience and that of the history of humanity that I have had the privilege of knowing, that the road to mental illness is the spiral inward. Likewise the road to mental health is outward bound.
We live as isolated consciousnesses until we connect with God. As much as we might try to connect with others our bodies are the only way we can do so. When someone is severely limited in those faculties such as a person like Helen Keller they can live in an almost completely isolated existence. The gift of communication is so precious. That we can share our thoughts, ideas, dreams, hopes, frustrations and fears is wonderful beyond imagination. Only those who have lost those avenues can fully understand how precious they are.
And yet even those gifts cannot meet the chasm of isolation that marks the human soul. The only thing that can fill that void is God. Our first encounter beyond ourselves that moves us towards full health is the one we have with God. Nothing can take its place:
Mark 10:17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'" 20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
Notice that the issue in this story is not really about possessions. Jesus told the young man "One thing you lack...." then he told him to do two things. "go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The one thing the young man lacked was a relationship with Jesus. What was standing in his way of a relationship with him was his wealth. His wealth represented himself. Nothing that he had could give what only Jesus could. But the connection between him and his wealth was so strong that he gave up the greatest opportunity of his life to find real fulfillment.
This is the irony of our blindness. If we saw the truth about what we gain when we move beyond ourselves to follow Jesus we would know that the greatest delight in life is found in giving our lives away to God. Nothing is more wonderful than having our lives filled with his presence. What a lie the devil tells us when he tempts us with possessions which are dead things that God created. He makes us think that these lifeless things have more to offer than the one who created them. To have God's favor on our lives is really better than life because life without Him is not life at all.
Psalm 63:3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
To seek for life beyond ourselves is the only way we will find life.
Matthew 16:26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
The negative spin that we have allowed the gospel to be defined by has done such a disservice to its proclamation. Another distracter is also seen in making Jesus into a super additive to our lives. Add Jesus and you get worldly wealth and all your self-centered desires met. Both are distortions of the truth. Jesus did tell the young man that there was a cost involved in following him. He also promises us abundant life. But the abundant life is found only in surrender of our self centeredness and reaching beyond ourselves to him.
Jesus' life in us is the most wonderful gift anyone could ever know.
Beyond ourselves also means, once our relationship with Jesus is full we let his life in us give our lives away.
The end result is a movement beyond ourselves to touch others' lives. In reaching beyond ourselves we actually find ourselves.
When I began to read about Francesco D'Assisi I found a soul that resonated with mine. His love for Jesus so touched my heart because it was exactly what I felt for him. His life was all about reaching beyond himself. He wrote a song which speaks deeply to my heart what the true heart of a believer is to be.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
This morning as I listened to the Father he said, "Beyond Yourselves." I knew exactly what He was saying. He was telling me that the answer to all of life is to look "Beyond Ourselves."
That looking starts with looking from ourselves to God. It ends with looking beyond ourselves to others.
In an ironic twist of the expected order that very looking beyond ourselves is what brings ourselves into a proper perspective.
I have often shared with people that in my personal experience and that of the history of humanity that I have had the privilege of knowing, that the road to mental illness is the spiral inward. Likewise the road to mental health is outward bound.
We live as isolated consciousnesses until we connect with God. As much as we might try to connect with others our bodies are the only way we can do so. When someone is severely limited in those faculties such as a person like Helen Keller they can live in an almost completely isolated existence. The gift of communication is so precious. That we can share our thoughts, ideas, dreams, hopes, frustrations and fears is wonderful beyond imagination. Only those who have lost those avenues can fully understand how precious they are.
And yet even those gifts cannot meet the chasm of isolation that marks the human soul. The only thing that can fill that void is God. Our first encounter beyond ourselves that moves us towards full health is the one we have with God. Nothing can take its place:
Mark 10:17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'" 20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
Notice that the issue in this story is not really about possessions. Jesus told the young man "One thing you lack...." then he told him to do two things. "go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The one thing the young man lacked was a relationship with Jesus. What was standing in his way of a relationship with him was his wealth. His wealth represented himself. Nothing that he had could give what only Jesus could. But the connection between him and his wealth was so strong that he gave up the greatest opportunity of his life to find real fulfillment.
This is the irony of our blindness. If we saw the truth about what we gain when we move beyond ourselves to follow Jesus we would know that the greatest delight in life is found in giving our lives away to God. Nothing is more wonderful than having our lives filled with his presence. What a lie the devil tells us when he tempts us with possessions which are dead things that God created. He makes us think that these lifeless things have more to offer than the one who created them. To have God's favor on our lives is really better than life because life without Him is not life at all.
Psalm 63:3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
To seek for life beyond ourselves is the only way we will find life.
Matthew 16:26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
The negative spin that we have allowed the gospel to be defined by has done such a disservice to its proclamation. Another distracter is also seen in making Jesus into a super additive to our lives. Add Jesus and you get worldly wealth and all your self-centered desires met. Both are distortions of the truth. Jesus did tell the young man that there was a cost involved in following him. He also promises us abundant life. But the abundant life is found only in surrender of our self centeredness and reaching beyond ourselves to him.
Jesus' life in us is the most wonderful gift anyone could ever know.
Beyond ourselves also means, once our relationship with Jesus is full we let his life in us give our lives away.
The end result is a movement beyond ourselves to touch others' lives. In reaching beyond ourselves we actually find ourselves.
When I began to read about Francesco D'Assisi I found a soul that resonated with mine. His love for Jesus so touched my heart because it was exactly what I felt for him. His life was all about reaching beyond himself. He wrote a song which speaks deeply to my heart what the true heart of a believer is to be.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
Monday, April 12, 2010
When we walk through the fire
Isaiah 43:2
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.
Today the Lord spoke to me that nothing could harm those whose walk is upright before Him.
Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
That is not to say that things which would normally be harmful will not come into their life. In fact the very way that God uses to show us and others His power is precisely by letting things happen in our lives which normally would destroy us.
Think about it for a while with the stories of the Bible in mind and you will see what I mean. Almost every person in the Bible experienced something that should have left them devastated and yet they were saved by God. We call Jesus savior and that is what he loves to be. He has been doing it since the dawn of history.
The Bible stories little children love most are the ones about God saving people from terrible things. Noah being saved from the flood in the Ark. Moses getting saved from the edict of Pharoah to kill all the firstborn Hebrews in a floating basket, David being saved from Goliath, Jonah being saved from the great fish, Daniel being saved from the lion's den and my favorite Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego being saved from the firey furnace.
The last one gives the real reason we can walk through our own firey furnaces and not be burned.
Daniel 3:20 He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. 22 For this reason, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. 23 But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. 24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, "Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?" They replied to the king, "Certainly, O king." 25 He said, "Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!"
I think the reason little children love these stories so much is that they are still able to believe that they happened just like the story says. Somehow as we grow up we lose the wonderful awe of life and we can easily dismiss them as just children's stories.
I believe that the stories are based on historical realities. For children the wonder of imagination can let them believe almost anything. For us as adults we make a rational choice based on revelation to believe them.
I believe that three men were thrown into a furnace so hot that those who threw them in died. I believe that three men went in but a fourth man joined them. I believe that same fourth man joins us in our firey furnaces and we come out unharmed..... not even the smell of the fire on us.
I believe that fourth man was not "like" a son of the gods. I believe he was the son of the living God - Jesus.
I was talking to a friend yesterday whose marriage is going through difficult times. She asked me what I would do if I were her. I told her to remember when she first gave her heart to Jesus. I knew her when that happened. I remember how wonderful life was for her even though things were difficult. I remember how she would worship him without reserve and what joy she experienced in her love for him and his love for her. I then asked what had changed? She understood immediately what I was saying.
You see I believe that if we remain in the wonder of our first encounter with Jesus nothing can touch us. It is only when we lose our first love that the days begin to be long, our relationships take the place he once held and finally we can be bored of everything that used to represent him to us.
That's just how it happens with human relationships. The joy of our first love only goes away because we take it for granted and we stop living in gratitude.
It is the presence of the Lord in our lives that keeps us from the fires of life and hell.
The three young men who were thrown into the fire were willing to die to follow him. That is because they loved him.
Loving Jesus does not keep us from the fire. It lets him walk through the fire with us.
When I was young in the faith and still worried about going to hell I realized that even if I were in hell and he was with me even hell would be endurable. And that is true. Hell is not hell because of fire. Hell is what is is because God is not there. Hell is the complete absence of God.
Today again I saw that the Joy of the Lord keeps us in the centre of God's will. Nothing can take the place of Joy. If we sacrifice it for the cares of the world we will become unfruitful.
Matthew 13:22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
In times of deep trial it seems as if Joy is not appropriate. Yet it is the very thing which will keep us safe in God. Joy is not happiness..... happiness is based on happenings...... Joy is based on Yahweh. The actual word comes from His name. Sorrow is not the opposite of Joy. In fact we can experience the greatest joys in the middle of our greatests sorrows. This is because Joy comes from knowing that Jesus is with us in our sorrows.
How often have I watched a little one hurt themselves. Immediately they cry out to be held by the one who they love the most on earth.... their mommy. When she is there and holds them the pain does not go away but a marvelous thing always happens. The child begins to relax. Soon they quiet. If the pain is great they will gently sob as they hold on to her. If they think she is about to leave they begin to cry more loudly.
I have sat at the bedside of many people who are dying. What morphine cannot do, the presence of a deeply loved spouse or friend does. In spite of the severity of the disease, having someone they love be with them, holding their hand or embracing them brings a peace that nothing else can.
This is what I understand to be the primary experience of Joy. It is that intangible help that we are given when we are with the one we love and know loves us. The greatest Joy is found in Jesus. It can take us through the most severe trials we can ever imagine facing. It can make our days radiantly beautiful when they normal and commonplace.
So how do we walk through the fire and it not burn us? The same way three men did it centuries ago - By letting Jesus be the one who we stay close to when we are going through it.
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.
Today the Lord spoke to me that nothing could harm those whose walk is upright before Him.
Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
That is not to say that things which would normally be harmful will not come into their life. In fact the very way that God uses to show us and others His power is precisely by letting things happen in our lives which normally would destroy us.
Think about it for a while with the stories of the Bible in mind and you will see what I mean. Almost every person in the Bible experienced something that should have left them devastated and yet they were saved by God. We call Jesus savior and that is what he loves to be. He has been doing it since the dawn of history.
The Bible stories little children love most are the ones about God saving people from terrible things. Noah being saved from the flood in the Ark. Moses getting saved from the edict of Pharoah to kill all the firstborn Hebrews in a floating basket, David being saved from Goliath, Jonah being saved from the great fish, Daniel being saved from the lion's den and my favorite Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego being saved from the firey furnace.
The last one gives the real reason we can walk through our own firey furnaces and not be burned.
Daniel 3:20 He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. 22 For this reason, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. 23 But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. 24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, "Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?" They replied to the king, "Certainly, O king." 25 He said, "Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!"
I think the reason little children love these stories so much is that they are still able to believe that they happened just like the story says. Somehow as we grow up we lose the wonderful awe of life and we can easily dismiss them as just children's stories.
I believe that the stories are based on historical realities. For children the wonder of imagination can let them believe almost anything. For us as adults we make a rational choice based on revelation to believe them.
I believe that three men were thrown into a furnace so hot that those who threw them in died. I believe that three men went in but a fourth man joined them. I believe that same fourth man joins us in our firey furnaces and we come out unharmed..... not even the smell of the fire on us.
I believe that fourth man was not "like" a son of the gods. I believe he was the son of the living God - Jesus.
I was talking to a friend yesterday whose marriage is going through difficult times. She asked me what I would do if I were her. I told her to remember when she first gave her heart to Jesus. I knew her when that happened. I remember how wonderful life was for her even though things were difficult. I remember how she would worship him without reserve and what joy she experienced in her love for him and his love for her. I then asked what had changed? She understood immediately what I was saying.
You see I believe that if we remain in the wonder of our first encounter with Jesus nothing can touch us. It is only when we lose our first love that the days begin to be long, our relationships take the place he once held and finally we can be bored of everything that used to represent him to us.
That's just how it happens with human relationships. The joy of our first love only goes away because we take it for granted and we stop living in gratitude.
It is the presence of the Lord in our lives that keeps us from the fires of life and hell.
The three young men who were thrown into the fire were willing to die to follow him. That is because they loved him.
Loving Jesus does not keep us from the fire. It lets him walk through the fire with us.
When I was young in the faith and still worried about going to hell I realized that even if I were in hell and he was with me even hell would be endurable. And that is true. Hell is not hell because of fire. Hell is what is is because God is not there. Hell is the complete absence of God.
Today again I saw that the Joy of the Lord keeps us in the centre of God's will. Nothing can take the place of Joy. If we sacrifice it for the cares of the world we will become unfruitful.
Matthew 13:22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
In times of deep trial it seems as if Joy is not appropriate. Yet it is the very thing which will keep us safe in God. Joy is not happiness..... happiness is based on happenings...... Joy is based on Yahweh. The actual word comes from His name. Sorrow is not the opposite of Joy. In fact we can experience the greatest joys in the middle of our greatests sorrows. This is because Joy comes from knowing that Jesus is with us in our sorrows.
How often have I watched a little one hurt themselves. Immediately they cry out to be held by the one who they love the most on earth.... their mommy. When she is there and holds them the pain does not go away but a marvelous thing always happens. The child begins to relax. Soon they quiet. If the pain is great they will gently sob as they hold on to her. If they think she is about to leave they begin to cry more loudly.
I have sat at the bedside of many people who are dying. What morphine cannot do, the presence of a deeply loved spouse or friend does. In spite of the severity of the disease, having someone they love be with them, holding their hand or embracing them brings a peace that nothing else can.
This is what I understand to be the primary experience of Joy. It is that intangible help that we are given when we are with the one we love and know loves us. The greatest Joy is found in Jesus. It can take us through the most severe trials we can ever imagine facing. It can make our days radiantly beautiful when they normal and commonplace.
So how do we walk through the fire and it not burn us? The same way three men did it centuries ago - By letting Jesus be the one who we stay close to when we are going through it.
He Lives Forever to make Intercession for Us!
Hebrews 7:25Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Yesterday during the service our youth worship team was singing a song that has the lyrics - I'll go where you go, I'll say what you say, I'll pray what you pray. A member of the congregation came to me and said he was having a hard time understanding how we can pray what He prays. He said. "God doesn't pray to Himself does He?"
First let me say that I commended this person for not wanting to confess with his lips in song something that is not accurate biblically. I have changed the words of some worship songs because of this. What we proclaim needs to be accurate biblically. There is great power in the spoken word to plant things in our minds. It is even greater when it is sung.
I was delighted to tell him that Jesus does indeed continue to pray for his beloved church. I found such delight this morning as I continued to meditate on that thought. Jesus is interceeding before the Father for us. What an encouraging thought. We are so cared for by the Lord that he continually talks about us to Father God. I can imagine a few things that he might be saying right now.
Carie and I often talk about our children. Those conversations are always filled with a desire that they succeed. We talk about the futures we can envision for them, what our concerns are for the building of those futures and we often pray that God will help them and help us to help them. Our love for them is right there when we are talking about their shortcomings and failures as well. We are constantly sharing a desire for their success. I am sure that these are the same kinds of conversations that go on in heaven between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
So when we say we will pray what he prays we enter into that heavenly conversation.
Another way that we pray what he prays is by allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us:
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
When we are united with the Lord the Holy Spirit joins with our Spirit to create a new being.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
In this wonderful union, if we allow him, the Spirit of God will actually pray through us:
Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
What a wonderful provision! As we open our souls and bodies and are surrendered to the Spirit of God he prays perfect prayers through us.
How often can that happen.... always!
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
If God has told us to pray without ceasing we know that the Holy Spirit will always be ready to pray through us. All we have to do is open our mouth and let him fill it.
Today I am so encouraged to know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are praying for the worldwide body of Christ. That includes you and me. I am so blessed when I hear from someone that they are praying for me. It gives me confidence. How much more that we are being prayed for both in heaven by our savior directly going to the Father and here on earth as the Holy Spirit births prayers through each other that are perfect.
Yesterday during the service our youth worship team was singing a song that has the lyrics - I'll go where you go, I'll say what you say, I'll pray what you pray. A member of the congregation came to me and said he was having a hard time understanding how we can pray what He prays. He said. "God doesn't pray to Himself does He?"
First let me say that I commended this person for not wanting to confess with his lips in song something that is not accurate biblically. I have changed the words of some worship songs because of this. What we proclaim needs to be accurate biblically. There is great power in the spoken word to plant things in our minds. It is even greater when it is sung.
I was delighted to tell him that Jesus does indeed continue to pray for his beloved church. I found such delight this morning as I continued to meditate on that thought. Jesus is interceeding before the Father for us. What an encouraging thought. We are so cared for by the Lord that he continually talks about us to Father God. I can imagine a few things that he might be saying right now.
Carie and I often talk about our children. Those conversations are always filled with a desire that they succeed. We talk about the futures we can envision for them, what our concerns are for the building of those futures and we often pray that God will help them and help us to help them. Our love for them is right there when we are talking about their shortcomings and failures as well. We are constantly sharing a desire for their success. I am sure that these are the same kinds of conversations that go on in heaven between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
So when we say we will pray what he prays we enter into that heavenly conversation.
Another way that we pray what he prays is by allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us:
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
When we are united with the Lord the Holy Spirit joins with our Spirit to create a new being.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
In this wonderful union, if we allow him, the Spirit of God will actually pray through us:
Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
What a wonderful provision! As we open our souls and bodies and are surrendered to the Spirit of God he prays perfect prayers through us.
How often can that happen.... always!
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
If God has told us to pray without ceasing we know that the Holy Spirit will always be ready to pray through us. All we have to do is open our mouth and let him fill it.
Today I am so encouraged to know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are praying for the worldwide body of Christ. That includes you and me. I am so blessed when I hear from someone that they are praying for me. It gives me confidence. How much more that we are being prayed for both in heaven by our savior directly going to the Father and here on earth as the Holy Spirit births prayers through each other that are perfect.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
God's Sovereignty?
I Corinthians 15:21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
One of the great tragedies of Western Theology has been the linking of the God of the Bible with determinism Greek and Roman pantheism and pagan animism. The odd mixture that has come out from this unholy alliance has been a confused view of the world and an even more confused view of God.
I read and hear deeply troubling expositions on the supposed acts of God in history that leave me puzzled as to whether or not the people expressing the thoughts have ever stepped back and listened to what they were saying. I also wonder if they have ever listened to what Jesus says.
The latest one blames Haiti's earthquake and the resultant devastation of lives on God's intervention to punish a "pact with the devil" made during Haiti's independence. No one can even actually point to the actual historical record of the pact being made but even if it was is this how we believe God acts in the world? Jesus didn't.
Luke 13:1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? 3 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Jesus did not see the world in the neatly packaged way most religious people do. God's Justice is not irrefutably acted out in every circumstance of life. That is animism. It sees the events of the physical world being directly ordered by a god. It makes no distinction between the will of God and the events of life. It is a mixing of the physical and the spiritual in a way that debases both.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.
The Hebrew word translated "chance" by every English bible is paga. פֶּ×’ַ×¢ It means a random occurrence. It is not luck, it is not fortune, it is not predetermined by God. It is a random act.The Bible says these random acts come from the collective rebellion of humans against God - sin.
But western theologians in an effort to explain evil and to view it in a less horrific way than it really is turned to determinism to explain history. They shrank back from the thought that human volition was responsible for all evil in the world and in the end blamed God for it. But the Bible does not teach this. It clearly teaches that death, pain suffering and all evil arises from human choice to go their own way rather than God's. The earthquake in Haiti is a result of human sin but not necessarily Haitian sin. The collective sin of humanity starting with the first humans is the answer to the problem of evil. These are not acts of God they are acts of humanity without God.
It is almost impossible for us to extract our theology from the deterministic mindset that has been placed upon Christians for centuries. Jesus did not hold that deterministic world view. Nor should we.
Seeing the world deterministically solves a few problems but only at the expense of creating monstrous images of God at the fringes. Take for instance the ancient practice of killing children in a place right outside of Jerusalem. It was a small valley belonging to the family of Hinnom. In Hebrew it was call Gey (valley) Hinnom (of Hinnom). By the time Jesus visited Jerusalem it was Aramaicized as Gehenna. It is found directly it in these verses:
Matt.5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.
Matt.5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
Matt.5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
Matt.10:28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Matt.18:9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.
Matt.23:15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.
Matt.23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
Mark 9:43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.
Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna
Luke 12:5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna
James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.
Further it is spoken of in Revelation as the Lake of Fire.
It is what we today call Hell - the lake of fire.
Because of the wickedness practiced in the Valley of Hinnom it became a desecrated parcel of land that was Jerusalem's garbage dump. At night the continual fires of spontaneous combustion lit the whole area. By day maggots and worms openly ate the refuse. This was the symbol Jesus used for the final condition and resting place for those who refused to turn (repent) away from sin and turn to him.
But notice that the acts which so defiled this place were not God's desire:
Jeremiah 7:31 "They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.
Now let your faith that the scriptures are the Word of the Living God and can be trusted fully take hold of your mind right now and see what they tell us. God did not desire for people to put their precious children on to the altars of Baal they erected in the Valley of Hinnom. He did not desire for them to burn them while still alive in a demonic sacrifice to a god that was murderous. Their hearts were so calloused by their deception that they could not have compassion on the most innocent and helpless beings on earth..... their own children.
The Bible says this horror did not even come into His mind.
It was not an act of His sovereignty. It was not something He stood by and did nothing about. It was the act of a depraved humanity that rebelled against His will and brought about actions which He hates.
There is another will that has been allowed to be expressed in the universe.
God placed the world under the authority of human beings:
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Psalm 8:4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
It is clear that the Bible tells us where all these wicked acts that human beings do come from. They come from the heart of the humans that God allowed to have the rule over all He created.
That is why Jesus had to come as a man. If the world were still under the direct control of God Jesus would not have had to become a man. But God had by His own decree placed the world under the authority of human beings. Where humans allow their lives to be ruled by God His will prevails. Where humans allow their lives to be ruled by their own lusts or worse, by the devil, God's will is not done.
To see everything that happens as somehow a part of God's purpose and plan in anyway but redemptively leaves a picture of God that is beyond imagination evil.
The monstrous heart that could take a precious child, rape her, kill her and then subject the body God created for her to gross indignities is something that God hates supremely. Like those who murdered their children in Gehenna, He did not even think of the deed. The part that God plays in this horrible wickedness is to redeem it with His own son's life.
By Jesus living a sinless life he won back the authority of the planet to himself:
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, " All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
He will one day make right what has been done wrong.
This is God's sovereignty - He will redeem everything that has ever been done..... but not today.
The cost to God to be able to win back a world in chaos was the suffering of Jesus and those who have followed him since his resurrection who continue to suffer for the message to be proclaimed. Our great hope is not yet realized. Jesus is not yet ruling over death but one day he will. When that day comes his sovereignty will be fulfilled. We will live in a world free from evil.
Revelation 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
Friday, April 9, 2010
An Apostolic Church - Devoted To the Apostle's Teaching - Apostles
APOSTLES
Matthew 10:1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. 2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth. . . .
JESUS WAS THE FIRST APOSTLE
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
APOSTLES ARE APPOINTED BY GOD
II Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. . . .
I Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
APOSTLES ARE SET APART FOR GOD'S GOOD NEWS
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.
JESUS WAS THE ONE WHO FIRST CALLED MEN APOSTLES
Luke 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
JESUS SENDS APOSTLES
Luke 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
THERE WERE MORE THAN TWELVE APOSTLES
MATTHIAS
Acts 1:26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
BARNABAS AND PAUL
Acts 14:14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard . . .
ANDRONICUS AND JUNIAS
Romans 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
APOSTLES ARE FIRST OF ALL SERVANTS (DEACONS)
II Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
APOSTLES CAN HAVE OTHER GIFTINGS
PAUL WAS ALSO A TEACHER
II Timothy 1:11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
THE MARKS OF AN APOSTLE ARE SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES AND PERSECUTION
II Corinthians 12:12 The things that mark an apostle signs, wonders and miracles were done among you with great perseverance.
I Corinthians 4:9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.
APOSTLES ARE GIVEN SPECIAL POWER
Acts 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Acts 5:12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. . . 14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) 15 Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. 16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.
Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: . . . 17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
APOSTLES ARE GIVEN SPECIAL PROTECTION FROM THE LORD
Acts 5:19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. . . . 23 Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
APOSTLES ARE GIVEN A SPECIAL INTIMACY WITH THE LORD
Luke 22:14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: 16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
APOSTLES ARE GIVEN A SPECIAL REVELATION OF HIS RESURRECTION
Acts 1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Ephesians 3:4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
APOSTLES ARE THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
Ephesians 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
APOSTLES RECOGNIZE AND APPROVE LEADERSHIP
Acts 9:26 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 28 And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
APOSTLES LAY HANDS ON OTHERS FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY
Acts 6:6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
APOSTLES ARE THE SPOKESPERSONS OF THE CHURCH
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
THE APOSTLE'S WORD IS THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
APOSTLES MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT DOCTRINE
Acts 16:4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.
APOSTLES CALL PEOPLE TO OBEDIENCE
Romans 1:5 Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
APOSTLES HAVE DIFFERENT MINISTRIES AND GROUPS THEY ARE OVER
Galatians 2:8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.
I Corinthians 9:2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
THERE ARE FALSE APOSTLES
II Corinthians 11:12 . . . those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
APOSTLES MUST CENTRE ON THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD AND PRAYER
Acts 6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
APOSTLES MUST NOT FEAR MEN
Acts 5:27 . . . the high priest asked them, 28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
APOSTLES MUST REJOICE IN SUFFERING
Acts 5:40 . . . when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
APOSTLES MUST REALIZE THEIR DEPENDENCY ON JESUS
Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
APOSTLES MUST REALIZE THEIR DEPENDENCY ON OTHERS IN THE BODY
Luke 24:10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. 12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
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