Psalm 107:12
Therefore he brought down their heart with labour (Strong’s H5999 amal-toil); they fell down, and there was none to help.
You know, the Israelites were a proud bunch of people, to the point of flaunting their arrogance before God (Exodus 19:8). So what did He do? He gave them the Law, not so they could prove to Him how good they could be, but so that God could prove to them how flawed they really were. The fact was this: Israel was being blessed, delivered, and prospered by God without Law in their lives and instead of accepting their grace-filled status with God, the people chose to have a merit-based system by which they were continually proven to be not worthy!
God gave them His requirements for holiness, which they were not able to keep. His Law did nothing but place the burden of becoming holy on the people. As a result they became distraught and dismayed. The harder they worked, the more they failed. There was no one to help them; the Law was set in stone and could not bend. A year of doing good, containing just one single moment of indiscretion, would still lead to sin and condemnation. There was no hope, no freedom.
They thought they had it bad in Egypt being physical slaves to Pharaoh, but now they were spiritual slaves to God’s Law. Their daily sacrifices, purification ceremonies, and priestly routines only served to further their indebtedness to God. The harder they tried to be holy, the more they failed miserably. Why? Because the Law itself gives strength to sin and sinful desires (1 Corinthians 15:56). It is divinely designed to show imperfections and the need for a Savior (Galatians 3:24-25). But there was no one to help them, not yet anyway...
Then it happened: Jesus Christ was born and salvation has come. He lived a perfect life under the perfect Law and never failed to keep it perfectly. And, unlike the stone tablets that don’t bend, that can’t help, Christ made every day of His human existence all about help. He raised the dead, healed the sick, made the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear. He fed the hungry. He saved the condemned from stoning and blessed everyone He came in contact with.
Christ came to fulfill the Law and save all of humanity from its reign over our lives. He came to give us the help that was so desperately desired under Law. He voluntarily took our burdens, that is, our spiritual need to fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law to be right with God, and in return gave us His perfection (2 Corinthians 5:21). He did all of these things out of the love in His heart and the Grace in His mind. There is nothing that we can do aside from accept that it is finished according to His words on the cross and live a productive, grace-filled life based on His unmerited favor!
I can’t put it any better than the way Jesus Himself said it.
Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour (Strong’s G2872 kopiao-toil) and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Bread
Ruth 2:4
Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered him, “The LORD bless you!”
We often times speak of Boaz as a type of Jesus. He’s an Old Testament shadow of the Christ who was to come. So, in this line of thinking, it’s only fitting that Boaz would come from Bethlehem, where our King, the one true Jesus was born.
Interestingly enough, that’s not the point of this writing, just an added “ah-ha” for you to ponder. The real point here is in the word Bethlehem. The Hebrew word is made of two separate words, “bayith” meaning house, and “lechem” meaning bread. Put them together and you have a “House of bread”. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Nothing is left to the imagination with God. It’s all plain and simple. Reading the Bible isn’t and shouldn’t be a challenge, as it’s commonly taught. “I challenge you to read such and such passage and see what the scripture reveals.” These rules and regulations that we pull from the Bible aren’t at all the purpose for its printed text. If God was determined to have us live by the rules He established and know Him only as a tyrant king who loves and blesses based on works, He would have never put away the Ten Commandments.
Yes, put away the Ten Commandments. Even in the Old Testament God told the people to put the Commandments in the Ark and cover them with the Mercy Seat. If God had wanted those Commandments to be paraded around and thrown in the faces of the people, shouldn’t we assume that He would have ordered them placed on the walls of the Tabernacle?
This compilation of 66 books that we call the Bible was put together in Holy Spirit-inspired order to reveal one thing to us: Jesus Christ. Every verse, every word, every phrase, every name, every city, every mark of punctuation was placed in order to reveal to us the nature and true friendship found in Jesus Christ. This is what a relationship with Christ is, not a continual searching of scripture to find out how to be a better person.
These stories in the Old Testament are full of Christ. Yes, there are practical life lessons to be found, but the purpose of the stories is to reveal Jesus to us. Here, Boaz plays the part. We know the story: he redeems Ruth and provides for her and abundance in her life. He takes her as his own and gives her all according to his riches. But before that, Boaz came to her from Bethlehem.
You see, God knew that we would be able to draw the obvious parallel between Boaz and Ruth and Christ and the Church. Just to ensure that we would know that to be the reason for the story, He even made His redeemer come to the redeemed from Bethlehem. This is how awesome God is; this is how well planned His scriptures are.
So, during this Christmas season, remember that unto you is born a Savior. In the little city of Bethlehem, the house of bread, you’ll find the Bread of Life wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger (where grain is placed to feed the sheep). Come on, do I need to keep going?
Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered him, “The LORD bless you!”
We often times speak of Boaz as a type of Jesus. He’s an Old Testament shadow of the Christ who was to come. So, in this line of thinking, it’s only fitting that Boaz would come from Bethlehem, where our King, the one true Jesus was born.
Interestingly enough, that’s not the point of this writing, just an added “ah-ha” for you to ponder. The real point here is in the word Bethlehem. The Hebrew word is made of two separate words, “bayith” meaning house, and “lechem” meaning bread. Put them together and you have a “House of bread”. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Nothing is left to the imagination with God. It’s all plain and simple. Reading the Bible isn’t and shouldn’t be a challenge, as it’s commonly taught. “I challenge you to read such and such passage and see what the scripture reveals.” These rules and regulations that we pull from the Bible aren’t at all the purpose for its printed text. If God was determined to have us live by the rules He established and know Him only as a tyrant king who loves and blesses based on works, He would have never put away the Ten Commandments.
Yes, put away the Ten Commandments. Even in the Old Testament God told the people to put the Commandments in the Ark and cover them with the Mercy Seat. If God had wanted those Commandments to be paraded around and thrown in the faces of the people, shouldn’t we assume that He would have ordered them placed on the walls of the Tabernacle?
This compilation of 66 books that we call the Bible was put together in Holy Spirit-inspired order to reveal one thing to us: Jesus Christ. Every verse, every word, every phrase, every name, every city, every mark of punctuation was placed in order to reveal to us the nature and true friendship found in Jesus Christ. This is what a relationship with Christ is, not a continual searching of scripture to find out how to be a better person.
These stories in the Old Testament are full of Christ. Yes, there are practical life lessons to be found, but the purpose of the stories is to reveal Jesus to us. Here, Boaz plays the part. We know the story: he redeems Ruth and provides for her and abundance in her life. He takes her as his own and gives her all according to his riches. But before that, Boaz came to her from Bethlehem.
You see, God knew that we would be able to draw the obvious parallel between Boaz and Ruth and Christ and the Church. Just to ensure that we would know that to be the reason for the story, He even made His redeemer come to the redeemed from Bethlehem. This is how awesome God is; this is how well planned His scriptures are.
So, during this Christmas season, remember that unto you is born a Savior. In the little city of Bethlehem, the house of bread, you’ll find the Bread of Life wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger (where grain is placed to feed the sheep). Come on, do I need to keep going?
Friday, December 23, 2011
Reminders
Psalm 103:2-5
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
It’s verses like this that really get me fired up. Would you like to know why? Because we are constantly forgetting all of these things. We’re so busy reminding ourselves of the laws and rules that have been established that we completely forget about the benefits of being children of God! That’s right, not servants or slaves: CHILDREN! We are heirs to His throne, in Christ (Romans 8:17), who is the fulfillment of the law and the end of its authority over us (Romans 10:4).
Because these things are true, we are the beneficiaries of His will. We know, from our own society, that in order to be a beneficiary, someone must have died. In this case, that someone was Jesus Christ. He died our death on the cross and bequeathed to us all that the Father had written in His will.
It seems that all too often we act as though we’re confused about God’s will for our lives. We pray words like, “Lord, if You’re willing...” as if God isn’t willing. Folks, we’re talking about a God who chose to sacrifice Himself to restore our relationship with Him. We should never have to question whether or not He is willing! We’ve seen His willingness demonstrated in every aspect of Jesus’ life. He healed (Matthew 8:3), raised from the dead (John 11:43-44), and prospered the people (John 6:10-13). Christ’s own words are “I came that they may have life...” (John 10:10).
This is where we need the preaching in our lives: a daily, hourly, even moment-by-moment reminder that we are heirs to all the benefits of God! We don’t need to hear reminders of how sinful we are. We don’t need to hear messages about how to get back on the right track. We need to be constantly reminded of what Jesus did, who He is, and what He gave us!
This is the Gospel that gives the peace that Jesus spoke of (John 14:27), not as this world gives, but as a gracious and loving Savior gives: freely! The world expects work in order to receive redemption. The world expects work in order to provide a pay check and a roof. The world expects an apology before it considers forgiveness. Jesus, my Jesus, the Savior born on Christmas day, expects nothing.
Freely He gives. He forgave all of our sins, removed all guilt, and took all of our punishment. He continually heals all of our diseases. He saves us from destruction, while imparting grace and favor in our lives. He is our source of nutrition and our provider. He renews our strength.
Don’t forget these things; they are the fertilizer of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)! Faith isn’t works, actions, or a feeling. Faith, as Joseph Prince says, is simply having a good opinion of God. Well, friends, these verses should pretty much solidify a good opinion of God. He gives all and asks nothing in return!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
It’s verses like this that really get me fired up. Would you like to know why? Because we are constantly forgetting all of these things. We’re so busy reminding ourselves of the laws and rules that have been established that we completely forget about the benefits of being children of God! That’s right, not servants or slaves: CHILDREN! We are heirs to His throne, in Christ (Romans 8:17), who is the fulfillment of the law and the end of its authority over us (Romans 10:4).
Because these things are true, we are the beneficiaries of His will. We know, from our own society, that in order to be a beneficiary, someone must have died. In this case, that someone was Jesus Christ. He died our death on the cross and bequeathed to us all that the Father had written in His will.
It seems that all too often we act as though we’re confused about God’s will for our lives. We pray words like, “Lord, if You’re willing...” as if God isn’t willing. Folks, we’re talking about a God who chose to sacrifice Himself to restore our relationship with Him. We should never have to question whether or not He is willing! We’ve seen His willingness demonstrated in every aspect of Jesus’ life. He healed (Matthew 8:3), raised from the dead (John 11:43-44), and prospered the people (John 6:10-13). Christ’s own words are “I came that they may have life...” (John 10:10).
This is where we need the preaching in our lives: a daily, hourly, even moment-by-moment reminder that we are heirs to all the benefits of God! We don’t need to hear reminders of how sinful we are. We don’t need to hear messages about how to get back on the right track. We need to be constantly reminded of what Jesus did, who He is, and what He gave us!
This is the Gospel that gives the peace that Jesus spoke of (John 14:27), not as this world gives, but as a gracious and loving Savior gives: freely! The world expects work in order to receive redemption. The world expects work in order to provide a pay check and a roof. The world expects an apology before it considers forgiveness. Jesus, my Jesus, the Savior born on Christmas day, expects nothing.
Freely He gives. He forgave all of our sins, removed all guilt, and took all of our punishment. He continually heals all of our diseases. He saves us from destruction, while imparting grace and favor in our lives. He is our source of nutrition and our provider. He renews our strength.
Don’t forget these things; they are the fertilizer of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)! Faith isn’t works, actions, or a feeling. Faith, as Joseph Prince says, is simply having a good opinion of God. Well, friends, these verses should pretty much solidify a good opinion of God. He gives all and asks nothing in return!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Is that what you're wearing?
Zechariah 3:4
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
When I get dressed to go to work in the morning there is a certain outfit that I have to put on. It consists of various layers of polyester, wrapped around Kevlar, overlaid with leather, and garnished with weapons. I wear this outfit because it is the uniform that I am required to wear as a State Trooper. It doesn’t matter how I feel when I wake up in the morning, whether sad or happy, angry or silly; I have to wear the uniform. Rain or shine, twelve below, or one hundred and three degrees, I must adhere to policy and wear the outfit.
I’m sure that we’ve all had to wear a uniform at some point in our lives or at least seen someone else wearing a uniform. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard all have uniforms. The cashier at Sheetz has a uniform and the greeter at Wal-Mart has a uniform. From McDonald’s to Gold’s Gym, uniforms define the employee.
When we put on a uniform, we become who the uniform dictates we are. For me, this means I have to put aside the fun-loving, always joking, ready to just be crazy Gary, and become a picture of the law: firm and unbending. Perhaps it’s different for you. What do you become when you put on your uniform and go to work?
Just like we have our own perceptions of ourselves in our uniforms, those who don’t wear our uniform have their own perception of us when we’re in our uniform. Sometimes this can be negative and sometimes positive. And, like those people seeing and judging us based on our uniform, we also judge (subconsciously at times) others based on their uniforms or even just their choice in clothing.
The point is this: we allow the clothes we wear and the uniforms we don to define who we are and dictate how we act. Whether good or bad, this is how it is. Well, I have some wonderful news about you and me and what we are wearing today!
When Christ died on the cross He gave us His righteousness. A lot of time we hear this referred to as His “Robe of Righteousness”. Christ even teaches a parable that illustrates this spiritual gift (Luke 15:22 The Prodigal Son). Since we are wearing His righteousness, we have every right to define ourselves accordingly. Just like when we put on that uniform and allow it to dictate who we are, we can KNOW that we ARE righteous because Christ has made us righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Hand in hand with this realization comes our view of others: we’re all wearing the same clothes!
It’s too easy to get out of bed and allow the world’s view, Satan’s manipulations, to creep in and sabotage your day. But the truth is, no matter what, you are righteous and you are wearing righteousness. Let your clothing define you! Allow your clothing to dictate who you are, not your circumstances or your struggles. When you sin, and you will (trust me, I’m good at this one), simply remind yourself that you are clothed in His righteousness and are therefore righteous!
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
When I get dressed to go to work in the morning there is a certain outfit that I have to put on. It consists of various layers of polyester, wrapped around Kevlar, overlaid with leather, and garnished with weapons. I wear this outfit because it is the uniform that I am required to wear as a State Trooper. It doesn’t matter how I feel when I wake up in the morning, whether sad or happy, angry or silly; I have to wear the uniform. Rain or shine, twelve below, or one hundred and three degrees, I must adhere to policy and wear the outfit.
I’m sure that we’ve all had to wear a uniform at some point in our lives or at least seen someone else wearing a uniform. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard all have uniforms. The cashier at Sheetz has a uniform and the greeter at Wal-Mart has a uniform. From McDonald’s to Gold’s Gym, uniforms define the employee.
When we put on a uniform, we become who the uniform dictates we are. For me, this means I have to put aside the fun-loving, always joking, ready to just be crazy Gary, and become a picture of the law: firm and unbending. Perhaps it’s different for you. What do you become when you put on your uniform and go to work?
Just like we have our own perceptions of ourselves in our uniforms, those who don’t wear our uniform have their own perception of us when we’re in our uniform. Sometimes this can be negative and sometimes positive. And, like those people seeing and judging us based on our uniform, we also judge (subconsciously at times) others based on their uniforms or even just their choice in clothing.
The point is this: we allow the clothes we wear and the uniforms we don to define who we are and dictate how we act. Whether good or bad, this is how it is. Well, I have some wonderful news about you and me and what we are wearing today!
When Christ died on the cross He gave us His righteousness. A lot of time we hear this referred to as His “Robe of Righteousness”. Christ even teaches a parable that illustrates this spiritual gift (Luke 15:22 The Prodigal Son). Since we are wearing His righteousness, we have every right to define ourselves accordingly. Just like when we put on that uniform and allow it to dictate who we are, we can KNOW that we ARE righteous because Christ has made us righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Hand in hand with this realization comes our view of others: we’re all wearing the same clothes!
It’s too easy to get out of bed and allow the world’s view, Satan’s manipulations, to creep in and sabotage your day. But the truth is, no matter what, you are righteous and you are wearing righteousness. Let your clothing define you! Allow your clothing to dictate who you are, not your circumstances or your struggles. When you sin, and you will (trust me, I’m good at this one), simply remind yourself that you are clothed in His righteousness and are therefore righteous!
Friday, December 16, 2011
To: You Love: Jesus
1 Corinthians 2:12
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
I always find it fun to open presents on Christmas morning. After staring at them wrapped up under the tree for what seems like an eternity, it’s nice to finally get to tear into that paper and see what’s inside. I can only assume that everyone feels the same way.
At the same time, don’t we feel a great deal of joy just watching others open the presents that they’ve been given? It doesn’t really matter if they are from us or not; it is just fun to watch others open gifts. Of course, it’s even more exciting to watch people open the gifts that you have selected for them. What a great blessing: to watch and see the delight in someone’s face when they open the gift you have carefully chosen just for them.
That period of time leading up to Christmas, however, can be a bit unnerving, especially if you’re a kid. I can remember growing up and feeling as though I was going to explode waiting to see what was under the tree for me. Boxes and bags with my name on them that I couldn’t touch. Special things, fun things, things just for me that I was unable to have until a certain time.
Sadly, Christians live their spiritual and physical lives today as though they are little children waiting for Christmas morning to finally arrive. The truth, according to this verse, however, is Christmas has already come. Now we have received, past tense, already done, the Spirit who is from God, the Holy Spirit, Comforter, Helper, that we might know, see, perceive, discover,and experience the things that have been freely given to us by God.
We’re not living in the time before Christmas. More appropriately, we’re not living in the time before Grace. Christ has come! He fulfilled the Law, died our death, and paid our debts, and now sits glorified at the right hand of the Father. When He walked the earth and lived according to the Law, as He was required, Christ made mention of this to His disciples. (“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-15)
The disciples who physically walked the earth with Christ were like kids during the days leading up to Christmas morning. There were blessings and riches untold waiting under the tree for them, but they were all off limits until Easter!
Folks, it’s Christmas! Christ said, “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” What does Christ have? Riches untold, glory, honor, righteousness, health, wealth, prosperity, peace, joy, forgiveness, and love. (The list, I’m sure, goes on for eternity.) What we need to know is this: all of these things have been freely given to us by God. His Spirit has been given to us, to declare in our hearts, that we can KNOW we have all these things. We didn’t work for them, we didn’t earn them. These are the things freely given to us by God. And, just as we love watching others open the gifts we’ve given, Jesus Christ loves when we freely receive all the gifts He’s given to us. Don’t leave them sitting under the tree, waiting to be opened; claim them as yours!
So with that I say, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
I always find it fun to open presents on Christmas morning. After staring at them wrapped up under the tree for what seems like an eternity, it’s nice to finally get to tear into that paper and see what’s inside. I can only assume that everyone feels the same way.
At the same time, don’t we feel a great deal of joy just watching others open the presents that they’ve been given? It doesn’t really matter if they are from us or not; it is just fun to watch others open gifts. Of course, it’s even more exciting to watch people open the gifts that you have selected for them. What a great blessing: to watch and see the delight in someone’s face when they open the gift you have carefully chosen just for them.
That period of time leading up to Christmas, however, can be a bit unnerving, especially if you’re a kid. I can remember growing up and feeling as though I was going to explode waiting to see what was under the tree for me. Boxes and bags with my name on them that I couldn’t touch. Special things, fun things, things just for me that I was unable to have until a certain time.
Sadly, Christians live their spiritual and physical lives today as though they are little children waiting for Christmas morning to finally arrive. The truth, according to this verse, however, is Christmas has already come. Now we have received, past tense, already done, the Spirit who is from God, the Holy Spirit, Comforter, Helper, that we might know, see, perceive, discover,and experience the things that have been freely given to us by God.
We’re not living in the time before Christmas. More appropriately, we’re not living in the time before Grace. Christ has come! He fulfilled the Law, died our death, and paid our debts, and now sits glorified at the right hand of the Father. When He walked the earth and lived according to the Law, as He was required, Christ made mention of this to His disciples. (“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-15)
The disciples who physically walked the earth with Christ were like kids during the days leading up to Christmas morning. There were blessings and riches untold waiting under the tree for them, but they were all off limits until Easter!
Folks, it’s Christmas! Christ said, “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” What does Christ have? Riches untold, glory, honor, righteousness, health, wealth, prosperity, peace, joy, forgiveness, and love. (The list, I’m sure, goes on for eternity.) What we need to know is this: all of these things have been freely given to us by God. His Spirit has been given to us, to declare in our hearts, that we can KNOW we have all these things. We didn’t work for them, we didn’t earn them. These are the things freely given to us by God. And, just as we love watching others open the gifts we’ve given, Jesus Christ loves when we freely receive all the gifts He’s given to us. Don’t leave them sitting under the tree, waiting to be opened; claim them as yours!
So with that I say, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Hands on
Psalm 92:4
For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
When was the last time you looked outside at nature and just found joy in the splendor of God’s creation? Vibrant sunrises and sunsets paint the skies every day around the world. Beautiful moon-lit nights punctuate the wonder of God’s earth. Bright warm sunny days illuminate the fiery colors of fall reflected in the trees. Cardinals float through the air, whales breach off the coast of Alaska, and wild horses run free on the beaches of North Carolina, they are all part of God’s beautiful creation. But not a single one of these things is the work of God’s hands!
All of these things are the works of God’s voice. In Genesis 1 we find that God spoke everything into existence. There was no “hands on” work being done; God spoke, the non-existent became existent. It wasn’t until God made man that He went hands on (Genesis 2:7). The power of God’s voice alone was enough to make the universe and all that is in it. To create mankind, however, God became much more intimate. Out of all of creation, we, people, are the only ones to have been actually formed by God’s touch.
The body you’re in, the mind you possess, and the personality that you have been were all created by the hands of God. He didn’t just speak and you became a person. He took the time to personally form you (Jeremiah 1:5)!
When Jesus walked the earth He fully embraced the hands-on God approach. He wasn’t stand-offish, healing and preaching from a great distance. He didn’t shout across mountaintops, “Be healed, ye leprous man! Have sight, ye blind beggar!” Jesus got up close and personal with the people He intended to heal. He touched the leper and made him well (Mark 1:41). He put His hands over the eyes of a blind man and gave him sight (Mark 8:25). He replaced the ear of a wounded servant who had come to arrest Him (Luke 22:51). Jesus used His hands, the hands of God, to recreate what had been damaged by sin.
These works are nothing, however, when compared to the ultimate work done by God’s hands on Calvary. Jesus, God in the flesh, used His hands to open up the floodgates of Heaven to a lost and broken world. He used His hands to remove the curse of sin and death from our lives. He used His hands to carry the full weight of God’s wrath. He used His hands to place the robe of His righteousness on us and surround us with His grace. He used His hands to fully restore man to a right relationship with God.
We are made glad through God’s works such as sunsets and pretty birds. But more importantly, we are triumphant in the works of His hands. We will triumph in the works of God’s hands (literally our bodies) because we will triumph in the works of God’s hands (Jesus’ crucifixion).
For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
When was the last time you looked outside at nature and just found joy in the splendor of God’s creation? Vibrant sunrises and sunsets paint the skies every day around the world. Beautiful moon-lit nights punctuate the wonder of God’s earth. Bright warm sunny days illuminate the fiery colors of fall reflected in the trees. Cardinals float through the air, whales breach off the coast of Alaska, and wild horses run free on the beaches of North Carolina, they are all part of God’s beautiful creation. But not a single one of these things is the work of God’s hands!
All of these things are the works of God’s voice. In Genesis 1 we find that God spoke everything into existence. There was no “hands on” work being done; God spoke, the non-existent became existent. It wasn’t until God made man that He went hands on (Genesis 2:7). The power of God’s voice alone was enough to make the universe and all that is in it. To create mankind, however, God became much more intimate. Out of all of creation, we, people, are the only ones to have been actually formed by God’s touch.
The body you’re in, the mind you possess, and the personality that you have been were all created by the hands of God. He didn’t just speak and you became a person. He took the time to personally form you (Jeremiah 1:5)!
When Jesus walked the earth He fully embraced the hands-on God approach. He wasn’t stand-offish, healing and preaching from a great distance. He didn’t shout across mountaintops, “Be healed, ye leprous man! Have sight, ye blind beggar!” Jesus got up close and personal with the people He intended to heal. He touched the leper and made him well (Mark 1:41). He put His hands over the eyes of a blind man and gave him sight (Mark 8:25). He replaced the ear of a wounded servant who had come to arrest Him (Luke 22:51). Jesus used His hands, the hands of God, to recreate what had been damaged by sin.
These works are nothing, however, when compared to the ultimate work done by God’s hands on Calvary. Jesus, God in the flesh, used His hands to open up the floodgates of Heaven to a lost and broken world. He used His hands to remove the curse of sin and death from our lives. He used His hands to carry the full weight of God’s wrath. He used His hands to place the robe of His righteousness on us and surround us with His grace. He used His hands to fully restore man to a right relationship with God.
We are made glad through God’s works such as sunsets and pretty birds. But more importantly, we are triumphant in the works of His hands. We will triumph in the works of God’s hands (literally our bodies) because we will triumph in the works of God’s hands (Jesus’ crucifixion).
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Bullet proof vest.
Romans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Is it to be assumed that though Jesus Christ Himself exclaimed on the cross of Calvary, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), there is still work for us to do? I hear a lot of people talk about the Christian life this way. I wonder to myself, where is the rest? Christ came to remove our burdens and take our suffering away (Matthew 11:28). He didn’t come to give us yet another laundry list of dos and don’ts in order to be right with Him.
When a soldier goes into or prepares for battle, there are certain things that he or she must wear. In today’s world some of those things could be a helmet, boots, and an armor plated vest. But I’ll ask you this: is it the soldier or the vest that he is wearing that stops the bullet? Which one does the work? The answer is the vest! If the soldier could stop the bullet, then why wear the vest? This is why we don’t see soldiers doing battle in three piece Armani suits!
If this is the case with modern warfare (and historical battle as well), why do we assume there would be a difference in the spiritual realm? We clothe ourselves with Christ, yet become consumed with doing the work of protecting our minds from sin on our own. It’s as if we’re saying that Christ is just a shell we wear but really has no stopping power. And that’s not true at all!
This verse isn’t calling the Christian to fight against the lusts of the flesh in his own strength. Instead, it is giving the Christian the answer to how to battle through the lusts of the flesh: Jesus Christ. We all struggle somehow in our lives with the lusts of the flesh, that is, the sinful desires of our minds. Alcohol, pornography, depression, anxiety, anger, and drug abuse are just some of the struggles that we all have or have had in the past. But we must come to the realization that there is nothing we can do to fight against these desires. That is why we must put on Christ.
The way I read this verse, putting on Jesus Christ is making no provision for the sinful desires of our minds. It isn’t telling us to put on Jesus and then work hard, focus, concentrate, and obsess with fighting against our sinful nature. That would be no different than telling a soldier to put on a bullet proof vest and then focus all of his attention on stopping the rounds being fired at him. Imagine what war would look like if that’s what all the soldiers were doing. They’d never accomplish any of the objectives of their mission because they’d be too focused on stopping bullets!
The same holds true in our Christian lives. When we put on Christ, but then spend the majority of our time attempting to do the work that He has, is, and will be doing for us, we lose focus on the objective of the mission: spreading the Gospel! We become sin conscious and self-aware and forget about the rest of the world out there that is waiting to hear about Christ.
Friends, the rest that Christ came to give us is from both the physical and the mental stress of having to fight our way through our sinful nature. It is by His blood and by His sacrifice that we have that rest. This is why we are told to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11). The armor is Christ Jesus, in whom we have forgiveness of sins and right standing with God Almighty. By clothing ourselves with Christ and reminding ourselves daily of our standing in Christ, that is, righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), we are protected from the sinful nature that was.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Is it to be assumed that though Jesus Christ Himself exclaimed on the cross of Calvary, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), there is still work for us to do? I hear a lot of people talk about the Christian life this way. I wonder to myself, where is the rest? Christ came to remove our burdens and take our suffering away (Matthew 11:28). He didn’t come to give us yet another laundry list of dos and don’ts in order to be right with Him.
When a soldier goes into or prepares for battle, there are certain things that he or she must wear. In today’s world some of those things could be a helmet, boots, and an armor plated vest. But I’ll ask you this: is it the soldier or the vest that he is wearing that stops the bullet? Which one does the work? The answer is the vest! If the soldier could stop the bullet, then why wear the vest? This is why we don’t see soldiers doing battle in three piece Armani suits!
If this is the case with modern warfare (and historical battle as well), why do we assume there would be a difference in the spiritual realm? We clothe ourselves with Christ, yet become consumed with doing the work of protecting our minds from sin on our own. It’s as if we’re saying that Christ is just a shell we wear but really has no stopping power. And that’s not true at all!
This verse isn’t calling the Christian to fight against the lusts of the flesh in his own strength. Instead, it is giving the Christian the answer to how to battle through the lusts of the flesh: Jesus Christ. We all struggle somehow in our lives with the lusts of the flesh, that is, the sinful desires of our minds. Alcohol, pornography, depression, anxiety, anger, and drug abuse are just some of the struggles that we all have or have had in the past. But we must come to the realization that there is nothing we can do to fight against these desires. That is why we must put on Christ.
The way I read this verse, putting on Jesus Christ is making no provision for the sinful desires of our minds. It isn’t telling us to put on Jesus and then work hard, focus, concentrate, and obsess with fighting against our sinful nature. That would be no different than telling a soldier to put on a bullet proof vest and then focus all of his attention on stopping the rounds being fired at him. Imagine what war would look like if that’s what all the soldiers were doing. They’d never accomplish any of the objectives of their mission because they’d be too focused on stopping bullets!
The same holds true in our Christian lives. When we put on Christ, but then spend the majority of our time attempting to do the work that He has, is, and will be doing for us, we lose focus on the objective of the mission: spreading the Gospel! We become sin conscious and self-aware and forget about the rest of the world out there that is waiting to hear about Christ.
Friends, the rest that Christ came to give us is from both the physical and the mental stress of having to fight our way through our sinful nature. It is by His blood and by His sacrifice that we have that rest. This is why we are told to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11). The armor is Christ Jesus, in whom we have forgiveness of sins and right standing with God Almighty. By clothing ourselves with Christ and reminding ourselves daily of our standing in Christ, that is, righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), we are protected from the sinful nature that was.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Open doors.
Joshua 4:11
Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people.
I’m sure that at some time or another we’ve all had the opportunity to hold the door open for someone, somewhere. It happens to me a lot when I go out with my family. When we’re going into a restaurant, I like to go out ahead of my family and open the door for them (good husband and father moment here). After they have entered the building, I usually follow them in and close the door behind me. Occasionally I stay for an extra minute or two and hold the door a little longer for that couple running across the parking lot in the rain. Either way, I enter after everyone else and the door closes behind me.
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan river it was the Ark of the Covenant, an Old Testament representation of the future human manifestation of Jesus Christ, that went into the river first. The river was overflowing at the time. The Bible tells us that the Jordan River always overflows its banks during the entire time of the harvest (Joshua 3:15). This was no small stream or brook; it was a raging river. As soon as the priests bearing the Ark touched the water, however, God stopped the flow. He pushed back the waters of the river all the way back to a city called Adam (Joshua 3:16), and created a safe place for His children to cross. God’s people were able to cross on dry land.
Those priests stood, with the Ark, in the middle of the river bed until all of Israel had made it safely to the other side. When everyone had crossed, when all they had to do was complete, the priests were finally allowed to step out from the river bed. As soon as their feet touched the shore, the river rushed back into place, once again overflowing its banks and cutting off access to the other side.
Are there raging rivers blocking you in your life, career, family, or finances? Does it seem to be that there is no hope for getting across? Well here’s the Good News: Jesus has already gone in the water for you. He is the Ark, the priests, and God all wrapped up in one. He has prepared the way and promised to come back for you (John 14:2-3). Just like in the story of Israel crossing the Jordan, Jesus has pushed back the torrent of sin, fear, stress, unfruitfulness, and holy separation all the way to Adam, the man. He has righteously and completely restored us to a pre-sin status with God the Father. He has returned us to Eden; He has brought us to the promised land!
There is no one who can close the door (Revelation 3:8). He has gone ahead and prepared the way. He has fought the battle against Satan and won the war. He has conquered sin and death, sickness and disease, and heartache and sorrow so that we can have perfect peace with Him.
Jesus has gone ahead of us; He’s opened the door and is waiting for us to enter. He has seen to it that the rage of the world is held back by His hands in order that we may safely enter His rest. What a blessing that Jesus isn’t going to allow the door to slam shut just before we get there. He’s holding it open and waiting, for you, me, the couple running in, and anyone else desiring to enter. He’s waiting for all of His family to come in and eat at the banquet table of the King!
Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people.
I’m sure that at some time or another we’ve all had the opportunity to hold the door open for someone, somewhere. It happens to me a lot when I go out with my family. When we’re going into a restaurant, I like to go out ahead of my family and open the door for them (good husband and father moment here). After they have entered the building, I usually follow them in and close the door behind me. Occasionally I stay for an extra minute or two and hold the door a little longer for that couple running across the parking lot in the rain. Either way, I enter after everyone else and the door closes behind me.
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan river it was the Ark of the Covenant, an Old Testament representation of the future human manifestation of Jesus Christ, that went into the river first. The river was overflowing at the time. The Bible tells us that the Jordan River always overflows its banks during the entire time of the harvest (Joshua 3:15). This was no small stream or brook; it was a raging river. As soon as the priests bearing the Ark touched the water, however, God stopped the flow. He pushed back the waters of the river all the way back to a city called Adam (Joshua 3:16), and created a safe place for His children to cross. God’s people were able to cross on dry land.
Those priests stood, with the Ark, in the middle of the river bed until all of Israel had made it safely to the other side. When everyone had crossed, when all they had to do was complete, the priests were finally allowed to step out from the river bed. As soon as their feet touched the shore, the river rushed back into place, once again overflowing its banks and cutting off access to the other side.
Are there raging rivers blocking you in your life, career, family, or finances? Does it seem to be that there is no hope for getting across? Well here’s the Good News: Jesus has already gone in the water for you. He is the Ark, the priests, and God all wrapped up in one. He has prepared the way and promised to come back for you (John 14:2-3). Just like in the story of Israel crossing the Jordan, Jesus has pushed back the torrent of sin, fear, stress, unfruitfulness, and holy separation all the way to Adam, the man. He has righteously and completely restored us to a pre-sin status with God the Father. He has returned us to Eden; He has brought us to the promised land!
There is no one who can close the door (Revelation 3:8). He has gone ahead and prepared the way. He has fought the battle against Satan and won the war. He has conquered sin and death, sickness and disease, and heartache and sorrow so that we can have perfect peace with Him.
Jesus has gone ahead of us; He’s opened the door and is waiting for us to enter. He has seen to it that the rage of the world is held back by His hands in order that we may safely enter His rest. What a blessing that Jesus isn’t going to allow the door to slam shut just before we get there. He’s holding it open and waiting, for you, me, the couple running in, and anyone else desiring to enter. He’s waiting for all of His family to come in and eat at the banquet table of the King!
Saturday, December 3, 2011
What a Friend.
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.
You don’t have to say to much to someone to really make or break their day. A good word, a thank you, or a compliment can really change the course of a person’s day, even their life. On the other hand, a negative word or a criticism can be devastating and, in some cases, deadly. This is why I find the need to search the scriptures daily for the Good Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I’m able to find a symbol of Christ hidden in a passage of scripture like in the case of Noah’s Ark or the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament. But more often than not, I find that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit inspired writings of the Bible, likes to just straight up tell us things. This is what makes reading the Bible fun. It’s not about looking for rules and regulations, fix-it programs, or a how-to guide to Christian living, but rather finding out what our friend, Jesus, has to say.
Jesus is all about grace and glory. He’s all about forgiveness, healing, and blessing. He’s not condemnation. He is altogether lovely. He is the perfect friend. When you’re down and out, Jesus has an encouraging word (John 5:7-8). When you screwed up your life, Jesus has forgiveness (John 8:11). When you don’t have enough, Jesus has an abundance (John 6:11). When you betray Him, Jesus calls specifically for you (Mark 16:7)! That’s the Prince of peace, the King of kings; that’s my Jesus!
When Jesus went to the cross He made a willful decision to trade all of His riches, glory, and honor for our sin, corruption, and heartache. He became our sin so that we could become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Since we have become righteous because of Him, God the Father sees us as perfect, blameless, and upright (complete)! When God looks at us He sees Jesus’ sacrifice, perfection, and righteousness (1 John 4:17). Knowledge of this gives us the hope (a confident expectation of good and eternal salvation) to inherit all of the promises of God.
Today, I have the confidence to declare to you who are in Christ that, according to His word, no good thing will be withheld from you. That’s awesome news! Think about all of the good things that are out there in this world. Prosperity, security, life, and health are just the tip of the iceberg. Friends, the Lord God who is righteous and holy has made you righteous and holy through the once and for all sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Through Him [Jesus] we are made complete; we are those who walk uprightly!
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.
You don’t have to say to much to someone to really make or break their day. A good word, a thank you, or a compliment can really change the course of a person’s day, even their life. On the other hand, a negative word or a criticism can be devastating and, in some cases, deadly. This is why I find the need to search the scriptures daily for the Good Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I’m able to find a symbol of Christ hidden in a passage of scripture like in the case of Noah’s Ark or the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament. But more often than not, I find that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit inspired writings of the Bible, likes to just straight up tell us things. This is what makes reading the Bible fun. It’s not about looking for rules and regulations, fix-it programs, or a how-to guide to Christian living, but rather finding out what our friend, Jesus, has to say.
Jesus is all about grace and glory. He’s all about forgiveness, healing, and blessing. He’s not condemnation. He is altogether lovely. He is the perfect friend. When you’re down and out, Jesus has an encouraging word (John 5:7-8). When you screwed up your life, Jesus has forgiveness (John 8:11). When you don’t have enough, Jesus has an abundance (John 6:11). When you betray Him, Jesus calls specifically for you (Mark 16:7)! That’s the Prince of peace, the King of kings; that’s my Jesus!
When Jesus went to the cross He made a willful decision to trade all of His riches, glory, and honor for our sin, corruption, and heartache. He became our sin so that we could become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Since we have become righteous because of Him, God the Father sees us as perfect, blameless, and upright (complete)! When God looks at us He sees Jesus’ sacrifice, perfection, and righteousness (1 John 4:17). Knowledge of this gives us the hope (a confident expectation of good and eternal salvation) to inherit all of the promises of God.
Today, I have the confidence to declare to you who are in Christ that, according to His word, no good thing will be withheld from you. That’s awesome news! Think about all of the good things that are out there in this world. Prosperity, security, life, and health are just the tip of the iceberg. Friends, the Lord God who is righteous and holy has made you righteous and holy through the once and for all sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Through Him [Jesus] we are made complete; we are those who walk uprightly!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Purpose-full
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of The Purpose Driven Life. Well, in case you haven’t, it’s a book about finding God’s purpose for your life. There are a lot of other books out there that “help” us, Christians, find out what God’s purpose is for our lives. There are books about our gifts and books about our personalities. There are books about our learning styles and some about our lack of learning styles. Each of these books were written to help us discover what God’s purpose is for our lives.
I’m a singer/guitar player. I lead worship and I like to get loud. I love when I see smiling faces in the congregation and get pumped up by the enthusiastic response to the songs that I get to play. Is this God’s purpose for my life? Could be. But wait, I’m also a State Trooper. I get excited when I have the opportunity to help someone in trouble. I enjoy educating people about the importance of safe driving. I’m happy when I have the opportunity to positively impact someone’s life. Is this God’s purpose for my life?
What if I choose the wrong thing as what I believe to be God’s purpose for my life? Will things fall apart around me? Will He no longer cause things to work for good in my life because I’m not working according to His purpose? We get wrapped up in the idea that this verse is making reference to “fixing” the bad things that have happened to us that we fail to realize that maybe God is working everything good for us! It boils down to your opinion of God. Is He a Mr. Fix-it or is He a fixed-it-before-it-broke kind of God?
Interestingly enough, in this verse is the qualification clause “to them who are the called according to His purpose.” We don’t have the assurance that all things work together for good simply because we love God; we must be those who are called according to His purpose. There are a lot of people who “love god”. To some, god is a statue. To others, a tree. It’s easy to love god, but to be called according to His purpose, that’s a different story.
I made mention earlier of finding God’’s purpose for our lives. State Trooper, guitar player, singer, car salesman, restaurant manager, mom, dad, lawn mower, and dog groomer are not examples of God’s purposes for our lives. These are occupations; they’re jobs. They are things that we do with the gifts God has given us, but they are not His purpose.
A look into the Greek translation of this verse sheds some interesting light on the word “purpose.” The word is the Greek word “prothesis” which does, in fact, mean purpose. But it actually has two meanings, and purpose is the second. The first meaning has to do with something entirely different; it’s all about Jesus Christ! I know, it’s amazing, but it’s true!
The first definition has to do with the idea of setting forth something, placing it in view. Specifically, it references the showbread. The showbread was something that was required to be placed in the tabernacle of God (Exodus 25:30). The showbread was also a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35).
You see, the truth is that anyone can love God, but not all are the called according to His Purpose. What’s God’s Purpose for your life? Jesus Christ. We, those who are found to be in Christ, know that all things (not some; not a few) work together for good. Consider that God is working good right now for your life so that bad won’t happen, not so that bad will happen and God will make it good!
Once again, God makes the point that everything hinges on Jesus Christ. All things don’t work together for good because we love God. They work together for good because God loves us! It is according to His Son’s sacrifice that all things work for good. It is according to His Son’s righteousness that all things work for good. It is according to His Son’s grace that all things work for good!
AMEN!
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of The Purpose Driven Life. Well, in case you haven’t, it’s a book about finding God’s purpose for your life. There are a lot of other books out there that “help” us, Christians, find out what God’s purpose is for our lives. There are books about our gifts and books about our personalities. There are books about our learning styles and some about our lack of learning styles. Each of these books were written to help us discover what God’s purpose is for our lives.
I’m a singer/guitar player. I lead worship and I like to get loud. I love when I see smiling faces in the congregation and get pumped up by the enthusiastic response to the songs that I get to play. Is this God’s purpose for my life? Could be. But wait, I’m also a State Trooper. I get excited when I have the opportunity to help someone in trouble. I enjoy educating people about the importance of safe driving. I’m happy when I have the opportunity to positively impact someone’s life. Is this God’s purpose for my life?
What if I choose the wrong thing as what I believe to be God’s purpose for my life? Will things fall apart around me? Will He no longer cause things to work for good in my life because I’m not working according to His purpose? We get wrapped up in the idea that this verse is making reference to “fixing” the bad things that have happened to us that we fail to realize that maybe God is working everything good for us! It boils down to your opinion of God. Is He a Mr. Fix-it or is He a fixed-it-before-it-broke kind of God?
Interestingly enough, in this verse is the qualification clause “to them who are the called according to His purpose.” We don’t have the assurance that all things work together for good simply because we love God; we must be those who are called according to His purpose. There are a lot of people who “love god”. To some, god is a statue. To others, a tree. It’s easy to love god, but to be called according to His purpose, that’s a different story.
I made mention earlier of finding God’’s purpose for our lives. State Trooper, guitar player, singer, car salesman, restaurant manager, mom, dad, lawn mower, and dog groomer are not examples of God’s purposes for our lives. These are occupations; they’re jobs. They are things that we do with the gifts God has given us, but they are not His purpose.
A look into the Greek translation of this verse sheds some interesting light on the word “purpose.” The word is the Greek word “prothesis” which does, in fact, mean purpose. But it actually has two meanings, and purpose is the second. The first meaning has to do with something entirely different; it’s all about Jesus Christ! I know, it’s amazing, but it’s true!
The first definition has to do with the idea of setting forth something, placing it in view. Specifically, it references the showbread. The showbread was something that was required to be placed in the tabernacle of God (Exodus 25:30). The showbread was also a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35).
You see, the truth is that anyone can love God, but not all are the called according to His Purpose. What’s God’s Purpose for your life? Jesus Christ. We, those who are found to be in Christ, know that all things (not some; not a few) work together for good. Consider that God is working good right now for your life so that bad won’t happen, not so that bad will happen and God will make it good!
Once again, God makes the point that everything hinges on Jesus Christ. All things don’t work together for good because we love God. They work together for good because God loves us! It is according to His Son’s sacrifice that all things work for good. It is according to His Son’s righteousness that all things work for good. It is according to His Son’s grace that all things work for good!
AMEN!
Friday, November 25, 2011
Weapon malfunction?
Psalm 76:3
There He broke the arrows of the bow, the shield and sword of battle. Selah
I love when the Bible speaks of Jesus’ defeat of the Devil, even in Old Testament writings, in a past tense verb form. Not only does it lend credibility to God’s operations outside of time and omniscience, but it also gives great hope and confidence to the reader.
We live in such a sad world. Everyday the news broadcasts stories and images of death, sorrow, and destruction. We hear reports from the front lines of battle. We hear reports of violent protests in Egypt. We hear reports of disease and sickness. We hear reports of mothers executing their children. Its one bad news story followed immediately by another. Is it any wonder why we live in a society where people are begging to be put on medication to take away the pain? Do we need to ask why we live in a world where men and women desperately seek to mask reality behind drugs and mind-altering substances?
This brings me back to Jesus, back to what counts, back to my security. When I read the Bible, it’s not to look for solutions to my finances or how to better parent my child. No, when I read the Bible I’m seeking to find the Hope that is wrapped throughout the scriptures. I’m seeking to find Jesus, who is, was, and is to come. Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, the Master Physician, the Healer, Redeemer, Savior, and Friend of sinners! I’m looking for His embrace, His words of encouragement, His security so that I can get through another day. I’m asking Him to tell me, like a father to a child, “It’s going to be all right. I’ll take care of things.”
The best part about seeking is that Jesus has already provided an answer for me to find (Matthew 7:7); it’s one of His promises! Nine times out of ten, when I’m shown something by the Spirit in the Bible, it isn’t some long passage with lots of symbolism and interpretation necessary. Instead it’s simple and straight to the point, just like Psalm 76:3.
No fanfare, no secret codes to figure out here; He broke the arrows and the bow, the shield and sword of battle. What does that mean? He broke the weapons of war that the enemy had to fight us with! Words like this give me the faith and confidence to stand tall and fully accept the promises, all the promises, of God. Why? Not because of me, but because of Jesus. He broke; He disarmed. At the cross, where sin was defeated, where the law was fulfilled, and where restoration took place, He did it!
Ephesians 6 tells us to take up the whole armor of God. Specifically, it refers to the shield of faith. That shield serves a purpose: to quench the fiery darts of the Devil (Ephesians 6:16). Interestingly enough, the word in Psalms translated “arrows” is the Hebrew word that means “fire-bolts”. The Devil is holding broken darts. It is faith in Christ’s finished work at the cross that quenches the fire. We aren’t actually holding up a shield and deflecting the arrows; we are standing firm in the confidence that Jesus Christ has already defeated our foe. We are strong in knowing that the Devil can’t even fire at us because all of his weapons are broken!
Friends, it is all too easy to get caught up in the mentality that everything out there in the world is falling to pieces and we’re going to get caught up in it. The truth, however, is this: we aren’t of this world (John 17:14-18). By the blood of Christ we have been redeemed, sanctified, and restored to the Father. All of the promises of the Bible are meant for us!
There He broke the arrows of the bow, the shield and sword of battle. Selah
I love when the Bible speaks of Jesus’ defeat of the Devil, even in Old Testament writings, in a past tense verb form. Not only does it lend credibility to God’s operations outside of time and omniscience, but it also gives great hope and confidence to the reader.
We live in such a sad world. Everyday the news broadcasts stories and images of death, sorrow, and destruction. We hear reports from the front lines of battle. We hear reports of violent protests in Egypt. We hear reports of disease and sickness. We hear reports of mothers executing their children. Its one bad news story followed immediately by another. Is it any wonder why we live in a society where people are begging to be put on medication to take away the pain? Do we need to ask why we live in a world where men and women desperately seek to mask reality behind drugs and mind-altering substances?
This brings me back to Jesus, back to what counts, back to my security. When I read the Bible, it’s not to look for solutions to my finances or how to better parent my child. No, when I read the Bible I’m seeking to find the Hope that is wrapped throughout the scriptures. I’m seeking to find Jesus, who is, was, and is to come. Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, the Master Physician, the Healer, Redeemer, Savior, and Friend of sinners! I’m looking for His embrace, His words of encouragement, His security so that I can get through another day. I’m asking Him to tell me, like a father to a child, “It’s going to be all right. I’ll take care of things.”
The best part about seeking is that Jesus has already provided an answer for me to find (Matthew 7:7); it’s one of His promises! Nine times out of ten, when I’m shown something by the Spirit in the Bible, it isn’t some long passage with lots of symbolism and interpretation necessary. Instead it’s simple and straight to the point, just like Psalm 76:3.
No fanfare, no secret codes to figure out here; He broke the arrows and the bow, the shield and sword of battle. What does that mean? He broke the weapons of war that the enemy had to fight us with! Words like this give me the faith and confidence to stand tall and fully accept the promises, all the promises, of God. Why? Not because of me, but because of Jesus. He broke; He disarmed. At the cross, where sin was defeated, where the law was fulfilled, and where restoration took place, He did it!
Ephesians 6 tells us to take up the whole armor of God. Specifically, it refers to the shield of faith. That shield serves a purpose: to quench the fiery darts of the Devil (Ephesians 6:16). Interestingly enough, the word in Psalms translated “arrows” is the Hebrew word that means “fire-bolts”. The Devil is holding broken darts. It is faith in Christ’s finished work at the cross that quenches the fire. We aren’t actually holding up a shield and deflecting the arrows; we are standing firm in the confidence that Jesus Christ has already defeated our foe. We are strong in knowing that the Devil can’t even fire at us because all of his weapons are broken!
Friends, it is all too easy to get caught up in the mentality that everything out there in the world is falling to pieces and we’re going to get caught up in it. The truth, however, is this: we aren’t of this world (John 17:14-18). By the blood of Christ we have been redeemed, sanctified, and restored to the Father. All of the promises of the Bible are meant for us!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Ship wrecking? Who cares!
Acts 27:33-34
And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.”
Everything that is written in the Bible is there because the Holy Spirit of God inspired it to be written there. There are no coincidences, no fluke occurrences, no pointless words. Everything is Holy Spirit inspired to educate the reader about one topic: Jesus Christ.
I know what you’re asking: where’s Jesus in this passage? I’ll answer that question by first telling you where and what He isn’t! He’s not the boat, the storm, or the crash. He’s not the beach on which the men were stranded. He’s not the chains on the prisoners, the lifeboat (skiff), or the centurion guard. Jesus isn’t to be found in any of the things we typically look for Him in, that is, in the midst of our troubles.
Therein lies a completely different, yet altogether as important topic: why are we always looking for Jesus in the bad things? Why aren’t we, who are purchased and redeemed through His blood, looking for Jesus in the good things? Instead we look to the storms of life, the shipwrecks of our walk, and the chains by which we are bound, trying to find the blessed hope of Jesus Christ. We look to the bad trying to find good when the truth is this: the Good, that is Jesus, is not associated with the bad! He is holy and apart from all bad things!
Anyway, I digress...
Paul, knowing full well what was about to happen to the ship, the crew, and the prisoners, decided it was time for them to eat. But in announcing “dinner” he did something that not all of us would have done under those conditions. Paul made it a point to declare how long it had been since they had eaten. “Today is the fourteenth day...” Why on earth did he say that? Paul goes on to make a very bold statement, telling the crew and prisoners to eat, for survival (some translations say “health,” translated from a word meaning deliverance or salvation). He punctuates this with “not a hair will fall from the head of any of you”. Basically, Paul is telling the men this: eat and live, be healthy, no harm.
After Paul makes these bold statements he takes bread, gives thanks to God, and eats with the men. Sound familiar? That’s because Jesus did it first (Luke 22:19)! The fourteen is what stuck out to me, though. You see, back in Exodus 12, God instituted the first Passover in Egypt before bringing His people out of bondage. They [the Hebrews] were in a storm of life, in bondage to an evil man, but God was about to save them. Their ship, called slavery, was about to crash and there was nothing they could do to stop it. God’s Passover, His salvation mission, would begin on the fourteenth day of the month (Exodus 12:6).
Paul had a spur of the moment Passover feast on a doomed vessel with both Jews and Gentiles alike (a New Testamentism). And do you know what happened? The Bible says they were all of good cheer and everyone on board was saved (Acts 27:36-37)! As the boat was torn apart by the wind and the waves, the men were of good cheer! That is the awesome nature of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ: salvation, blessings, and good cheer!
Today, I urge you, don’t look for Christ in the shipwreck you’re enduring; His salvation is apart from your troubles. Not only that, but His forever grace will protect you from the waves, keep you from being dashed to bits on the rocks, and bring you the peace and good cheer of hope! Even if you can’t swim, He’ll provide a floatation device (Acts 27:44). He’s just that cool!
When going through the trials of life, let’s remember Jesus. Let’s pause, reflect on what we’ve been going through, give thanks to God for the Bread of Life, broken for us, eat, and be of good cheer. Our salvation has come. Life, health, and security are ahead through by power of God’s grace and total restoration through the cross of Jesus Christ!
And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.”
Everything that is written in the Bible is there because the Holy Spirit of God inspired it to be written there. There are no coincidences, no fluke occurrences, no pointless words. Everything is Holy Spirit inspired to educate the reader about one topic: Jesus Christ.
I know what you’re asking: where’s Jesus in this passage? I’ll answer that question by first telling you where and what He isn’t! He’s not the boat, the storm, or the crash. He’s not the beach on which the men were stranded. He’s not the chains on the prisoners, the lifeboat (skiff), or the centurion guard. Jesus isn’t to be found in any of the things we typically look for Him in, that is, in the midst of our troubles.
Therein lies a completely different, yet altogether as important topic: why are we always looking for Jesus in the bad things? Why aren’t we, who are purchased and redeemed through His blood, looking for Jesus in the good things? Instead we look to the storms of life, the shipwrecks of our walk, and the chains by which we are bound, trying to find the blessed hope of Jesus Christ. We look to the bad trying to find good when the truth is this: the Good, that is Jesus, is not associated with the bad! He is holy and apart from all bad things!
Anyway, I digress...
Paul, knowing full well what was about to happen to the ship, the crew, and the prisoners, decided it was time for them to eat. But in announcing “dinner” he did something that not all of us would have done under those conditions. Paul made it a point to declare how long it had been since they had eaten. “Today is the fourteenth day...” Why on earth did he say that? Paul goes on to make a very bold statement, telling the crew and prisoners to eat, for survival (some translations say “health,” translated from a word meaning deliverance or salvation). He punctuates this with “not a hair will fall from the head of any of you”. Basically, Paul is telling the men this: eat and live, be healthy, no harm.
After Paul makes these bold statements he takes bread, gives thanks to God, and eats with the men. Sound familiar? That’s because Jesus did it first (Luke 22:19)! The fourteen is what stuck out to me, though. You see, back in Exodus 12, God instituted the first Passover in Egypt before bringing His people out of bondage. They [the Hebrews] were in a storm of life, in bondage to an evil man, but God was about to save them. Their ship, called slavery, was about to crash and there was nothing they could do to stop it. God’s Passover, His salvation mission, would begin on the fourteenth day of the month (Exodus 12:6).
Paul had a spur of the moment Passover feast on a doomed vessel with both Jews and Gentiles alike (a New Testamentism). And do you know what happened? The Bible says they were all of good cheer and everyone on board was saved (Acts 27:36-37)! As the boat was torn apart by the wind and the waves, the men were of good cheer! That is the awesome nature of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ: salvation, blessings, and good cheer!
Today, I urge you, don’t look for Christ in the shipwreck you’re enduring; His salvation is apart from your troubles. Not only that, but His forever grace will protect you from the waves, keep you from being dashed to bits on the rocks, and bring you the peace and good cheer of hope! Even if you can’t swim, He’ll provide a floatation device (Acts 27:44). He’s just that cool!
When going through the trials of life, let’s remember Jesus. Let’s pause, reflect on what we’ve been going through, give thanks to God for the Bread of Life, broken for us, eat, and be of good cheer. Our salvation has come. Life, health, and security are ahead through by power of God’s grace and total restoration through the cross of Jesus Christ!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Idiom
Mark 16:18
“They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
That’s an idiom, an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Say what?! It’s an expression like “Raining cats and dogs” or “Kick the bucket”. The meaning is implied but not literal based on the words used. There, that’s enough grammar for one day; now time for some scripture and Jesus!
Sometimes I get a little upset with God, not because He does things to make my life miserable but because He stands outside of time. I think that sometimes He forgets, or chooses not to remember, that I operate inside of time. Take, for instance, 5:00 a.m. During that time, I operate on a sleep schedule. I’m sleeping! God, however, thinks nothing of waking me up and saying, “Hey, this verse about holding snakes and drinking poison...you should look into that! There’s more to it.” So, guess what I did today?!?
Good guess; you’re right. I did some research into this verse and I learned some things that I’d like to share with you.
First of all, Jesus is in the middle of talking to His disciples when these words come out of His mouth, so this verse is most definitely for us to know of and understand, being that we are His disciples as well. The second thing that I learned is this: the word “serpents” used by Jesus in this verse is the same word that He used when rebuking the Pharisees. This was my first revelation: Christ was using an idiom!
When Christ rebuked the Pharisees He called them serpents and vipers (Matthew 23:33). He was making a connection between them and the Devil. He wasn’t calling them Devils, but rather showing how they operate like the Devil. They, the Pharisees, along with the Devil, used the Law as a way to condemn others; it was their way to bring guilt, shame, and regret into the lives of people.
Christ goes on to say that if we drink anything deadly it won’t hurt us. Why? Because He has already consumed, drank, partaken of, the entire cup of God’s wrath (Matthew 26:39). Christ bore our sins and drank of the cup of God’s wrath as He hung on the cross. He is telling us that even if we hear the teaching of the Law and the condemnation it brings into our lives (2 Corinthians 3:6), it will by no means kill us because we have been set free, through Him, of its curses and death. He already died our death for us!
This verse means so much more than playing with rattlesnakes and drinking arsenic juice (He doesn’t want you to do that!). It’s Christ telling us that we, His disciples, will uproot and carry off the teachers of doctrines of condemnation. He’s telling us that even though we’ve heard the message of the Pharisees and felt the pressure of the Devil’s cunning use of God’s perfect law, there is no death sentence for us; we are made alive through His death. He’s giving us the power and the authority to heal the sick, not through our works or perfection, but through His!
Christ has imparted to us, through His death and resurrection, power and authority to proclaim His gospel of Grace. He has perfectly sanctified us from the death sentence of the Law by drinking, to the last drop, the cup of God’s wrath. He has empowered us to lay hands on the sick, hurting, broken, and weak and promised that they will recover! Praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ!
“They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
That’s an idiom, an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Say what?! It’s an expression like “Raining cats and dogs” or “Kick the bucket”. The meaning is implied but not literal based on the words used. There, that’s enough grammar for one day; now time for some scripture and Jesus!
Sometimes I get a little upset with God, not because He does things to make my life miserable but because He stands outside of time. I think that sometimes He forgets, or chooses not to remember, that I operate inside of time. Take, for instance, 5:00 a.m. During that time, I operate on a sleep schedule. I’m sleeping! God, however, thinks nothing of waking me up and saying, “Hey, this verse about holding snakes and drinking poison...you should look into that! There’s more to it.” So, guess what I did today?!?
Good guess; you’re right. I did some research into this verse and I learned some things that I’d like to share with you.
First of all, Jesus is in the middle of talking to His disciples when these words come out of His mouth, so this verse is most definitely for us to know of and understand, being that we are His disciples as well. The second thing that I learned is this: the word “serpents” used by Jesus in this verse is the same word that He used when rebuking the Pharisees. This was my first revelation: Christ was using an idiom!
When Christ rebuked the Pharisees He called them serpents and vipers (Matthew 23:33). He was making a connection between them and the Devil. He wasn’t calling them Devils, but rather showing how they operate like the Devil. They, the Pharisees, along with the Devil, used the Law as a way to condemn others; it was their way to bring guilt, shame, and regret into the lives of people.
Christ goes on to say that if we drink anything deadly it won’t hurt us. Why? Because He has already consumed, drank, partaken of, the entire cup of God’s wrath (Matthew 26:39). Christ bore our sins and drank of the cup of God’s wrath as He hung on the cross. He is telling us that even if we hear the teaching of the Law and the condemnation it brings into our lives (2 Corinthians 3:6), it will by no means kill us because we have been set free, through Him, of its curses and death. He already died our death for us!
This verse means so much more than playing with rattlesnakes and drinking arsenic juice (He doesn’t want you to do that!). It’s Christ telling us that we, His disciples, will uproot and carry off the teachers of doctrines of condemnation. He’s telling us that even though we’ve heard the message of the Pharisees and felt the pressure of the Devil’s cunning use of God’s perfect law, there is no death sentence for us; we are made alive through His death. He’s giving us the power and the authority to heal the sick, not through our works or perfection, but through His!
Christ has imparted to us, through His death and resurrection, power and authority to proclaim His gospel of Grace. He has perfectly sanctified us from the death sentence of the Law by drinking, to the last drop, the cup of God’s wrath. He has empowered us to lay hands on the sick, hurting, broken, and weak and promised that they will recover! Praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Adulterer, murderer, RIGHTEOUS!
Psalms 71:21
Thou dost increase my greatness, And Thou surroundest -- Thou comfortest me.
Of all the things we talk about in David’s life, his adulterous relationship, his plot to murder, all of his sinful ways, we seem to overlook this one thing: his confidence in God’s righteous salvation. As I’ve read through the Psalms I’ve learned that David’s security in his relationship with God never came from his prayers for forgiveness, his sacrifices on the altar, or his bruised knees. Those things were all responses to David’s heart knowledge that through God’s righteousness, not his own, he would be saved.
I find this very interesting because David was born and reigned during a time of Law, before the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, yet somehow he had a confidence in, and knowledge of, God’s grace. How could this be? Considering the fact that David lived in a pre-Christ world, how could he possibly know about grace? Moreover, how could he possibly come to the strong and unbreakable relationship he had with God despite all of the wicked things that he did, knowing full well that he violated God’s perfect Law?
The answer to these questions is a lot easier than you may think. What made David the man he was, what gave him the confidence in his status with God, was his constant self-reminding attitude that everything he was and was to become was done because of God’s righteousness, not his own. He understood that God still loved him and wasn’t holding a grudge. David was a pre-Christ Christian!
How often does he speak of God’s righteousness? Well, I count five times in Psalm 71 alone (NKJV). David mentioned God’s righteousness (“Your righteousness”) in 21% of the verses in this one Psalm alone. If you include phrases like “Your Salvation, Your faithfulness, my rock, hope, refuge...” that brings the total up even higher. David had a right understanding of who God was and how He was restoring him, and he determined to proclaim it every chance he had.
How much greater an understanding of salvation should we have than David? He was a man who understood that everything that he had ever done was washed clean, not by works, prayers, deeds, or sacrifices, but by God’s righteousness and His righteousness alone. We who live today have the knowledge and the testimony of the New Testament Word of Truth that Jesus Christ became our sin and imparted His righteousness to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). We should be able to walk confidently, speak boldly, and proclaim unashamedly that we are righteous because He [Jesus] has made us righteous.
Because David had the confidence that it was God’s righteousness working in his life, he also had the confidence to speak bold promises and blessings into his life. David continually, because of his assurance in standing with God, made “You shall” statements about what God was going to do and was doing in his life. It wasn’t arrogance and it wasn’t pride that allowed David to boldly speak blessings into his life. It was his confident expectation of good and salvation that allowed him to say what he said.
Today, because of the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us through the cross, we also have the right to the same hope that David had. We have the confident expectation of good and salvation that can only be found in the risen Savior. We have the knowledge that God is providing, and will continue to provide, blessings in our lives. We have the peace that our sins are washed away, never remembered (past, present, and future), not because of our good works, but because of Christ’s perfect work! We have the right, through Christ, to proclaim good in our lives, to receive the blessings of the kingdom, being joint heirs with the King (Romans 8:17)! We have the right to health, prosperity, and good because Christ is all of those things and as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17)!
Thou dost increase my greatness, And Thou surroundest -- Thou comfortest me.
Of all the things we talk about in David’s life, his adulterous relationship, his plot to murder, all of his sinful ways, we seem to overlook this one thing: his confidence in God’s righteous salvation. As I’ve read through the Psalms I’ve learned that David’s security in his relationship with God never came from his prayers for forgiveness, his sacrifices on the altar, or his bruised knees. Those things were all responses to David’s heart knowledge that through God’s righteousness, not his own, he would be saved.
I find this very interesting because David was born and reigned during a time of Law, before the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, yet somehow he had a confidence in, and knowledge of, God’s grace. How could this be? Considering the fact that David lived in a pre-Christ world, how could he possibly know about grace? Moreover, how could he possibly come to the strong and unbreakable relationship he had with God despite all of the wicked things that he did, knowing full well that he violated God’s perfect Law?
The answer to these questions is a lot easier than you may think. What made David the man he was, what gave him the confidence in his status with God, was his constant self-reminding attitude that everything he was and was to become was done because of God’s righteousness, not his own. He understood that God still loved him and wasn’t holding a grudge. David was a pre-Christ Christian!
How often does he speak of God’s righteousness? Well, I count five times in Psalm 71 alone (NKJV). David mentioned God’s righteousness (“Your righteousness”) in 21% of the verses in this one Psalm alone. If you include phrases like “Your Salvation, Your faithfulness, my rock, hope, refuge...” that brings the total up even higher. David had a right understanding of who God was and how He was restoring him, and he determined to proclaim it every chance he had.
How much greater an understanding of salvation should we have than David? He was a man who understood that everything that he had ever done was washed clean, not by works, prayers, deeds, or sacrifices, but by God’s righteousness and His righteousness alone. We who live today have the knowledge and the testimony of the New Testament Word of Truth that Jesus Christ became our sin and imparted His righteousness to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). We should be able to walk confidently, speak boldly, and proclaim unashamedly that we are righteous because He [Jesus] has made us righteous.
Because David had the confidence that it was God’s righteousness working in his life, he also had the confidence to speak bold promises and blessings into his life. David continually, because of his assurance in standing with God, made “You shall” statements about what God was going to do and was doing in his life. It wasn’t arrogance and it wasn’t pride that allowed David to boldly speak blessings into his life. It was his confident expectation of good and salvation that allowed him to say what he said.
Today, because of the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us through the cross, we also have the right to the same hope that David had. We have the confident expectation of good and salvation that can only be found in the risen Savior. We have the knowledge that God is providing, and will continue to provide, blessings in our lives. We have the peace that our sins are washed away, never remembered (past, present, and future), not because of our good works, but because of Christ’s perfect work! We have the right, through Christ, to proclaim good in our lives, to receive the blessings of the kingdom, being joint heirs with the King (Romans 8:17)! We have the right to health, prosperity, and good because Christ is all of those things and as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17)!
Friday, November 18, 2011
A King's work.
2 Chronicles 26:14
Then Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones.
When was the last time you saw the President of the United States preparing the gear for a battalion of Marines before shipping them off to the battlefield? At most there are about 1200 soldiers in a battalion. That is about .4% (roughly 1/2 of 1%) of the 310,100 (2 Chronicles 26:12-13) soldiers that Uzziah was outfitting for war. So to simplify, Uzziah had quite a task ahead of him.
When I think about all the work, time, and energy that Uzziah invested in the safety and security of his men, I cannot help but think about what God has done for all of us through Jesus Christ. It’s awesome to me that God would choose to use Uzziah, the king, to prepare the supplies for the army. A noteworthy fact is this: the Bible doesn’t tell us that Uzziah ordered his skilled laborers to prepare the shields and spears and helmets. The Bible clearly states that Uzziah prepared all of those things.
The work, time, and personal sacrifice that Uzziah put into preparing the gear and protection for his army is only a shadow example of what Christ has done for us. Christ, being the King of kings, took it upon Himself to prepare our armor for us. He went to the cross bearing our sickness and disease in His body and He suffered our death in the midst of thieves. He gave us His righteousness, His forgiveness, His perfection, and His status with God and stood in our place. It is only through His suffering, death, and resurrection that we are able to possess the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:14-16).
Christ, like Uzziah, never asked His skilled laborers (referred to as disciples) to do the work for Him. In fact, He told them not to act, but to allow Him to do everything (Matthew 26:52) leading up to and including His crucifixion. He didn’t allow them to partake in the suffering that He was about to endure, but sheltered them from it. In the case of Peter, He used his own human nature to protect him and keep him from interfering with God’s work.
What an amazing King we have in Jesus Christ! One who is so loving, caring, and grace-filled that He would choose to do all of the work, to make all of the preparations, so that we could be fully covered when it comes time to do battle. All of His power, all of His might was focused into preparing our armor so that we are clothed with His righteousness and our heads are protected by His salvation.
Uzziah, whose name means “God is mighty”, prepared for his army all that they needed for battle to survive the war. Jesus, who is the mighty God, prepared the armor, fought the battle, and won the war so that we don’t just survive, but so that we can have life, abundantly (John 10:10).
Then Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones.
When was the last time you saw the President of the United States preparing the gear for a battalion of Marines before shipping them off to the battlefield? At most there are about 1200 soldiers in a battalion. That is about .4% (roughly 1/2 of 1%) of the 310,100 (2 Chronicles 26:12-13) soldiers that Uzziah was outfitting for war. So to simplify, Uzziah had quite a task ahead of him.
When I think about all the work, time, and energy that Uzziah invested in the safety and security of his men, I cannot help but think about what God has done for all of us through Jesus Christ. It’s awesome to me that God would choose to use Uzziah, the king, to prepare the supplies for the army. A noteworthy fact is this: the Bible doesn’t tell us that Uzziah ordered his skilled laborers to prepare the shields and spears and helmets. The Bible clearly states that Uzziah prepared all of those things.
The work, time, and personal sacrifice that Uzziah put into preparing the gear and protection for his army is only a shadow example of what Christ has done for us. Christ, being the King of kings, took it upon Himself to prepare our armor for us. He went to the cross bearing our sickness and disease in His body and He suffered our death in the midst of thieves. He gave us His righteousness, His forgiveness, His perfection, and His status with God and stood in our place. It is only through His suffering, death, and resurrection that we are able to possess the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:14-16).
Christ, like Uzziah, never asked His skilled laborers (referred to as disciples) to do the work for Him. In fact, He told them not to act, but to allow Him to do everything (Matthew 26:52) leading up to and including His crucifixion. He didn’t allow them to partake in the suffering that He was about to endure, but sheltered them from it. In the case of Peter, He used his own human nature to protect him and keep him from interfering with God’s work.
What an amazing King we have in Jesus Christ! One who is so loving, caring, and grace-filled that He would choose to do all of the work, to make all of the preparations, so that we could be fully covered when it comes time to do battle. All of His power, all of His might was focused into preparing our armor so that we are clothed with His righteousness and our heads are protected by His salvation.
Uzziah, whose name means “God is mighty”, prepared for his army all that they needed for battle to survive the war. Jesus, who is the mighty God, prepared the armor, fought the battle, and won the war so that we don’t just survive, but so that we can have life, abundantly (John 10:10).
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Beating a dead horse?
2 Chronicles 20:17
Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you...
“You’re beating a dead horse.” This is probably an expression that needs to be uttered more often in our sanctuaries. I know, I know, that sounds a little bit harsh, but I believe it’s true. Think about it: how many of you have heard that we’re in a battle with the Devil; we’re in a constant struggle? How many times have you heard that we’re at war with the powers of darkness? While these may be true statements, what is our place in the battle and are we actually “doing” what God wants us to do? He is, after all, our commander in chief. What is it that God has for us to do in this battle against the powers of darkness? Let’s find out!
All too often we try to throw ourselves out there on the front lines of spiritual warfare, as if to say to God, “We are brave; we will fight!” In actuality, all this serves to do is get us in trouble. The battle belongs to the Lord, not to us. If it was God’s desire for us to fight against the powers of the Devil and his armies, He would not have given up Jesus. Unfortunately, when we fail to recognize this, we put ourselves outside of the protection of Jesus’ finished work and into enemy territory.
Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11) because the battle is spiritual, but he doesn’t tell us to fight. We are told to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel shoes, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and the helmet of salvation. But why? What are we to do next? Pray and watch (Ephesians 6:18)!
Are we to believe that these mighty men of valor in 2 Chronicles showed up that morning in their underwear? Certainly not! They came out ready to fight, in full armor. But they were told to stand fast and see how God would do for them what they were prepared to do for Him. God didn’t want or need their help; He was going to win the battle for them.
We have a greater blessing than they did. Those men showed up in their own armor; we are standing firm in the King’s armor. It’s God’s righteousness that protects our hearts. It is His Sword that hangs on our side. We have put on Jesus Christ as our armor! The battle isn’t ours to go in and fight; it’s ours to stand by and watch, secure in our knowledge of Jesus Christ and His victory at the cross.
We aren’t called to put on the armor of God so that we can do battle with the Devil. Jesus already fought and won that war. We put on the armor of God to remind ourselves of who we are and what have in Jesus Christ. When we are secure in our understanding that His word is truth (John 17:17), and His righteousness ours (2 Corinthians 5:21); when we stand in His grace (Romans 5:2) and let our faith in Him be a shield (Ephesians 2:8); when we allow His Word to be our sword (Hebrews 4:12); and when we are sure in our minds of our salvation (Luke 1:77), then are we able to stand, watch, and fully accept that Jesus Christ has finished the fight for us! We will see His salvation, His grace, working in our lives and with our lives.
We aren’t called to actually fight a defeated foe. God, who lives outside of time, has already seen the Devil’s end. He’s already had that fight, and He’s already won that war. Let’s not beat a dead horse; let’s proclaim the victory of Jesus!
Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you...
“You’re beating a dead horse.” This is probably an expression that needs to be uttered more often in our sanctuaries. I know, I know, that sounds a little bit harsh, but I believe it’s true. Think about it: how many of you have heard that we’re in a battle with the Devil; we’re in a constant struggle? How many times have you heard that we’re at war with the powers of darkness? While these may be true statements, what is our place in the battle and are we actually “doing” what God wants us to do? He is, after all, our commander in chief. What is it that God has for us to do in this battle against the powers of darkness? Let’s find out!
All too often we try to throw ourselves out there on the front lines of spiritual warfare, as if to say to God, “We are brave; we will fight!” In actuality, all this serves to do is get us in trouble. The battle belongs to the Lord, not to us. If it was God’s desire for us to fight against the powers of the Devil and his armies, He would not have given up Jesus. Unfortunately, when we fail to recognize this, we put ourselves outside of the protection of Jesus’ finished work and into enemy territory.
Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11) because the battle is spiritual, but he doesn’t tell us to fight. We are told to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel shoes, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and the helmet of salvation. But why? What are we to do next? Pray and watch (Ephesians 6:18)!
Are we to believe that these mighty men of valor in 2 Chronicles showed up that morning in their underwear? Certainly not! They came out ready to fight, in full armor. But they were told to stand fast and see how God would do for them what they were prepared to do for Him. God didn’t want or need their help; He was going to win the battle for them.
We have a greater blessing than they did. Those men showed up in their own armor; we are standing firm in the King’s armor. It’s God’s righteousness that protects our hearts. It is His Sword that hangs on our side. We have put on Jesus Christ as our armor! The battle isn’t ours to go in and fight; it’s ours to stand by and watch, secure in our knowledge of Jesus Christ and His victory at the cross.
We aren’t called to put on the armor of God so that we can do battle with the Devil. Jesus already fought and won that war. We put on the armor of God to remind ourselves of who we are and what have in Jesus Christ. When we are secure in our understanding that His word is truth (John 17:17), and His righteousness ours (2 Corinthians 5:21); when we stand in His grace (Romans 5:2) and let our faith in Him be a shield (Ephesians 2:8); when we allow His Word to be our sword (Hebrews 4:12); and when we are sure in our minds of our salvation (Luke 1:77), then are we able to stand, watch, and fully accept that Jesus Christ has finished the fight for us! We will see His salvation, His grace, working in our lives and with our lives.
We aren’t called to actually fight a defeated foe. God, who lives outside of time, has already seen the Devil’s end. He’s already had that fight, and He’s already won that war. Let’s not beat a dead horse; let’s proclaim the victory of Jesus!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Shall
Psalm 51:12-13
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Our understanding of our status with God is directly related to our effectiveness as ministers of Christ to a lost world. It isn’t until we realize that we have a right standing with God, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that our ministry to others will produce successful returns.
Sometimes I think that Psalms would have been more appropriately titled “The Life and Times of David, a real screw-up!” But through his mistakes and constant conversations with God, we are able to learn how a right understanding in a relationship can both grow that relationship and produce positive results in the lives of others.
David made a ton of mistakes in his lifetime, but was sure of one thing: God loved Him and was continually forgiving and restoring him. Even though David lived during the time of the Law, he was a child of grace (Acts 7:45-46). Knowing that he [David] found favor in God’s sight enabled him to continue to prosper and minister to generations to come through Psalms and his testimony.
This scripture is just another example of David’s understanding of how he stood before God. He starts out by asking God to restore him to the joy of salvation. When is the last time we did this: asked God to restore us to that feeling of initial salvation? Remembering, and more importantly knowing, you are saved is crucial to moving forward in your life. David goes on to say, “hold me up, God, with Your generous spirit.” This is another critical point in his understanding: God is the one who lifts us up; it is His spirit that gives strength and joy. More than that, David acknowledges that God is generous with His giving, with His joy, and with His salvation!
After making this bold request that God first restore his joy and second hold him up in that joy, David then makes an interesting statement. It’s almost as though he has an epiphany in the middle of his prayer. After realizing that God will restore him and God will hold him up, David then turns his attention to the lost! He proclaims to God that he will teach the sinners the ways of God and they shall be converted. David isn’t concerned with a maybe here; he goes with shall!
What of God’s ways is David planning to teach? I can only assume by the scripture that David is planning on teaching sinners that God continually restores and saves. I imagine that David intended to proclaim how it is God’s generous Spirit, His nature, to forgive and to redeem. I think David planned to tell the people how incredibly loving and understanding and helpful and merciful and kind God was. I don’t think that David planned on expounding on the Ten Commandments or the 613 ceremonial laws of the time!
We who have found redemption in Calvary’s cross are the Davids of our day. We need to remind ourselves, daily (minute by minute in some cases), of our continual restoration and the joy that we have as a result of the salvation found in Jesus Christ. When we are sure of that simple truth, as David was, we can teach others the ways of God. We can teach them about Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, His promise, and His salvation. When we do that, teach Jesus, they shall be converted.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Our understanding of our status with God is directly related to our effectiveness as ministers of Christ to a lost world. It isn’t until we realize that we have a right standing with God, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that our ministry to others will produce successful returns.
Sometimes I think that Psalms would have been more appropriately titled “The Life and Times of David, a real screw-up!” But through his mistakes and constant conversations with God, we are able to learn how a right understanding in a relationship can both grow that relationship and produce positive results in the lives of others.
David made a ton of mistakes in his lifetime, but was sure of one thing: God loved Him and was continually forgiving and restoring him. Even though David lived during the time of the Law, he was a child of grace (Acts 7:45-46). Knowing that he [David] found favor in God’s sight enabled him to continue to prosper and minister to generations to come through Psalms and his testimony.
This scripture is just another example of David’s understanding of how he stood before God. He starts out by asking God to restore him to the joy of salvation. When is the last time we did this: asked God to restore us to that feeling of initial salvation? Remembering, and more importantly knowing, you are saved is crucial to moving forward in your life. David goes on to say, “hold me up, God, with Your generous spirit.” This is another critical point in his understanding: God is the one who lifts us up; it is His spirit that gives strength and joy. More than that, David acknowledges that God is generous with His giving, with His joy, and with His salvation!
After making this bold request that God first restore his joy and second hold him up in that joy, David then makes an interesting statement. It’s almost as though he has an epiphany in the middle of his prayer. After realizing that God will restore him and God will hold him up, David then turns his attention to the lost! He proclaims to God that he will teach the sinners the ways of God and they shall be converted. David isn’t concerned with a maybe here; he goes with shall!
What of God’s ways is David planning to teach? I can only assume by the scripture that David is planning on teaching sinners that God continually restores and saves. I imagine that David intended to proclaim how it is God’s generous Spirit, His nature, to forgive and to redeem. I think David planned to tell the people how incredibly loving and understanding and helpful and merciful and kind God was. I don’t think that David planned on expounding on the Ten Commandments or the 613 ceremonial laws of the time!
We who have found redemption in Calvary’s cross are the Davids of our day. We need to remind ourselves, daily (minute by minute in some cases), of our continual restoration and the joy that we have as a result of the salvation found in Jesus Christ. When we are sure of that simple truth, as David was, we can teach others the ways of God. We can teach them about Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, His promise, and His salvation. When we do that, teach Jesus, they shall be converted.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Broken
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
I find that sometimes reading scripture is a game. It’s not a game like Jeopardy (though some may argue otherwise) but more like a game of hide and seek. I’ve found over the past year or so that God likes to hide little secrets in little phrases and in little words throughout Bible. Sometimes it’s not even so much that they are hidden, but that we (I) tend to just gloss over them.
Look at the following brain teaser and count the number of Fs in the sentence. Only read the sentence once; do not return to count again. Note your answer.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
If you answered 3, you’re wrong! There are 6 Fs in that sentence. There are three hidden in the repeating word “of”. The point is that our brains are so used to tuning out and overlooking little words like “of” when we read that it’s almost as if they don’t exist. This brings me right back to the passage above, sometimes we overlook the little words like “of”. When we do that there’s a chance we’ll miss the point of the scripture.
This Psalm tells us, “The sacrifices of God are...”, it does not say “to” God. I think sometimes we skim over words as we read the Bible and tend to misread it as the latter. There’s an implied idea that God desires your broken heart and your crushed spirit when you assume “to” and don’t read “of”. The fact is that the verse states it is God’s sacrifice that is a broken, crushed spirit. It is His contrite (Hebrew word “dakah” for crushed) heart (Hebrew word “Leb” for midst or center) that He won’t despise.
Literally what this verse is saying is this: the sacrifices of God are His broken spirit: His crushed center He will not despise. The Bible clearly tells us that our works are like dirty rags in God’s eyes (Isaiah 64:6). I can only assume that even our sacrifices to Him, however well-intentioned, would be viewed the same way. But His own sacrifice to Himself? He can’t argue with that!
On the night before He was crucified, Christ went to the garden and prayed, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death...” (Mark 14:34). His spirit was broken; He was ready to die. Christ’s body was under so much pressure because of what He was about to do that He literally sweat blood (Luke 22:44). He was crushed, both in physically and spiritually. Finally, after they had nailed Him to a cross the next day, He exclaimed “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” (Matthew 27:46).
Christ became the broken spirit and contrite heart that God will not despise. He, being the center of all that God has done (John 1:2), the very heart of God Himself, became a crushed spirit on our behalf. He became the sacrifice of God to God so that those of us who are in Him can know God. We are in Christ, and as God cannot despise His sacrifice, neither can He despise those who are in the sacrifice.
Rejoice in the broken heart of the risen Savior, for He is the Sacrifice of God!
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
I find that sometimes reading scripture is a game. It’s not a game like Jeopardy (though some may argue otherwise) but more like a game of hide and seek. I’ve found over the past year or so that God likes to hide little secrets in little phrases and in little words throughout Bible. Sometimes it’s not even so much that they are hidden, but that we (I) tend to just gloss over them.
Look at the following brain teaser and count the number of Fs in the sentence. Only read the sentence once; do not return to count again. Note your answer.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
If you answered 3, you’re wrong! There are 6 Fs in that sentence. There are three hidden in the repeating word “of”. The point is that our brains are so used to tuning out and overlooking little words like “of” when we read that it’s almost as if they don’t exist. This brings me right back to the passage above, sometimes we overlook the little words like “of”. When we do that there’s a chance we’ll miss the point of the scripture.
This Psalm tells us, “The sacrifices of God are...”, it does not say “to” God. I think sometimes we skim over words as we read the Bible and tend to misread it as the latter. There’s an implied idea that God desires your broken heart and your crushed spirit when you assume “to” and don’t read “of”. The fact is that the verse states it is God’s sacrifice that is a broken, crushed spirit. It is His contrite (Hebrew word “dakah” for crushed) heart (Hebrew word “Leb” for midst or center) that He won’t despise.
Literally what this verse is saying is this: the sacrifices of God are His broken spirit: His crushed center He will not despise. The Bible clearly tells us that our works are like dirty rags in God’s eyes (Isaiah 64:6). I can only assume that even our sacrifices to Him, however well-intentioned, would be viewed the same way. But His own sacrifice to Himself? He can’t argue with that!
On the night before He was crucified, Christ went to the garden and prayed, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death...” (Mark 14:34). His spirit was broken; He was ready to die. Christ’s body was under so much pressure because of what He was about to do that He literally sweat blood (Luke 22:44). He was crushed, both in physically and spiritually. Finally, after they had nailed Him to a cross the next day, He exclaimed “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” (Matthew 27:46).
Christ became the broken spirit and contrite heart that God will not despise. He, being the center of all that God has done (John 1:2), the very heart of God Himself, became a crushed spirit on our behalf. He became the sacrifice of God to God so that those of us who are in Him can know God. We are in Christ, and as God cannot despise His sacrifice, neither can He despise those who are in the sacrifice.
Rejoice in the broken heart of the risen Savior, for He is the Sacrifice of God!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
I AM listening...
2 Chronicles 7:15-16
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
Sometimes we get stuck in a rut where we feel like, and start to believe that, God isn’t listening anymore. These feelings can be the result of our background in church doctrine, a misquoted or misunderstood scripture, or just our own sin conscious, self-reflective attitudes. What can we do when we start feeling this way?
Well, the answer is get back to the basics. The writer of Hebrews makes reference while talking to believers (that’s us) that, though we ought to be teachers, sometimes we need someone to refresh our memory and explain to us, again, the basics of the Gospel (Hebrews 5:12). We should know these things, but sometimes we just need to be reminded. Mind you, the writer doesn’t say that we need to be reminded of what we have done wrong, but rather of the first principles of God. In our case, that is, New Testament living, these would be the foundational doctrines of Christianity. Allow me to remind you of the basics:
1-Christ came in human form.
2-He lived a perfect life.
3-Christ was scourged and beaten for our healing.
4-He was cursed and nailed to a tree for our death.
5-He rose from the grave, victorious and has forgiven us of all sin.
Now that we have gotten the basics out of the way we can move forward and recognize that nothing we have done, will do, or are doing, is causing God to not hear us. No circumstance we have fallen into, no new challenge in our lives is taken on without the loving and ALWAYS listening ear of God. Scripture backs this up!
The Bible tells us that our bodies have become the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3:16), wherein the name of Jesus lives! That being the case, the promise that God made regarding prayer in His temple pertains directly to us. God told Solomon that in the temple, the place where His name would reside (2 Chronicles 2:1), His ears and His eyes would be attentive to the prayers made!
Friends this is very positive news! Those of us who are Christians have the blessing of being made the house for the name of the Lord. Jesus is written within us, on our hearts, and in our minds. That being the case, we are never out of fellowship with God. No matter what you have done or think you have done God is still listening to you!
The real good news is this: Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for all of your sins, long before you were born. God, being outside of time, knew exactly why, when, where, how, and what you were going to do, before you were even born! He preemptively forgave you, wrote His name on your heart, and now listens, attentively, to all the prayers that you make! But wait, there’s more. It’s not just the simple fact that God is watching you and listening to your prayers; He’s also sanctified you.
That’s right folks, God hears you and watches you because He has sanctified you by the blood sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ! Since He has done that, His name is with you forever. It can’t be removed; He put it there! Even greater still is this: His heart is with you.
Whatever your situation today, know that God is watching you and listening to you. You haven’t fallen out of fellowship with Him. He hasn’t stopped listening to your prayers. God loves you; His heart is with you. He gave you life through Jesus Christ, His only Son. So pray and KNOW that God is listening!
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
Sometimes we get stuck in a rut where we feel like, and start to believe that, God isn’t listening anymore. These feelings can be the result of our background in church doctrine, a misquoted or misunderstood scripture, or just our own sin conscious, self-reflective attitudes. What can we do when we start feeling this way?
Well, the answer is get back to the basics. The writer of Hebrews makes reference while talking to believers (that’s us) that, though we ought to be teachers, sometimes we need someone to refresh our memory and explain to us, again, the basics of the Gospel (Hebrews 5:12). We should know these things, but sometimes we just need to be reminded. Mind you, the writer doesn’t say that we need to be reminded of what we have done wrong, but rather of the first principles of God. In our case, that is, New Testament living, these would be the foundational doctrines of Christianity. Allow me to remind you of the basics:
1-Christ came in human form.
2-He lived a perfect life.
3-Christ was scourged and beaten for our healing.
4-He was cursed and nailed to a tree for our death.
5-He rose from the grave, victorious and has forgiven us of all sin.
Now that we have gotten the basics out of the way we can move forward and recognize that nothing we have done, will do, or are doing, is causing God to not hear us. No circumstance we have fallen into, no new challenge in our lives is taken on without the loving and ALWAYS listening ear of God. Scripture backs this up!
The Bible tells us that our bodies have become the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3:16), wherein the name of Jesus lives! That being the case, the promise that God made regarding prayer in His temple pertains directly to us. God told Solomon that in the temple, the place where His name would reside (2 Chronicles 2:1), His ears and His eyes would be attentive to the prayers made!
Friends this is very positive news! Those of us who are Christians have the blessing of being made the house for the name of the Lord. Jesus is written within us, on our hearts, and in our minds. That being the case, we are never out of fellowship with God. No matter what you have done or think you have done God is still listening to you!
The real good news is this: Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for all of your sins, long before you were born. God, being outside of time, knew exactly why, when, where, how, and what you were going to do, before you were even born! He preemptively forgave you, wrote His name on your heart, and now listens, attentively, to all the prayers that you make! But wait, there’s more. It’s not just the simple fact that God is watching you and listening to your prayers; He’s also sanctified you.
That’s right folks, God hears you and watches you because He has sanctified you by the blood sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ! Since He has done that, His name is with you forever. It can’t be removed; He put it there! Even greater still is this: His heart is with you.
Whatever your situation today, know that God is watching you and listening to you. You haven’t fallen out of fellowship with Him. He hasn’t stopped listening to your prayers. God loves you; His heart is with you. He gave you life through Jesus Christ, His only Son. So pray and KNOW that God is listening!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Righteous, regardless
Psalm 48:10
According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.
I don’t like feeling condemned. It makes me feel bad, worthless, and not good enough. I think that’s why Paul wrote Romans 8:1, as a reminder to me (and you) that in Christ there is no condemnation.
Have you ever had someone come to you and tell you what you’re doing wrong? I often wonder where people who rarely chat with me otherwise find the gall to come to me only to declare my misdoings. It’s as if they need to condemn me to feel secure in their own righteousness. At times like these that I have two options. Option one: be Gary. Take up a good fighting stance, get a sight picture, and with a steady trigger pull, POW! Unload both barrels, empty all my magazines, fill that target with holes. Option two: be the new Gary (2 Corinthians 5:17). This option doesn’t involve retaliation, justification, or anger. This option only requires that I recall who Jesus is and what He has done. End of story!
This is hard for me only in the sense that by nature I am an arguer. Honestly, I love to argue; it’s the way God made me. For years I used this God-given gift to attack people, but suddenly I’m realizing that He’s given me this gift for His glory. What do I do now? I argue Jesus and my standing with Him. I’m not concerned with my standing with people. I’m certainly not concerned with how people presume to know my standing with God. All I can argue now is what I know, based on scripture, to be my status with God Almighty.
So, what is my standing with God? Well, as far as He’s concerned, I’m made perfect by the blood of Jesus Christ. He sees me as He sees His own Son: righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). As a believer, I am in Jesus, and as He is, so am I (1 John 4:17). Scripture tells me that Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12) and this Psalm tells me that His right hand is full of righteousness. Therefore, I conclude, I am righteous, being that I am in His right hand!
Knowing that I am righteous in Christ and that I can’t lose that righteousness gives me a firm foundation on which to stand. When accusations come my way, when condemnation is thrown at me, my argument is simply this: I am righteous because Jesus has made me righteous. There is nothing that can separate me from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.).
The world and the worldly belief desires to see us condemned. But we know that the Devil, not the Christian, is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10)! When someone feels the need to come to you with condemnation, remember who you are, an heir to the throne of God with Christ (Romans 8:17), and remind that person of Jesus’ finished work at the cross.
At the end of the day I know this truth: I am righteous regardless of what I have done, am doing, or will do, because Christ has made me that way. There is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ. Accusations and condemning speech cannot change my status with the King. His right hand is full of righteousness and that is where I am!
According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.
I don’t like feeling condemned. It makes me feel bad, worthless, and not good enough. I think that’s why Paul wrote Romans 8:1, as a reminder to me (and you) that in Christ there is no condemnation.
Have you ever had someone come to you and tell you what you’re doing wrong? I often wonder where people who rarely chat with me otherwise find the gall to come to me only to declare my misdoings. It’s as if they need to condemn me to feel secure in their own righteousness. At times like these that I have two options. Option one: be Gary. Take up a good fighting stance, get a sight picture, and with a steady trigger pull, POW! Unload both barrels, empty all my magazines, fill that target with holes. Option two: be the new Gary (2 Corinthians 5:17). This option doesn’t involve retaliation, justification, or anger. This option only requires that I recall who Jesus is and what He has done. End of story!
This is hard for me only in the sense that by nature I am an arguer. Honestly, I love to argue; it’s the way God made me. For years I used this God-given gift to attack people, but suddenly I’m realizing that He’s given me this gift for His glory. What do I do now? I argue Jesus and my standing with Him. I’m not concerned with my standing with people. I’m certainly not concerned with how people presume to know my standing with God. All I can argue now is what I know, based on scripture, to be my status with God Almighty.
So, what is my standing with God? Well, as far as He’s concerned, I’m made perfect by the blood of Jesus Christ. He sees me as He sees His own Son: righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). As a believer, I am in Jesus, and as He is, so am I (1 John 4:17). Scripture tells me that Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12) and this Psalm tells me that His right hand is full of righteousness. Therefore, I conclude, I am righteous, being that I am in His right hand!
Knowing that I am righteous in Christ and that I can’t lose that righteousness gives me a firm foundation on which to stand. When accusations come my way, when condemnation is thrown at me, my argument is simply this: I am righteous because Jesus has made me righteous. There is nothing that can separate me from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.).
The world and the worldly belief desires to see us condemned. But we know that the Devil, not the Christian, is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10)! When someone feels the need to come to you with condemnation, remember who you are, an heir to the throne of God with Christ (Romans 8:17), and remind that person of Jesus’ finished work at the cross.
At the end of the day I know this truth: I am righteous regardless of what I have done, am doing, or will do, because Christ has made me that way. There is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ. Accusations and condemning speech cannot change my status with the King. His right hand is full of righteousness and that is where I am!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Criss-cross
Genesis 48:14
But Israel crossed his hands and reached out. He put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, although Ephraim was the younger son. He put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was older.
Why? Why did Israel [Jacob] cross his hands to bless the children? I often wondered about this, especially growing up as the second of two children. A lot of times growing up we, the younger children, see the older get what we believe to be more or better things. They get new clothes, we get hand-me-downs. They are the first to drive, go to the prom, and get married (usually). They’re usually the first ones to bless the family with grandchildren. We’re always riding on their coattails, or so it seems. A lot of times it’s not until we’re out on our own in the world that we, the younger, really realize who we are and start to become our own person. For so long we lived under the shadow of an older sibling that our identity was simply that: a shadow.
This still doesn’t answer the question: why did Jacob cross his hands and bless the younger brother with the right hand and the older brother with his left hand? I don’t think he was picking favorites. I don’t think that he had seen Ephraim grow up in the shadows all his life and wanted him to be something new. I think Jacob saw something that God had ordained from before there was time. It was an opportunity to cleverly hide the mystery of Christ and the blessings of His grace rather than the curses of the Law.
Everything is significant in the Bible. From the placement of a comma to the names of the children, each detail is special and holds within it clues to the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. Jacob, whose name means supplanter, is the one doing the blessing here. We know that Jacob got his name because he was born holding Esau’s heel and, later in life, managed to get Esau’s blessing for his own. But I believe that God had an even greater purpose for revealing why Jacob was so named. Even in this chapter of Genesis the translation switches back and forth, referring to him as Jacob in one sentence and Israel in the next, both names of the same person!
Jacob, the supplanter, or Israel, prince of God, is blessing two children. What are their names again? Ephraim, meaning “the famous bearer, very fruitful,” the youngest child, and Manasseh, meaning “he that is forgotten,” the older child. In essence, “he that is forgotten” is being supplanted by “the one who is very fruitful.”
What’s the significance; where’s Jesus? I’m about to let you know. Manasseh is a representation of the Law that God gave to Moses, the Ten Commandments. He was the first to come, but not the greatest. Ephraim is a representation of Jesus Christ and His grace. He is the greatest. The glory of the first is fading and being forgotten while that of the second is greater, everlasting, and bears much fruit (2 Corinthians 3:7-11).
The right hand blessing had to go to the one who would represent the Right Hand of God, Jesus Christ, in whom we have forgiveness of sins and open access to the blessings of heaven (Philippians 4:19, Hebrews 10:12). The left [over] blessing had to go to the representative of the Law, whose job is finished at the revelation of Jesus (Galatians 3:24).
There is just one more thing, the way in which the boys were presented and what Jacob did. The boys were facing Jacob and he was facing them, Manasseh in front of his right hand and Ephraim in front of his left. When Jacob reached out to bless the boys, crossing his hands, he made a sign for God to see. It was a cross, the eventual key to unlock the blessings God intended for mankind from the beginning. Just for fun, right now, stop and reach your hands out as Jacob did. Cross them and look down. That is what God saw that day. He saw the forgotten being supplanted by the very fruitful True Vine through the cross!
But Israel crossed his hands and reached out. He put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, although Ephraim was the younger son. He put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was older.
Why? Why did Israel [Jacob] cross his hands to bless the children? I often wondered about this, especially growing up as the second of two children. A lot of times growing up we, the younger children, see the older get what we believe to be more or better things. They get new clothes, we get hand-me-downs. They are the first to drive, go to the prom, and get married (usually). They’re usually the first ones to bless the family with grandchildren. We’re always riding on their coattails, or so it seems. A lot of times it’s not until we’re out on our own in the world that we, the younger, really realize who we are and start to become our own person. For so long we lived under the shadow of an older sibling that our identity was simply that: a shadow.
This still doesn’t answer the question: why did Jacob cross his hands and bless the younger brother with the right hand and the older brother with his left hand? I don’t think he was picking favorites. I don’t think that he had seen Ephraim grow up in the shadows all his life and wanted him to be something new. I think Jacob saw something that God had ordained from before there was time. It was an opportunity to cleverly hide the mystery of Christ and the blessings of His grace rather than the curses of the Law.
Everything is significant in the Bible. From the placement of a comma to the names of the children, each detail is special and holds within it clues to the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. Jacob, whose name means supplanter, is the one doing the blessing here. We know that Jacob got his name because he was born holding Esau’s heel and, later in life, managed to get Esau’s blessing for his own. But I believe that God had an even greater purpose for revealing why Jacob was so named. Even in this chapter of Genesis the translation switches back and forth, referring to him as Jacob in one sentence and Israel in the next, both names of the same person!
Jacob, the supplanter, or Israel, prince of God, is blessing two children. What are their names again? Ephraim, meaning “the famous bearer, very fruitful,” the youngest child, and Manasseh, meaning “he that is forgotten,” the older child. In essence, “he that is forgotten” is being supplanted by “the one who is very fruitful.”
What’s the significance; where’s Jesus? I’m about to let you know. Manasseh is a representation of the Law that God gave to Moses, the Ten Commandments. He was the first to come, but not the greatest. Ephraim is a representation of Jesus Christ and His grace. He is the greatest. The glory of the first is fading and being forgotten while that of the second is greater, everlasting, and bears much fruit (2 Corinthians 3:7-11).
The right hand blessing had to go to the one who would represent the Right Hand of God, Jesus Christ, in whom we have forgiveness of sins and open access to the blessings of heaven (Philippians 4:19, Hebrews 10:12). The left [over] blessing had to go to the representative of the Law, whose job is finished at the revelation of Jesus (Galatians 3:24).
There is just one more thing, the way in which the boys were presented and what Jacob did. The boys were facing Jacob and he was facing them, Manasseh in front of his right hand and Ephraim in front of his left. When Jacob reached out to bless the boys, crossing his hands, he made a sign for God to see. It was a cross, the eventual key to unlock the blessings God intended for mankind from the beginning. Just for fun, right now, stop and reach your hands out as Jacob did. Cross them and look down. That is what God saw that day. He saw the forgotten being supplanted by the very fruitful True Vine through the cross!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Pillars
2 Chronicles 3:17
Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
Have you ever heard anyone say that the Bible is God’s instruction manual for us on how to live a good and holy life? I know that I have. The Bible: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Come on now, I think there’s more to it than that!
If we understand the Bible as nothing more than an instruction manual for us, a list of rules, regulations, and requirements, then who the heck is Jesus? Seriously here, folks, if the Word [Jesus] (John 1:1) says little more than “do, do, do,” then how on earth is anyone going to have a relationship with that? Yet week after week in church we throw out rules and principles to live by as if to say Jesus came to do one thing, give us more rules to try and live by.
And while I’m on this subject, if the Bible is our instruction manual, then why are there chapters upon chapters of the ornate decorations of the temple? History? Do we really need history in order to follow rules? Who cares what the pillars of the temple were named by the king at the time? This is God’s rule book, right? We don’t need to know about the 100 pomegranates on the top; we only need to know how to live right before the Lord. Really, these books that just tell us about the ornate design of the temple are pointless space fillers in God’s lesson plan for being a good person.
What I’m trying to point out here is that there is more to the Bible than just the rules and regulations. In fact, I am saying that those things (rules and regulations) are secondary points that just happened to show up. The real point of the Bible is the ornateness of the temple, the pomegranates on the pillars, the very names of the pillars themselves!
And so we go, let’s look at the names of these two great pillars that stand before the temple that Solomon built for the NAME of the Lord.
To the right is Jachin, whose name means “he that strengthens and makes steadfast”. To the left, Boaz, meaning “swift and strong”. These two pillars and their names were not put in the Bible as an aside, but as a representation of the Law (Boaz) to the left, and Grace (Jachin) to the right.
During the time in which the Bible was written there were certain traditions. One was the blessing of the children. The first, the best blessing always went to the child at the right hand (typically the oldest, but as evidenced in the Bible there were some changes along the way...save that for another day).
Under the Law, the nation of Israel could not receive the fullness of God’s blessings unless they did all that He required (which they couldn’t). They received what they earned. They functioned in a society under a law that was swift and strong. It was written on stone to show its unwillingness to bend or to assist. It was (and still is) perfect in every way, but was not able to bring about the fullness of God’s blessings on the people because it required and demanded too much: perfection.
Then came grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). He didn’t come into the world to demand more, but rather to do what people couldn’t do on their own. He is the one who strengthens and makes steadfast. He is the fullness of perfection, seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19) making continual intercession on our behalf (Romans 8:34) so that we can receive the best of God’s blessings.
I’m here to tell you today that the Bible is not a book of rules. It is not a “how to” manual for life before you die. It is not weapon to be used against people to show them their mistakes; it is a weapon to protect people from the Devil. But most of all, the Bible is the Word of God. It is a miracle book filled with images of Jesus Christ, God’s grace, forgiveness, protection, blessings, honor, glory, and power. It is what it is!
Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
Have you ever heard anyone say that the Bible is God’s instruction manual for us on how to live a good and holy life? I know that I have. The Bible: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Come on now, I think there’s more to it than that!
If we understand the Bible as nothing more than an instruction manual for us, a list of rules, regulations, and requirements, then who the heck is Jesus? Seriously here, folks, if the Word [Jesus] (John 1:1) says little more than “do, do, do,” then how on earth is anyone going to have a relationship with that? Yet week after week in church we throw out rules and principles to live by as if to say Jesus came to do one thing, give us more rules to try and live by.
And while I’m on this subject, if the Bible is our instruction manual, then why are there chapters upon chapters of the ornate decorations of the temple? History? Do we really need history in order to follow rules? Who cares what the pillars of the temple were named by the king at the time? This is God’s rule book, right? We don’t need to know about the 100 pomegranates on the top; we only need to know how to live right before the Lord. Really, these books that just tell us about the ornate design of the temple are pointless space fillers in God’s lesson plan for being a good person.
What I’m trying to point out here is that there is more to the Bible than just the rules and regulations. In fact, I am saying that those things (rules and regulations) are secondary points that just happened to show up. The real point of the Bible is the ornateness of the temple, the pomegranates on the pillars, the very names of the pillars themselves!
And so we go, let’s look at the names of these two great pillars that stand before the temple that Solomon built for the NAME of the Lord.
To the right is Jachin, whose name means “he that strengthens and makes steadfast”. To the left, Boaz, meaning “swift and strong”. These two pillars and their names were not put in the Bible as an aside, but as a representation of the Law (Boaz) to the left, and Grace (Jachin) to the right.
During the time in which the Bible was written there were certain traditions. One was the blessing of the children. The first, the best blessing always went to the child at the right hand (typically the oldest, but as evidenced in the Bible there were some changes along the way...save that for another day).
Under the Law, the nation of Israel could not receive the fullness of God’s blessings unless they did all that He required (which they couldn’t). They received what they earned. They functioned in a society under a law that was swift and strong. It was written on stone to show its unwillingness to bend or to assist. It was (and still is) perfect in every way, but was not able to bring about the fullness of God’s blessings on the people because it required and demanded too much: perfection.
Then came grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). He didn’t come into the world to demand more, but rather to do what people couldn’t do on their own. He is the one who strengthens and makes steadfast. He is the fullness of perfection, seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19) making continual intercession on our behalf (Romans 8:34) so that we can receive the best of God’s blessings.
I’m here to tell you today that the Bible is not a book of rules. It is not a “how to” manual for life before you die. It is not weapon to be used against people to show them their mistakes; it is a weapon to protect people from the Devil. But most of all, the Bible is the Word of God. It is a miracle book filled with images of Jesus Christ, God’s grace, forgiveness, protection, blessings, honor, glory, and power. It is what it is!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Chillin' with a dead man.
John 12:2
There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.
Our personal understanding of our spiritual standing with God is made manifest in our day to day activity. How we believe and what we believe are directly related to how we act and how we live our lives. Are we workers like Martha, or are we partakers like Lazarus? This is the question.
What you are about to read may come as a surprise; it may even rattle your sails a bit, but that’s a good thing. It is time to flip the world upside down. It is time to turn our theology inside out and reexamine how we interpret scripture. It is time for us to read the Bible through a Jesus filter and begin to truly understand what the Good Book teaches. So I’ll ask: are you ready?
Martha is a worker. Martha is always doing something. Most of the time she’s preparing a meal. Have you ever asked yourself the question why? I’m sure you’ve heard it said (as have I) that Martha is an example of a good working servant for the Kingdom of heaven. “If the church had more Marthas it would be a better place.” But I don’t believe that’s the correct way to interpret scripture. (Guilt and obligation come from this kind of interpretation.)
While it is a fact that Martha served Jesus and had a Kingdom mindset, we have to examine her motives, the reason behind her service. A look at Luke 10 shows us that Martha’s service, though extremely helpful, was done to gain approval from the Lord out of a legalistic sense of duty. (Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”) That kind of service is not what God wants from people. I call it “me-centered service”, and though it goes to benefit the Kingdom, it’s all about the server and not truly about the King.
Then there’s Lazarus, the man who was dead and is now living, sitting at the table with Jesus. Why isn’t he making dinner? He was, after all, just given a second chance at life! Lazarus is a picture of the grace-led Christian. I’m sure that He did wonderful things for the Kingdom as time went on, but he also recognized the fact that nothing he did for Jesus would make Jesus love, respect, or honor him any more than He already did.
Lazarus realized that the work had been done; his life had been made new. He realized that there was nothing left for him to do in this world except commune with Jesus, receive the fullness of His love, and live. That’s an awesome realization: there is nothing left for us to do in this world except commune with Jesus, receive His love, and live!
Martha, though helpful, was consumed with her works. Do you think she ever enjoyed a meal with Jesus? I don’t. I’ve been a chef and understand all the hard work that goes into preparing a meal. I understand how that hard work takes away from the wonder of the meal when it’s finally time to sit and eat. Poor Martha, she missed out! She never understood that Jesus came to give her rest, not require more service from her. Jesus didn’t need her food in order to enjoy dinner; He was the food. Lazarus understood that Jesus was the way, the truth, the life, and the resurrection. He had firsthand knowledge of death under law and resurrection to a new life under grace.
Friends, we need to be Lazarus Christians. The Bible tells us that we are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need to accept His rest, His provision, and His unmerited favor in our lives and stop trying to earn what has been freely given.
**Service in the church is necessary, but can’t be done out of compulsion or guilt. That is the point. Serving Jesus should never feel laborious, difficult, or annoying. True Kingdom service can only begin after you realize that you have the right to sit down with Jesus and simply enjoy His company and fellowship.**
There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.
Our personal understanding of our spiritual standing with God is made manifest in our day to day activity. How we believe and what we believe are directly related to how we act and how we live our lives. Are we workers like Martha, or are we partakers like Lazarus? This is the question.
What you are about to read may come as a surprise; it may even rattle your sails a bit, but that’s a good thing. It is time to flip the world upside down. It is time to turn our theology inside out and reexamine how we interpret scripture. It is time for us to read the Bible through a Jesus filter and begin to truly understand what the Good Book teaches. So I’ll ask: are you ready?
Martha is a worker. Martha is always doing something. Most of the time she’s preparing a meal. Have you ever asked yourself the question why? I’m sure you’ve heard it said (as have I) that Martha is an example of a good working servant for the Kingdom of heaven. “If the church had more Marthas it would be a better place.” But I don’t believe that’s the correct way to interpret scripture. (Guilt and obligation come from this kind of interpretation.)
While it is a fact that Martha served Jesus and had a Kingdom mindset, we have to examine her motives, the reason behind her service. A look at Luke 10 shows us that Martha’s service, though extremely helpful, was done to gain approval from the Lord out of a legalistic sense of duty. (Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”) That kind of service is not what God wants from people. I call it “me-centered service”, and though it goes to benefit the Kingdom, it’s all about the server and not truly about the King.
Then there’s Lazarus, the man who was dead and is now living, sitting at the table with Jesus. Why isn’t he making dinner? He was, after all, just given a second chance at life! Lazarus is a picture of the grace-led Christian. I’m sure that He did wonderful things for the Kingdom as time went on, but he also recognized the fact that nothing he did for Jesus would make Jesus love, respect, or honor him any more than He already did.
Lazarus realized that the work had been done; his life had been made new. He realized that there was nothing left for him to do in this world except commune with Jesus, receive the fullness of His love, and live. That’s an awesome realization: there is nothing left for us to do in this world except commune with Jesus, receive His love, and live!
Martha, though helpful, was consumed with her works. Do you think she ever enjoyed a meal with Jesus? I don’t. I’ve been a chef and understand all the hard work that goes into preparing a meal. I understand how that hard work takes away from the wonder of the meal when it’s finally time to sit and eat. Poor Martha, she missed out! She never understood that Jesus came to give her rest, not require more service from her. Jesus didn’t need her food in order to enjoy dinner; He was the food. Lazarus understood that Jesus was the way, the truth, the life, and the resurrection. He had firsthand knowledge of death under law and resurrection to a new life under grace.
Friends, we need to be Lazarus Christians. The Bible tells us that we are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need to accept His rest, His provision, and His unmerited favor in our lives and stop trying to earn what has been freely given.
**Service in the church is necessary, but can’t be done out of compulsion or guilt. That is the point. Serving Jesus should never feel laborious, difficult, or annoying. True Kingdom service can only begin after you realize that you have the right to sit down with Jesus and simply enjoy His company and fellowship.**
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Mystery Babylon
Revelation 18:4
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;”
These are the words of Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords: “Come up out of her, my people...” These are commonly used words when preachers go down the rapture trail. They are foundation words for such doctrines. But I think there is more to what Jesus said than an allusion to the rapture of the church.
Jesus is calling out to His people, commonly thought of as the church, but not necessarily so. You see, there are those who live the church lifestyle, following the church doctrines, who are not actually Christians (Matthew 7:21-23). There are genuinely “good” people who hear the word, follow the rules, and live the life, who aren’t truly saved. This missed salvation isn’t a result of their unbelief in who Jesus is, but is a product of their lack of faith in what He truly did.
So much of our time is spent teaching “Christians” how to be good people that Jesus has become a footnote to Christian theology. The veil that was torn in two at His crucifixion has been sewn back together by the doctrine of the church (2 Corinthians 3:15). In sanctuaries around the world it is the resurrection of the veil of the Law that is being preached rather than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Well-intended teaching has unintentionally caused many of Christ’s followers to fall from grace. By subjecting Christians to a legalistic view of the Bible and its meaning, many preachers have inadvertently placed the body of Christ back under law. They have re-subjected His body (the church) to the sickness, death, and suffering that He Himself already suffered on our behalf.
Why is there divorce in the church? Why is there sickness in the church? Why is there death in the church? Because she hasn’t accepted the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice. She is still trying to be justified by her ability to do the very things that Christ came to do for her, for us all. (Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.)
The Bible truth is this: the law gives strength to sin (1 Corinthians 15:56) and the price of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is calling us all to come up out of her, Babylon, the land of confusion. He’s calling us away from the confusing doctrine of saved by grace, justified by law. He is calling us to be set apart from what the world sees as normal, that is, “do good get good/do bad get bad”; He wants us to live entirely under His grace.
He’s telling us to rise above it all: the rules, the expectations, the unreachable goals. He’s telling us that by living under His grace we won’t sin anymore (1 John 3:9) and that by living in His grace we will not receive any of the plagues. Sickness, disease, depression, fear, and anxiety can’t touch you when you’re under the umbrella of Christ’s grace. Come up out of the confusing mixture of law and grace, the ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:7), onto the level of the superior covenant of grace and grace alone.
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;”
These are the words of Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords: “Come up out of her, my people...” These are commonly used words when preachers go down the rapture trail. They are foundation words for such doctrines. But I think there is more to what Jesus said than an allusion to the rapture of the church.
Jesus is calling out to His people, commonly thought of as the church, but not necessarily so. You see, there are those who live the church lifestyle, following the church doctrines, who are not actually Christians (Matthew 7:21-23). There are genuinely “good” people who hear the word, follow the rules, and live the life, who aren’t truly saved. This missed salvation isn’t a result of their unbelief in who Jesus is, but is a product of their lack of faith in what He truly did.
So much of our time is spent teaching “Christians” how to be good people that Jesus has become a footnote to Christian theology. The veil that was torn in two at His crucifixion has been sewn back together by the doctrine of the church (2 Corinthians 3:15). In sanctuaries around the world it is the resurrection of the veil of the Law that is being preached rather than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Well-intended teaching has unintentionally caused many of Christ’s followers to fall from grace. By subjecting Christians to a legalistic view of the Bible and its meaning, many preachers have inadvertently placed the body of Christ back under law. They have re-subjected His body (the church) to the sickness, death, and suffering that He Himself already suffered on our behalf.
Why is there divorce in the church? Why is there sickness in the church? Why is there death in the church? Because she hasn’t accepted the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice. She is still trying to be justified by her ability to do the very things that Christ came to do for her, for us all. (Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.)
The Bible truth is this: the law gives strength to sin (1 Corinthians 15:56) and the price of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is calling us all to come up out of her, Babylon, the land of confusion. He’s calling us away from the confusing doctrine of saved by grace, justified by law. He is calling us to be set apart from what the world sees as normal, that is, “do good get good/do bad get bad”; He wants us to live entirely under His grace.
He’s telling us to rise above it all: the rules, the expectations, the unreachable goals. He’s telling us that by living under His grace we won’t sin anymore (1 John 3:9) and that by living in His grace we will not receive any of the plagues. Sickness, disease, depression, fear, and anxiety can’t touch you when you’re under the umbrella of Christ’s grace. Come up out of the confusing mixture of law and grace, the ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:7), onto the level of the superior covenant of grace and grace alone.
Monday, October 10, 2011
All of 'em.
Psalm 34:15
The Lord’s eyes are on righteous people. His ears hear their cry for help.
Psalm 34:17
Righteous people cry out. The Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles.
Do we really believe the Bible? Honestly, truly, without question, do we believe that what the Word of God says is true and accurate? I’m not too sure. It seems to me that, in a lot of Christian circles, there is a disconnect between the brain and the heart when it comes to full belief in the Word of God. My assumption is that this flaw in believing is due to centuries of inaccurate teaching and unintentional misrepresentations of the Bible.
Power, freedom, peace, and rest are found in the Psalms. They were written for our edification, our learning, and our spiritual growth as followers of Christ (2 Timothy 3:16). They contain within them the strength to endure and the power to overcome. They hold secrets that God, through David’s writing, intended for us to discover. They provide us unique insight into who our Creator, our Savior, and our God really is. They are a blessing for the blessed ones (that’s us, those who have placed our faith in Christ Jesus)!
Unfortunately, some of us have been taught incorrectly about the cross of Jesus Christ and what it has done for mankind. We have been (correctly) led to believe that Christ died to get us into heaven, but also (incorrectly) that our righteousness is dependent on our ability to live rightly as a Christian. This kind of believing actually takes away from the awesome power of Jesus’ finished work here on earth. When we have an insecure base for the foundation of our beliefs, we inadvertently limit the restorative power of the cross in our lives.
There is no work or deed that can be done by any man, woman, or child that is capable of bringing us into a right standing with God. The whole “get right with God” concept is inaccurate and false doctrine. The truth is that we were made right with God by the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. It is only through His blood that we have forgiveness of sins. It is by His stripes we have healing for our bodies. It is by His perfection that we have been made perfect. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
All who have placed faith in Jesus, who have found peace in knowing that He has perfected us, are righteous, regardless of any wrongdoing done or to be done. That means that wherever the Bible makes a promise to the righteous, we can claim it. Here that promise is this: the Lord hears the cries of the righteous and He rescues them from all their troubles.
When we believe right we will live righteously, knowing that we are righteous through the grace of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is because of His righteousness, which has been imparted to us, that God rescues us from all our troubles. Stand up, cry out, be rescued!
The Lord’s eyes are on righteous people. His ears hear their cry for help.
Psalm 34:17
Righteous people cry out. The Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles.
Do we really believe the Bible? Honestly, truly, without question, do we believe that what the Word of God says is true and accurate? I’m not too sure. It seems to me that, in a lot of Christian circles, there is a disconnect between the brain and the heart when it comes to full belief in the Word of God. My assumption is that this flaw in believing is due to centuries of inaccurate teaching and unintentional misrepresentations of the Bible.
Power, freedom, peace, and rest are found in the Psalms. They were written for our edification, our learning, and our spiritual growth as followers of Christ (2 Timothy 3:16). They contain within them the strength to endure and the power to overcome. They hold secrets that God, through David’s writing, intended for us to discover. They provide us unique insight into who our Creator, our Savior, and our God really is. They are a blessing for the blessed ones (that’s us, those who have placed our faith in Christ Jesus)!
Unfortunately, some of us have been taught incorrectly about the cross of Jesus Christ and what it has done for mankind. We have been (correctly) led to believe that Christ died to get us into heaven, but also (incorrectly) that our righteousness is dependent on our ability to live rightly as a Christian. This kind of believing actually takes away from the awesome power of Jesus’ finished work here on earth. When we have an insecure base for the foundation of our beliefs, we inadvertently limit the restorative power of the cross in our lives.
There is no work or deed that can be done by any man, woman, or child that is capable of bringing us into a right standing with God. The whole “get right with God” concept is inaccurate and false doctrine. The truth is that we were made right with God by the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. It is only through His blood that we have forgiveness of sins. It is by His stripes we have healing for our bodies. It is by His perfection that we have been made perfect. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
All who have placed faith in Jesus, who have found peace in knowing that He has perfected us, are righteous, regardless of any wrongdoing done or to be done. That means that wherever the Bible makes a promise to the righteous, we can claim it. Here that promise is this: the Lord hears the cries of the righteous and He rescues them from all their troubles.
When we believe right we will live righteously, knowing that we are righteous through the grace of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is because of His righteousness, which has been imparted to us, that God rescues us from all our troubles. Stand up, cry out, be rescued!
Friday, October 7, 2011
You: righteous!
Psalm 32:11
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Sounds like a direct order to me. What about you? There are a lot of Christians and churches today that still believe that living by the letter of the law is what makes you a good person in the eyes of God. It’s not enough, their teaching implies, that Jesus Christ went to the cross for you and took your punishment; you must also live into the law that He came to fulfill. It’s a theological conundrum: we’re saved by grace, but works give us status with God.
But that’s not what I’m writing about today. No, I’m going to appeal to the church, to the Christian who enjoys being given rules and regulations to try and live into. I’m going to appeal to the Christian who desires to prove his or her worth to God through their own ability to “live right”. Today I want to appeal to the Christian who has been saved by grace but still wants to be justified by works.
Here in Psalm 32 you have been given a direct order by God: be glad in the LORD and rejoice. So I’ll ask the question, are you doing that? Most likely no, because in order to fulfill the commandment you must possess a certain quality that you, the ones justified through working out your salvation, can’t possess: righteousness. It’s out there now, I said it: if you are choosing to be saved by grace but attempt to be justified by your works, you do not have the righteousness of Christ. (Galatians 5:4 “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”) You are not righteous!
This may be tough to swallow, but if you’re a doer of the word, that is, a law-fulfiller, you cannot fulfill this commandment. The Bible tells us straight up, our righteous works are but filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). That being the case, how can you, the doer of laws, be righteous? The short answer is you can’t.
In order to be able to live into this command, you must first be willing to submit to the fact that you can’t. It’s not really that confusing; it’s quite simple. You have to go back to grace and stop right there. Christ gave us His righteousness and took our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). In so doing, we became instantly righteous. That means no works, deeds, sins, or shortcomings can change the fact that we are righteous. The moment we submitted to the authority of Jesus’ words on the cross, “It is finished!” we became righteous. The moment we accepted His sacrifice for our sins we became upright in heart by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Belief that we are seen by God as He sees Jesus is crucial to understanding the grace that He has given. (1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.) We are righteous, as the Bible says, in this world because Jesus is righteous at the right hand of the Father!
With that said, now it is easy to rejoice, knowing that you are righteous. No matter what you have done, Christ has made you righteous. No matter what you do, or will do, Christ has already made you righteous. Knowing that: shout for joy! You are redeemed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, clean, healed, blessed, loved, highly favored, a child of the King, heir to the throne; you are saved! The One who made you righteous is with you and loves you. Let your heart overflow with joy and happiness!
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Sounds like a direct order to me. What about you? There are a lot of Christians and churches today that still believe that living by the letter of the law is what makes you a good person in the eyes of God. It’s not enough, their teaching implies, that Jesus Christ went to the cross for you and took your punishment; you must also live into the law that He came to fulfill. It’s a theological conundrum: we’re saved by grace, but works give us status with God.
But that’s not what I’m writing about today. No, I’m going to appeal to the church, to the Christian who enjoys being given rules and regulations to try and live into. I’m going to appeal to the Christian who desires to prove his or her worth to God through their own ability to “live right”. Today I want to appeal to the Christian who has been saved by grace but still wants to be justified by works.
Here in Psalm 32 you have been given a direct order by God: be glad in the LORD and rejoice. So I’ll ask the question, are you doing that? Most likely no, because in order to fulfill the commandment you must possess a certain quality that you, the ones justified through working out your salvation, can’t possess: righteousness. It’s out there now, I said it: if you are choosing to be saved by grace but attempt to be justified by your works, you do not have the righteousness of Christ. (Galatians 5:4 “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”) You are not righteous!
This may be tough to swallow, but if you’re a doer of the word, that is, a law-fulfiller, you cannot fulfill this commandment. The Bible tells us straight up, our righteous works are but filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). That being the case, how can you, the doer of laws, be righteous? The short answer is you can’t.
In order to be able to live into this command, you must first be willing to submit to the fact that you can’t. It’s not really that confusing; it’s quite simple. You have to go back to grace and stop right there. Christ gave us His righteousness and took our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). In so doing, we became instantly righteous. That means no works, deeds, sins, or shortcomings can change the fact that we are righteous. The moment we submitted to the authority of Jesus’ words on the cross, “It is finished!” we became righteous. The moment we accepted His sacrifice for our sins we became upright in heart by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Belief that we are seen by God as He sees Jesus is crucial to understanding the grace that He has given. (1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.) We are righteous, as the Bible says, in this world because Jesus is righteous at the right hand of the Father!
With that said, now it is easy to rejoice, knowing that you are righteous. No matter what you have done, Christ has made you righteous. No matter what you do, or will do, Christ has already made you righteous. Knowing that: shout for joy! You are redeemed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, clean, healed, blessed, loved, highly favored, a child of the King, heir to the throne; you are saved! The One who made you righteous is with you and loves you. Let your heart overflow with joy and happiness!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A dark and stormy night.
John 6:21
Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
Four miles, that is how far the disciples had rowed their boat in the storm. Four long, labor-intensive, sweat-filled, treacherous miles on open water with the wind and the waves crashing down on them. Four miles filled with screams, fright, pain, and fatigue as wave after wave, with the aid of the relentless wind, pushed against them. All I can say is this: I’m glad I wasn’t in the boat.
According to this passage of scripture the disciples decided that they were going to go across the water without Jesus. It was already dark (never a good time to start a journey) when they made this obviously bad decision to leave; they were through waiting for Jesus. So, they left Him alone, up on the mountain where He had gone to pray, and they set off across the sea to Capernaum.
Surely I could go off on a tangent here about how it is our responsibility to wait on Christ before we act in our lives. Oh, there’s the lesson that doing things without Jesus isn’t the best way to go. And, of course, there is the lesson that when you do things your way, they never work out. But that’s not what I intend to elaborate upon. No, I think Christ’s grace and forgiveness would be a better topic here.
Back to our story. The disciples are having a heck of a time at sea. They’re fighting waves and pushing against the wind. I’m willing to bet that there is some arguing going on and most likely some finger pointing as well. Put yourself on the boat for a minute. “Whose bright idea was it to leave now?!” “Oh, don’t worry about it, guys; the weather looks fine...LIAR!!!” (Those aren’t really quotes from the disciples; I’m just imagining what they’d be saying.)
Then, all of a sudden, Jesus is coming. He’s walking out to meet them, on top of the water. Let me remind you that His buddies, His twelve closest friends, just left Him on a mountain by Himself. They never even told Him they were going; they didn’t even give so much as a yell up the hillside. (“Yo, Jesus, we’re fixin’ to go here!”) They just abandoned Him! But He wasn’t about to abandon them.
Jesus came to them in their storm. His words were not condemning or rebuking; He didn’t mention how they had left without Him. He simply said, “It is I, do not be afraid.” This is the M.O. of God; this is the heart of the Creator: do not be afraid. The disciples, feeling no guilt for leaving, no condemnation for leaving their Teacher behind, willingly received Him into the boat. Immediately they were on the other side. Their work, their toil, their strife, their blaming, and their fears all gone, in an instant, because Jesus got them there immediately!
Friends, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the Jesus we need to tell the world about. The Jesus who comes to you where you are, even if you have abandoned Him. The Jesus who does not speak words of condemnation, who is not mad at you, but simply says “It is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus, who gets in the boat with you and immediately brings you to shore. This is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Christ of Grace, the Redeemer of His people. This is who God is, was, and is to come!
Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
Four miles, that is how far the disciples had rowed their boat in the storm. Four long, labor-intensive, sweat-filled, treacherous miles on open water with the wind and the waves crashing down on them. Four miles filled with screams, fright, pain, and fatigue as wave after wave, with the aid of the relentless wind, pushed against them. All I can say is this: I’m glad I wasn’t in the boat.
According to this passage of scripture the disciples decided that they were going to go across the water without Jesus. It was already dark (never a good time to start a journey) when they made this obviously bad decision to leave; they were through waiting for Jesus. So, they left Him alone, up on the mountain where He had gone to pray, and they set off across the sea to Capernaum.
Surely I could go off on a tangent here about how it is our responsibility to wait on Christ before we act in our lives. Oh, there’s the lesson that doing things without Jesus isn’t the best way to go. And, of course, there is the lesson that when you do things your way, they never work out. But that’s not what I intend to elaborate upon. No, I think Christ’s grace and forgiveness would be a better topic here.
Back to our story. The disciples are having a heck of a time at sea. They’re fighting waves and pushing against the wind. I’m willing to bet that there is some arguing going on and most likely some finger pointing as well. Put yourself on the boat for a minute. “Whose bright idea was it to leave now?!” “Oh, don’t worry about it, guys; the weather looks fine...LIAR!!!” (Those aren’t really quotes from the disciples; I’m just imagining what they’d be saying.)
Then, all of a sudden, Jesus is coming. He’s walking out to meet them, on top of the water. Let me remind you that His buddies, His twelve closest friends, just left Him on a mountain by Himself. They never even told Him they were going; they didn’t even give so much as a yell up the hillside. (“Yo, Jesus, we’re fixin’ to go here!”) They just abandoned Him! But He wasn’t about to abandon them.
Jesus came to them in their storm. His words were not condemning or rebuking; He didn’t mention how they had left without Him. He simply said, “It is I, do not be afraid.” This is the M.O. of God; this is the heart of the Creator: do not be afraid. The disciples, feeling no guilt for leaving, no condemnation for leaving their Teacher behind, willingly received Him into the boat. Immediately they were on the other side. Their work, their toil, their strife, their blaming, and their fears all gone, in an instant, because Jesus got them there immediately!
Friends, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the Jesus we need to tell the world about. The Jesus who comes to you where you are, even if you have abandoned Him. The Jesus who does not speak words of condemnation, who is not mad at you, but simply says “It is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus, who gets in the boat with you and immediately brings you to shore. This is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Christ of Grace, the Redeemer of His people. This is who God is, was, and is to come!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
It is what it is.
Psalm 31:1
In You, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness.
Have you ever left church feeling like you just got slapped in the face by the preacher? I have; it’s not all that much fun. The scary thought that I have on days like that is this: how does the “seeker” feel leaving church today? If I, being a Christian and already saved, feel put down, kicked, stomped, and worthless, how does that person who doesn’t know Christ feel when they leave? Going even further, how can making Christians feel guilty and worthless possibly be Godly teaching?
We’re called to preach the Gospel, that is, the Good News of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. Nothing more, nothing less. We have not been called to preach anything other than that. When condemning messages are vocalized from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, Jesus isn’t being preached; Moses is! By Moses I mean the law and “religiosity” of Christianity.
It is presumptuous, prideful, and arrogant of any preacher to assume that he can speak on behalf of God in declaring your unrighteousness, or more appropriately, your lack of right-doing. It is not the responsibility of ministers to point out the flaws in our lives, wrongs in our thinking, or sins we are committing; it is their responsibility to continually focus our attention on Jesus Christ and what He did for us. It is their calling to point us to the cross, to direct our thinking to the righteousness found in Christ, not to dwell on any unrighteousness found within us.
If you’re thinking that I’m wrong, I invite you to check out these scriptures, quotes from Jesus Himself: John 3:17, John 5:45, John 8:11. Still not convinced? Try these: 2 Corinthians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Corinthians 15:16, Galatians 3:24.
So where am I going with this? Right back to Jesus Christ and the fact that He has sanctified me, justified me, saved me, and cleansed me from all unrighteousness. He has given me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) and made me a new creation. My trust is in Him, not in whether or not I’ll stop making mistakes. My trust is in Him, not in my own ability to stop making mistakes. My trust is in Him, not in the principles and steps to becoming a good person. My trust is in HIM!
Every single person with whom Jesus Christ came in contact was given healing and forgiveness. Not one person was guilted into a confession or made to feel unworthy. Everyone who met Jesus walked away unashamed, having been given His grace and the confidence that they were forgiven! It is through His righteousness that we are delivered from our sins and our misdeeds. It is in Christ, and Christ alone, that we are able to walk upright and not feel condemned (Romans 8:1).
In You, O Lord, I have put my trust. Let me never be ashamed because I have been delivered by Your Righteousness, Jesus Christ!
In You, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness.
Have you ever left church feeling like you just got slapped in the face by the preacher? I have; it’s not all that much fun. The scary thought that I have on days like that is this: how does the “seeker” feel leaving church today? If I, being a Christian and already saved, feel put down, kicked, stomped, and worthless, how does that person who doesn’t know Christ feel when they leave? Going even further, how can making Christians feel guilty and worthless possibly be Godly teaching?
We’re called to preach the Gospel, that is, the Good News of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. Nothing more, nothing less. We have not been called to preach anything other than that. When condemning messages are vocalized from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, Jesus isn’t being preached; Moses is! By Moses I mean the law and “religiosity” of Christianity.
It is presumptuous, prideful, and arrogant of any preacher to assume that he can speak on behalf of God in declaring your unrighteousness, or more appropriately, your lack of right-doing. It is not the responsibility of ministers to point out the flaws in our lives, wrongs in our thinking, or sins we are committing; it is their responsibility to continually focus our attention on Jesus Christ and what He did for us. It is their calling to point us to the cross, to direct our thinking to the righteousness found in Christ, not to dwell on any unrighteousness found within us.
If you’re thinking that I’m wrong, I invite you to check out these scriptures, quotes from Jesus Himself: John 3:17, John 5:45, John 8:11. Still not convinced? Try these: 2 Corinthians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Corinthians 15:16, Galatians 3:24.
So where am I going with this? Right back to Jesus Christ and the fact that He has sanctified me, justified me, saved me, and cleansed me from all unrighteousness. He has given me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) and made me a new creation. My trust is in Him, not in whether or not I’ll stop making mistakes. My trust is in Him, not in my own ability to stop making mistakes. My trust is in Him, not in the principles and steps to becoming a good person. My trust is in HIM!
Every single person with whom Jesus Christ came in contact was given healing and forgiveness. Not one person was guilted into a confession or made to feel unworthy. Everyone who met Jesus walked away unashamed, having been given His grace and the confidence that they were forgiven! It is through His righteousness that we are delivered from our sins and our misdeeds. It is in Christ, and Christ alone, that we are able to walk upright and not feel condemned (Romans 8:1).
In You, O Lord, I have put my trust. Let me never be ashamed because I have been delivered by Your Righteousness, Jesus Christ!
Monday, September 26, 2011
New names?
Genesis 17:5
Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made you.
It’s commonly taught and believed that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was scheming and acting in a devious way when she told Abraham to have a baby with Hagar. I’m not entirely sure that is what the Bible actually says, though. I guess the question that begs to be asked here is this: if she wasn’t scheming (and plotting to consciously act outside of the will of God) then why did she have this plan to have Abraham have a baby with Hagar?
In short Sarai (her name at the time) was acting on human knowledge. Abram (his name at the time) had no doubt told her that the Lord had come to him and proclaimed that his descendants would outnumber the stars. I know that if God had come and told me that I would have wasted no time telling my wife! But God never told Abram that Sarai would be the mother. (It’s okay, go look it up to see for yourself.)
Naturally, Sarai and Abram must have assumed that it would be through them, but after trying time and time again, humanity got the best of them. Frustration coupled with questions like “how” and “when” cluttered their minds and consumed their thoughts until finally Sarai gave up hope that she would be the mother. She went to her husband Abram with a plan in mind: maybe I’ll be a mother through my servant.
Was it malicious? Was it sinful for Sarai to have this thought? I don’t see how it could have been. She hadn’t been told that she was going to be the one to bear the child. She only knew half of the plan; Abram was going to be the father. Sarai was simply trying to work out the will of God through her own understanding. She didn’t have all of the information yet.
God designed this story to unfold exactly how it did, not to show us how working outside His will always causes us problems, but to reveal a snapshot of the good to come through Jesus Christ. After Abram and Hagar conceived and had a baby, God was able to fully reveal Himself to Abram and Sarai.
It wasn’t until doing (and therein lies the secret) things their way failed that God was able to show them that things done (past tense) His way always work. Abram and Sarai couldn’t have the child of promise before God inserted His grace into their lives, specifically into their names. (Before they conceived God changed their names by adding a simple letter,ה [H]. The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Hei. Five is the number of grace and Hei is the letter of grace. It means “lo and behold”. Its pictograph is usually a man standing with arms raised or an open window.) It was then, after grace had been placed in their lives, that God declared that Abraham and Sarah would have Isaac, the son of promise.
The same holds true for us today, in reference to grace. Each and every one of us has unknowingly acted outside of the will of God in an attempt to obtain the promise through our own works and deeds, our doings. But, just like Abraham and Sarah, it’s not until God puts (continually) His grace, Jesus Christ, into our lives that we are able to receive the promise. When Christ died on the cross He became a physical manifestation of the letter “H”. The people cried out “look” as He hung on the cross. He was a man standing with His arms raised and His death opened the windows of heaven for all mankind to see.
The beautiful picture of God’s love and plan for salvation that is cleverly hidden within the story of Abraham and Sarah is just one of the many hidden treasures cleverly concealed within the pages of the Bible. Without grace there is no reward.
Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made you.
It’s commonly taught and believed that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was scheming and acting in a devious way when she told Abraham to have a baby with Hagar. I’m not entirely sure that is what the Bible actually says, though. I guess the question that begs to be asked here is this: if she wasn’t scheming (and plotting to consciously act outside of the will of God) then why did she have this plan to have Abraham have a baby with Hagar?
In short Sarai (her name at the time) was acting on human knowledge. Abram (his name at the time) had no doubt told her that the Lord had come to him and proclaimed that his descendants would outnumber the stars. I know that if God had come and told me that I would have wasted no time telling my wife! But God never told Abram that Sarai would be the mother. (It’s okay, go look it up to see for yourself.)
Naturally, Sarai and Abram must have assumed that it would be through them, but after trying time and time again, humanity got the best of them. Frustration coupled with questions like “how” and “when” cluttered their minds and consumed their thoughts until finally Sarai gave up hope that she would be the mother. She went to her husband Abram with a plan in mind: maybe I’ll be a mother through my servant.
Was it malicious? Was it sinful for Sarai to have this thought? I don’t see how it could have been. She hadn’t been told that she was going to be the one to bear the child. She only knew half of the plan; Abram was going to be the father. Sarai was simply trying to work out the will of God through her own understanding. She didn’t have all of the information yet.
God designed this story to unfold exactly how it did, not to show us how working outside His will always causes us problems, but to reveal a snapshot of the good to come through Jesus Christ. After Abram and Hagar conceived and had a baby, God was able to fully reveal Himself to Abram and Sarai.
It wasn’t until doing (and therein lies the secret) things their way failed that God was able to show them that things done (past tense) His way always work. Abram and Sarai couldn’t have the child of promise before God inserted His grace into their lives, specifically into their names. (Before they conceived God changed their names by adding a simple letter,ה [H]. The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Hei. Five is the number of grace and Hei is the letter of grace. It means “lo and behold”. Its pictograph is usually a man standing with arms raised or an open window.) It was then, after grace had been placed in their lives, that God declared that Abraham and Sarah would have Isaac, the son of promise.
The same holds true for us today, in reference to grace. Each and every one of us has unknowingly acted outside of the will of God in an attempt to obtain the promise through our own works and deeds, our doings. But, just like Abraham and Sarah, it’s not until God puts (continually) His grace, Jesus Christ, into our lives that we are able to receive the promise. When Christ died on the cross He became a physical manifestation of the letter “H”. The people cried out “look” as He hung on the cross. He was a man standing with His arms raised and His death opened the windows of heaven for all mankind to see.
The beautiful picture of God’s love and plan for salvation that is cleverly hidden within the story of Abraham and Sarah is just one of the many hidden treasures cleverly concealed within the pages of the Bible. Without grace there is no reward.
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