Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Jesus' Impossible Sayings
"After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God'" - John 6:66-67.
At every step of sanctification, God is growing our capacity for Himself. We pray to have our love and faith increased. We pray to be like Jesus, and yet most often the only path towards these realities in our lives is the narrow and difficult path of suffering. But the suffering Christian doesn't have to be a dreary, morbid, depressed creature. God intends the suffering Christian to be a glorious picture of Christ's overcoming victory. Our suffering usually involves a loss of something earthly or an earthly disappointment. But, in the loss of these temporal things, room is made for the permanence of eternity in our hearts.
We overcome the world by faith. The riches, pleasures, and comforts of life are all in competition with the greater life of faith. Without checks, these things dull our spiritual senses and leave us setteling for the pursuit of our own kingdoms rather than God's Kingdom. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 6:44. How can we afford to miss the commission of our Lord? He bestows divine calling, and desires to lift us to ever higher heights and deeper depths in our experience with God: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"- Ephesians 2:6.
How could we rather make our own sand castles, than be part of the eternal empire built on Christ? I cannot bear the thought of missing out on this commission. We only have one life to live, only a few short hours left of glory in suffering. In heaven, will I cry, "Lord! That was nothing, I wish I could go back to have suffered more for you to be praised. I wish I had used that opportunity so that I could have decreased and you increased. Why did I shrink away from all that You could have been made manifest in?" Eternal Paradise with God is at our doorstep, so these few short hours are worth our being broken bread and poured out wine for the lost to be found.
The past month I have been wrestling with God. Rather, He has been wrestling with me. I said to Him once- much more than once - that I want Him to take me all the way. I want to go all the way with Jesus, not holding back or holding out for this life. I counted the cost and agreed that Jesus is worth it, but then came the testing of this. So in this wrestling, God has been helping me to see the prying grip of this world on my heart, and by His love and grace, He is wrestling me free. Jacob wrestled with God and came out renamed, "Israel," meaning, "governed by God." The disciples had an opportunity to shrink back and govern themselves. Jesus had given them impossible sayings, and many, excluding the 12, did turn back. Like the disciples, we also can decide if the cost is too high. We are given opportunity to shrink back and settle for a lesser plane. We can say, "Ok, I'll pretend I didn't hear all of that, just the parts that I can deal with - or - that part isn't relevant to today's church anymore. I think I can just continue in my version of following Jesus for now, just this much and no more."
But I hear God say, "Remember Lot's wife"- Luke 17:32.
So this has been an unfolding saga of the sanctification of my mind lately. I desire the mind of Christ & to have eternity in my heart. Is there anything I wouldn't do for God? Is there anything more precious than all of His fullness in my heart? Can anything be more dear to me than God's presence, fellowship in His suffering, joy of my salvation, and the very life of Christ in me? I cannot think of anything worth the competition of my Desire. So I cannot stop here. I refuse, by God's grace, to shrink back or settle for less than all of His best... Just now I know that God's best is not always what I had in mind, and praise God for that! Because it is instead, exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ask or think, and it is discovered by faith in the unseen, not by what the world approves of.
I still want to see what the omnipotent God can do with a life that is absolutely surrendered to Him. God, bring revival to us! Remove every love of self and every pulling desire for this world. Spend us for the Gospel in the few short hours that we have left.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit"- 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Glory, glory to God!
At every step of sanctification, God is growing our capacity for Himself. We pray to have our love and faith increased. We pray to be like Jesus, and yet most often the only path towards these realities in our lives is the narrow and difficult path of suffering. But the suffering Christian doesn't have to be a dreary, morbid, depressed creature. God intends the suffering Christian to be a glorious picture of Christ's overcoming victory. Our suffering usually involves a loss of something earthly or an earthly disappointment. But, in the loss of these temporal things, room is made for the permanence of eternity in our hearts.
We overcome the world by faith. The riches, pleasures, and comforts of life are all in competition with the greater life of faith. Without checks, these things dull our spiritual senses and leave us setteling for the pursuit of our own kingdoms rather than God's Kingdom. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 6:44. How can we afford to miss the commission of our Lord? He bestows divine calling, and desires to lift us to ever higher heights and deeper depths in our experience with God: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"- Ephesians 2:6.
How could we rather make our own sand castles, than be part of the eternal empire built on Christ? I cannot bear the thought of missing out on this commission. We only have one life to live, only a few short hours left of glory in suffering. In heaven, will I cry, "Lord! That was nothing, I wish I could go back to have suffered more for you to be praised. I wish I had used that opportunity so that I could have decreased and you increased. Why did I shrink away from all that You could have been made manifest in?" Eternal Paradise with God is at our doorstep, so these few short hours are worth our being broken bread and poured out wine for the lost to be found.
"We
have all eternity to celebrate the victories but only a few
hours before sunset to win them."
—Amy
Carmichael
The past month I have been wrestling with God. Rather, He has been wrestling with me. I said to Him once- much more than once - that I want Him to take me all the way. I want to go all the way with Jesus, not holding back or holding out for this life. I counted the cost and agreed that Jesus is worth it, but then came the testing of this. So in this wrestling, God has been helping me to see the prying grip of this world on my heart, and by His love and grace, He is wrestling me free. Jacob wrestled with God and came out renamed, "Israel," meaning, "governed by God." The disciples had an opportunity to shrink back and govern themselves. Jesus had given them impossible sayings, and many, excluding the 12, did turn back. Like the disciples, we also can decide if the cost is too high. We are given opportunity to shrink back and settle for a lesser plane. We can say, "Ok, I'll pretend I didn't hear all of that, just the parts that I can deal with - or - that part isn't relevant to today's church anymore. I think I can just continue in my version of following Jesus for now, just this much and no more."
But I hear God say, "Remember Lot's wife"- Luke 17:32.
So this has been an unfolding saga of the sanctification of my mind lately. I desire the mind of Christ & to have eternity in my heart. Is there anything I wouldn't do for God? Is there anything more precious than all of His fullness in my heart? Can anything be more dear to me than God's presence, fellowship in His suffering, joy of my salvation, and the very life of Christ in me? I cannot think of anything worth the competition of my Desire. So I cannot stop here. I refuse, by God's grace, to shrink back or settle for less than all of His best... Just now I know that God's best is not always what I had in mind, and praise God for that! Because it is instead, exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ask or think, and it is discovered by faith in the unseen, not by what the world approves of.
I still want to see what the omnipotent God can do with a life that is absolutely surrendered to Him. God, bring revival to us! Remove every love of self and every pulling desire for this world. Spend us for the Gospel in the few short hours that we have left.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit"- 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Glory, glory to God!
Friday, August 19, 2011
"Now what?"
(After Jesus died and resurrected:)
“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them [to the disciples that were with him], and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”- John 21.
The disciples had just spent three years with the Son of God. Every day they were fed to the core of spirit and soul with the life giving truth of the universe. They witnessed the glory of God, miracles, true love dying on the cross for their sins. Jesus had been with them, their friend. I am imagining what it was like for the disciples when the man they left everything for, gave themselves up for… died. They knew the truth; Jesus spoke of His death, but somehow it’s always harder to completely understand in the moment. It is usually in hindsight that things make sense to us. All this Kingdom awe and momentum… and then Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, scourged, and slain.
Things didn’t really happen in the way the disciples might have expected. The greatest thing occurred instead, too much for man to handle, too great and eternal. The resurrected Christ came to them with holes in his hands and the piercing in His side. He did signs in their presence. Jesus had conquered death.
The disciples went back to Galilee. Maybe a lapse in time occurred... "now what?" I'm sure they never could have imagined the coming things in store for them to walk in. They just went back to what they knew how to do, what was familiar: fishing. But, Jesus showed up; He always does. After the beautifully traumatic time of waiting and walking with Jesus into His death, He now says, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat.” He didn’t leave the disciples; He didn't forget them. The call to "follow me" was real and now the resurrected Jesus would fulfill the call in them, and finish the work He began through their lives. ..."when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish."
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”- John 15:5
“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them [to the disciples that were with him], and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”- John 21.
The disciples had just spent three years with the Son of God. Every day they were fed to the core of spirit and soul with the life giving truth of the universe. They witnessed the glory of God, miracles, true love dying on the cross for their sins. Jesus had been with them, their friend. I am imagining what it was like for the disciples when the man they left everything for, gave themselves up for… died. They knew the truth; Jesus spoke of His death, but somehow it’s always harder to completely understand in the moment. It is usually in hindsight that things make sense to us. All this Kingdom awe and momentum… and then Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, scourged, and slain.
Things didn’t really happen in the way the disciples might have expected. The greatest thing occurred instead, too much for man to handle, too great and eternal. The resurrected Christ came to them with holes in his hands and the piercing in His side. He did signs in their presence. Jesus had conquered death.
The disciples went back to Galilee. Maybe a lapse in time occurred... "now what?" I'm sure they never could have imagined the coming things in store for them to walk in. They just went back to what they knew how to do, what was familiar: fishing. But, Jesus showed up; He always does. After the beautifully traumatic time of waiting and walking with Jesus into His death, He now says, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat.” He didn’t leave the disciples; He didn't forget them. The call to "follow me" was real and now the resurrected Jesus would fulfill the call in them, and finish the work He began through their lives. ..."when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish."
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”- John 15:5
Friday, August 12, 2011
Our Great Delusion...
In the Western Church there is this idea that if we believe God enough, pray enough, and fast enough that all our problems will be solved and all our dreams will come true. We will be healed from cancer, financially sound, completely restored in the world’s eyes. It is as if faith in God is for the purposes of worldly deliverance and personal prosperity. But this is not the aim of Christianity. This is just a surface level of knowing God. The prosperity gospel has cheated so many people of what it really means to be victorious in Christ. For most of the world, believing in Jesus will not spare them from persecution, torture in prison, or poverty level living. A woman in India, who gives her life to Christ, may that same day return home to her same poverty and beatings from her husband.
Yes, God does bring earthly deliverance. It is His pleasure to bless us and rescue us, working miracles of physical healing and financial blessing... But there is a greater aim for us than this world. There is a greater victory to be had than what the world sees as success. God has our eternal welfare in mind, and sometimes that means that earthly suffering will be appointed for a time, or times. When trial upon trial comes, true faith is not believing to be kept from every discomfort, but believing on Jesus through them, that His love is real, that He is still good. Through trials, believing on Jesus is no longer what it once meant.
God is glorified in ways we may not think of or understand. Life is “offensive,” but there are also times of “defensive” - like in a boxing ring. Through the devastating beatings and blows of the loss of a loved one, or of a broken family, or of loss of all my possessions, I can get back up again in Christ and keep fighting. “…And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”- Hebrews 12:1
Believing in God takes a deeper meaning when you are no longer just believing for things: financial stability, family blessings, blessings, blessings, but believing in the person of Jesus Christ as ALL your sufficiency… His ways and thoughts are perfect.... Even if I am tortured and made into a human torch like the first Christians, and burned for the delight of an evil first century emperor.
I do not agree that God always wants to spare me from suffering and loss. He does not delight in it; but God loves us too much to keep us from what will better us eternally and further the Kingdom. Job was not spared his unimaginable suffering and loss. It was appointed by God for him. Nothing made sense to him, but that didn’t matter, he was still called to follow and believe on God through everything earthly he lost. In my own life, I prayed and fasted for my brother to be spared from his death. But… he still died. Sometimes God says no. Then things turn upside down. Because now you are called to have faith in a God who is sovereign, who answers prayer, but not always how you want him to. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD” -Isaiah 55:8. The call of a Christian is not a call of comfort and worldly victory; it is a radical call of Heavenly victory and belief. We can be beaten down by things that would totally destroy other people, and still stand victorious afterward because of Jesus.
I do not want to live a shallow western Christianity of “prosperity gospel” only. Jesus did not say follow me and you will prosper here. He said lose your life for my sake and you will find it. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” Count the cost, because if you are in it for blessings and smooth sailing, you will miss the greatest blessing and joy of all… the prize of Jesus Christ Himself.
"Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever."- Psalm 73:25-26
Friday, August 5, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
"For with God nothing shall be impossible..."
God specializes with the impossible. So often, when a matter comes to the point that it has become impossible, it is easy to lose faith, and with attitude and frustration, lose heart as well. But, the point of impossiblity is the very point of expectation: that God can do it, and all glory will be His. So often, the point of impossibility is when God blows through with more than we could have asked or thought. He stretches our faith and then melts our souls with delight and awe at His total goodness. God is never in a hurry; His timing is always perfect.
God saves the very people that seem the farthest from salvation. The person that seemed the worst, the farthest, the most hostile, is the very person that might be the closest to the cross. Keep praying even though the years keep passing on, keep believing; our God is mighty to save, and he proves it over and over. God gives children to those who are barren or beyond childbirth (Abraham and Sarah, Elizabeth and Zechariah). God used a virgin to birth the Savior into the world. God heals illnesses. He restores broken, hurting families and makes lives that are nearly destroyed, brand new.
When all hope is "lost," is when to hold onto faith more than ever and look up, for your expectation comes from Him. His glory will come through like the rising sun.
After the angel told Mary she was to bear the Messiah as a virgin, she answered, "I am the Lord's servant... may it be to me as you have said." Mary didn't question for her own self: how would everyone react, is this really true, will my village stone me? She must have been so close to God in her walk, that she just accepted with faith, His plan for her life. The angel called her highly favored one. I am convinced that what pleases God is not works and performance, but a pure heart of faith. A heart so pure it wants all that God wants, no more and no less. It simply believes.... that "for with God, nothing shall be impossible."
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."- Ephesians 3:20
God saves the very people that seem the farthest from salvation. The person that seemed the worst, the farthest, the most hostile, is the very person that might be the closest to the cross. Keep praying even though the years keep passing on, keep believing; our God is mighty to save, and he proves it over and over. God gives children to those who are barren or beyond childbirth (Abraham and Sarah, Elizabeth and Zechariah). God used a virgin to birth the Savior into the world. God heals illnesses. He restores broken, hurting families and makes lives that are nearly destroyed, brand new.
When all hope is "lost," is when to hold onto faith more than ever and look up, for your expectation comes from Him. His glory will come through like the rising sun.
After the angel told Mary she was to bear the Messiah as a virgin, she answered, "I am the Lord's servant... may it be to me as you have said." Mary didn't question for her own self: how would everyone react, is this really true, will my village stone me? She must have been so close to God in her walk, that she just accepted with faith, His plan for her life. The angel called her highly favored one. I am convinced that what pleases God is not works and performance, but a pure heart of faith. A heart so pure it wants all that God wants, no more and no less. It simply believes.... that "for with God, nothing shall be impossible."
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."- Ephesians 3:20
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Consider the Lillies
I just finished Ecclesiastes and I find it one of the most elusive and strangest books of the Bible. All is vanity!
In a way, that statement offers relief. Sometimes I get this pressure of all I must do and of all I need to become, but in the end, the whole world is vanity. It will soon pass away. I don't think God wants us so much to do, as he does for us to be. For example, consider the stars, they just are! They are what God intended for them to be: expressing His glory & ministering to us as shining lights. They don't try to be the moon or a planet. Take the flower also for an example; how ridiculous would it be for a flower to try to be a tree or a cactus? A flower just is and is beautiful. All it was made to do is to look beautiful, give off a lovely fragrance, and bring happiness to those who behold it.
In the same way, people (& I am the first to admit!) can be striving to be more or other than God intended. Our hearts can be in the right place, but we may put so much pressure on others or ourselves, striving and straining, as if we are of imminent importance to the continuation of good.
"Be still, and know that I [am] God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."- Psalm 46:10 (basically, with or without you and I, God will be just as exalted).
I think God just wants me to be. To be what He created me to be; to fulfill the purposes unique for my life. A flower just abides: it drinks water and basks in the sun, and blossoms for all to enjoy. The flower perfumes the earth just being what it was made to be, so effortlessly and refreshingly. Like this flower, God wants me to simply abide in Jesus: drinking from His rivers of living water, basking in and reflecting His light, feeding from His words of life. Any more than this and I am striving. Whatever fruit God brings from my life can never come apart from abiding. Simply abide and fruit will be the natural consequence, A flower doesn't have to struggle and strive to be a flower, it simply is and blossoms naturally in its time.
"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD."- Psalm 31:24 God will finish the work he started in us and our fruit will be as natural as the shinning of the stars.
In a way, that statement offers relief. Sometimes I get this pressure of all I must do and of all I need to become, but in the end, the whole world is vanity. It will soon pass away. I don't think God wants us so much to do, as he does for us to be. For example, consider the stars, they just are! They are what God intended for them to be: expressing His glory & ministering to us as shining lights. They don't try to be the moon or a planet. Take the flower also for an example; how ridiculous would it be for a flower to try to be a tree or a cactus? A flower just is and is beautiful. All it was made to do is to look beautiful, give off a lovely fragrance, and bring happiness to those who behold it.
In the same way, people (& I am the first to admit!) can be striving to be more or other than God intended. Our hearts can be in the right place, but we may put so much pressure on others or ourselves, striving and straining, as if we are of imminent importance to the continuation of good.
"Be still, and know that I [am] God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."- Psalm 46:10 (basically, with or without you and I, God will be just as exalted).
I think God just wants me to be. To be what He created me to be; to fulfill the purposes unique for my life. A flower just abides: it drinks water and basks in the sun, and blossoms for all to enjoy. The flower perfumes the earth just being what it was made to be, so effortlessly and refreshingly. Like this flower, God wants me to simply abide in Jesus: drinking from His rivers of living water, basking in and reflecting His light, feeding from His words of life. Any more than this and I am striving. Whatever fruit God brings from my life can never come apart from abiding. Simply abide and fruit will be the natural consequence, A flower doesn't have to struggle and strive to be a flower, it simply is and blossoms naturally in its time.
"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD."- Psalm 31:24 God will finish the work he started in us and our fruit will be as natural as the shinning of the stars.
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