Life is war. The Apostle Paul calls it “the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Every day of our lives here on this earth is a battle for our appetites and their satisfaction. What we desire for is what will lead to what we believe will satisfy us. The great enemy in this war is what Jesus calls “the desires or appetite for other things” (Mark 4:19). And the only weapon that will triumph is a deep hunger and thirst for God. There are those whose lack of a hunger for God is not because God is unpleasant. Perhaps at one time their palette was awakened when they “tasted and saw that the Lord was good” (Psalm 34:8). But, because they have kept themselves stuffed with “other things” they’ve lost their appetite for God. Their soul has been stuffed with small insignificant things, and there is no room any more for the great and worthy thing; they are full of what the world has offered.
This is what took place with Israel in Psalm 106. We read: “They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.” (Psalm 106:13-15)
The Psalmist takes us back to the time of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and God’s leading them in the wilderness of Canaan. In verses 13-14, the Psalmist says that the Israelites forgot God’s works and did not want to wait for His counsel or word. In short, they did’nt want to wait for Him! Instead, they craved meat for their stomachs. They were tired of eating the bread (manna) from heaven that God provided for them. Manna represented more than the provision for Israel’s physical hunger. Moses said that God humbled them “causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). In short, manna was meant to teach Israel to live on God and to be satisifed with Him.
But Israel lost their appetite for God and His provision. So He gave them their request (verse 15). He showered the camp with quails. But along with the food God sent “leanness into their soul”. The people wasted away even while feasting upon “quail under glass.”
This illustrates how God's greatest adversaries are His gifts. The greatest enemy of hunger for God is endless nibbling at the table of the world. For all the ill that Satan can do, listen to how Jesus sadly describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love:
"A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"
(Luke 14:16-24)
Do you see what keeps us from His banquet table? All are things that in themselves are good. It is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not His enemies but His gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.
Jesus said another time that some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, "as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life" (Luke 8:14). In another place he said, "The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Mark 4:19). "The pleasures of this life" and "the desires for other things", these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are family dinners and coffee at Starbucks and gardening and reading a good book and decorating your house and playing with your kids and traveling across the U.S. and family get-togethers and date nights and investing in real estate and CD listening and DVD -watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God. These can be the very things that kill the soul.
Oh Lord, fountain of life, living water, bread from heaven. You are our true desire and true delight to our hungry and thirsty souls. But Lord, we are weak. We desire the wrong things and are satisfied with the wrong things. No wonder we are so empty inside. Forgive us for our opposition to you by looking to other things to satisfy our restless longings and forgive us from perverting what satisfies us by looking to your gifts rather than you for our hearts delight. We agree with the Psalmist, “Who have we in heaven but You and there is nothing on earth that we want besides You. Though our flesh and heart may fail, You alone are the strength of our heart and our portion forever.” Oh Jesus, create in us a desire to desire You and a delight to delight in You. In Jesus satisfying and delightful Name, AMEN.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
AN APETTITE FOR GOD
The creation of an appetite for God alone also leads to a satisfaction in God alone. As God graces us with new and supernatural desiring craving, hungering, thirsting, and longing so He also graces us with a new and supernatural satisfaction, joy, delight, fulfillment, pleasure, happiness, and gladness. They go together.
Listen to the words of David who discovered such satisfaction in God that he proclaimed in Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Jesus spoke of conversion in such a way that the discovery of the pleasures and value of heaven “is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46).
True Christianity is the creation of new desires and the fulfilment of those desires. God becomes both the object and fulfillment of our desires. Our whole new life is a life of desiring God and tasting God and enjoying God and satisfaction in God which leads to a deeper hunger for God and more satisfaction in God. This becomes the ongoing pattern and rhythm of our lives. We always want more of God and the more of Him we get, the more we want.
Bernard of Clairveux so aptly described his own experience of cravings and satisfaction:
“We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still; We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.” Another time he wrote:
“Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts Thou fount of life, Thou light of men from the best bliss that earth imparts we turn unfulfilled to Thee again.”
This appetite for God and the satisfaction that results in God are the most important ways we fulfill our creation purpose. The apostle Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The Westminster Catechism begins “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The lynch pin of my mentor John Piper’s theology is that “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”
The truth of God’s creation of these new appetites and their new fulfilment's is both our greatest blessing and our greatest downfall. It is our greatest blessing because it shows that the worth and value of God is the source of our souls deepest satisfaction. But it is our greatest downfall because it often reveals to us that our desires and the fulfillment of those desires are often far below what God created and saved us for. Augustine described it this way from his own experience:
“I was astonished that though I now loved Thee…yet I did not press on to enjoy my God. Your beauty drove me to you, but soon I was dragged away by my own weight sinking with sorrow into those inferior things…as though I sensed the fragrance of the fare but was not yet able to eat it.”
Indwelling sin is what stands in the way of my desire for God and my satisfaction in God. God defines sin in this way through the prophet Jeremiah. "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
Here God pictures himself as a constant flowing fountain of refreshing life-giving water. The way to affirm the worth of a fountain like this is to be satisfied by its water, to enjoy its water, to keep coming back for more, and then point other people to the water that will satisfy their thirst, and never, never, never prefer any drink in the world over this water. That is what makes the fountain look valuable. That is how we glorify the worth and value God, the fountain of living water.
But in Jeremiah's day people tasted the fountain of God's grace and did not like it. So they gave their energies to finding better water, more satisfying water. Not only did God call this effort futile ("broken cisterns that can hold no water"), but he called it evil: "My people have committed two evils." They put God's perfections to the tongue of their souls and disliked what they tasted; then they turned and craved the suicidal cisterns of the world. That double insult to God is the very essence of what evil is.
Preferring the pleasures of self, possessions, money, power, achievement, fame, or sex over the pleasures of God is a great evil. The sins of Israel, like all of our sins, stood in the way of their satisfaction with God alone. Sin always opposes and perverts our pursuit of God. It opposes our pursuit by making other things look more desirable than God. And it perverts our pursuit by making us think that we are pursuing God when in fact we are in love with His gifts. Indeed it is the ultimate meaning of evil. Esteeming God less than anything is the essence of evil.
To be continued...
Listen to the words of David who discovered such satisfaction in God that he proclaimed in Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Jesus spoke of conversion in such a way that the discovery of the pleasures and value of heaven “is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46).
True Christianity is the creation of new desires and the fulfilment of those desires. God becomes both the object and fulfillment of our desires. Our whole new life is a life of desiring God and tasting God and enjoying God and satisfaction in God which leads to a deeper hunger for God and more satisfaction in God. This becomes the ongoing pattern and rhythm of our lives. We always want more of God and the more of Him we get, the more we want.
Bernard of Clairveux so aptly described his own experience of cravings and satisfaction:
“We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still; We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.” Another time he wrote:
“Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts Thou fount of life, Thou light of men from the best bliss that earth imparts we turn unfulfilled to Thee again.”
This appetite for God and the satisfaction that results in God are the most important ways we fulfill our creation purpose. The apostle Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The Westminster Catechism begins “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The lynch pin of my mentor John Piper’s theology is that “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”
The truth of God’s creation of these new appetites and their new fulfilment's is both our greatest blessing and our greatest downfall. It is our greatest blessing because it shows that the worth and value of God is the source of our souls deepest satisfaction. But it is our greatest downfall because it often reveals to us that our desires and the fulfillment of those desires are often far below what God created and saved us for. Augustine described it this way from his own experience:
“I was astonished that though I now loved Thee…yet I did not press on to enjoy my God. Your beauty drove me to you, but soon I was dragged away by my own weight sinking with sorrow into those inferior things…as though I sensed the fragrance of the fare but was not yet able to eat it.”
Indwelling sin is what stands in the way of my desire for God and my satisfaction in God. God defines sin in this way through the prophet Jeremiah. "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
Here God pictures himself as a constant flowing fountain of refreshing life-giving water. The way to affirm the worth of a fountain like this is to be satisfied by its water, to enjoy its water, to keep coming back for more, and then point other people to the water that will satisfy their thirst, and never, never, never prefer any drink in the world over this water. That is what makes the fountain look valuable. That is how we glorify the worth and value God, the fountain of living water.
But in Jeremiah's day people tasted the fountain of God's grace and did not like it. So they gave their energies to finding better water, more satisfying water. Not only did God call this effort futile ("broken cisterns that can hold no water"), but he called it evil: "My people have committed two evils." They put God's perfections to the tongue of their souls and disliked what they tasted; then they turned and craved the suicidal cisterns of the world. That double insult to God is the very essence of what evil is.
Preferring the pleasures of self, possessions, money, power, achievement, fame, or sex over the pleasures of God is a great evil. The sins of Israel, like all of our sins, stood in the way of their satisfaction with God alone. Sin always opposes and perverts our pursuit of God. It opposes our pursuit by making other things look more desirable than God. And it perverts our pursuit by making us think that we are pursuing God when in fact we are in love with His gifts. Indeed it is the ultimate meaning of evil. Esteeming God less than anything is the essence of evil.
To be continued...
Friday, July 20, 2007
A HUNGER FOR GOD
“We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still; We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.” Bernard of Clairveux
I remember as a little kid being invited to a friend’s house to eat. My friend’s mother made a banquet type meal complete with Chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and spumoni ice cream. (At least it is my idea of a banquet!) But before I went I didn’t know what I was going to be having for supper. I was afraid that it might be a meal like my mother’s favorite meal. I called this “the meal from hell”. It consisted of a combination of pork chops, liver, or spam, along with broccoli, hominy (which I called agony), and Swanson’s T.V. Corn Bread (whose constitution was much like eating sawdust!) So dreading the possibilities I loaded up beforehand upon good old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (also known as PB and J). As a result, when I got to my friend’s house, to my surprise my dream feast was being served, but to my disappointment I had absolutely no appetite and therefore ended up passing on the meal. I missed out on the feast because I settled for a sandwich.
I am afraid that many of us are in danger of becoming peanut butter and jelly Christians stuffed with other food that has robbed us of an appetite for God. Every day of life a war goes on in regards to our appetites. Every one of us has all been born with appetites and desires. They dictate what directs us and what satisfies us whether it is the cravings of our physical hunger, the desire for the things that this world offers, or the deep longings of our souls for God.
Augustine said, “Oh Lord thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts can find no rest except we find it in Thee.”
Restlessness and longing are universal traits of the human heart. God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing for Him. We are both afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ. And that having found him we might be turned back to Him again and again when we taste of other springs and find them bitter. We were made for God. The taste buds of our souls were made to relish fellowship with the Son of God.
No wonder that Jesus said in John 6:35: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 4:14, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
I remember as a little kid being invited to a friend’s house to eat. My friend’s mother made a banquet type meal complete with Chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and spumoni ice cream. (At least it is my idea of a banquet!) But before I went I didn’t know what I was going to be having for supper. I was afraid that it might be a meal like my mother’s favorite meal. I called this “the meal from hell”. It consisted of a combination of pork chops, liver, or spam, along with broccoli, hominy (which I called agony), and Swanson’s T.V. Corn Bread (whose constitution was much like eating sawdust!) So dreading the possibilities I loaded up beforehand upon good old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (also known as PB and J). As a result, when I got to my friend’s house, to my surprise my dream feast was being served, but to my disappointment I had absolutely no appetite and therefore ended up passing on the meal. I missed out on the feast because I settled for a sandwich.
I am afraid that many of us are in danger of becoming peanut butter and jelly Christians stuffed with other food that has robbed us of an appetite for God. Every day of life a war goes on in regards to our appetites. Every one of us has all been born with appetites and desires. They dictate what directs us and what satisfies us whether it is the cravings of our physical hunger, the desire for the things that this world offers, or the deep longings of our souls for God.
Augustine said, “Oh Lord thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts can find no rest except we find it in Thee.”
Restlessness and longing are universal traits of the human heart. God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing for Him. We are both afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ. And that having found him we might be turned back to Him again and again when we taste of other springs and find them bitter. We were made for God. The taste buds of our souls were made to relish fellowship with the Son of God.
No wonder that Jesus said in John 6:35: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 4:14, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
I have come to understand that salvation is the awakening of our appetites for God. It is a supernatural kind of appetite, unsatisfied by anything found in this world. Jonathan Edwards describes it as "religious affections". “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”, says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:8). The fact is that once you have tasted the Lord, nothing less will ever satisfy your palette. No wonder, for when we taste of God’s ultimate goodness nothing can compare to the joy and satisfaction that comes from Him.
When I lived in Mexico by Puerto Vallarte in a small village called Punta Mita, my family and I lived on fish. Every day I would have to catch or spear dinner. Unfortunately, I had neither the ability to catch fish nor the availability of many fish at times except Opal Eye (Which is a reef fish full of scales, bones, and tastes awful but is edible). We would eat this every day until one day a fisherman brought us some Red Snapper and Sierra. Once we tasted these delicious fish’s we were never able to be satisfied with Opal Eye again. The more of these we ate the less we desired Opal Eye. Our palettes had been awakened to real fish, good fish, and thus we lost our appetite for Opal Eye’s.
When we are converted God awakens in us we a new appetite for Him and a new delight in God. Saint Augustine describes this in his description of his own conversion when he writes:
“How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys that I once feared to lose was now a joy to part with.You drove them from me, you who are the true sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see honor in themselves…Oh Lord my God, my light, my wealth, and my salvation!"
The Bible is full of examples of the creation of this new souls appetite. It is a precious gift of grace from God. As John Piper says, our best havings are our wantings. Throughout the Bible we see people yearning, hungering, thirsting, longing for, and desiring God.
Asaph describes an appetite for God that is so strong that it eliminates all other desires. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 75:25-26) David describes this appetite in terms of a deer thirsting for water. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2) Another time David uses similar words to describe his desire for God. “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (Psalm 63:1-3) the Apostle Paul went from a man who persecuted Christians to one whose desires had been transformed to cry out. “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 1:23; 3:7-8)
To be continued...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
FLYING INTO THE KIND ARMS OF GOD
Nehemiah 1:11: “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of . . . your servants who delight to fear your name .” And Isaiah 11:3 says of the coming Servant of the Lord, “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”
When you think of fear what is your first inclination? For some, especially for unbelievers, there is a sense of dread, of terror, of foreboding doom, apprehension, the unknown, and of uncertainty. When I think of fearing God as a believer it communicates a sense of awe, reverence, and respect. but the one thing both these aspects don't communicate is what Nehemiah and Isaiah felt in regards to fear.
John Piper suggests that there is a kind of s a kind of sweetness in fear itself. I say this first because it's what the Bible says. For example, Nehemiah 1:11: “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of . . . your servants who delight to fear your name .” And Isaiah 11:3 says of the coming Servant of the Lord, “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” Both Nehemiah and Isaiah had a sense of "delight" in regards to fear.
Piper says that there is a kind of sweetness to the very experience of fearing God, when the real prospect of hell and judgment and condemnation are removed. When the condemnation of God is removed from the dread of God, what's left is a joyful humility, joyful trembling, joyful awe and joyful wonder.
Think about how people run away from scenes of terror in real life, but still go to movies to see the same terror. There's a reason why no one wants to fall out of an airplane, but they will bungee jump from incredible heights or take 100 foot leaps in Canopy tours in Costa Rica (like me!) for the same sensation of falling. We all enjoy "safe fear". The reason is that we were created to be safely afraid of God. Everything else is an echo of this truth. Piper says that we were made to be safely afraid of God, because when we are safely afraid of God—when there is no condemnation and we know that he is our Father and our Friend—then what remains in fear of God is deeply pleasant. Otherwise the Jesus and the saints would not have said, “I delight to fear your name.”
Paul exhorts us to "look at", "the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness" (Romans 11:22). The severity of God is meant to be looked at, reflected upon, considered, and focused on in order to send us flying into the arms of God's kindness, His severity is meant deepen our faith in his kindness, and when all condemnation is gone by faith in Jesus, His terrible severity is meant to become for us a trembling sweetness.
Before William Carey died Carey's explicit instruction was that his grave marker was to contain nothing more than his name, the date of his birth and of his death, and two lines from Isaac Watts, his favorite hymn writer:
A wretched, poor and helpless worm,On Thy kind arms I fall.
Falling away from fear onto the kind arms of Jesus,
Pastor Bill
When you think of fear what is your first inclination? For some, especially for unbelievers, there is a sense of dread, of terror, of foreboding doom, apprehension, the unknown, and of uncertainty. When I think of fearing God as a believer it communicates a sense of awe, reverence, and respect. but the one thing both these aspects don't communicate is what Nehemiah and Isaiah felt in regards to fear.
John Piper suggests that there is a kind of s a kind of sweetness in fear itself. I say this first because it's what the Bible says. For example, Nehemiah 1:11: “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of . . . your servants who delight to fear your name .” And Isaiah 11:3 says of the coming Servant of the Lord, “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” Both Nehemiah and Isaiah had a sense of "delight" in regards to fear.
Piper says that there is a kind of sweetness to the very experience of fearing God, when the real prospect of hell and judgment and condemnation are removed. When the condemnation of God is removed from the dread of God, what's left is a joyful humility, joyful trembling, joyful awe and joyful wonder.
Think about how people run away from scenes of terror in real life, but still go to movies to see the same terror. There's a reason why no one wants to fall out of an airplane, but they will bungee jump from incredible heights or take 100 foot leaps in Canopy tours in Costa Rica (like me!) for the same sensation of falling. We all enjoy "safe fear". The reason is that we were created to be safely afraid of God. Everything else is an echo of this truth. Piper says that we were made to be safely afraid of God, because when we are safely afraid of God—when there is no condemnation and we know that he is our Father and our Friend—then what remains in fear of God is deeply pleasant. Otherwise the Jesus and the saints would not have said, “I delight to fear your name.”
Paul exhorts us to "look at", "the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness" (Romans 11:22). The severity of God is meant to be looked at, reflected upon, considered, and focused on in order to send us flying into the arms of God's kindness, His severity is meant deepen our faith in his kindness, and when all condemnation is gone by faith in Jesus, His terrible severity is meant to become for us a trembling sweetness.
Before William Carey died Carey's explicit instruction was that his grave marker was to contain nothing more than his name, the date of his birth and of his death, and two lines from Isaac Watts, his favorite hymn writer:
A wretched, poor and helpless worm,On Thy kind arms I fall.
Falling away from fear onto the kind arms of Jesus,
Pastor Bill
Friday, July 13, 2007
LET GOD BE GOD
"Just as it is written, [Malachi 1:2-3] "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated...What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion...But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:12,14,20-24)
The book of Romans is a precious, important, yet difficult book to understand. To glean from it demands much thought, reflection, and humble prayerfulness. Romans Chapters 9-11 especially, are chapters that are difficult, tedious, and demand much thought and prayer. They are full of difficult statements that challenge our understanding of God. In my upcoming book I begin with this statement: "In the beginning God created man in His own image and man has been returning God the favor ever since."
It is easy for us to misread God’s actions. There are times when God is going to act in ways that we don’t understand and are contrary to the ways we think He should act. This is one of the problems we face in dealing with God. When confronted with the truth of Romans 9, we realize that God is beyond us. The human heart is a deceitful but very resourceful thing, and one way it expresses these characteristics is by dismissing God, on the one hand, and/or blaming him on the other.
“Why is God doing this to me?” is one of the most common questions I face as a pastor. Even if we don’t ask it aloud, it is a question that many of us ask in our private thoughts. When we ask that question what we are really doing is asking why God is unfair. This is the kind of thinking Paul deals with in Romans 9. There is a big difference between life being unfair and God being unfair. Romans 9 is one of those chapters that are often avoided in today’s pulpit because it is not light, easy, have to think a little bit, and is God centered rather than man centered. Just what the devil hates! I call it “Let God be God!” because it focuses upon how God works out His plans and purposes for salvation among fallen men. Phillip Yancey writes in his book The Jesus I Never Knew:“What we think and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.”
We must be very careful in our reading of scriptures such as Romans 9. Be careful that you do not play God and tell him how he should save. Be careful you do not stand above Scripture and demand that it be one way and not another. Be careful that you let scripture stand-to let it teach you what it will and not to tell it what it cannot say. Be careful that you allow things to stand in scripture even when you do not understand it. Be careful that you do not assume that your heart is good enough to judge the goodness of God. Or wise enough to judge the wisdom of God.
There are a thousand reasons why God does what he does which we cannot yet comprehend. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God" (Deuteronomy 29:29). "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Oh how we must humbly read, study, reflect upon , and pray Romans 9! But along with that, this is how our posture should be in all that Paul teaches us at the very end of Romans 11:
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen". (Romans 11:33-36)
Standing in awe of God's being God,
Pastor Bill
The book of Romans is a precious, important, yet difficult book to understand. To glean from it demands much thought, reflection, and humble prayerfulness. Romans Chapters 9-11 especially, are chapters that are difficult, tedious, and demand much thought and prayer. They are full of difficult statements that challenge our understanding of God. In my upcoming book I begin with this statement: "In the beginning God created man in His own image and man has been returning God the favor ever since."
It is easy for us to misread God’s actions. There are times when God is going to act in ways that we don’t understand and are contrary to the ways we think He should act. This is one of the problems we face in dealing with God. When confronted with the truth of Romans 9, we realize that God is beyond us. The human heart is a deceitful but very resourceful thing, and one way it expresses these characteristics is by dismissing God, on the one hand, and/or blaming him on the other.
“Why is God doing this to me?” is one of the most common questions I face as a pastor. Even if we don’t ask it aloud, it is a question that many of us ask in our private thoughts. When we ask that question what we are really doing is asking why God is unfair. This is the kind of thinking Paul deals with in Romans 9. There is a big difference between life being unfair and God being unfair. Romans 9 is one of those chapters that are often avoided in today’s pulpit because it is not light, easy, have to think a little bit, and is God centered rather than man centered. Just what the devil hates! I call it “Let God be God!” because it focuses upon how God works out His plans and purposes for salvation among fallen men. Phillip Yancey writes in his book The Jesus I Never Knew:“What we think and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.”
We must be very careful in our reading of scriptures such as Romans 9. Be careful that you do not play God and tell him how he should save. Be careful you do not stand above Scripture and demand that it be one way and not another. Be careful that you let scripture stand-to let it teach you what it will and not to tell it what it cannot say. Be careful that you allow things to stand in scripture even when you do not understand it. Be careful that you do not assume that your heart is good enough to judge the goodness of God. Or wise enough to judge the wisdom of God.
There are a thousand reasons why God does what he does which we cannot yet comprehend. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God" (Deuteronomy 29:29). "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Oh how we must humbly read, study, reflect upon , and pray Romans 9! But along with that, this is how our posture should be in all that Paul teaches us at the very end of Romans 11:
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen". (Romans 11:33-36)
Standing in awe of God's being God,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
THE EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITIES OF GOD
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
The longer I know Christ and the more that I understand His ways, the more that I am astounded at how He thinks and feels and wills. God's will is not a simple thing. He can will a thing in one sense and not will it in another sense. When we read that God wills a thing or that he does not will a thing; or when we read that he delights in a thing or that he has no delight in a thing, we must always be ready to admit that this simple statement of what he wills or delights in is not the whole story in our limited understanding. God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. He may well be capable of lamenting over something he chose to bring about.
For example, when Jesus entered into Jerusalem He knew what was about to happen. The Pharisees were going to get the upper hand. The people would be fickle and follow their leaders. And Jesus would be rejected and crucified. And within a generation the city would be obliterated. Look how Jesus says it in Luke 19 verses 43-44:
"For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Yet Jesus’ is also tenderly moved. We read in the proceeding verses 41-42,
"And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.."
Jesus felt the sorrow of the situation. This doesn’t mean His sovereign plan has thwarted by human rebellion and will. It means that Jesus is more emotionally complex than we think he is. He really feels the sorrow of a situation. No doubt there was a deep inner peace that He was in control and that His wise purposes would come to pass. But that doesn’t mean He couldn't cry.
Another time we read that when Lazarus died, Jesus said,
"for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe" (John 11:15). He promised to Martha in verse 23 "Your brother will rise again" and in verse 40 that they would "...see the glory of God". So Jesus had purposely planned to let Lazarus die and that his death was good and that in this death the glory of God would be made manifest.
Yet we also see Jesus' response to the sorrow and mourning of Mary, Martha, and the family in verse 33, "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled"; verse 35, "Jesus wept"; and verse 38 "Then Jesus, deeply moved again." Jesus had planned the death and resurrection of Lazarus yet could feel deep sorrow and compassion over the situation. Amazing!
Another time we read of God speaking about King Saul saying,
"I regret [or repent] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands" (1 Samuel 15:11).
In regards to Saul God was able to feel sorrow for Saul's actions in view of His own foreknown evil of Saul and pain He would feel, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons. And so later, when he looked back on the act, he can feel the sorrow for the act that was leading to the sad conditions, such as Saul's disobedience.
Listen to what God says about the death of the wicked in Ezekiel 18:23,
"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? And then verse 32, "I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live."
Yet listen to the Lord in Deuteronomy 28:63,
"Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess."
We are faced with the inescapable biblical fact that in some sense God does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18), and in some sense he does (Deuteronomy 28:63; 2 Samuel 2:25).We can say that in one sense God does delight in the judgment of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates the judgment in relation to the greatness of their wickedness and in relation to the preservation of his justice and glory and in relation to the other good things for other generations that will come from it, etc.), and in another sense he has no delight in the death of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates it narrowly as the destruction of his creature created in his image with potential for his praise and as a tactical victory of the evil one). God, in whose hands are the issues of life and death, has a way that He can look upon the perishing in such a way that he grieves over their destruction.
Jonathan Edwards once described that the infinite complexity of the divine mind is such that God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. He can look through a narrow lens or through a wide-angle lens. When God looks at a painful or wicked event through his narrow lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin for what it is in itself and he is angered and grieved. "I do not delight in the death of anyone, says the Lord God" (Ezekiel 18:32). But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. He sees it in all the connections and effects that form a pattern or mosaic stretching into eternity. This mosaic, with all its (good and evil) parts he does delight in (Psalm 115:3).
God's emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend. That is what makes Him God. Oh the challenge to know a being who is and expresses Himself in categories beyond our logic, frame of references, experience, and comprehension!
Who can comprehend that God is angry at the sin of the world every day (Psalm 7:11), and yet every day, every moment, he is rejoicing with tremendous joy because somewhere in the world a sinner is repenting (Luke 15:7,10,23)? Who can comprehend that God continually burns with hot anger at the rebellion of the wicked, grieves over the unholy speech of his people (Ephesians 4:29-30), yet takes pleasure in them daily (Psalm 149:4), and ceaselessly makes merry over repentent rebels who come back to Him?
Who of us could say what complex of emotions is not possible for God? All we have to go on here is what he has chosen to tell us in the Bible. God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. He may well be capable of lamenting over something he chose to bring about even if we can't.
Humbly basking in my limited understanding and the depths of His nature and glory,
Pastor Bill
The longer I know Christ and the more that I understand His ways, the more that I am astounded at how He thinks and feels and wills. God's will is not a simple thing. He can will a thing in one sense and not will it in another sense. When we read that God wills a thing or that he does not will a thing; or when we read that he delights in a thing or that he has no delight in a thing, we must always be ready to admit that this simple statement of what he wills or delights in is not the whole story in our limited understanding. God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. He may well be capable of lamenting over something he chose to bring about.
For example, when Jesus entered into Jerusalem He knew what was about to happen. The Pharisees were going to get the upper hand. The people would be fickle and follow their leaders. And Jesus would be rejected and crucified. And within a generation the city would be obliterated. Look how Jesus says it in Luke 19 verses 43-44:
"For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Yet Jesus’ is also tenderly moved. We read in the proceeding verses 41-42,
"And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.."
Jesus felt the sorrow of the situation. This doesn’t mean His sovereign plan has thwarted by human rebellion and will. It means that Jesus is more emotionally complex than we think he is. He really feels the sorrow of a situation. No doubt there was a deep inner peace that He was in control and that His wise purposes would come to pass. But that doesn’t mean He couldn't cry.
Another time we read that when Lazarus died, Jesus said,
"for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe" (John 11:15). He promised to Martha in verse 23 "Your brother will rise again" and in verse 40 that they would "...see the glory of God". So Jesus had purposely planned to let Lazarus die and that his death was good and that in this death the glory of God would be made manifest.
Yet we also see Jesus' response to the sorrow and mourning of Mary, Martha, and the family in verse 33, "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled"; verse 35, "Jesus wept"; and verse 38 "Then Jesus, deeply moved again." Jesus had planned the death and resurrection of Lazarus yet could feel deep sorrow and compassion over the situation. Amazing!
Another time we read of God speaking about King Saul saying,
"I regret [or repent] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands" (1 Samuel 15:11).
In regards to Saul God was able to feel sorrow for Saul's actions in view of His own foreknown evil of Saul and pain He would feel, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons. And so later, when he looked back on the act, he can feel the sorrow for the act that was leading to the sad conditions, such as Saul's disobedience.
Listen to what God says about the death of the wicked in Ezekiel 18:23,
"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? And then verse 32, "I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live."
Yet listen to the Lord in Deuteronomy 28:63,
"Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess."
We are faced with the inescapable biblical fact that in some sense God does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18), and in some sense he does (Deuteronomy 28:63; 2 Samuel 2:25).We can say that in one sense God does delight in the judgment of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates the judgment in relation to the greatness of their wickedness and in relation to the preservation of his justice and glory and in relation to the other good things for other generations that will come from it, etc.), and in another sense he has no delight in the death of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates it narrowly as the destruction of his creature created in his image with potential for his praise and as a tactical victory of the evil one). God, in whose hands are the issues of life and death, has a way that He can look upon the perishing in such a way that he grieves over their destruction.
Jonathan Edwards once described that the infinite complexity of the divine mind is such that God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. He can look through a narrow lens or through a wide-angle lens. When God looks at a painful or wicked event through his narrow lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin for what it is in itself and he is angered and grieved. "I do not delight in the death of anyone, says the Lord God" (Ezekiel 18:32). But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. He sees it in all the connections and effects that form a pattern or mosaic stretching into eternity. This mosaic, with all its (good and evil) parts he does delight in (Psalm 115:3).
God's emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend. That is what makes Him God. Oh the challenge to know a being who is and expresses Himself in categories beyond our logic, frame of references, experience, and comprehension!
Who can comprehend that God is angry at the sin of the world every day (Psalm 7:11), and yet every day, every moment, he is rejoicing with tremendous joy because somewhere in the world a sinner is repenting (Luke 15:7,10,23)? Who can comprehend that God continually burns with hot anger at the rebellion of the wicked, grieves over the unholy speech of his people (Ephesians 4:29-30), yet takes pleasure in them daily (Psalm 149:4), and ceaselessly makes merry over repentent rebels who come back to Him?
Who of us could say what complex of emotions is not possible for God? All we have to go on here is what he has chosen to tell us in the Bible. God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. He may well be capable of lamenting over something he chose to bring about even if we can't.
Humbly basking in my limited understanding and the depths of His nature and glory,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, July 5, 2007
OBEDIENCE MATTERS!
Obedience matters! Obedience matters! In spite of what many say today OBEDIENCE MATTERS! Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only those who believe obey and only those who obey believe."
If you read the book of James, the writer seems to have the idea that obedience matters. He thinks that we can and that we must obey the Word of God. It is not enough to know what you’ve heard or read in the word of God about what God wills for you. James calls it the "good", "the right thing", but literally it means "the excellent" or "beautiful". Your life is excellent and beautiful when you are obedient to the word of God. What matters is that if you know what to do, that you do it!
James tells us quite a few things to do:
James 1:2, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”
James 1:5,6, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God…but let him ask in faith”
James 1:9-10, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation”
James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial”
James 1:19-21, “Every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:26-27, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
James 2:1, “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.”
James 2:9, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.” James 2:18, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”
James 4:7-10, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
James 4:11, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” James 4:16, “You ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."
James 4:17, “Whoever knows the right thing to Do”
Obedience matters doesn't it? In Matthew 7:26-27 Jesus warned those who don’t do what He teaches, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Another time He said in Matthew 5:19, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go (in obedience) therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Jesus has all authority and lays claim upon every nation and on you. And He does it by saying that they should be taught to obey all that He commanded His followers. Between all of His explicit and implicit commands there are over 500 found in the Gospels. So knowing what Jesus commands, making followers of Christ, and teaching others to live in God glorifying obedience to Jesus Christ’s 500 commands is essence of the great commission.
Jesus said, “If you know these things, you will be happy if you do them”. (John 13:17). Jesus spells out the formula for happiness: First, knowing the right things to do. Secondly, doing them! No wonder, for when we obey, we start doing the things for which He made us and redeemed us. As a result, He is gloried and we are happy!
OBEDIENCE MATTERS TO GOD, OH, CHRISTIAN , LET IT MATTER TO YOU!
Striving and resolved to obey the sweet, excellent, and beautiful, commands of God,
Pastor Bill
If you read the book of James, the writer seems to have the idea that obedience matters. He thinks that we can and that we must obey the Word of God. It is not enough to know what you’ve heard or read in the word of God about what God wills for you. James calls it the "good", "the right thing", but literally it means "the excellent" or "beautiful". Your life is excellent and beautiful when you are obedient to the word of God. What matters is that if you know what to do, that you do it!
James tells us quite a few things to do:
James 1:2, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”
James 1:5,6, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God…but let him ask in faith”
James 1:9-10, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation”
James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial”
James 1:19-21, “Every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:26-27, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
James 2:1, “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.”
James 2:9, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.” James 2:18, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”
James 4:7-10, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
James 4:11, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” James 4:16, “You ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."
James 4:17, “Whoever knows the right thing to Do”
Obedience matters doesn't it? In Matthew 7:26-27 Jesus warned those who don’t do what He teaches, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Another time He said in Matthew 5:19, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go (in obedience) therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Jesus has all authority and lays claim upon every nation and on you. And He does it by saying that they should be taught to obey all that He commanded His followers. Between all of His explicit and implicit commands there are over 500 found in the Gospels. So knowing what Jesus commands, making followers of Christ, and teaching others to live in God glorifying obedience to Jesus Christ’s 500 commands is essence of the great commission.
Jesus said, “If you know these things, you will be happy if you do them”. (John 13:17). Jesus spells out the formula for happiness: First, knowing the right things to do. Secondly, doing them! No wonder, for when we obey, we start doing the things for which He made us and redeemed us. As a result, He is gloried and we are happy!
OBEDIENCE MATTERS TO GOD, OH, CHRISTIAN , LET IT MATTER TO YOU!
Striving and resolved to obey the sweet, excellent, and beautiful, commands of God,
Pastor Bill
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