THE LORD HAS HELPED YOU AND HE WILL HELP YOU

"Till now the LORD has helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12 ESV

This past week I celebrated 35 years since the Lord's saving grace and love broke through in a 21 year old boy's life in late December 1974. It has caused me to be very reflective about my journey thus far towards Jesus Christ and eternal life.

I think that 1 Samuel 7:12 is my testimony scripture to describe my journey and also the battle cry for the rest of my life. This can also be a great encouragement and anchor for you too, as we end 2009 and enter the new year.

The words “til now” point in the direction of the past. For thirty five years the Lord I can say "till now the Lord has helped me." The Lord is so faithful. He never has left or forsaken me. He has been with me always. Jesus has helped!” He has helped me through trials, temptations, and tribulations, through my many failings and fallings, through surceases and accomplishments, through weaknesses and immaturity, through poverty and prosperity economically and spiritually, through sickness,and health, through perseverance and collapsing, at home and abroad, in fatigue and vitality, in great sorrow and great joy, in pain and in pleasure, in weakness and in strength, in defeat and victory, in foolishness, in wisdom, in ministry failures and triumphs, in great disappointments and in great surprises, in rejection and abandonment by man and in faithful friendships, in loneliness and in comfort, in utter cluelessness and in amazing insight, in praise, in prayer, in service, in love “till now the Lord has helped me” and He has helped you!

Look back at this past year and your life. Do you not see His amazing grace and enduring mercies over you? Do you see His faithfulness even when you were faithless? Do you not see His timely grace that helped you each and every moment? Do you see his accepting love for you in spite of yourself? Do you see all the good gifts that He has lavished you from above? Do you see the grace He poured out to you when all you deserved was wrath? Surely there must be so many mercies and graces that you can talk and sing and shout about that "Till now the Lord has helped me"

John Piper says that endings are for gratitude and beginnings are for faith. Every moment, hour, day, and year ends and a new moment, hour, day, and year begins. Can you look back to your life and give thanks? Can you look back to 2009 and give praise? Can you see the Lord's hand and say "till now the Lord has helped me"?

Today after thirty years of being a Christian I look ahead by faith to the rest of my life. Specifically, I look ahead to 2010. The word "till now" also points us forward. I can speak of what the Lord has done till now but it also reminds me that my life is not over yet. It says of David in Acts 13:36 "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers." Because we can say "till now" we are not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traveled. that is going to mean for each of us more trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more work, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come will come the day of our death.

Is your life over now? No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesus’ likeness. There is more growing in the grace and knowledge of Him. There are whole new dimensions of the length, height, width, and depth of His love to experience. There is till work to be done for Jesus while on this earth.

As you enter into the New Year be of good courage and great expectant anticipation for your life, give your past sins, your present burdens, and your future worries and fears with grateful confidence that...

He who has helped me till now

Will help me all through my journey in 2010 and beyond!

Looking back with gratitude and looking forward in faith,
Pastor Bill

THE THREE "FEAR NOTS" OF CHRISTMAS

Fear has been a part of the human existence since the fall of man in Genesis 3:8-10. Everyone, regardless of how brave they seem, is afraid of something (Snakes, Spiders, Disease, Financial Setbacks, Old Age, Gray Hair, Rejection, Disappointment, Exposure, Being Forgotten, Even fearing fear!

I, personally, am afraid of becoming useless, of being poor in my old age, and of heights. Not so much afraid of being of there, because the views are incredible. Not afraid of the fall, because free fall is an exhilarating experience. If I had to define my fear, I would have to say that my fear of heights is really a fear of the sudden stop that awaits me at the bottom of my fall.

Even in the Bible, we can see where men were stalked by their fears:
-Abraham lied about Sarah out of fear - Genesis 12:11-13
-Jacob displayed fear of Esau - Genesis 32:6-8
-Moses feared Pharaoh - Exodus 2:14
-Moses feared Rejection - Exodus 4:1
-The Disciples feared the storm - Matthew 8:24-26

Nothing has changed! People are still caught in the grip of their fears, and this is even true during the Christmas Season. A time that should be joyous, happy and totally Christ-centered. We fear not having enough money, of not meeting everyone's expectations, we worry over meals, over who will be there and who will not. We just seem to fear everything.

Three times God sent angelic messengers to the earth with messages connected to the birth of His Son, the Lord Jesus. Each time, they brought big news, news which troubled the hearts of their hearers. However, they also came with a message of peace. Three times angels appeared. Three times they spoke the words, "

I. Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

II. Matthew 1:18-25

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

III. Luke 2:8-20

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

Three times the angels came and three times there was a reaction based in fear. However, when the fear had been dealt with and the Lord's message was allowed to come through, the message was seen for what it really was, a promise of grace. So it is this Christmas season. There may be those things around you that you fear, but if you can learn the lesson that Mary, Joseph and the shepherds learned, and that is to trust the Lord whatever the cost, then you will find that He can turn fear to peace this season for you.

Is there fear in your heart today? Bring it to Jesus! Is there sadness? Bring it to Jesus! Is there fear over sin and hell? Bring it to Jesus! Is there disappointment and disillusionment over the trials of life? Bring it to Jesus! Are there burdens too heavy to bear? Bring it to Jesus! Is there brokenness and despair? Bring it to Jesus! Is there failure and defeat? Bring it to Jesus! Whatever it is that is causing you to fear, bring it to Jesus!

Merry Christmas!
Pastor Bill

CHRISTMAS AND GOD'S TIMING

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,” Galatians 4:4 ESV

Have you ever played “what if” in your head? One of my favorite sci-fi movies is called The Final Countdown in which a US Navy nuclear carrier is taken back in time to the South Pacific on December 6, 1941. The upshot of the movie is that it presents the hypothetical dilemma of “what if a nuclear powered carrier of the United States Navy with all of its firepower had a chance to stop the Japanese fleet and their attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?” Should they do it? Do they dare attempt to change the course of history? What would happen if they did?

As you could imagine all sorts of “what if” questions were raised by the film. Well that was fantasy, but in John 15:22 Jesus says, “If I had not come”. Jesus invites us to consider a real possibility. What if Jesus Christ had not come to earth? What if he had not been born in Bethlehem? What if he had not walked the dusty roads of Judea? What if he had not uttered those wonderful words we call the Sermon on the Mount? What if he had not walked on water? What if he had not made the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk? What if he had never raised the dead? What if we did not have his words to comfort us, to challenge us, to teach us, and to lead us to God? What if he never died on the cross? What if he never rose from the dead? What if he never sent his disciples out into the world? Where would we be? And what kind of world would this be? How would things be different if he had not come?

I have good news. Though Jesus said, "If I had not come", there is no “what if” speculation in God. Because the fact is that Jesus did come! The angel said “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Luke 2:10-11; John 1:14) And history itself has been changed forever. That’s what matters. For a little over 30 years the Son of God walked on this earth and nothing has been the same since. All history is framed around this Person who came in the fullness of time and whose coming gives definition to all of time.

Christmas is about God’s wonderful timing in our lives. Christmas reminds us of the fact that Jesus came to this Earth at just the right time. All the events of His arrival were perfectly planned. Jesus came no sooner nor no later than it was planned. Christmas means that God is never late. He never misses a deadline. He sent His Son into the world right on time. God’s timetable is always perfect.

The Apostle Paul in Galatians 4;4 invites us to consider God’s timing of the coming of His Son. There are two kinds of time the Bible speaks of: there is chronos time and there is kairos time, there is clock time and there is God's time. Cynics might even say there is our time and there is God's time, as in, "God give me patience, and give it to me right now"! The Bible speaks clearly about how God operates in time; both in chronos and kairos, and nowhere does it speak more clearly than in the stories of Jesus' birth.

The word "time" occurs 658 times in the Bible, 179 of those in the New Testament, 73 of those in the Gospels, and the overwhelming majority of those occurrences are in Matthew and Luke, the two who tell the stories of Jesus' birth. Sometimes the Gospels speak in chronos, in clock time, in our time, saying things like, "...in the time of King Herod..." and "...at the time of the incense offering..." and "...time to circumcise the child." Sometimes the Gospels speak in kairos, in God's time, as in "...the time came for her to deliver a child..." and "...the time is fulfilled" and "the kingdom of God has come near."

Other New Testament writers pick up the Gospel time theme: the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians says, "making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (tou pleromatos ton kairon: literally the fullness of the times)." (Ephesians 1:9-10).

Of all the kairos moments, of all the moments that God had worked and acted in history, this was the ultimate moment. Now in Galatians 4;4, "... but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son..." Now here the Greek is to pleroma tou chronou, literally the fullness of the time. That phrase is also a very picturesque Greek expression. It speaks of something that is complete and fully developed, like a ripe apple ready to be picked. Or like a pregnant woman feeling labor pains, ready to deliver her baby. A fullness that is absolute and has reached its bursting point. When we fill a glass of water to drink, we do not fill it to the rim. A small empty space is left so that we don’t spill its contents when we lift the glass to drink. . (Unless you are a klutz like me!) The fullness of pleroma is more like what happens when we put the water under a spigot and turn on and let it run. The glass fills up and then begins to spill over on the side. In this case there is no more room left in the glass for any more water.

The “fullness of time means that history was ripe for the birth of Christ. All of the chronos of the past and all of the kairoi that had gone before converged in this moment. Jesus was born at the precise second and in the precise place that God had ordained from the foundation of the world. Luke records it with these words, “While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger...” (Luke 2:6-7) But it was not only the days of Mary’s pregnancy, the normal period of gestation that was completed. It was the years, the centuries, and the millennia that had been completed. It was in "the fullness of the time.

Why was Jesus born when He was born? He was born when he was born because it was time. God does not do things early. God does not do things late. God does things in a perfect, timely fashion, just when those things are called for. And nothing in human history has been more important, or was accomplished in such a timely fashion, as the birth of the Son of God. He is the center of history. History is really His Story, planned and told by God. Secular history gives us dates and times and places and people, but only God can give meaning to history and to your history.

God has come into the world through Jesus. He’s working right now to prepare for His second coming. Some of us need to hear this because we wonder (and secretly fear) that God has forgotten us. Perhaps you come to the end of this year with a sense of unfulfillment and perhaps a sense of dread about what 2010 will bring. Fear not, child of God. God's timing is perfect. When the time had fully come, God sent his Son. And when the time is fully come, he will keep all his promises to you. Just as God’s timing was perfect in the coming of Jesus, His timing is perfect in your life. Look at the wisdom of God in sending Jesus just at the right time. If God would do that for the world, He would certainly do that for you. He will work in your life at just the right time. Trust Him in your situation. Rest in His timing. Know that He does all things well. Just as the people of Jesus’ day did not understand God’s timing then, you may not understand it now, nonetheless, it’s perfect. Maybe today is the perfect time in your life for God to move in a special way. Almost 2,000 years ago, there came a night when “the fullness of the time” had come. Today may be the time God directs your path, answers a dilemma, comforts you, strengthens you, or encourages you.

Merry Christmas,
Pastor Bill

YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN!

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) ESV

Who owns you? Who do you belong to? Who rules you life? Your decisions? Your plans? Your goals? Your passions and desires? Your priorities? For those that are not Christians, the mantra of their life is “I am the Captain of my ship, the master of my soul.” But what about those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ? Do you desire to only do God’s will in your life? Do you want a life blessed by God or do want an agenda of yours blessed by God.? Are you willing to humbly submit yourself to the will of God in all things? Do you believe that God’s will is “good, acceptable, and perfect” (Romans 12:2)? I ask these questions because they are the very questions that I am asking of myself.

One of the hardest two words to say are: “I surrender.” Even more so, surrendering is not an easy thing to do. It sure is not for me. By nature I am a high achiever, self disciplined, success driven striver. Call me to sacrifice for Jesus, no problem. Call on me to serve the Lord, piece of cake. Ask me to risk for Jesus, I’m ready, able, and willing. But ask me to surrender? No thanks. I don’t do surrender well. It has taken me thirty five years of being a Christian to learn that the real test of faith is not how successful we are, but how surrendered we are.

When Jesus taught us to pray fundamental on the front end of prayer was an attitude of surrender. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”(Matthew 6:10) The most Christian prayer we can ever pray is the prayer Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).

The apostle Paul has taught me the key to surrender. One of the great truths that the apostle Paul teaches about being a Christian is that a Christians belongs to Christ. Paul s says in 1Corinthians 6:9, "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." So the reverse is true too: If you do have the Spirit of Christ, you do belong to him. So as Christians we should think of ourselves as belonging to Christ, as Christ´s possession; wonderfully owned by Him for stupendous purposes!

In what sense are we Christ´s possession? Paul connects the ideas of indwelling and possession in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 in a way that explains: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" In what sense? He explains in verse 20: "For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Paul describes two ways that Christ makes us his own: purchase and habitation.

John Piper illustrates this:

There was a time in this country when you could lay claim to a piece of land in the west by simply going there and living on it, homesteading it. And of course there is the more traditional ways of obtaining land, paying for it. Christ did both in order to possess a people for himself: he bought us, and he homesteaded us. "You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) - that´s the purchase. "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit . . . You are not your own" . . . "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9) - that´s the homesteading. He bought us with his blood, and he moves in by his Spirit. If you are a Christian, you are not your own. You belong to Christ. Your body is His home, His dwelling place working out His will and purposes.

So what that means very simply is that surrender means that we are to use our body which has been purchased and is now owned by God in ways that will show that God is more satisfying, more precious, more to be desired, more glorious than anything the body craves.

Paul puts it another way in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Another time Paul prayed, his own testimony of desire: “It is my eager expectation and hope that . . . Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Oh to be dedicated and surrendered to a vibrant, fruitful, consecrated life on earth for God and His glory.

One of the most surrendered and consecrated Christians was Jonathan Edwards. He describes his consecration and surrender to God in a prayer dated Saturday January 12, 1723:

In the morning I have been before God; and have given myself, all that I am and have to God, so that I am not in any respect my own: I can challenge no right in myself, I can challenge no right in this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members: no right to this tongue, these hands, nor feet: no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell or taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained anything as my own. I have been to God this morning, and told him that I gave myself wholly to him. I have given every power to him; so that for the future I will challenge no right in myself, in any respect. I have expressly promised him, and do now promise Almighty God, that by his grace I will not. I have this morning told him, that I did take him for my whole portion and felicity, looking on nothing else as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience: and would fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life. And did believe in Jesus Christ, and receive him as a prince and a savior; and would adhere to the faith and obedience of the gospel, how hazardous and difficult whatsoever the profession and practice of it may be. That I did receive the blessed Spirit as my teacher, sanctifier, and only comforter; and cherish all his motions to enlighten, purify, confirm, comfort, and assist me. This I have done. And I pray God, for the sake of Christ, to look upon it as a self-dedication; and to receive me now as entirely his own, and deal with me in all respects as such; whether he afflicts me or prospers me, or whatever he pleases to do with me, who am his. Now, henceforth I am not to act in any respect as my own.—I shall act as my own, if I ever make use of any of my powers to any thing that is not to the glory of God, and do not make the glorifying him my whole and entire business; if I murmur in the least at afflictions; if I grieve at the prosperity of others; if I am any way uncharitable; if I am angry because of injuries; if I revenge; if I do anything, purely to please myself, or if I avoid any thing for the sake of my ease, if I omit anything because it is great self-denial; if I trust to myself; if I take any of the praise of any good that I do, or rather God does by me; or if I am any way proud.


Edwards clearly realized that his life was not his own, but that he belonged entirely to God and , therefore, must live in surrender to Him. Oh for humble submission and dedication to God like Edwards, for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. If we are going to impact the world for Jesus Christ, we must live with extraordinary purpose and firm dedication. God is looking for individuals who will say, “God I am completely Yours!”

Have you come to realize that dear reader? Would you surrender and declare to God and to yourself: “God, I want to be on your side. Who God is, that’s who I want to live on and for. Wherever God is, I want to be. If God is in riches or poverty, sickness and health, at home or far away, I want to be there! Whatever God is doing, that’s what I want to be doing. Nothing else matters. I say “uncle”. “I give up, I give in.” “I surrender.”

May you present your body to Him as a living sacrifice and my you preach to yourself like I do, “Bill, you are not your own, you have been bought with a price, So glorify God in your body.

Pastor Bill

JESUS IS PRECIOUS!

"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:4-9 ESV

Who or what is precious to you? To call something precious according to Webster’s Dictionary is to say that it is of great value or highly esteemed and cherished. There are many things that are very precious to me: My wife; my four children; my two grandchildren; San Clemente, my hometown; my church that I pastor, the Lighthouse; my favorite surfing break, upper Trestles; The National Parks, especially Yosemite; the Hawaiian Islands, especially Kauai; and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

Is Jesus precious to you? He was to the apostle Peter. Last week we saw the Apostle Peter share two things about the preciousness of Jesus. The first was His intrinsic worth: “Jesus is precious” (1 Peter 2:4, 6). The second was His worth to those who believe: "To you who believe Jesus Christ is precious" (1 Peter 2:7). Now this week we will discuss the third aspect of His preciousness which is the gladness of those to proclaim His worth.


TELLING OTHERS ABOUT THE PRECIOUSNESS OF JESUS

In verse 9 we read, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". Your power to give a compassionate witness about Jesus to unbelievers will grow in direct proportion to how precious Jesus is to you. Another good translation would be, "that we might declare his excellencies." The text explicitly says that God chose us and made us his new people for the purpose of telling people about his excellencies, about how precious Jesus is to us.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Jesus shows us that our purpose on this earth is to make known God's identity, to show and tell the world how precious Jesus is! Peter describes it as “declaring His excellencies”.

Is Christ excellent to you? Do you know and understand and see His excellencies? Our power to make that declaration will increase in direct proportion to how precious Jesus really is to us. Evangelism, missions, worship, ministry, and living for His glory will increase in direct proportion that Jesus is to us. As John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with Him.” You cannot bear a credible witness to the value of anything if you do not sense or feel its value. Therefore the most important question we can ask ourselves if is: How much is Jesus worth? Jonathan Edwards so profoundly wrote:

“The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly contenting and satisfying to the soul. The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are excellent-one thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem of honor, and to another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent. But the soul cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it soon finds an end to their excellency. Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them, they would be happy. But when they obtain them, and cannot find happiness, they look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the pursuit. But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see him they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Jesus! It sees that until now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance. It sees that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean!”

If you ponder how much Jesus is worth to you and why, you will have your own personal authentic testimony. That's what the world needs to hear: Why is Jesus so precious?

Does Christ have that most wonderful place in your life where you see him as altogether lovely, your Beloved and your Friend? If not, listen to what the Puritan John Flavel said, “Away with those empty nothings, away with this vain deceitful world, which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it. Let all stand aside and give way to Christ. Oh if only you knew his worth and excellency, what he is in himself, what he has done for you, and deserved from you; you would need no arguments to persuade you to love him!”

Jesus is precious. He is the Father’s delight. He is so precious that many have suffered the loss of all things for His sake. He has called us to live our lives on this earth in a way that shows He is precious and that proclaims to the world how precious He is. This Christmas season is a great time to tell someone of the preciousness of Jesus to you.

Pastor Bill

THE VALUE AND WORTH OF JESUS CHRIST!

"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."1 Peter 2:4-9

I am a reformed member of the dog haters club of America South Orange County Chapter. It all started when my son Kai wanted a dog for Christmas. Then my neighbors invited me over to introduce me to their little Bijon puppy because they wanted my family to have her. Of course my initial reaction was an obstinate “No way!” All I could think of was whining, barking, destroying my home, dog doo, hyperactivity, slobber, having to walk it, having to spend money in order to feed it, veterinary bills, etc. But soon with a little of my wife’s unique persuasive skills, coupled with my son Kai’s begging and pleading, I reluctantly agreed to go over and see the dog. Of course, I already decided that there was no way in the world that we would own a dog. That is until I saw her, this little white puppy named Maggie with big brown eyes, long floppy ears, eager to love and please, looking like a living white shag carpet, and having this seeming perpetual wagging tail and big grin on her face. What can I say; I melted at the sight of that little bowser. So, I gave in, the dog moved in, and in the days that followed spending time with little Maggie: watching her, walking her, playing with her, snuggling with her caused her to become very precious to me. I guess you could say I fell in love with that little dog.

To call something precious according to Webster’s Dictionary is to say that it is of great value or highly esteemed and cherished. Who is the most precious above all? To God the Father, to the Apostle Peter, and to a band of Christ lovers (including myself!) for over 2000 years, Jesus is precious! There is nothing in this world more precious to me than Jesus Christ! My life is a continuing and insatiable quest for Jesus to become more precious to me day by day. It is my purpose, my passion, my longing, my battle cry, my compass, and the central theme of my ministry to spread a passion for the preciousness of Christ to all the nations.

Is Jesus precious to you?

The Apostle Peter shares three things about the preciousness of Jesus. The first is His intrinsic worth: “Jesus is precious” (1 Peter 2:4, 6). The second is His worth to those who believe: "To you who believe Jesus Christ is precious" (1 Peter 2:7). The third is the gladness of those to proclaim His worth:"that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him..." (1 Peter 2:9). Because Jesus is precious we are to tell the world about his preciousness. Your power to give a passionate witness about Jesus to unbelievers will grow in direct proportion to how precious Jesus is to you .

JESUS IS PRECIOUS
In verses 4,6 Jesus is likened to a precious stone. The word Peter uses (Greek: entimon), means worthy of honor, esteemed, and of the highest value. Jesus preciousness is spoken of in terms of the Father’s heart towards Him (verse 4) as well as His intrinsic value in Himself (verse 6). How is Jesus precious? Peter does not tell us how precious Jesus is. No wonder. How we even begin to comprehend the infinite worth and value of Jesus. Words cannot begin to communicate Jesus' preciousness. Never the less, we can try. How is Jesus precious? Let me give you a few thoughts to consider.

1. Jesus is precious because He is of Infinite and Ultimate Value Paul calls Him the indescribable gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)His worth is far greater than all earthly treasures put together. He is precious because of who He is. "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9)

2. Jesus is precious because He is One of a Kind
There are many “gods” in the world, but there is only one Jesus. Yes, there are many “Jesus’” being preached in the world, but there is only one true Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who “came to save His people from their sins.” In all of Heaven there was only one Jesus Christ, who was able to be the Lamb of God and take away the sins of the world. There was not another in all Heaven, who was qualified to be our savior. Jesus is unique- He is the only Savior; the only door and the only way into Heaven; the only hope of salvation. His Name is the only Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved! (Acts 4:12). Spurgeon says, Jesus is so precious that He cannot be matched! There is none like Him! The fairest of the fair are unlovely and deformed when compared with Him! You shall find none that can be compared to Him, even if you ransack time and space... If you search eternity, and ransack immensity, there shall never be found one fit to be second to Him, He is so precious.

3. Jesus is precious because He is so Glorious
He far excels all of His creation for holiness, and power, and wisdom, and beauty. He is perfect in every way. There is not the least flaw in His Person, or in all of His marvelous works. In fact, Jesus is the standard of excellence and splendor in all of Heaven and earth. The brightness of His glory is above the brightness of the sun when shining is his strength (Acts 26:13). His glory lights every man that comes into the world (John 1:9). His glory was seem by the apostles (John 1:14) and shines into the hearts of His people (2 Corinthians 4:4), and enlightens them to the way of repentance, and faith in His work of redemption. And His glory will lighten New Jerusalem in the eternal age (Revelation 21:23), so that there shall be no need for the light of the sun! Jesus is most glorious.

4. Jesus is precious because of His Impact and Influence
There has never been a man that has influenced more people, and more nations, throughout the past 2,000 years than the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus is the most influential man ever born into this world. He has touched the lives of millions, and brought millions of men and women, and boys and girls, out of their bondage of sin and death, and has given them forgiveness of their sins, and new lives of true love, true holiness, true peace, and true happiness and joy. And more importantly, He gave them eternal life with Him in glory! Yes, He is influential in the salvation of all of His people.

TO YOU WHO BELIEVE JESUS IS PRECIOUS
Notice what happens when we connect verses 4, 6, and 7. In verses 4 and 6 Christ is chosen and precious in the sight of God. Now in verse 7, he is therefore precious to us who believe. Jesus is not precious because we make Him precious. Hed is precious and the Spirit of God graces us to see how precious He really is. Thus, believers are chips off the Old Block as it were. We choose what our Father chooses. We feel to be precious what our Father feels to be precious. The personal attractions of Jesus are all inviting and irresistible! His love wins us. His glory charms us. His beauty attracts us. His sympathy soothes us. His gentleness subdues us. His faithfulness inspires us. He is the "altogether lovely One!" says Octavius Winslow. He becomes to us, as Jonathan Edwards puts it, "an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies."

Jesus prayed for us in John 17:26 that “the love the Father has for Jesus may be in us.” As Jesus is precious in Himself, as Jesus is precious to the Father, Jesus is meant to be precious to us. When you see Him in all of His excellencies how could He not be anything else but precious to you? Do you see Him? Do you really see Him?

Peter speaks of this experience of seeing Jesus in a way that goes beyond physical seeing to spiritual seeing and its wonderful effect upon all who see Him. “Though you have not seen Him (Physically), you love Him (He is precious to you), and though you do not see Him now (Physically), but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” (1 Peter 1:8). Seeing the preciousness of Jesus causes us for inexpressable joy to beleive Him, trust Him, and love Him. How precious is Jesus to you? Where does he come in your scale of desires?

Jesus once told a parable that describes how precious it really is to inherit the Kingdom of heaven. And since he himself is the King of that Kingdom and the One who makes it valuable, the parable applies to Him also. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:44-46).

Notice well: the man does not sell all that he has begrudgingly; he does it joyfully. The reason is because he sees how precious the treasure is. He knows that, whatever he pays for that field or that pearl it's a steal. Jesus is worth so much more than anything else in all the world, which every loss endured to have more of him, can be endured with joy. Is Jesus your treasure?

Dear Christian what would life be like without Jesus? How essential is Jesus to our satisfaction and happiness? What would this world be like to live in without Jesus? What if Jesus hid Himself from us? What would we do in this world without Jesus? How would you face your days? How would you handle life’s difficulties? What if there was no door of fellowship, friendship, and companionship between you and Jesus? I pray it can be said of you dear reader:

TO YOU, JESUS IS PRECIOUS!

To be continued...

REMEMBERING THE PAST AND LOOKING AHEAD TO THE FUTURE

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Psalm 103:1-5 ESV

Every moment in our life is both an ending and a beginning. It is the end of your past and the beginning of your future. If you see your life in a God-centered way like the writers of scripture, you will be able to seize that moment and look through the lens of God and stand inside that world in great humility before Him.

Each moment is a moment where, through the lens of God, all of His works in the past are reasons for us to look back and be grateful. At the same time this moment points us to the future with an opportunity to look ahead with faith in God’s future grace. I really believe that if we learn to “be here now”, to “seize the moment”, and “to be still and know that He is God” that looking back and looking ahead are two great God given means of spiritual growth in our lives.

The Psalmist exhorts himself to look back and to remember what God has done for him in verse 1, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” How often do we forget all of God’s benefits, workings, blessings, providence's, deliverance's, provisions, protections, forgiveness, mercies, kindnesses, and miracles that the Lord has done in our lives? How often because we have forgotten all of His past mercies do we face the present with fear, doubt, anxiety, and unbelief?

When I look back at my own life I see that I have often failed to remember the big things that God has done and made them seem small in my forgetfulness while making the little thing that I faced in my present seem large in my unbelief.

I find it very helpful to see that the Psalmist is preaching to himself to remember all the preciousness of past grace that God has given Him. God in the past had “forgiven all of his iniquity, healed all his diseases, redeemed his life from the pit, crowned him with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfied him with good so that his youth was renewed like the eagle's.”
Preaching to ourselves is very important.

In his book Spiritual Depression Martin Lloyd Jones says,

I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing 'ourselves' to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.

This is what the Psalmist does to counter this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I have something to say to you: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”

Jones says,

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.

So we must learn to speak to ourselves and exhort ourselves: ‘Self, remember what God has done for you. The same God who has done for you in the past will work for you in the future, so bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!”

That is exactly what we must do. Jones asks, "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?"

Let me ask you: Have you realized? Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to this reality, this fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? See, what we have each day is an internal conversation that never ends. It is ceaseless. It continues always within us. And so each day, throughout the day, we have two simple choices: We can either spend the day listening to ourselves, listening to ourselves in our constantly changing feelings and circumstantial interpretations, or we can spend each day talking to ourselves. We can talk truth to ourselves. We can seize each ending to be a moment for gratitude and each beginning to be a moment for faith.

Other characters in the bible did this. Joseph looking back on the past providence of God spoke to his brothers: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). The Proverb writer looked forward on the future providence of God: "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). David could look ahead and say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6).

Gratitude causes us to see God’s past grace aimed at helping us. When we remember what God has done we can transfer that past working into present faith for God’s future promises aimed at helping us as well. Since every moment is the beginning of the rest of your life, and every moment is the end of the past, every moment should be governed by gratitude and faith. If you see the world in this biblical way - and if you stand inside that biblical world and preach this past grace and future grace to yourself - then every moment will be a point of gratitude toward the past and faith toward the future.

The practical implications of this are great. It will make you humble and bold! Humble, in feeling the preciousness of past grace and an honest memory of mercy; humbly remembering that “every good gift comes from above”; living in deep, dependent, gratitude and worship; knowing that it is the Lord who provided, sustained, protected, healed, delivered, and intervened in the past.

It will also awaken boldness by transferring the benefits of your God governed past into your future! At this moment are you confidently looking ahead to this God continuing to work, bless, provide, deliver, protect, forgive, show mercy, and work miracles in the future? Do you trust His rock solid promises for your future? Oh that we would agree with George Mueller that “The living God has been, is, and will always be the living God!”

At this moment your past and your future are meeting together. May you look back this day with the look of gratitude and may you look continually forward with the look of faith! Remember: Endings are for gratitude and Beginnings are for faith!

Pastor Bill

READING AND SAVORING GOD'S VOLUME OF CREATION

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19:1-6 ESV

On Sunday night I was sitting on a blanket on my Crazy Creek chair watching the sunset in Joshua Tree National Park. My wife and I were eating dinner and looking out the horizon as the sun slowly set and the full moon steadily rose. It was truly a sacred moment for me. You could see the alpine glow on the peaks of the distant mountains as the sunlight gradually faded away. If you looked at the sky you would see an amazing pallet of ever changing colors. The upper half of it in clear blue color and the lower half a light violet. My chair was placed in such a way that in front of me was a Joshua Tree, to the right was a hill covered with big smooth round rocks (unique to this national park) and in the middle between them was a huge rising Harvest moon. At that moment I felt so alive and at peace. Here I was in the presence of such beauty of God's creation, savoring each moment with the woman that I love, and feeling a profound sense of my Creator’s presence and His amazing grace. Here and now nothing else mattered to me in the whole world, it was well with my soul.

As I was basking in the glory of my Maker’s creation my heart began welling up with a deep sense of gratitude to God both for the moment and for the fact that the moon, the sky, the mountains, the rocks, the Joshua trees, and the desert were just there. I was blessed and privileged to drink in of their beauty and glory. I thought of how many moments like this have taken place throughout the created world where no one was there to see and enjoy it but God Himself.

While gazing at the splender and beauty of the moment, wonder and gratitude began welling up inside and out of my lips came deep, heartfelt praise. I exulted in the beauty and wonder of God, His workmanship in the created world, and His creating and sustaining grace over the world that He made. It was simply amazing to me that God is God.

At that moment I realized that God had surprised me with the gift of another gift. He gave me anew the gift of amazement at what I see. He gave me the gift of sight that awakened me to the reality that every day, every moment, if I open my eyes and look, that there is always more to see in what I see.

The Psalmist tells us that Creation is telling us stupendous things about God! “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork" (Verse 1). Creation is a gift from God (and by creation, I mean all that God has made, not just mountains, birds, and trees). It is meant to display and communicate his glory. The voiceless, visual, universally available knowledge is that behind it all is a glorious God as maker of the world. The world is his handiwork, and he is glorious.

I love what Spurgeon says about the revelation of God in nature,

The Great Master Author has sent forth several volumes; among the rest is one called the "Book of Revelation," and another styled the "Volume of Creation." We have been reading the Word-volume and expounding it for years, we are now perusing the Work-volume, and are engrossed in some of its most glowing pages. Our love for the sacred book of letters and words has not diminished but increased our admiration for the hieroglyphics of the flood and field. That man perversely mistakes folly for wisdom who persists in undervaluing one glorious poem by a famous author, in order to show his zeal for a second epic from the same fertile pen. It is the mark of a feeble mind to despise the wonders of nature because we prize the treasures of salvation. He who built the lofty skies is as much our Father as he who hath spoken to us by his own Son, and we should reverently adore HIM who in creation decketh himself with majesty and excellency, even as in revelation HE arrayeth himself in glory and beauty.

Modern fanatics who profess to be so absorbed in heavenly things that they are blind to the most marvelous of Jehovah's handiwork, should go to school, with David as the schoolmaster, and learn to "consider the heavens," and should sit with Job upon the dunghill of their pride, while the Lord rehearses the thundering stanzas of creation's greatness, until they cry with the patriarch, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." For our part, we feel that what was worth the Lord's making, richly deserves the attention of the most cultivated and purified intellect; and we think it blasphemy against God himself to speak slightingly of his universe, as if, forsooth, we poor puny mortals were too spiritual to be interested in that matchless architecture which made the morning stars sing together and caused the sons of God to shout for joy.

John Piper, one who has taught me much about reading the Volume of Creation says,
God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation, but not for its own sake. He means for us always to look at his creation and say: If the work of his hands is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself! These are but the backside of his glory seen through a glass darkly. What will it be to see the Creator himself! Not his works! Not even a billion galaxies will satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul's end.

I think I can say that I the experience of delighting in some awesome natural phenomena—the moon rise at Joshua tree, a night sky in the clear pollution free Zion National Park, the astonishing Yosemite Falls, or a sunrise over the hills of San Clemente, where I live-is as Piper says, “the prep-school of our affections, readying them to delight in God.”

Christians ought to have better eyes than people in general for seeing the knowledge that every day and night pours forth. We ought to be the kind of people who walk out of the house in the morning with the same sense of suspense and expectancy.

John Piper mentions often the influence of the late Wheaton College professor Clyde Kilby. He says that Professor Kilby “pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature.”

I agree. Oh how nature is God’s great gift to our mental health! The moment on that evening in Joshua Tree I can honestly say that I had virtually no thoughts about myself and my problems because I was drinking in the remedy of God’s presence, His greatness, His glory, His power, His majesty, His beauty, and His peace.

In order to glimpse the glory of God in creation we actually have to engage with creation. It means to intentionally, “BE HERE NOW”. That is in obedience to “Be still and know that I am God.” When I practice “BEING HERE NOW”, I consciously stop, look, and listen to God speaking to me though His Volume of Creation, and quietly become alive to nature, being alive to life, and being alive to Him at that moment. At that moment I experience what is called “Transcendence” where I rise above myself, my life, my problems, my little thoughts, and enter into a world so wonderful, so vast, and so much bigger than little me that God has graced me to be an active part of.

Jonathan Edwards describes one of his experiences communing with God in nature:

As I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.... The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a sweet calm cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the cloud, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature.

Clyde Kilby recommends that we consider nature simply because it is. That is, simply because God has made it. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things.

"I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence."

I invite you, with Clyde Kilby and myself, to open your eyes and ears, to BE HERE NOW” and to look and listen to the “heavens declaring the glory of God.

Amazed at God again!
Pastor Bill

WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 2

We learned that the first part of God’s divine love is that He loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made for seeing and cherishing His glory. What he wants is that we not only see His glory, we cherish it, savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, and love it. In short that we would delight in Him; that we treasure Him; and that we would love Him.

Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!

How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).

You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we have never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”. In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.

Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.

This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.

Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers. Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.

Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love that You have loved Me may be in them.”

All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.

Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his.

My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.

This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.

When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.

A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.

WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 1

"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:24-26 ESV

John 17 is one of the most profound prayers in the entire Bible. Here we have before us one of the most intimate glimpses anywhere in Scripture of the mind and heart of the Lord as He prayed this prayer while on His way to Gethsemane. On that night we are revealed Jesus Christ’s ultimate concerns. His words are dominated, even in His darkest hour, by a spirit of high reverence for His Father and a loving concern for His then-present and future followers.

An overview of His prayer is that first, He prayed for Himself that night (Verses 1-5). He spoke of unimaginable glory and of perfect union with the Father in that glory. As He prayed He revealed as never before the single purpose of why He had ever left the glory of heaven. The hearts of the disciples were stirred as they realized the Presence of Deity. And then Jesus prayed for them! (Verses 6-19)They listened as He asked the Father to make them a part of the fellowship and life which Jesus Himself shared with the Father. But then, wonder of wonders, Jesus prayed for you and for me! (Verses 20-26) Jesus reveals His deepest desires and wants to His Father for you and me! Here is the climax of his desire:

"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am" (verse 24).

Here is Jesus praying for us. He loves us in this prayer. Oh how He loves us in this prayer! Jesus is praying for all of His future disciples, these are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians, people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?

“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (Verse 24B)

This expresses Jesus’ concern not for our companionship with Him but instead for the fulfillment of our deepest longing. If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what he finally asks for you? That you may see him. The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them my glory, Father. Show them my glory, and they will have arrived at ultimate purpose."

As Augustine said, “Oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and hearts find no rest except we find it in thee.” The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: THE GLORY OF GOD. Nothing less will do. Jesus is not lonely and is not needy for our companionship. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not He, are starving for something: THE GLORY OF GOD! Jesus knew this. That is why He prays this way!

“To see my glory”. This is the very purpose of God creating us (Isaiah 43:6-7; Romans 9:23). This is the heart of all that the apostles preached (2 Cor.4:6). This is the goal of every Christian act (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is the focus of all Christian hope (Romans.5:2). This is what will someday replace the sun and the moon as the light of life (Revelation 21:23) and even now what the heavens are proclaiming (Psalm 19:1). When people see it and discover its worth they cry out like Moses, “Show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18) and David “One thing I ask and what I seek after is to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).

So here Jesus’ love is manifest by praying for us to experience the fulfillment of what we were really made for, seeing and cherishing His glory. Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Oh that we would bask in this amazing love!

This is the most loving thing, the highest good, that Jesus could do for us and ask the Father to give us sight. The love of Jesus drives Him to pray for us and then die for us, not that our value may be central, but that His glory may be central, and we may see it and savor it for all eternity.

"That they may see My glory!" For this sight is the very healing of our souls and the strengthening of our lives and the meaning of our creation and the fulfilling of our salvation! Jesus is praying that we would see His glory like the Father sees His glory. The Father sees the Son as He really is in all His worth and value. The Father who is the God of glory has given Jesus glory and sees the glory of His Son. How does the Father see His Son’s glory?

“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3)
“He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

So the first part that we learn from Jesus as He prays for us is that God loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I will discuss that next time...

Pastor Bill

THOUGHTS ON PARADISE, GAINED, LOST, AND RESTORED

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:1,31 ESV

I was sad the other night in thinking about the many struggling people that I deal with as a pastor. People who struggle with addictions, broken relationships, lonliness, social disfunction, anxiety, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, unforiveness, suffering from consequences of bad decisions, discontentment, disease, mental illness, habitual sins, and so many other results from the fall. I felt so much love and compassion for them all and at the same time great feelings of helplessness over all the sorrow and pain that I see in this world. In my sadness I began deeply reflecting about the way things used to be before the fall, what happened after the fall, and what God intends to do someday.

When God created the world everything that He made was exceedingly beautiful and perfect. To God Himself it was “good”.

Paul Tripp describes it this way:

God's creative artistry, shown in the world he made and everything he placed in it, was a thing of gorgeous and stunning beauty. The hills were awash in multi-hued flowers, with no weevil to consume their leaves and no mites to infect their blossoms. The soil was packed with life-giving nutrients, and there were no thorns, thistles, or weeds to be found. Trees were laden with the lushest, sweetest, most succulent fruit. There were no plagues or pollutants. Nature grew, bloomed, and produced without struggle or toil. There was untainted natural beauty as far as the eye could see. It literally covered the earth. Animals frolicked, fed, mated, and produced without fear of predators or a fight with disease. The animal kingdom was a place of an amazing variegated beauty, all existing in an atmosphere of peace.

People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another. There was no stealing, lying, cheating, harsh words, abusive actions, strategies of vengeance, sexual immorality, broken families, or corrupt government. No one struggled with depression, anxiety, issues of identity, paralyzing regret, anger, envy, compulsion, addiction, fear, guilt, aloneness, hopelessness, or doubt. People didn't suffer from injury, disease, or old age. There were no hospital vigils and no viewings of the deceased. No one needed to ask for forgiveness and no one struggled to forgive. There was no marital disappointment and no employment gone bad.


People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They wor­shipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give in to worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator.
There was no doubt of his goodness, no fear of his anger. There was no overt rebellion or subtle disobedience. They obeyed his words and listened to his wisdom. There were no corrupting idols or competing systems of faith. No one was ever angry at God, and God had no cause for anger with the people he had made. People loved God's glory and in no way lived for their own.

In every way you could think or imagine, the world, as God created it, was a place of unparalleled peace and beauty. It was a sight and surround-sound glory display, reflecting the transcendent glory of the One who had made it out of nothing. His creative majesty was on untainted and uninterrupted display: the piercing red of the rose, the fluorescent scales of the fish, the sweet song of the bird, the gray grandeur of the rock, the earth-shaking roar of the lion, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the lacey delicacy of the leaf. Each part pointed to him. Each thing existed as a hymn to his glory.

But then something catastrophic happened. Man sinned, fellowship with God was ruined, and paradise was lost:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ..To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:6,16-19)

How do you begin to express the result of the cataclysmic events that happened? Perhaps the apostle Paul did it best with this powerful statement in Romans 8:21:

The whole creation groans."

Do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever feel a sadness, a sense of loss, frustration, brokenness, mourning, grief, or despair over the way things are? Sometimes as a pastor I will look at all the suffering and pain and falleness in this world and just weep before the Lord. I feel this longing inside, a sense that this is just not the way it was supposed to be?

Look at the way this world has become since paradise was lost. This sadly, is the very world that we are so tragically accustomed to live in paradise lost!

Paul Tripp writes,

Lilies now fought with weeds that would choke out their lives. Pollutants floated as shadows in the sky and unseen toxins in the stream. Fruit and flower were blighted with disease. Pain, suffering, toil, disease, and death became the regular experience of everything in the creation. What was once very easy was easy no longer. What was simple became terribly complicated. Everything that was once free now was only obtained at great cost. What seemed once unthinkably wrong and out of character for the world that God had made now became a daily experience. Words like falsehood, enemy, danger, sin, destruction, war, murder, sickness, fear, and hatred became regular parts of the fallen-world vocabulary.

For the first time, the harmony between people was broken. Shame, fear, guilt, blame, greed, envy, conflict, and hurt made relationships a minefield they were never intended to be. People looked at other people as obstacles to getting what they wanted or as dangers to be avoided. Even families were unable to coexist in any kind of lasting and peaceful union. Violence became a common response to problems that had never before existed. Conflict existed in the human community as an experience more regular than peace. Marriage became a battle for control, and children's rebellion became a more natural response than willing submission. Things became more valuable than people, and they willingly competed with others in order to acquire more.

The human community was more divided by love for self than united by love of neighbor. The words of people, meant to express truth and love, became weapons of anger and instruments of deceit. In an instant, the sweet music of human harmony had become the mournful dirge of human war.

Yet, with all of the havoc that sin wreaked on the physical world and on the human community, there was another horrible result. It was something so unthinkable, so horrific, so hard to grasp, that it easily stands as the saddest thing that has ever happened on earth. This tragedy is portrayed in a seemingly mundane conversation captured in Genesis 3:8-10,

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

What a sad, sad moment! Here is a man, created to have the boundaries of his life reach to the furthest boundaries of the glory of God. Here is one who was created to get his identity, meaning, and purpose from an intimate relationship with God. Here is a person whose every word, thought, desire, and deed was meant to be shaped by a heartfelt submission to and worship of his Creator. What do we find him doing? He hides in fear when the One who is meant to be his life comes near! And so we continue hiding from God to this day.

How sad I am as I think about this loss of God and of paradise seen and lived out every day in this fallen world.

But thanks be to God who is seated on the throne and in Revelation 21:1-5, says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."

Do you see and feel this wonderful and hope filled truth? "I am making everything new!”

There is going to be a restoration of all of God’s beautiful creation. Something new, something better, something wonderful, something hopeful, something beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!

It is summarized in Romans 8:17-25,

“And if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Neil Morse wrote a song that sums up our longing:

I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
Where no one knows
The bad things that you´ve done
The past is truly gone
In the land of beginning again
And I
See a child returning to the sky
We´ll all play simple games
And all the hard things there
Are soft as rain
I wish there was
A way to start again
To wake up among friends
In the land of beginning again
And I
Love my brother more than my own life
And no one feels mean
All things are new
Behold - the slate is clean....
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
THERE IS A LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN!

Full of longing for the restoration of paradise and the restoration of all these precious people who suffer so,
Pastor Bill