"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 17:26 ESV
On the night before Jesus was crucified, Jesus prayed for you and me. That's right dear reader, Jesus prayed for you! Not only that, but of all the things that He could have asked the Father, I am astounded that this is what He asked for us:
"... that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." What does Jesus ask the Father in Heaven, our Maker? That the very love that the Father has for His only begotten, most precious, most beloved Son would be in us! This is amazing! This is stupendous!
Jesus is asking that we would love Him in a way that 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 hydrogen 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 the Father said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17).
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God the Father 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 this not a most 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.”
Frankly when I read this, I get both excited and discouraged at the same time. First, I get discouraged because there is such a disconnect between Jesus' prayer and my own daily experience. My love for Jesus on my best days is weak, fickle, failing, inconsistent, and limited to my own capacity to love, which is pretty small. I find myself loving His gifts much more than Him. I often treasure the trivial, the inconsequential, the fleeting pleasures of life, and the trite, and am dull to what is lovely and important. In short, I need serious help to do what Jesus prays for me to do.
But when I read and contemplate this prayer hope rises within me and I get excited because I have hope that the Father, who hears the prayer of His Son, will Himself answer this prayer and do something supeernatural, outside of me, to me, and put in me. He will give me a capacity to love His Son in a way that Jesus deserves to be loved.
My imagination soars as I think about the possibility to love and enjoy Jesus with the very love and delight that the Father has for Him forever! Wow!
Three things in this life limit my ability to love and enjoy Jesus and help me to understand what I need from the Father:
1.Nothing in this world has a personal worth that is great enough to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.
2. We do not have the strength to love and savor Jesus to His maximum worth.
3. All of our joys here on this earth come to an end. Nothing lasts.
But, for you and me, if the Father answers the prayer of Jesus, all this will change!
If God answers this prayer from Jesus, then the Father's love for His Son will become your love. If God answers this prayer, then God's delight in His Son will become your delight, and the object of His love and pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in His worth and value to you. In short, a supernatural miracle will take place within your heart. You will love Jesus with the Father's love!
Jesus will never become boring to you. Nothing and no one will ever compete for your affections for Jesus. Nothing will ever be more valuable to you than Jesus. Your ability to love this inexhaustible, eternal, infinite Son of God will no longer be confined and limited by human weakness. We will freely love and freely delight in Jesus the Son with the very delight and joy of His omnipotent loving and delighting Father. God's love for His Son will be in us and it will be ours, and this will never end because neither the Father nor the Son ever end. Their love for each other will be our love for them, and therefore, our love will never, ever die.
All true love that the Father delights in and accepts from us, 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.
It can begin right now in your own experience as you agree with Jesus and join Him asking the Father for this ultimate desire of His Son for your own life. When you pray this prayer watch the love of God to begin working to change you so that you enjoy loving Him deeper, wider, higher, and stronger with His own love working within and pouring out and up towards His Son forever and ever and ever. May you want this. May you desire to be loved by God so that you can love God.
AMEN!
Exuberant about the Father's love for Jesus being in me,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
A PECULIAR GRATITUDE THIS THANKSGIVING
"Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 106:1 ESV
This week being Thanksgiving Week has caused me to reflect upon gratitude. I am beginning to understand gratitude in deeper, more precious ways.
There is one kind of gratitude that can be found both inside and outside of Christianity. A drug addict might be thankful that he found some money to pay for his next fix. A thief may be thankful she did not get caught when she took some merchandise from a store. A worker may be thankful for a bonus received at Christmas from a boss he despises. A child might be thankful for the gift given at Christmas by a little known distant relative or grandmother.Sadly, there are times that we feel gratitude towards those to whom at the same time we may have a habitual bad feeling against them or perhaps have an indifferent to them as a person.
This gratitude is a mere natural thing, common to everyone. This common gratitude is spoken of by Jesus in both Luke 6:32-34 and Matthew 5:45-48,
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back…For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ”
Our Lord shows us that being human is sufficient to motivate gratitude in mankind, or to affect their hearts with thankfulness to others for kindnesses received. This gratitude is merely natural, and when persons are thankful towards God primarily for benefits received, their thankfulness is only the exercise of a natural gratitude. Natural gratitude has no virtue whatsoever in God’s world and view of things. This kind of gratitude is no more pleasing to God than all other emotions that the natural man has apart from Him.
But there is a gratitude that is peculiar. It differs from and is higher than all gratitude that natural men both experience and express. It is a “peculiar gratitude”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary.”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary. It is a gratitude rooted in something else that comes before it, namely as John Piper suggests, “a delight in the beauty and excellence of God’s character.”
We see a great example of this in Psalm 106:1, "Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!" . Notice that gratitude here is ultimately linked in who and what God is, not in what He gives. It does not say, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He gives good things." Now, there is a sense in which this is very true.Psalm 103:2 tells us to "Bless the Lord.. and forget not His benefits" and James tells us that "every good and perfect gift comes from above"(James 1:17). All good gifts are occasions for the gladness of gratitude. but they are NOT the ultimate focus of our gratitude and joy. Gratitude ascends up the ladder of God's generous gifts until it stops in the goodness of God Himself.
It is easy to be thankful for the gifts and the many benefits we receive from them, but never take God, Himself into the picture.What I am saying is that it is easy for us to be thankful for the pleasure we take in the gifts and graces, but never even take God into the picture at all. When that happens, the pleasure, the joy, and the gratitude is not pleasure, joy, and gratitude in Him and it is dishonoring to Him. When people have affections towards God only or primarily for benefits received, their affection is only the exercise of a natural gratitude.
Suppose you were given a gift for your birthday. You open it and love the gift. Then you go around showing everyone the gift and telling everyone about what it means to you, but never once even look at or speak of the one who gave it. You are totally enthralled with the gift. But what would we say about you? We’d call you an ingrate! That’s because your joy and affection over the gift has no reference toward the goodwill or person of the giver. Jonathan Edwards calls it the gratitude of hypocrites. Their affections towards God are raised from time to time, primarily on this foundation of self-love or a conceit of God's love to them. You cannot show a person is precious to you by simply being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude proves that the giver of gifts is not loved but gratitude for gifts does not prove that the one who bestowed a gift is precious to you.
We are exhorted by Paul to do all things including thanks to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Is God glorified if the essence of our gratitude is rooted in the worth of gift and not the excellency of the giver? Gratitude not rooted in the beauty and worth of God is nothing but brilliantly disguised idolatry.
Thew proper use use of God's gifts and pleasures is that they send our hearts upwards, or better yet, Godward, towards God with the joy of gratitude that finds its highest and firmest ground in the goodness of God Himself, not His gifts. This means that if these gifts are ever taken away, the deepest joy that we had through the gifts will not be taken away because God is still God and He is exceedingly good!
No wonder the Apostle Paul can make statements like this: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9).
Peculiar gratitude rises in cherishing the preciousness of Christ above every gift from God including life itself. It is very difficult to communicate with people a love for God when it is mixed with a lifestyle characterized by love for self and demonstrated with normal gratitude rooted in our own self-interest. “Peculiar” gratitude is not rooted in the perspective that God loves us (though He does) , and then we see that He is lovely, but instead we first see that God is lovely, and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and thus our hearts are first captivated with this view and we are peculiarly thankful.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The saint's affections begin with God; and the love and affection that arises out of God’s love for them and the graces and gifts that He bestows are consequentially, and secondarily only, to the higher love that is grounded in God himself.” Self-love is not excluded from a gracious gratitude; the saints love God for His kindness to them: Psalm. 116:1, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication." We thank Him for every gift that comes from above (1 Timothy 4:3). We forget not his benefits (Psalm 103:2). In everything we give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). But there is something deeper, something more precious, something infinitely more valuable, that lays the foundation for these grateful affections.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, viz., God's own excellence; and hence the affections are disposed to flow out on occasions of God's kindness. The saint, having seen the glory of God, and his heart being overcome by it, and captivated with love to Him on that account, his heart hereby becomes tender and easily affected with kindnesses received.”
In a “peculiar” gratitude men are affected with the attribute of God's goodness and free grace not only as they are concerned in it, or as it affects their interest, but as a part of the glory and beauty of God's nature. That wonderful and unparalleled grace of God, which is manifested in the work of redemption, and shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ, is infinitely glorious in itself, and appears so to the angels; it is a great part of the moral perfection and beauty and wonder and majesty of God's nature. This would be glorious, whether it was exercised towards us or no; and the saint who exercises a gracious thankfulness for it, sees it to be so, and delights in it.
No wonder why Paul can exhort us to “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18-19)
John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with him.” This is why a “peculiar” gratitude is not a duty, it is a delight. Gratitude to God without delight in Him dishonors God. That is why in God’s world, a peculiar gratitude is all that matters. May God give us a heart that delights in Him for who He is. May the gratitude we have this Thanksgiving Week for the gifts He gives us merely be an echo of our delight and happiness in the greatness and excellence of our wonderful, benevolent, and beautiful Giver.
Thanking God for God!
Pastor Bill
This week being Thanksgiving Week has caused me to reflect upon gratitude. I am beginning to understand gratitude in deeper, more precious ways.
There is one kind of gratitude that can be found both inside and outside of Christianity. A drug addict might be thankful that he found some money to pay for his next fix. A thief may be thankful she did not get caught when she took some merchandise from a store. A worker may be thankful for a bonus received at Christmas from a boss he despises. A child might be thankful for the gift given at Christmas by a little known distant relative or grandmother.Sadly, there are times that we feel gratitude towards those to whom at the same time we may have a habitual bad feeling against them or perhaps have an indifferent to them as a person.
This gratitude is a mere natural thing, common to everyone. This common gratitude is spoken of by Jesus in both Luke 6:32-34 and Matthew 5:45-48,
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back…For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ”
Our Lord shows us that being human is sufficient to motivate gratitude in mankind, or to affect their hearts with thankfulness to others for kindnesses received. This gratitude is merely natural, and when persons are thankful towards God primarily for benefits received, their thankfulness is only the exercise of a natural gratitude. Natural gratitude has no virtue whatsoever in God’s world and view of things. This kind of gratitude is no more pleasing to God than all other emotions that the natural man has apart from Him.
But there is a gratitude that is peculiar. It differs from and is higher than all gratitude that natural men both experience and express. It is a “peculiar gratitude”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary.”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary. It is a gratitude rooted in something else that comes before it, namely as John Piper suggests, “a delight in the beauty and excellence of God’s character.”
We see a great example of this in Psalm 106:1, "Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!" . Notice that gratitude here is ultimately linked in who and what God is, not in what He gives. It does not say, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He gives good things." Now, there is a sense in which this is very true.Psalm 103:2 tells us to "Bless the Lord.. and forget not His benefits" and James tells us that "every good and perfect gift comes from above"(James 1:17). All good gifts are occasions for the gladness of gratitude. but they are NOT the ultimate focus of our gratitude and joy. Gratitude ascends up the ladder of God's generous gifts until it stops in the goodness of God Himself.
It is easy to be thankful for the gifts and the many benefits we receive from them, but never take God, Himself into the picture.What I am saying is that it is easy for us to be thankful for the pleasure we take in the gifts and graces, but never even take God into the picture at all. When that happens, the pleasure, the joy, and the gratitude is not pleasure, joy, and gratitude in Him and it is dishonoring to Him. When people have affections towards God only or primarily for benefits received, their affection is only the exercise of a natural gratitude.
Suppose you were given a gift for your birthday. You open it and love the gift. Then you go around showing everyone the gift and telling everyone about what it means to you, but never once even look at or speak of the one who gave it. You are totally enthralled with the gift. But what would we say about you? We’d call you an ingrate! That’s because your joy and affection over the gift has no reference toward the goodwill or person of the giver. Jonathan Edwards calls it the gratitude of hypocrites. Their affections towards God are raised from time to time, primarily on this foundation of self-love or a conceit of God's love to them. You cannot show a person is precious to you by simply being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude proves that the giver of gifts is not loved but gratitude for gifts does not prove that the one who bestowed a gift is precious to you.
We are exhorted by Paul to do all things including thanks to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Is God glorified if the essence of our gratitude is rooted in the worth of gift and not the excellency of the giver? Gratitude not rooted in the beauty and worth of God is nothing but brilliantly disguised idolatry.
Thew proper use use of God's gifts and pleasures is that they send our hearts upwards, or better yet, Godward, towards God with the joy of gratitude that finds its highest and firmest ground in the goodness of God Himself, not His gifts. This means that if these gifts are ever taken away, the deepest joy that we had through the gifts will not be taken away because God is still God and He is exceedingly good!
No wonder the Apostle Paul can make statements like this: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9).
Peculiar gratitude rises in cherishing the preciousness of Christ above every gift from God including life itself. It is very difficult to communicate with people a love for God when it is mixed with a lifestyle characterized by love for self and demonstrated with normal gratitude rooted in our own self-interest. “Peculiar” gratitude is not rooted in the perspective that God loves us (though He does) , and then we see that He is lovely, but instead we first see that God is lovely, and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and thus our hearts are first captivated with this view and we are peculiarly thankful.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The saint's affections begin with God; and the love and affection that arises out of God’s love for them and the graces and gifts that He bestows are consequentially, and secondarily only, to the higher love that is grounded in God himself.” Self-love is not excluded from a gracious gratitude; the saints love God for His kindness to them: Psalm. 116:1, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication." We thank Him for every gift that comes from above (1 Timothy 4:3). We forget not his benefits (Psalm 103:2). In everything we give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). But there is something deeper, something more precious, something infinitely more valuable, that lays the foundation for these grateful affections.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, viz., God's own excellence; and hence the affections are disposed to flow out on occasions of God's kindness. The saint, having seen the glory of God, and his heart being overcome by it, and captivated with love to Him on that account, his heart hereby becomes tender and easily affected with kindnesses received.”
In a “peculiar” gratitude men are affected with the attribute of God's goodness and free grace not only as they are concerned in it, or as it affects their interest, but as a part of the glory and beauty of God's nature. That wonderful and unparalleled grace of God, which is manifested in the work of redemption, and shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ, is infinitely glorious in itself, and appears so to the angels; it is a great part of the moral perfection and beauty and wonder and majesty of God's nature. This would be glorious, whether it was exercised towards us or no; and the saint who exercises a gracious thankfulness for it, sees it to be so, and delights in it.
No wonder why Paul can exhort us to “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18-19)
John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with him.” This is why a “peculiar” gratitude is not a duty, it is a delight. Gratitude to God without delight in Him dishonors God. That is why in God’s world, a peculiar gratitude is all that matters. May God give us a heart that delights in Him for who He is. May the gratitude we have this Thanksgiving Week for the gifts He gives us merely be an echo of our delight and happiness in the greatness and excellence of our wonderful, benevolent, and beautiful Giver.
Thanking God for God!
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
THOUGHTS ON BEING COMPLETELY SATISFIED YET INSATIABLY HUNGRY
“In the path of your judgments,O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.My soul yearns for you in the night;my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.For when your judgments are in the earth,the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:8-9
"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.”
Luke 6:21
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Psalm 90:14
"My soul longs and even yearns for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God."
Psalm 84:2
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 your life a war goes on in regards to our appetites. Every one of us have 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.” The heart of man is full of restlessness and longing. 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 leave His spring to taste of other springs and find them lacking.
Is it 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. Or in 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."
Salvation is the awakening of our appetites for God. It is an appetite from God that gives the palette of our souls for Him. “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”, says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:8). Once you have tasted the Lord, nothing less will ever satisfy your longings. It is no wonder, for when we taste of God’s ultimate goodness, anything else would be like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches compared to Filet Mignon!
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!”
One might think that those who are satisfied most with God are the least hungry. When we eat a full meal of steak and our favorite pie until we are full, we say that we want no more because our physical appetite has been satisfied. But not so with the hungry, thirsty, feasting Christians. They turn often from the innocent pleasures of the world to linger more directly in the presence of God through the reading of the revelation of His Word. And there they eat the Bread of Heaven and drink the Living Water by prayer, meditation, and faith. But, paradoxically, it is not so that they are the least hungry saints. The opposite is the case. The strongest, most mature Christians I have ever met are the hungriest for God. They feast upon Him and are satisfied, yet the taste for God continues and ever increases. Their cry to God is an insatiable "More, More, More!" The desire creates the delight and the delight creates a deeper desire which leads to deeper delight and so on and on throughout this earthly journey until glory. Why? Because God is an inexhaustible fountain, an infinite feast, and a glorious Lord.
When you begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God. The very satisfaction creates an even greater longing. “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,” said Bernard of Clairveux.
The more satisfaction you experience from God, while still in this world, the greater your desire for the next. C.S. Lewis describes this wonderfully supernatural, peculiar appetite: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…It was when I was happiest that I longed the most…The sweetest thing in all of my life has been the longing…to find the place where beauty came from.” How wonderful it is for God to awaken in the soul of a person the longing for God above all of His gifts. For, as C. S. Lewis said, "Our best havings are our wantings." In the truest sense, the greatest gift from God is the gift He gives us of stirring an appetite for Him above His gifts!
John Piper gives a great description of a person who feasts upon the Lord Jesus.
“The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ … the more homesick you get for heaven ... the more you want "all the fullness of God" . . . the more you want to be done with sin ... the more you want the Bridegroom to come again ... the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus ... the more you want a great awakening to God's reality in the cities ... the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world ... the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of Truth ... the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed ... the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.”
Oh reader, beloved one of God, if you don't feel strong desires for God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are not satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world that your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great thing. God did not create you for this. He has created you to have an appetite for God and it can be awakened.
My prayer for us all is that God might awaken us to a new hunger for Himself. That He might remove the callouses from the taste buds of our heart, and cause us to drink deeply, and savor the magnificence of Jesus and we will become so satisfied with Him that we will glorify Him like David saying from our hearts and our preferences:
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water…as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God… Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 63:1; 42:1; 73:25)
Satisfied yet insatiably hungry,
Pastor Bill
"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.”
Luke 6:21
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Psalm 90:14
"My soul longs and even yearns for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God."
Psalm 84:2
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 your life a war goes on in regards to our appetites. Every one of us have 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.” The heart of man is full of restlessness and longing. 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 leave His spring to taste of other springs and find them lacking.
Is it 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. Or in 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."
Salvation is the awakening of our appetites for God. It is an appetite from God that gives the palette of our souls for Him. “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”, says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:8). Once you have tasted the Lord, nothing less will ever satisfy your longings. It is no wonder, for when we taste of God’s ultimate goodness, anything else would be like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches compared to Filet Mignon!
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!”
One might think that those who are satisfied most with God are the least hungry. When we eat a full meal of steak and our favorite pie until we are full, we say that we want no more because our physical appetite has been satisfied. But not so with the hungry, thirsty, feasting Christians. They turn often from the innocent pleasures of the world to linger more directly in the presence of God through the reading of the revelation of His Word. And there they eat the Bread of Heaven and drink the Living Water by prayer, meditation, and faith. But, paradoxically, it is not so that they are the least hungry saints. The opposite is the case. The strongest, most mature Christians I have ever met are the hungriest for God. They feast upon Him and are satisfied, yet the taste for God continues and ever increases. Their cry to God is an insatiable "More, More, More!" The desire creates the delight and the delight creates a deeper desire which leads to deeper delight and so on and on throughout this earthly journey until glory. Why? Because God is an inexhaustible fountain, an infinite feast, and a glorious Lord.
When you begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God. The very satisfaction creates an even greater longing. “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,” said Bernard of Clairveux.
The more satisfaction you experience from God, while still in this world, the greater your desire for the next. C.S. Lewis describes this wonderfully supernatural, peculiar appetite: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…It was when I was happiest that I longed the most…The sweetest thing in all of my life has been the longing…to find the place where beauty came from.” How wonderful it is for God to awaken in the soul of a person the longing for God above all of His gifts. For, as C. S. Lewis said, "Our best havings are our wantings." In the truest sense, the greatest gift from God is the gift He gives us of stirring an appetite for Him above His gifts!
John Piper gives a great description of a person who feasts upon the Lord Jesus.
“The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ … the more homesick you get for heaven ... the more you want "all the fullness of God" . . . the more you want to be done with sin ... the more you want the Bridegroom to come again ... the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus ... the more you want a great awakening to God's reality in the cities ... the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world ... the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of Truth ... the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed ... the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.”
Oh reader, beloved one of God, if you don't feel strong desires for God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are not satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world that your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great thing. God did not create you for this. He has created you to have an appetite for God and it can be awakened.
My prayer for us all is that God might awaken us to a new hunger for Himself. That He might remove the callouses from the taste buds of our heart, and cause us to drink deeply, and savor the magnificence of Jesus and we will become so satisfied with Him that we will glorify Him like David saying from our hearts and our preferences:
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water…as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God… Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 63:1; 42:1; 73:25)
Satisfied yet insatiably hungry,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
THOUGHTS ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
The great puritan of the 17th century, John Owen, wrote a seminal book on sanctification titled "The Mortification of Sin in The Life of the Believer". In his twelfth chapter, Owen suggests that the more thoughtful you are about the excellence of who God really is, the more you realize your own distance from Him.
John Owen challenges us to "think greatly of the greatness of God." The apostle Paul encourages us in 2 Timothy 2:7 to "think about these things and the Lord will give you understanding." Oh how much God wants us to think about Him and as we do, He will help us to understand who He is and what He does by His Holy Spirit. We think, He helps. Think about this. This infinite, self existing, holy other, creator and sustainer of the universe, wants us to know Him and has revealed Himself all sorts of wonderful truths about who He is to us His creatures in His Word. I am full of awe and wonder at such condescension and relational love for us.
Oh, how little we really know of God! When I contrast what I know of Him in comparison to who He really is I know just enough to be utterly humbled in the little knowledge and understanding that I really have. The more I learn of Him, the more I am humbled! There is an infinite chasm between my knowledge of God and who God really is! Since I am finite, no matter how much I learn about Him, I have only begun to scratch the surface of knowing Him. Therefore, this lifetime is a movement of vision quest to continue growing ever increasing in the knowledge of Him. Like Paul, "I want to know Him..." (Philippians 3:10)
Owen says, "We speak much of God, can talk of His ways, His works, His counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, none of them reaching His perfections."
The apostle Paul says that we are able to "behold the glory of the Lord...as in a glass or mirror" (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV). What this means is that in the New Covenant , by the sovereign grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are able to "see" the beauty, worth, and excellence of the glory of God but infinitely limited "as in a glass". That is why in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, "we see through a mirror dimly...we know in part" (ESV). Jonathan Edwards speaks of God like an ocean. Well, if God is like an ocean, then my knowledge of Him is like a little tea cup of ocean water. When I was a young man I was such a foolish know it all I when it came to knowing God. Thankfully, as I have grown older, I realize how foolish and childish were my notions of God. Owen says, "all our notions of God are but childish in respect to His infinite perfections...we may love honor, believe, and obey our Father; and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are but childish. We see...but know very little of Him."
Why is it that no matter what we know of God that we know so little of Him? Because it is GOD that we claim to know. Remember Paul praying that we would know the love of God which is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19)? What an amazing paradox, we are called to know what in this life we cannot know and we press into it. No wonder, He is God, we are creatures; He is immortal, we are mortal; He is infinite, we are finite; He is unlimited, we are limited; He is independent, we are dependent; and so on.
Paul says of God in 1 Timothy 6:16, "who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." In this light, a wise Christian can only say that as he considers God and all He is and all that He does, he realizes that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, oh how wonderful it is that at least we are able to know something of this unknowable being.
He has revealed Himself in the light of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; John 1:14,18). Therefore, we can know, see, understand, and speak about His ways and His works because we can see Him in Jesus. He is not a God who is hidden but rather a God that wants to be seen and savored by His creatures. Though we see Him dimly or limited, we see Him in the illuminating light of the Spirit of God, as Owen puts it "In a saving, soul transforming light, and this is what gives us communion with God." With that knowledge, we can love Him, enjoy Him, delight in Him, serve Him, worship Him, believe Him, obey Him, and speak of Him in a soul saving, soul transforming light. Owen concludes that "notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of Him."
J.I. Packer says, "The people who know God think great thoughts about Him." John Owen tells us that the revelation of God and His great love “deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them...What better preparation can there be for our future enjoyment of Christ than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the gospel." May we dedicate ourselves to be ever increasing in the grace and knowledge and contemplation of our Maker, our Redeemer, and our God.
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)
Longing to know Him more and more,
Pastor Bill
John Owen challenges us to "think greatly of the greatness of God." The apostle Paul encourages us in 2 Timothy 2:7 to "think about these things and the Lord will give you understanding." Oh how much God wants us to think about Him and as we do, He will help us to understand who He is and what He does by His Holy Spirit. We think, He helps. Think about this. This infinite, self existing, holy other, creator and sustainer of the universe, wants us to know Him and has revealed Himself all sorts of wonderful truths about who He is to us His creatures in His Word. I am full of awe and wonder at such condescension and relational love for us.
Oh, how little we really know of God! When I contrast what I know of Him in comparison to who He really is I know just enough to be utterly humbled in the little knowledge and understanding that I really have. The more I learn of Him, the more I am humbled! There is an infinite chasm between my knowledge of God and who God really is! Since I am finite, no matter how much I learn about Him, I have only begun to scratch the surface of knowing Him. Therefore, this lifetime is a movement of vision quest to continue growing ever increasing in the knowledge of Him. Like Paul, "I want to know Him..." (Philippians 3:10)
Owen says, "We speak much of God, can talk of His ways, His works, His counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, none of them reaching His perfections."
The apostle Paul says that we are able to "behold the glory of the Lord...as in a glass or mirror" (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV). What this means is that in the New Covenant , by the sovereign grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are able to "see" the beauty, worth, and excellence of the glory of God but infinitely limited "as in a glass". That is why in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, "we see through a mirror dimly...we know in part" (ESV). Jonathan Edwards speaks of God like an ocean. Well, if God is like an ocean, then my knowledge of Him is like a little tea cup of ocean water. When I was a young man I was such a foolish know it all I when it came to knowing God. Thankfully, as I have grown older, I realize how foolish and childish were my notions of God. Owen says, "all our notions of God are but childish in respect to His infinite perfections...we may love honor, believe, and obey our Father; and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are but childish. We see...but know very little of Him."
Why is it that no matter what we know of God that we know so little of Him? Because it is GOD that we claim to know. Remember Paul praying that we would know the love of God which is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19)? What an amazing paradox, we are called to know what in this life we cannot know and we press into it. No wonder, He is God, we are creatures; He is immortal, we are mortal; He is infinite, we are finite; He is unlimited, we are limited; He is independent, we are dependent; and so on.
Paul says of God in 1 Timothy 6:16, "who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." In this light, a wise Christian can only say that as he considers God and all He is and all that He does, he realizes that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, oh how wonderful it is that at least we are able to know something of this unknowable being.
He has revealed Himself in the light of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; John 1:14,18). Therefore, we can know, see, understand, and speak about His ways and His works because we can see Him in Jesus. He is not a God who is hidden but rather a God that wants to be seen and savored by His creatures. Though we see Him dimly or limited, we see Him in the illuminating light of the Spirit of God, as Owen puts it "In a saving, soul transforming light, and this is what gives us communion with God." With that knowledge, we can love Him, enjoy Him, delight in Him, serve Him, worship Him, believe Him, obey Him, and speak of Him in a soul saving, soul transforming light. Owen concludes that "notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of Him."
J.I. Packer says, "The people who know God think great thoughts about Him." John Owen tells us that the revelation of God and His great love “deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them...What better preparation can there be for our future enjoyment of Christ than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the gospel." May we dedicate ourselves to be ever increasing in the grace and knowledge and contemplation of our Maker, our Redeemer, and our God.
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)
Longing to know Him more and more,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
THOUGHTS FROM A NIGHT UNDER THE STARS
"...it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be MAGNIFIED in my body, whether by life or by death." Philippians 1:21 NKJV
I have a regular habit in my life to go outside on a clear night, lay down on my driveway, and look up at the stars. Stargazing causes me to dream, long, pray, worship, and wonder at their grandeur, beauty and the infinite glory of my creator's brilliant design. As I observe the vast blanket in the night sky riddled with pinprick little lights I wonder,"what do these stars really look like?" My limited knowledge in astronomy reminds me that there is vastly more to these little bright dots then meets my naked eye. So, occasionally I will bring out my high powered binoculars to get a better glimpse of what is really there. Someday, I would love to have a telescope to catch even a greater glimpse.
Recently, while gazing from my driveway at the night sky, my mind wandered to an amazing statement by the apostle Paul. When the apostle Paul thought of his time here on earth as he wrote to his beloved friends in Philippi, he wrote one of his most inspiring purpose statements, "now as always, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death."
King David was a like minded, God entranced, God besotted, God loving man who echoed a very similar phrase: "I will magnify God with thanksgiving."(Psalm 69:30). Another time he sang in Psalm 34:3, "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together," This was the heart cry of every Old Testament saint. Mary said in Luke 1:46, "My soul magnifies the Lord." And now it is the longing of every true Christian.
In Philippians 1:20 Paul applies this thought to his own experience, desiring that Christ will be magnified in his body whether by his life or his death. Paul wanted to magnify Christ in the way he lived, in the way he died, and he wanted to show it now and always in his body!
The word "magnify" can be used in two different senses. It can mean: make something appear greater than it is, as with a microscope or a magnifying glass. When I was a kid I used to love to take tiny spiders and put them under the microscope and see their frightening heads magnified. It would scare the daylights out of me. I am glad that spiders are so tiny.
Or it can mean, make something that may seem small or insignificant appear to be as great as it really is. This is what our great telescopes help us begin to do with the magnificent universe that once upon a time spilled over from the brim of God's glory. Look out at the those pinprick lights with a telescope and you begin seeing an amazing world that is vastly more glorious than what you see with the naked eye: nebula's, red giant stars, white dwarf stars, binary star systems, comets, distant and vast spiral galaxies, novas and supernovas and all are glorious to be seen.
So there are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.
So when Paul Paul does not mean: "I will make a small God look bigger than He is. He means: "I will make a big God begin to look as big as He really is." We are not called to be microscopes, but telescopes. Christians are not called to be con men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality when they know the competitor's product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think and act in a way that will make God look as great as He really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.
We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?” Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world does not see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, and especially through how we handle trials, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is.
Let us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives. In view of Paul’s circumstances, it is remarkable that his main focus was not on getting released from prison, but rather on magnifying Christ. How can I magnify Christ in this situation, this relationship, this trial? If this world is going to see Christ, they will see Him in our lives. He will be revealed through our bodies. Paul desires that Christ “be magnified in my body” Our hands must be His hands, our eyes His eyes, our mouth His mouth our feet His feet. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “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”. In this life Christ must be exalted and magnified in the bodies of those who believe in Him, or He will not be magnified at all. The reason for this is that God dwells only within His children. And if He is to be seen at all in this life, He must be seen in the lives of those who know Him.
Isn't this wonderful? Does this excite you like it does me?
Paul's passion was that his tongue will speak warmly of his Savior. He will exalt his name in testimony, in prayer, and in preaching. His knees will bend before the great, high and holy Lord. His hands will be zealous in serving the cause of such a Friend. His feet will run messages for the Lord. His eyes will see His glories everywhere and His likeness in all his people. His ears will hear his word and in His heart there will be a melody of praise to Him. Always in his body he will exalt the Messiah.
Oh dear reader, you were made for this and you were redeemed for this. This is your purpose ordained by God for His glory and your soul’s satisfaction and delight! There will always be a serious or mild sickness in your soul until you embrace this calling. So be encouraged, be focused, Let Christ be Magnified Through You! “Now! Always!" says Paul. So let us Magnify Christ now and always no matter what.
Pastor Bill
I have a regular habit in my life to go outside on a clear night, lay down on my driveway, and look up at the stars. Stargazing causes me to dream, long, pray, worship, and wonder at their grandeur, beauty and the infinite glory of my creator's brilliant design. As I observe the vast blanket in the night sky riddled with pinprick little lights I wonder,"what do these stars really look like?" My limited knowledge in astronomy reminds me that there is vastly more to these little bright dots then meets my naked eye. So, occasionally I will bring out my high powered binoculars to get a better glimpse of what is really there. Someday, I would love to have a telescope to catch even a greater glimpse.
Recently, while gazing from my driveway at the night sky, my mind wandered to an amazing statement by the apostle Paul. When the apostle Paul thought of his time here on earth as he wrote to his beloved friends in Philippi, he wrote one of his most inspiring purpose statements, "now as always, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death."
King David was a like minded, God entranced, God besotted, God loving man who echoed a very similar phrase: "I will magnify God with thanksgiving."(Psalm 69:30). Another time he sang in Psalm 34:3, "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together," This was the heart cry of every Old Testament saint. Mary said in Luke 1:46, "My soul magnifies the Lord." And now it is the longing of every true Christian.
In Philippians 1:20 Paul applies this thought to his own experience, desiring that Christ will be magnified in his body whether by his life or his death. Paul wanted to magnify Christ in the way he lived, in the way he died, and he wanted to show it now and always in his body!
The word "magnify" can be used in two different senses. It can mean: make something appear greater than it is, as with a microscope or a magnifying glass. When I was a kid I used to love to take tiny spiders and put them under the microscope and see their frightening heads magnified. It would scare the daylights out of me. I am glad that spiders are so tiny.
Or it can mean, make something that may seem small or insignificant appear to be as great as it really is. This is what our great telescopes help us begin to do with the magnificent universe that once upon a time spilled over from the brim of God's glory. Look out at the those pinprick lights with a telescope and you begin seeing an amazing world that is vastly more glorious than what you see with the naked eye: nebula's, red giant stars, white dwarf stars, binary star systems, comets, distant and vast spiral galaxies, novas and supernovas and all are glorious to be seen.
So there are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.
So when Paul Paul does not mean: "I will make a small God look bigger than He is. He means: "I will make a big God begin to look as big as He really is." We are not called to be microscopes, but telescopes. Christians are not called to be con men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality when they know the competitor's product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think and act in a way that will make God look as great as He really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.
We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?” Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world does not see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, and especially through how we handle trials, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is.
Let us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives. In view of Paul’s circumstances, it is remarkable that his main focus was not on getting released from prison, but rather on magnifying Christ. How can I magnify Christ in this situation, this relationship, this trial? If this world is going to see Christ, they will see Him in our lives. He will be revealed through our bodies. Paul desires that Christ “be magnified in my body” Our hands must be His hands, our eyes His eyes, our mouth His mouth our feet His feet. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “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”. In this life Christ must be exalted and magnified in the bodies of those who believe in Him, or He will not be magnified at all. The reason for this is that God dwells only within His children. And if He is to be seen at all in this life, He must be seen in the lives of those who know Him.
Isn't this wonderful? Does this excite you like it does me?
Paul's passion was that his tongue will speak warmly of his Savior. He will exalt his name in testimony, in prayer, and in preaching. His knees will bend before the great, high and holy Lord. His hands will be zealous in serving the cause of such a Friend. His feet will run messages for the Lord. His eyes will see His glories everywhere and His likeness in all his people. His ears will hear his word and in His heart there will be a melody of praise to Him. Always in his body he will exalt the Messiah.
Oh dear reader, you were made for this and you were redeemed for this. This is your purpose ordained by God for His glory and your soul’s satisfaction and delight! There will always be a serious or mild sickness in your soul until you embrace this calling. So be encouraged, be focused, Let Christ be Magnified Through You! “Now! Always!" says Paul. So let us Magnify Christ now and always no matter what.
Pastor Bill
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)