Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9 ESV
There are millions of voices in the world telling us what is really important in life. What matters is not what the world determines is important, nor social scientists, philosophers, cultural watchdogs, behavioral scientists, Oprah Winfrey, nor even popular church culture (just go on line and read mission statements of some churches and you’ll see what I mean!). For that matter, it doesn’t matter what we feel or think is important.
The creator and sovereign Lord of the universe alone declares the true measure of what really is important. There is nothing more important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who He really is and savoring Him above all else. For this is the very reason for our existence –the capacity to know and love and enjoy the glory of God. And if we lose the true knowledge of God and lose the love of God and the joy of God-then we will lose the ability to reflect His truth and beauty in the world. And the world loses God. We need is a true vision of the greatness of God: A God-immersed life birthed out of a God-entranced vision of reality. Therefore seeing Jesus is something we should desire with all our hearts. This is an experience of great love, faith, and joy because in it we taste the very reality of God and his love.
The Apostle Peter gives us a threefold description of God entranced Christianity. He encourages Christians that what they were experiencing was the result of their seeing and savoring God; challenging other Christians who had drifted away; and awakening those who have never seen Jesus to eternal realities.
A God entranced Christian is loving Christ and trusting Christ and enjoying Christ.
1. Loving Christ "Though you have not seen him, you love him..."
Loving Christ means seeing and experiencing Christ as precious for all his character and virtue and as a result being compelled in mind, heart, and soul to cherish Him, treasure Him, and feel toward Him as the supreme object of your affections. Augustine put it this way:
“I call love to God the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake.”
2. Trusting Christ "Though you do not now see him, you believe in him "
Trusting Christ means seeing and experiencing Christ as reliable in all his promises and all his counsel. In other words: Love is attracted to the Beloved for who he is. Faith is confident in the Trusted for what he will do.
3. Enjoying Christ "Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory"
Joy in Christ is the deep good feelings that come in loving him and believing him. It's the echo in our emotions -- our hearts -- of experiencing Christ as precious and experiencing Christ as reliable. It's the deep good feelings of being attracted to him for who he is and the deep good feelings of being confident in him for what he will do.
Peter calls joy inexpressible. What give joy its character as inexpressible is the source of the joy. Christian joy is the joy of craving the preciousness of Jesus and the reliability of Jesus. You become like what you crave. Christians crave Christ. Therefore they become like Christ. Christ's preciousness and reliability are inexpressibly great, and so our joy is inexpressible in him. A soul that craves and delights in Christ is a great soul, a noble soul, a soul that has risen to highest of what its precious maker designed as creator and saved as redeemer to be! Why? Because “The worth and excellence of a soul is measured by the object of its love.” Henry Scougal
How do we come to crave the preciousness of Christ and trust the reliability of Christ if we can't see him? “Though you don’t see Him you love Him”
It is not based on a physical seeing of Christ. There is a kind of seeing that is not seeing of t he physical eyes. Paul prays for us to have it in Ephesians 1:18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” or David prays it in Psalm 119:18, Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law." Paul speaks of the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ that we “see” when God overcomes the blinding effects of Satan and our own hardness of heart in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Peter says, though you do not see Him, you love Him. Yet Paul says that we walk by faith not by sight in 2 Cor. 5:7. He means physical sight not spiritual sight. It is not a blind leap of faith or credulitous. It’s a peculiar kind of seeing. In the preaching or reading of the gospel Christ can be seen in a way that is more important than seeing him physically. No wonder Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away (John 16:7). Hundreds of people in Jesus' life time saw him physically and never really saw him. When the gospel of Christ is preached or read we can see Christ more clearly for who he really is than many could see in his own lifetime.
If you read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with openness to Christ, you can see the true glory of Christ far more clearly than most of the people who knew him on earth could see him. The Spirit of God thorough the word of God grants us the sight of the self-authenticating glory of Christ. And because you see him with the eyes of the heart you love him and trust him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. This is true Christianity-the God entranced life.
We must realize that the experience of the Christians Peter was describing is not like hypnosis or electric shock or drug-induced hallucinations or shivers at a good tune or mysticism. Rather it is mediated through knowledge of the word. Or to say it another way, this experience of the love of God is the work of the Spirit giving unspeakable joy in response to the mind's perception of the Christ as precious for all his character and virtue found in the word. Christ is the focus and content of the mind in this inexpressible joy. In fact, 1 Peter 1:6 says that the joy itself is "in" the truth that Peter is telling us about the work of Christ. It says, "In this you greatly rejoice." And what is "this"? It is the truth that...
1) in "His great mercy [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead;" and
2) we will "obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away;" and
3), we "are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5).
In this we "greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." We know something and in knowing see something and as a result we feel love, faith, and joy! This is a mind in love with God!
So let’s review how we see:
Mind-corresponds to the understanding of the truth of Christ’s exceeding worth and glory. Love-corresponds to the delight in the worth of the beauty of those perfections. God is glorified in being understood and delighted in. You cannot divorce delight from understanding nor can you divorce understanding from delight. Either way you will have problems: Cold dead intellectualism or emotional, empty enthusiasm divorced from truth. I’ve seen both in my Christian journey. There is truth in Christ to be seen and known and there is beauty to be cherished.
Jonathan Edwards describes it this way:
The glory of God is not merely seeing or perceiving His perfections; for we may perceive the power and wisdom of God, and yet take no delight in it. The glory of God consists in his creatures admiring, rejoicing, and exalting in the manifestations of his beauty and excellence…The essence of glorifying God consists in rejoicing in God’s manifestations of his beauty.”
The greatest moments in our lives do not come when we think about ourselves or this world, but when God liberates us from the bondage of self so that we can we forget about ourselves and enjoy knowing and admiring the greatness, power, love, wisdom, and beauty forever! Truth stirring our affections in such a way that we feel love and inexpressible joy in Him!
Oh for a mind in love with God! A God-centered, Christ-exalting life. John Piper says, “The wasted life is a life without passion.” Nothing makes God more supreme and central than when people are persuaded that nothing will satisfy their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God. This conviction will breed a people who will go hard after seeing and savoring Christ. “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.” Jonathan Edwards
Longing to see and savor Jesus,
Pastor Bill
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
HOLY WEEK MEDITATION: THE TEARS OF JESUS
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Luke 19:41-44 ESV
I have become quite skilled at weeping this past year. I can probably say that in the past year, not one day goes by where I do not weep over the losses of people and things that hold dear to me. It is a lonely place, the place of tears. Sometimes i have had to run into the bathroom at the gym because of the sudden eruption of tears as I lift weights. I have been out surfing and had to paddle away from the guys because all the sudden tears will erupt. Almost every week at my Tuesday study I find myself weeping during worship. As a man, I try to keep my tears private and in my moments alone because it isn't considered manly to cry. But what do you do manly or not when the tears come? I have been very encouraged that there is one I can come to in my lonely, broken hearted, sad tears, Jesus, the savior who wept.
If you read the story of Palm Sunday, it was a great day in Jerusalem. People are believing that the messiah has come in Jesus and are waving Palms as Jesus passes them by on a donkey and shouting out joyous praise while quoting the Messianic Psalm 118. It is the greatest moment in their lives. But during this time something very strange happens. Luke is the only writer who tells us about it. At the height of the celebration Jesus begins to weep. When Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem, He began to weep.
On three separate occasions, scripture speaks of Jesus weeping. The first we find in John's gospel. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is also the most poignant. Those words are like a window pointing to the nature and glory of Jesus. It cuts the heart out of any view of God that places Him in some distant universe looking down dispassionately on His creation. Jesus wept. Maybe that surprises us, or frightens us, or threatens us, or embarrasses us. It is all too easy for me to think of Jesus always as unemotional and always serene facing danger and crises without even flinching. But Jesus wept. Never has so much been said so succinctly. Here is the love, mercy, passion, compassion, grief, and anger of Jesus chiseled down into two words: Jesus wept.
The second occasion of Jesus weeping is found in Hebrews 5:7,”During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
The third occasion is in Luke 19:41, where we have what is commonly called “Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem ” or Palm Sunday. Luke tells us that as Jesus entered the city to the tumultuous welcome of the people, His own spirit was not festive. When He saw the Holy City, He wept over it. We must never forget this. The Greek word for "wept" is poignant with meaning. It comes from the Greek word, "klaio”, which means to sob, to wail aloud." This is much more than just a few tears; it was loud and deep sorrow. The sorrow of mourners after someone died in Hebrew culture. Imagine the Lord of the universe wailing over Jerusalem!
Why was Jesus crying? What pain was in our Lord’s heart? With all this joy, praise, emotion, and enthusiasm about Him from the people, why is Jesus weeping? This does not make sense! This is His coronation as King. This is His moment of glory. Jesus was weeping, not for himself, but for the city that was about to reject him. Jesus saw beyond the cheering crowd to the mob that would soon crucify him. they did not get it. They were right about Him and oh so wrong. Their elation will turn to deep disappointment and Jesus is brokenhearted. Jesus knew on Palm Sunday that Good Friday was only five days away. And through the dim mists of history, he saw into the future, to the time when the Roman army would sack Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and destroy the city stone by stone, killing men, women and children by the thousands. Because the nation would reject its Messiah, such awful judgment would soon fall. Why? God’s Son had come and they did not recognize him. “He came unto His own, but His own received Him not.” (John 1:11). . These are his words: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:42-44)
Oh what a revelation of the tender heart heart of Jesus! Jesus really feels the sorrow at what He sees. This does not mean his sovereign plan has wrecked because of man. It means that Jesus is much more emotionally complex than we think he is. Jesus is the Lamb and the Lion; He is the Savior and the judge; He is full of mercy, love, and grace and full of wrath; He is kind and severe. Jonathan Edwards said, "He is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies."
Oh how I savor the beauty of Jesus tough in proclaiming a coming judgement on the holy city, but oh so tender in feeling and weeping over what is to come. Don't you just treasure this Jesus? Jesus is well acquainted with tears. Isaiah 53:3-4, tells us "He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."
Jesus has borne and carried upon Himself all your sorrows, grief, and tears. He knows, understands, and weeps with you as you cry. Jesus can be in control of your life, yet weep over your griefs, pain, and loss. The Psalmist says, "You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book?"(Psalm 56:3)
I pray this passion week that God would give you tears and that you would be free to give Him your tears. There is so much pain in the world this Passion Week. So much suffering far from you and so much suffering near you. And maybe this week there is much sorrow within you. Pray that God would catch your tears and help you be tenderly moved like Jesus. pray that your tears would be rooted deep in what John Newton calls "Habitual tenderness of spirit".
Today our sovereign Christ is a sympathetic High Priest who knows our grief. Jesus weeps! He wept over a friend who died and he weeps over a nation who wanted its own way and died as well. He also called both out of their tombs. Lazarus came forth and lived. Jerusalem did not and was destroyed.
Do we weep? Is there anything about Jesus that will touch your heart and teach you to love Him and others? He is God, who became a man, a real, vulnerable, touchable, man. Entering into all the grief and suffering you know including tears.
Oh how we need his heart and his care. Oh how we need for the Spirit of Jesus to melt our selfish, cold, and indifferent with the fire of His true love. That we might weep with him for the lost, the poor, the suffering, the broken, the hardened, and the blind. Jesus felt enough compassion for Jerusalem to weep. If you haven’t shed any tears for somebody’s losses but your own, it probably means you’re pretty wrapped up in yourself. Jesus tears cause me to repent of my own hardness and callousness to human suffering, pain, grief, and loss and to ask God to give me a heart that is tenderly moved like my savior.
Weeping with tears of sorrow and gratitude and longing to weep for others and with others this passion week,
Pastor Bill
I have become quite skilled at weeping this past year. I can probably say that in the past year, not one day goes by where I do not weep over the losses of people and things that hold dear to me. It is a lonely place, the place of tears. Sometimes i have had to run into the bathroom at the gym because of the sudden eruption of tears as I lift weights. I have been out surfing and had to paddle away from the guys because all the sudden tears will erupt. Almost every week at my Tuesday study I find myself weeping during worship. As a man, I try to keep my tears private and in my moments alone because it isn't considered manly to cry. But what do you do manly or not when the tears come? I have been very encouraged that there is one I can come to in my lonely, broken hearted, sad tears, Jesus, the savior who wept.
If you read the story of Palm Sunday, it was a great day in Jerusalem. People are believing that the messiah has come in Jesus and are waving Palms as Jesus passes them by on a donkey and shouting out joyous praise while quoting the Messianic Psalm 118. It is the greatest moment in their lives. But during this time something very strange happens. Luke is the only writer who tells us about it. At the height of the celebration Jesus begins to weep. When Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem, He began to weep.
On three separate occasions, scripture speaks of Jesus weeping. The first we find in John's gospel. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is also the most poignant. Those words are like a window pointing to the nature and glory of Jesus. It cuts the heart out of any view of God that places Him in some distant universe looking down dispassionately on His creation. Jesus wept. Maybe that surprises us, or frightens us, or threatens us, or embarrasses us. It is all too easy for me to think of Jesus always as unemotional and always serene facing danger and crises without even flinching. But Jesus wept. Never has so much been said so succinctly. Here is the love, mercy, passion, compassion, grief, and anger of Jesus chiseled down into two words: Jesus wept.
The second occasion of Jesus weeping is found in Hebrews 5:7,”During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
The third occasion is in Luke 19:41, where we have what is commonly called “Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem ” or Palm Sunday. Luke tells us that as Jesus entered the city to the tumultuous welcome of the people, His own spirit was not festive. When He saw the Holy City, He wept over it. We must never forget this. The Greek word for "wept" is poignant with meaning. It comes from the Greek word, "klaio”, which means to sob, to wail aloud." This is much more than just a few tears; it was loud and deep sorrow. The sorrow of mourners after someone died in Hebrew culture. Imagine the Lord of the universe wailing over Jerusalem!
Why was Jesus crying? What pain was in our Lord’s heart? With all this joy, praise, emotion, and enthusiasm about Him from the people, why is Jesus weeping? This does not make sense! This is His coronation as King. This is His moment of glory. Jesus was weeping, not for himself, but for the city that was about to reject him. Jesus saw beyond the cheering crowd to the mob that would soon crucify him. they did not get it. They were right about Him and oh so wrong. Their elation will turn to deep disappointment and Jesus is brokenhearted. Jesus knew on Palm Sunday that Good Friday was only five days away. And through the dim mists of history, he saw into the future, to the time when the Roman army would sack Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and destroy the city stone by stone, killing men, women and children by the thousands. Because the nation would reject its Messiah, such awful judgment would soon fall. Why? God’s Son had come and they did not recognize him. “He came unto His own, but His own received Him not.” (John 1:11). . These are his words: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:42-44)
Oh what a revelation of the tender heart heart of Jesus! Jesus really feels the sorrow at what He sees. This does not mean his sovereign plan has wrecked because of man. It means that Jesus is much more emotionally complex than we think he is. Jesus is the Lamb and the Lion; He is the Savior and the judge; He is full of mercy, love, and grace and full of wrath; He is kind and severe. Jonathan Edwards said, "He is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies."
Oh how I savor the beauty of Jesus tough in proclaiming a coming judgement on the holy city, but oh so tender in feeling and weeping over what is to come. Don't you just treasure this Jesus? Jesus is well acquainted with tears. Isaiah 53:3-4, tells us "He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."
Jesus has borne and carried upon Himself all your sorrows, grief, and tears. He knows, understands, and weeps with you as you cry. Jesus can be in control of your life, yet weep over your griefs, pain, and loss. The Psalmist says, "You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book?"(Psalm 56:3)
I pray this passion week that God would give you tears and that you would be free to give Him your tears. There is so much pain in the world this Passion Week. So much suffering far from you and so much suffering near you. And maybe this week there is much sorrow within you. Pray that God would catch your tears and help you be tenderly moved like Jesus. pray that your tears would be rooted deep in what John Newton calls "Habitual tenderness of spirit".
Today our sovereign Christ is a sympathetic High Priest who knows our grief. Jesus weeps! He wept over a friend who died and he weeps over a nation who wanted its own way and died as well. He also called both out of their tombs. Lazarus came forth and lived. Jerusalem did not and was destroyed.
Do we weep? Is there anything about Jesus that will touch your heart and teach you to love Him and others? He is God, who became a man, a real, vulnerable, touchable, man. Entering into all the grief and suffering you know including tears.
Oh how we need his heart and his care. Oh how we need for the Spirit of Jesus to melt our selfish, cold, and indifferent with the fire of His true love. That we might weep with him for the lost, the poor, the suffering, the broken, the hardened, and the blind. Jesus felt enough compassion for Jerusalem to weep. If you haven’t shed any tears for somebody’s losses but your own, it probably means you’re pretty wrapped up in yourself. Jesus tears cause me to repent of my own hardness and callousness to human suffering, pain, grief, and loss and to ask God to give me a heart that is tenderly moved like my savior.
Weeping with tears of sorrow and gratitude and longing to weep for others and with others this passion week,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
JESUS KNOWS YOU
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see” [there’s the same pair from verse 39 that Jesus had said to them]. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you” John 1: 45-48 Do you ever feel alone in your circumstances and in how you are feeling in your circumstances?
Do you ever feel that nobody understands what you are going through? Do you ever open up to others and then find yourself felling more alone and misunderstood after sharing? Do you ever feel that there is no help or relief to what is happening to you or what you are feeling inside? I find great comfort and hope that Jesus knows me. I will say that again, JESUS KNOWS ME.
In John's narrative about Jesus encounter with Nataniel we learn that Jesus knows two kinds of things about Nathaniel and everyone. He knows what’s going on inside, and He knows what’s going on outside (Your circumstances that are going on around you). The first thing Jesus says as He meets Nathaniel is, “You are a man without deceit.” That’s the truth about His knowledge about what goes on inside of us. And the second thing Jesus said was, “While you were out of my sight I saw you. You were under a fig tree when Philip found you.” That’s the truth about the outside. Nathaniel is astonished and says in verse 49, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
So Jesus wonderfully knows our condition inside and out. If you are alone and no one knows what is happening to you or inside of you mentally or emotionally and you are in big trouble, Jesus knows it. You will never, ever be in a situation where Jesus is not fully aware of what’s going on in your life and inside of you. I do not care how dark it is, how dangerous it is. He knows! Do you believe that?
Do you feel this precious truth? It is the key to being able to rise above despair, hopelessness, fear, discouragement, loneliness, emptiness, worry, and anxiety. What I have found in life is that there are two key things in what I deal with when it comes to trouble. First, what happens to me. Second, what happens in me in response to my trouble. Frankly, outward trouble is not the worst kind of trouble. It is my response inside to my trouble that can either destroy me or transform me.
So believing this truth tied to two other truths about Jesus is critical for my life and ability to persevere and handle what comes my way. First, Jesus loves you more than you have ever loved anything. Secondly, Jesus is stronger than any force in the world. Therefore, the the fact that He knows your circumstances and He loves you and that He is strong combine to give you amazing peace, rest, and energy in those situations where things have gone very badly. Jesus loves you. Jesus is very strong, and there is nothing about my circumstances that Jesus doesn’t understand.
This is especially sweet if you know that Jesus knows what is going on inside of you. When Philip said to Nathaniel in verse 45 that Jesus was from Nazareth, Nathaniel answered bluntly from his heart (in verse 46), “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus says in verse 47, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Why did Jesus say this to a guy who just said “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I think Jesus is saying, Now here is someone who tells it like it is. What you see is what you get. He’s not two-faced. He doesn’t like Nazareth (He is a prejudiced bigot); that is definitely not good. (Jesus isn’t saying that Nathaniel is sinlessness.) But at least he’s honest about what he feels. Nathaniel is real and authentic. Jesus knew this about Nathaniel’s heart, his particular inner life, before He ever met him.
Jesus understands You! Isn't it wonderful that Jesus knows your inner condition. He knows it better than any of you know it. Better than I know it. In the midst of my divorce and my losses the fact is nobody has ever been me in these circumstances. Everyone has suffered loss, experienced grief and severe trials, for sure. But nobody has ever brought my weaknesses and my sins and my experience to this moment of sorrow or anger or desire and not only has nobody been me in this experience, but nobody can be me, nobody can know this, and when I think of that, it frightens me how alone I am in this particular sorrow or anger or desire. The circumstances may be common to us all, but my experience of them is utterly unique. Nobody has ever been in my skin bringing my personality, my temperament, my sins, my weaknesses, my life and inner history, my emotional makeup at this moment of my own personal sorrow.
This can be a make it or break it moment;I can tell you by my own experience. These are the moments that either sink us into fear, anxiety, inconsolable grief, loneliness, hopelessness, worry, and into deep despair; or moments that cause us to think about Jesus and His knowledge of us, His love for us, and His power towards us, and find comfort, faith, hope, courage, companionship, and love.
In those make it or breakmit moments, I can say to myself, "No, I am not alone in this experience". I hear Jesus say to me “I know it. I know it better than you know it. I’m here. I am with you. I love you. I am for you. I can help you. I will help you. I am in you". When I truly believe this, I find this a huge relief! Jesus knows my heart and my mind and my body and everything about me and in my utterly unique sorrow, that nobody else can share, Jesus totally, fully, completely understands it, loves me in it, and can and will help me in it. Jesus knows all your burdens, all your pain, all your sorrow, all your feelings, all your weakness, all your struggles to not cave in in unbelief and when you have caved in to hopelessness, fear, worry, and despair, unbelief. Her knows all of your failings inside in response to your troubles, and it is wonderful. Why? Because Jesus knows you dear reader! Jesus knows you. Jesus understands you. Jesus knows what is happening to you. Jesus loves you. Jesus can help you, Jesus will help you, and Jesus wants to help you.
Look up to Him and do not fear no matter what is happening to you and no matter how unspiritual or poorly you are responding to what is happening or has happened in your life. JESUS KNOWS YOU, JESUS LOVES YOU, JESUS WILL HELP YOU.
Pastor Bill
Do you ever feel that nobody understands what you are going through? Do you ever open up to others and then find yourself felling more alone and misunderstood after sharing? Do you ever feel that there is no help or relief to what is happening to you or what you are feeling inside? I find great comfort and hope that Jesus knows me. I will say that again, JESUS KNOWS ME.
In John's narrative about Jesus encounter with Nataniel we learn that Jesus knows two kinds of things about Nathaniel and everyone. He knows what’s going on inside, and He knows what’s going on outside (Your circumstances that are going on around you). The first thing Jesus says as He meets Nathaniel is, “You are a man without deceit.” That’s the truth about His knowledge about what goes on inside of us. And the second thing Jesus said was, “While you were out of my sight I saw you. You were under a fig tree when Philip found you.” That’s the truth about the outside. Nathaniel is astonished and says in verse 49, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
So Jesus wonderfully knows our condition inside and out. If you are alone and no one knows what is happening to you or inside of you mentally or emotionally and you are in big trouble, Jesus knows it. You will never, ever be in a situation where Jesus is not fully aware of what’s going on in your life and inside of you. I do not care how dark it is, how dangerous it is. He knows! Do you believe that?
Do you feel this precious truth? It is the key to being able to rise above despair, hopelessness, fear, discouragement, loneliness, emptiness, worry, and anxiety. What I have found in life is that there are two key things in what I deal with when it comes to trouble. First, what happens to me. Second, what happens in me in response to my trouble. Frankly, outward trouble is not the worst kind of trouble. It is my response inside to my trouble that can either destroy me or transform me.
So believing this truth tied to two other truths about Jesus is critical for my life and ability to persevere and handle what comes my way. First, Jesus loves you more than you have ever loved anything. Secondly, Jesus is stronger than any force in the world. Therefore, the the fact that He knows your circumstances and He loves you and that He is strong combine to give you amazing peace, rest, and energy in those situations where things have gone very badly. Jesus loves you. Jesus is very strong, and there is nothing about my circumstances that Jesus doesn’t understand.
This is especially sweet if you know that Jesus knows what is going on inside of you. When Philip said to Nathaniel in verse 45 that Jesus was from Nazareth, Nathaniel answered bluntly from his heart (in verse 46), “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus says in verse 47, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Why did Jesus say this to a guy who just said “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I think Jesus is saying, Now here is someone who tells it like it is. What you see is what you get. He’s not two-faced. He doesn’t like Nazareth (He is a prejudiced bigot); that is definitely not good. (Jesus isn’t saying that Nathaniel is sinlessness.) But at least he’s honest about what he feels. Nathaniel is real and authentic. Jesus knew this about Nathaniel’s heart, his particular inner life, before He ever met him.
Jesus understands You! Isn't it wonderful that Jesus knows your inner condition. He knows it better than any of you know it. Better than I know it. In the midst of my divorce and my losses the fact is nobody has ever been me in these circumstances. Everyone has suffered loss, experienced grief and severe trials, for sure. But nobody has ever brought my weaknesses and my sins and my experience to this moment of sorrow or anger or desire and not only has nobody been me in this experience, but nobody can be me, nobody can know this, and when I think of that, it frightens me how alone I am in this particular sorrow or anger or desire. The circumstances may be common to us all, but my experience of them is utterly unique. Nobody has ever been in my skin bringing my personality, my temperament, my sins, my weaknesses, my life and inner history, my emotional makeup at this moment of my own personal sorrow.
This can be a make it or break it moment;I can tell you by my own experience. These are the moments that either sink us into fear, anxiety, inconsolable grief, loneliness, hopelessness, worry, and into deep despair; or moments that cause us to think about Jesus and His knowledge of us, His love for us, and His power towards us, and find comfort, faith, hope, courage, companionship, and love.
In those make it or breakmit moments, I can say to myself, "No, I am not alone in this experience". I hear Jesus say to me “I know it. I know it better than you know it. I’m here. I am with you. I love you. I am for you. I can help you. I will help you. I am in you". When I truly believe this, I find this a huge relief! Jesus knows my heart and my mind and my body and everything about me and in my utterly unique sorrow, that nobody else can share, Jesus totally, fully, completely understands it, loves me in it, and can and will help me in it. Jesus knows all your burdens, all your pain, all your sorrow, all your feelings, all your weakness, all your struggles to not cave in in unbelief and when you have caved in to hopelessness, fear, worry, and despair, unbelief. Her knows all of your failings inside in response to your troubles, and it is wonderful. Why? Because Jesus knows you dear reader! Jesus knows you. Jesus understands you. Jesus knows what is happening to you. Jesus loves you. Jesus can help you, Jesus will help you, and Jesus wants to help you.
Look up to Him and do not fear no matter what is happening to you and no matter how unspiritual or poorly you are responding to what is happening or has happened in your life. JESUS KNOWS YOU, JESUS LOVES YOU, JESUS WILL HELP YOU.
Pastor Bill
Monday, April 4, 2011
THE "NOWNESS" OF GRACE
Have you ever been lost in the middle of your own faith? What I mean is those times when it is difficult to connect the beauty of what you believe to the rough and often difficult realities of your daily life. I read an article some time ago and it blessed me this morning as I read it again.
So, I have taken some of it's highlights and put it in my blog this week. I have an impeccable theology and can well articulate what it means to say that I have been "saved by grace" (Ephesians 2:8-9) and by faith I know that I am going to spend eternity with Jesus. My problem often times is in the here and now. Day after day, in situation after situation, and relationship after relationship, I don't always carry with me a vibrant and practical sense of the nowism of the grace of Jesus Christ. Yes, I believe in life after death, but I desperately need to understand life before death; the kind of radical life I will live when I understand what Jesus Christ has given me for the life he has called for me today, right here, right now (John 10:10).
I am trying to understand and hold onto the nowism of grace. This means at least four things to me at the moment:
1.God's grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you've never had. Grace will expose your sin, but it will not leave you without identity. Grace has liberated me, but I want to know it and live like it. I have not only been forgiven and empowered, but I have been given a brand new identity. I cannot look inward for his identity. I cannot measure my potential by my track record or the size of the problems I face. My potential is as great as the grace of Christ. I want to be freed from looking outward for my identity. I want no longer to have to search for identity in my relationships, possessions or achievements. I want to be freed from looking horizontally for what he had already been given vertically. Paul reminds me, " if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come"(2 Corinthians 5:17).
My sense of self is no longer rooted in what I can earn or achieve, but in what I have already been given in Christ (2 Peter 1:3-4).
2. God's grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus. Nowness means I no longer have to work to excuse, deny, rationalize, or minimize my sin. No longer do I have to exercise my inner lawyer when the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, or someone points out a wrong. Because of the cross of Jesus, I can admit my weakness and failure before a holy God and be utterly unafraid (1 John 1:9; 2:1; Psalm 103; Micah 7:7-9; Romans 8:1). And if a holy God has accepted me as I am, why would I need to fear the opinion of others? Jesus has taken my rejection so that I would never see the back of God's head. Grace had freed me from having to prove to God, myself and others that I am righteous. My hope and security is no longer in my own righteousness, but the righteousness I have been given in Christ. Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.
3. God's grace does require you to admit how weak you are, but it doesn't leave you there. The cross not only dealt with the guilt of sin, but with the inability if sin as well. In this broken world of regular difficulty and constant temptation, I feel weak and unprepared, thus I often live more out of fear and avoidance than with hope and courage. But I have not only been granted forgiveness, I have been filled with power; power beyond my ability to calculate.
(Ephesians 3:20, 21) 4. God's grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One who plan is unshakable and perfect in every way. I have a very strong belief in the absolute sovereignty of God, but often times it was almost completely separate from my everyday experience. I often live like I have no idea that Jesus is ruling over all things for my sake (Ephesians 1:20-23). That is why I often deal with the frustration of trying to control people, circumstances, and things which I have little power to control. When we lose the "nowism" of grace we spend way too much time calculating the "what ifs" and regretting the "if onlys".
I am learning that my security and rest are not to be found in my ability to predict the future and control the present, but in the faithful love and expansive wisdom of my sovereign Savior, Jesus. When I live like this, my living will be more restful than anxious rather than more anxious than restful.
So I am learning that I don't need more grace. No, I need to understand and live in light of the grace I have already been given. I want to stop being a grace amnesiac and so he living like I am poor, when grace has made me exotically rich. I want to stop living like I am weak, when grace has made me strong. I want to stop living life there is no plan, when, in fact, I have been included in the unalterable plans of the God of redeeming grace. I want to live in the "nowness" of grace and live out of the freedom, beauty and security of what I have been given right here, right now.
What about you?
Pastor Bill
So, I have taken some of it's highlights and put it in my blog this week. I have an impeccable theology and can well articulate what it means to say that I have been "saved by grace" (Ephesians 2:8-9) and by faith I know that I am going to spend eternity with Jesus. My problem often times is in the here and now. Day after day, in situation after situation, and relationship after relationship, I don't always carry with me a vibrant and practical sense of the nowism of the grace of Jesus Christ. Yes, I believe in life after death, but I desperately need to understand life before death; the kind of radical life I will live when I understand what Jesus Christ has given me for the life he has called for me today, right here, right now (John 10:10).
I am trying to understand and hold onto the nowism of grace. This means at least four things to me at the moment:
1.God's grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you've never had. Grace will expose your sin, but it will not leave you without identity. Grace has liberated me, but I want to know it and live like it. I have not only been forgiven and empowered, but I have been given a brand new identity. I cannot look inward for his identity. I cannot measure my potential by my track record or the size of the problems I face. My potential is as great as the grace of Christ. I want to be freed from looking outward for my identity. I want no longer to have to search for identity in my relationships, possessions or achievements. I want to be freed from looking horizontally for what he had already been given vertically. Paul reminds me, " if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come"(2 Corinthians 5:17).
My sense of self is no longer rooted in what I can earn or achieve, but in what I have already been given in Christ (2 Peter 1:3-4).
2. God's grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus. Nowness means I no longer have to work to excuse, deny, rationalize, or minimize my sin. No longer do I have to exercise my inner lawyer when the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, or someone points out a wrong. Because of the cross of Jesus, I can admit my weakness and failure before a holy God and be utterly unafraid (1 John 1:9; 2:1; Psalm 103; Micah 7:7-9; Romans 8:1). And if a holy God has accepted me as I am, why would I need to fear the opinion of others? Jesus has taken my rejection so that I would never see the back of God's head. Grace had freed me from having to prove to God, myself and others that I am righteous. My hope and security is no longer in my own righteousness, but the righteousness I have been given in Christ. Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.
3. God's grace does require you to admit how weak you are, but it doesn't leave you there. The cross not only dealt with the guilt of sin, but with the inability if sin as well. In this broken world of regular difficulty and constant temptation, I feel weak and unprepared, thus I often live more out of fear and avoidance than with hope and courage. But I have not only been granted forgiveness, I have been filled with power; power beyond my ability to calculate.
(Ephesians 3:20, 21) 4. God's grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One who plan is unshakable and perfect in every way. I have a very strong belief in the absolute sovereignty of God, but often times it was almost completely separate from my everyday experience. I often live like I have no idea that Jesus is ruling over all things for my sake (Ephesians 1:20-23). That is why I often deal with the frustration of trying to control people, circumstances, and things which I have little power to control. When we lose the "nowism" of grace we spend way too much time calculating the "what ifs" and regretting the "if onlys".
I am learning that my security and rest are not to be found in my ability to predict the future and control the present, but in the faithful love and expansive wisdom of my sovereign Savior, Jesus. When I live like this, my living will be more restful than anxious rather than more anxious than restful.
So I am learning that I don't need more grace. No, I need to understand and live in light of the grace I have already been given. I want to stop being a grace amnesiac and so he living like I am poor, when grace has made me exotically rich. I want to stop living like I am weak, when grace has made me strong. I want to stop living life there is no plan, when, in fact, I have been included in the unalterable plans of the God of redeeming grace. I want to live in the "nowness" of grace and live out of the freedom, beauty and security of what I have been given right here, right now.
What about you?
Pastor Bill
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