THE DUTY OF DELIGHT

“Delight yourself in the Lord" Psalm 37:4
“Serve the Lord with gladness" Psalm 100:2
“Rejoice in the Lord always" Philippians 4:4

"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Westminister Cathechism 1647

My favorite place in the whole world is the tropical island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. I was fortunate to have lived there for a year from 1972-1973 and have been a regular visitor ever since. I never get tired of the sights, smells, and sounds of this little island paradise. When the plane approaches the airport, I cannot help but notice the deep greens (my favorite color) and the amazing contours of Kauai’s landscape. Then there is cool breeze of the trade winds that bring the tropical smell of Plumaria flowers greeting me as I step off of the airplane. The ocean is so warm and deep blue bursting with sea life. I can never get enough of surfing Hanalei Bay, sitting on my surfboard letting my eyes survey its breathtaking beauty and grandeur. Drive to the end of the road on the North Shore and you cannot help but be captivated by what is known as “Bali Hai” and the majestic Napali Coast. But my favorite thing of all about Kauai is to watch the glory of the Hawaiian sunset at the end of the day. When the sun goes down and reaches the horizon you can for a split second see a green flash of light before the sun disappears. The after sunset is amazing with its palette of color and beauty that goes on until the darkness steals its glory. I have witnessed many sunsets alone but my greatest joy has been when I have been able to watch the sunset at Tunnels Beach with friends. As we sit together on the white sand beach surrounded by palm trees overlooking the blue ocean stretching out to the horizon, the sun begins its descent at the end of a wonderful day spent together. As the sun sets over the horizon we speak words of delight to one another as we share what we are seeing and experiencing, “Wow!" "Amazing" "Isn’t this awesome?" "So beautiful." "Can you believe the colors?" Somehow the joy of our experience is enriched and completed by expressing it one to another.

In our sharing the experience of that sunset, no one had to talk or coach or persuade themselves into appreciating the view. We never once said, “We ought to enjoy this. Shouldn’t we appreciate this and say something about it?” There was absolutely no sense of duty in our enjoyment and communicating its worth to one another. All we had to do is see it and seeing it evoked a spontaneous response of delight and praise for what a Kauai sunset is; beautiful, breathtaking, and glorious! And the greatest joy was expressing our joy one to another!

How much more joyful is a life lived in the presence of the beautiful living God! There is something so compelling, so moving, so delightful when you see Him and experience His presence. That is why the key to Christian living is being happy in God. It is God’s aim and it is my duty to be supremely happy in God!

Psalm 144:15 says,“Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”

The duty of Christian living is a “peculiar” duty. Webster’s dictionary describes “duty” as “obligatory tasks, conduct, service, or functions that arise from ones position as in life or a group. The service required or a moral or legal obligation”. But God looks at duty in a completely different way. Tragically most of us have been taught that duty, not delight, is the way that we glorify God. But we have not been taught that delight in God is our duty! John Piper calls it “the dangerous duty of delight”. Being satisfied in God is not an optional add-on to the real stuff of Christian duty. It is the most basic demand of all. It is the foundation of living in God’s world. "Delight yourself in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4) is not a suggestion but a command. So are: "Serve the Lord with gladness" (Psalm 100:2); and "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4).

Jonathan Edwards taught that the essence of glorifying God is when He is shown to be most beautiful and valuable by His people enjoying him above all things. “True religion, in great part, consists of holy affections.”

Loving and cherishing and honoring and delighting in God comes alive when our affections are fully engaged. The heart of man is a desire factory where the battle rages for joy in all God has for us in Christ. So the peculiar duty of the believer is to pursue maximum joy in God alone.

Jesus devastated the worship of the most religious people in Israel with these words from the prophet Isaiah:This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.(Matthew 15:8-9).

When the heart is not in an act of worship, the lips can move all day long and it will be in vain! The number one duty of worship is not merely a duty to perform outward acts. It is a duty to feel inward affections. John Piper says, “Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.” Without the engagement of our affections our worship is vain and empty.

That is why the Bible uses the word hypocrite. A hypocrite is one who performs the outward form of worship signifying affections of the heart that aren’t there. “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”. If God‘s reality is seen or displayed and we feel nothing in our heart‘s desires towards him, then we may dutifully sing or pray but it will be hypocrisy and vain worship.

The fact is that duty toward God can never be restricted to outward action. Yes, we must worship Him. But our duty to worship is a peculiar duty. What kind of duty? The kind C. S. Lewis described to Sheldon Vanauken: "It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can." Or the way Jeremy Taylor spoke of it when he said, "God threatens terrible things, if we will not be happy." The peculiar duty of the Christian is an inward duty to “delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4) and to “be glad in the Lord, and rejoice” (Psalm 32:11).

Consider the analogy of a wedding anniversary. Suppose on this day a man brings flowers for his wife. When she meets him at the door and he hands her the flowers, she says, "Oh honey, they're beautiful, thank you," and gives him a big hug. Then suppose in response he holds up his hand and says matter-of-factly, "Don't mention it; it's our anniversary, I’m supposed to do this, it’s my duty." What happens? How does the wife feel? Perhaps she feels like dumping the bouquet on his head! Is this exercise of duty a noble thing? Does the wife feel loved and valued by him? Hardly! Not if his heart’s not in it. Flowers given by duty are a contradiction in terms. If he is not moved by a spontaneous affection for his precious wife as a person, the flowers do not honor her. In fact they belittle and demean her. They are a very thin covering for the fact that she does not have the worth or beauty in his eye to kindle affection. All he can muster is a calculated expression of marital duty. But when he brings his wife that bouquet of flowers, and she asks him why he gave them to her, the answer that honors her most is, “Because nothing makes me happier than to do this for you, I love you so much!” “It is my duty” dishonors her. “It is my pleasure” honors her.

The reason this is the real duty of worship is that this honors God; while the empty performance of ritual does not. If a man takes his wife out for the evening on their anniversary and she asks, "Why do you do this?" the answer that honors her most is, "Because nothing makes me happier tonight than to be with you." There it is! A peculiar duty. How shall we honor God in worship? By saying, "It's my duty"? Or by saying, "It's my joy"?

But for some people -- most people -- the word "duty" is not a happy word. It tends to sound oppressive and burdensome. So it doesn't sound then that God is very loving. That he doesn't have our best interest at heart. How do God’s glory and our duty to delight in Him work together? How do you bring glory to an all-sufficient, perfect, infinitely beautiful, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, overflowing God? Let me give you illustrations from ordinary life.

At the beginning of this blog I discussed the experience of my friends and myself observing a Hawaiian sunset. If you want to glorify a beautiful sunset, you don't feel a burden to work to improve it. You simply enjoy it. You love it. You talk about it excitedly to your friends. Or suppose you are hiking at Yosemite in the winter time and arrive at Summit Meadow, a huge, breathtaking, snow covered meadow surrounded by a conifer forest. How do you glorify the excellence of the meadow? By looking intently all around you, taking it all in, by enjoying the view, and by thinking and saying “wow this is awesome!” In other words if it is your duty to glorify something infinitely beautiful and wonderful, that is no burden. It is a joy and a pleasure. In fact when you take from it pleasure, you demonstrate that it's a treasure.

Or suppose your duty was to glorify someones generosity. I have known people who just overflow in love and generosity and grace and kindness to me over the years. Sometimes it has been overwhelming. How have I glorified that quality in them? Not by trying to pay them back. That would turn their kindness into a business transaction. It would treat their free gift like a trade. Tit for tat. That would not glorify the wealth of their generosity. No, the way to glorify their generosity and their kindness is to be lavish and genuine in your appreciation, gratitude, and thanksgiving. And that is no burden. If you get a generous gift you do not groan under the duty to feel thankful. It is a pleasure not a hardship.

Now do you see what all of this means? It means that God is love. It means that when He created us for His glory, He also created us for our joy. How so? Because the way He seeks to be glorified in us is by making us satisfied in Him. The good news of Christianity is that God is the kind of God who is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

God created us for His glory. Therefore the peculiar duty of every man and woman and child is to live for the glory of God. What a wonderfully peculiar duty it is! And the wonderful thing is that this duty is not a burden. It is freedom and joy. You glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's provision for your thirsty souls by drinking and being satisfied in Him alone. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by overflowing with gratitude. It is there spontaneously. It is not consciously willed. It is not analyzed in terms of an appropriate response. It is not decided upon. It comes from deep within, from a place beneath the conscious will.

This is what keeps worship from being "in vain." Worship is authentic when affections for God arise in the heart as an end in themselves. In worship God is the Hawaiian sunset. God is the running mountain stream and its refreshing waters. God is the wonderful meal and the generous benefactor.

Eric Liddell, the great Christian missionary and Olympic athlete, was once asked why he ran. He said, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." What an amazing duty God has given us! “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Our duty is our very delight! When we fulfill our “peculiar” duty, God gets much glory and we get much joy. We come into His presence with joyful singing from the heart and if someone asks us why we can say like Eric Liddell, “I run to give God pleasure and worship God my treasure because it gives me so much pleasure.”

Enjoying God,
Pastor Bill

HELPLESSNESS AND PRAYER

Last week I wrote about the gift of helplessness. I ended by saying, The very thing we often times try to escape, our own helplessness, becomes the launch pad to prayer and then to God's help and grace.

I pray allot in my life. I do this not because I am highly disciplined but because I am highly needy. It is because I am aware and in touch with the poverty within my own soul, realizing that I cannot do anything in life without the help of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I am very thankful that as I have learned to pray over the years I have discovered that the more that I seem to know God, the more mature I may become, the stronger I may seem to be to others, I also pray more because I realize how truly weak that I really am. My weakness has become a channel whereby I access the amazing grace of God.

As we grow as Christians, we become more and more aware of who we really are in our sinful natures, but at the same time we see more and more of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:16-18). This seeing of myself and this seeing of Jesus causes me to truly see my need for more moment by moment grace.

When I was a younger Christian, if you could picture this in your mind, my view of Bill was much larger and my view of Jesus was much smaller. I had a small view of my sin and a large view of me. As I have grown my view is now of a small Bill with big sin and a huge, powerful, amazing, beautiful, and wonderful Jesus so overflowingly "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14.)

That is why I felt not the need to pray as much. I can say that because I spent little time in prayer. I was a doer, way to busy to pray. I had God's work to do. I had a church to build. I had people to see, places to go, and things to do that were really important. When I used to look at my heart I did not see most of what I see now. I felt that I was strong, wise, able, disciplined, godly, and mature. I was wrong!

Now I understand that spiritual growth manifests itself in surprising ways: humility, brokenness, neediness, desperateness, insatiable desire,and a can't do mindset. It agrees with Jesus when He says in John 15:5, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." I realize that all the things that I have done without Jesus are NOTHING and have become NOTHING.

Jesus my Lord lived in total dependency to the Father. "The son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing." (John 5:19), "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear." (John 5:30), "My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me." (John 7:16). Jesus modeled a life we as his followers are to imitate. If the Son of God had to learn dependence on the Father, then so must we.

Jesus asks us to do what He did; live a life of total and helpless dependence upon His heavenly Father. Be encouraged dear reader, if you feel helpless, if you feel weak, if you are desperate, if you feel increasingly unable to do life; then you are entering into His life, the life that He calls "the abundant life" (John 10:10).

If you think that you can do life on your own, you will not enter into a lifestyle of prayer. Prayer will never be the default response to life. It will be the last resort after we have tried all that we "can do". At best when we are drawn in our attention to our own lack of prayer, our lack of prayer will feel to us like something else-a lack of discipline, another duty or obligation to us, not being spiritual enough, too busy, too many obligations, or not enough time for it.

The secret of prayer is thinking that you cannot do life on your own. Jesus calls it "poverty of spirit"(Matthew 5:3). Poverty of our Spirit makes room for God's Spirit. With that attitude and view of life, yourself, and God, you don't need to feel duty, discipline, or obligation to pray. Prayer becomes your default response to your life. It can become a simple prayer like Jesus who frequently cried out "Abba, Father". I have prayed frequently the Psalms and specifically many of the two or three word prayers of the Psalmist, such as Help me, deliver me, save me, empower me, heal me, teach me, show me, guide me, forgive me, show me, or fill me. It helps me because I frequently do not or have much more to say at any given moment than to simply cry these things out to God.

I Often times pray a simple prayer from the 5th century called "The Jesus Prayer". It is based upon Luke 18:38 where a blind beggar called out to Jesus as He was passing by, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" If you add Paul's statement from Philippians 2:11, "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord", you have the Jesus Prayer. Here it is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner."

My dear brother Pastor Ed Piorik taught me a couple of other simple things that I cry out that make my address to God very trinitarian in focus. I simply plea, "Holy Spirit Come." or "Abba, Father, find me in your love." Sometimes all I pray is to cry out in shorter cries such as "Father" or "Jesus" or "help!"

I think I am finally beginning to understand what it means to "Pray unceasingly". Paul speaks of this in many ways in (Romans 1:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:4;Ephesians 1:16; 6:18; Colossians 1:9; 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:2;2:13;3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:3; Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5;17). Unceasing prayer means simply living a lifestyle of dependence and need upon God alone. Like Paul we develop a 2 Corinthians 1:9 perspective on our selves,

"Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." NIV

So I encourage you to see that a praying life isn't a set prayer time (though there is nothing wrong with that as I wrote last year on taking Sabbath breaks throughout the day); it is slipping into prayer at any moment when you are in touch with your own poverty of spirit, realizing that you cannot even walk through a grocery store or your neighborhood without the help of Jesus.

Learning in my helplessness to pray,
Bill

THE GIFT OF HELPLESSNESS

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28

"As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5

How do you feel about helplessness? I have nothing but mercy and compassion towards those who are helpless. Babies are good at being helpless. Little children are good at helplessness. Feeble, ill, weak, and crippled people are good at being helpless. I have ministered to many who are in places in their lives that they are hopeless, hapless, and helpless.

When it comes to me, helplessness is a different story altogether. I have developed as an adult an aversion to helplessness. I do not like being helpless at all. All of my life I have worked to maintain at least an illusion to myself and others that I am not helpless. By nature I have been a high achiever, a self sufficient loner, very self disciplined, highly ambitious, in control, a planner, a success driven striver. I always made sure my ducks were lined up and that I had alternatives to my alternatives to fix and solve any problem that I had. It has taken me thirty seven years of being a Christian to learn that before God I am truly helpless.

I had ministry, a comfortable income, a 35 year marriage, and my life seemed in total control, just the way I like it. Then a year ago my life crashed. It went from order to chaos,; predictable to unpredictable, comfortable to uncomfortable, in control to out of control, safe and secure to totally insecure. AND I HATED IT!!!!

I tried everything to fix it, get it back in order, line up my ducks in a row, get everything back to the way it used to be, the way that I wanted it and nothing worked. I was utterly humbled by the realization that I cannot fix my life to be the way I wanted it. I realized the illusion of my self sufficiency and ability to control my life. Suddenly i had no wife to depend on, few friends to lean on, no job, no open doors, no ministry, my health was failing, the phone was not ringing, my ability to solve problems was failing, my tools and skills were inadequate, and I was in big trouble.

I was empty-handed, weary, scared, lonely, utterly broken, and heavy-laden. For the first time in my life, I was so desperate, so broken, so tired, so weak, so scared, so inadequate, and so helpless that all I could do is throw myself in desperation on His mercy and cry "help me", "save me", "deliver me"

I became motivated to come to God because of the reality and the deep conviction that I am completely helpless to do my life on my own. I have learned that these are the very cries that bring us into the deepest communion and bring God the greatest glory.

The 17th century Scottish pastor Samuel Rutherford was imprisoned by the Anglicans for non-conformity. In prison he made a great discovery that he expresses in these words.

If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I can be in this world, and then He told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all of my usual sources of enjoyment. I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a closed room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all of his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven."

When I suffered the loss of virtually everything that mattered and faced a dark, uncertain future, I found myself praying for God to give me back my life over and over again. When God began to blow out my lamps, I began asking God to give me my lamps back. When He didn't, I found myself angry, depressed,terrified, anxious, despairing, and inconsolably sorrowful about the wind that had blown out my lamps. But now I have began to see what God was doing, blowing out my lamps in order to throw open the shutters and let in the light of heaven!

Throughout the gospels we see people coming to Jesus because they are helpless like me. I have been teaching in John where we see it over and over again. The Samaritan woman had no water (John 4). Later in that same chapter, the officials son has no health. The crippled man at the pool of Bethesda has no help to get into the water (John 5). the crowd has no bread (John 6). The blind man has no sight (John 9). Lazarus has no life (John 11).

When we received Jesus, we apparently felt we were helpless. Many of us forget that is how we follow Him. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:6, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him". Really feeling, thinking, and believing in our helplessness is fundamental to living the Christian life.

For Paul, helplessness was his badge of apostleship and authority from God. Listen to his words:

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. " (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 ESV)

Paul argues for the authenticity of his ministry by appealing, not to his visions and revelations nor to his successes and gifts, but instead to his weakness! He attributed all of his ministry to his helplessness, brokenness, neediness, and weakness. That is the ground by which the power and glory of Jesus flowed through him. It was in that lowly place of utter dependency that God moved in his life.

Helplessness is the design and will of God for our lives. The Psalmist writes that "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17 ESV). God finds pleasure in us when we are in the place of brokenness, humility, poverty of spirit, and neediness.

These places of brokenness and weakness are not desired in this world. Nobody wants to be known as weak, needy, poor, or inadequate. Paul sure didn't! He asked the Lord repeatedly to take away whatever it was that handicapped him.He did not want to have to live and serve God in this lowly state. The Lord, refused."Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul came to see that this helplessness, this weakness, this brokenness, this neediness was indeed a precious gift from God. This was the place that released the true flow of God's power, strength, and grace in his life and ministry and it will be the same for you. God knows where His power and glory thrive and where it is diminished.

Paul's growth as a Christian is remarkable in that his growth increased as his own sense of his helplessness, weakness, and sinfulness increased. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul calls himself "the least of the apostles." Five years later, in Ephesians 3:8 he calls himself "the least of all God's people." Finally, two years before his he calls himself after walking with Jesus for thirty years, "The worst of all sinners" in 1 Timothy 1:15. For Paul, the way up in God's kingdom was down! The less he saw of Himself, the more he saw of Christ. The greater awareness of his helplessness, brokenness, and sinfulness before God, the more he was amazed by God's gift of grace towards someone like him. He received help by being helpless. He became stronger by becoming weaker. He became rich by becoming poor. He became successful by becoming a failure. Oh dear reader, do not despise those gifts.

The gospel uses your helplessness as the doorway to God's grace. When you agree with Jesus that "apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), you are maturing as a Christian. I now see that the security of a marriage, a ministry, a job, relationships, approval of man, and health from which I have fallen from was really a trusting in my strength and ability and plans and people. Today all I can do is trust Jesus and no one and nothing else.

So now I pray all day, every day. I cry out to my Father in heaven in my helplessness, "help me", "heal me", "save me", "guide me", "fill me ", "teach me", "show me", "enable me", "strengthen me", "fill me", "deliver me", "forgive me", and numerous more simple helpless cries.
Jesus is not asking you and me to do anything that He is not already doing. He is inviting us into His life of helpless dependence upon our heavenly Father. To become more like Jesus is to feel more and more that you cannot do life. The very thing we often times try to escape, our own helplessness, becomes the launch pad to prayer and then to God's help and grace.

Helpless and being helped,
Pastor Bill

SEEING THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR YOU!

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure! I John 3:1-3

John, in his writings, thinks often of God’s love. As you look at the Gospel of John it would seem that John was overwhelmed with the thought that he was loved by God and compelled to exult in it. In John 3:16 he records the words of the Lord Jesus, “God so loved the world” and reveals the measure of God’s love. As you look at the Epistle of 1 John it would seem that even in his old age he was still amazed by the fact that he was loved by God. John now says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” His words show us that…

The Father’s love for you is meant to be seen and savored!

I want to draw your attention to one word: “See”. It may not immediately impact you but it should. It is rich, powerful, and life-changing. This is John’s passionate exclamation and command to all of us. “See” is often translated, “behold”. As an exclamation, “see” shows that the Fathers great love is meant to amaze us, but in order to be amazed by it, God’s love is meant to be seen and savored; to be known and cherished; to be understood and treasured.

Some things grow very commonplace over time. We’ve heard about them and known them for years. Maybe at first, when it was new, an idea or experience affected us, but over the years, the effect grows weaker and weaker, until finally it’s just a far distant memory. But the Father’s great love for us is the kind of experience that God wants to grow stronger and stronger over the years in understanding and intensity, until it totally dominates every aspect of our lives. He desires it to consume our thoughts and control our behavior. He wants our seeing and savoring His love to motivate us to serve Him and to live holy lives. He wants the sight of His love to give us comfort in all our trials. He desires his love to fill us with the eager hope of being with Him in heaven. The sight of His love is meant to fill us with awe and worship.

Do you see and savor the Father’s love? I think of Paul who in thinking about God wrote in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” I ask myself and ask you: where is your “Oh!” in response to God and His great love?

There are so many diverse “Oh’s” that come out of seeing the Father’s love. Do we feel the “Oh” of enchantment, excitement, amazement, awe, wonder, yearning, submission, joy and satisfaction over the sight of this love? I think many people have lost the “Oh!” in their relationship with and response to God. Don’t let yourself ever hear of the Father’s great love and think, “Ho hum!” Perhaps this happens to us because when we think of God’s love, our response is more of a “who” of ignorance, or a “Huh” of disinterest, or a “so what” of bored indifference. It isn’t exclamatory excitement but a religious snore that emanates from the soul of those who don’t see and savor the love of God. How different this is from the cry of John, who is so amazed, awestruck, humbled, joyful, and excited that he invites us to join him and “see what manner of love the Father has given to us”. Look at it, be staggered by it, feel the wonder of it, be touched in the core of your soul by it, be amazed and astonished by it- the depth, the quality, the commitment of His heart to you.

The Father’s love for you is meant to instruct you

“See” is not only a passionate exclamation, it is also a command. “Stop everything else! Look at this! Think about it! Reflect upon this! Fill your minds with this truth! Ponder the significance of it!” Paul exhorts us in 2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.". John doesn’t just speak of the fact that God loves you, but how God loves you and he wants you to see this and feel it!

The word translated, “what kind”originally meant, “of what country, or race”. It is the same word spoken about Jesus in Matthew 8:27 after He calmed the storm out at sea and they said “what sort of man is this that even the wind and the seas obey Him?” What they saw the Lord do amazed them. When they saw the miracle, they thought, This man is out of this world. What we saw is strange and foreign. They had never seen anyone do what they saw Him do.

John says that the kind of love that He has shown to us, when seen and reflected upon, leaves us speechless and amazed. It is the kind of love that leaves us saying “Wow”! It is as if John thinks about the Father’s great love and says, “Where does this come from? It must be from heaven, because there’s nothing like it in this world!” It is supernatural, divine, peculiar, unique, stands out, incomparable, exceedingly beautiful and compelling. What kind of love is it? The heavenly, infinite, perfect, gracious, divine, supernatural love of the Father and He wants us to know it, understand it, see it, and savor it!

Is it no wonder why Paul prays in Philippians 1:9? “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” Or in Ephesians 3:17-19, “…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Or in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God".

A habit of devout, thankful meditation on God’s great love lies at the foundation of all vigorous, happy Christian living. This is why John makes this a command. It is the grace given, grace enabled, love caused, and wonderful duty of the believer to see and savor the love of God. John Owen, the great Puritan, wrote 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.” If you had a friend in New York, but you never thought about this friend and never communicated with him, that friendship would fade and not have much significance in your life. Friendship maintained and built always requires great effort. For the friendship to affect you, you must think often about this friend and what he means to you and spend time with him. That is why John Owen suggests that “Friendship with God is most maintained and kept up by visits”. Oh how we need regular visits with God to stoke the fires of our love!

We all have too many other things crowding into our daily lives. That is why we lose the sense of “oh” in our lives. If we do not deliberately take the time and effort to block out all of these pressing things and to focus on what God has done for us in Christ, His great love will get crowded out of our thoughts and daily lives. So John shows us that the Father’s great love is meant to both amaze and instruct us. Stop and behold it often!


The Father’s love for you is lavished to you as a gift! “See what kind of love the Father has given to us” (Verse 1c).

John puts this in a very interesting way. Notice John doesn’t just say says that this love been shown us, revealed to us, manifested to us, or spoken about to us; even though He has done all of that. John says God has gone even further- He has given His love to us! The word speaks many things. First, it speaks of the measure of God’s love to us; it could more literally be translated lavished on us. Romans 5:5 tells us that, “the love of God is being constantly poured into us by the Holy Spirit”.

Second, it speaks of the manner of God’s giving of love. Giving has the idea of a one-sided giving, instead of a return for something earned or deserved. God’s love is purely a gift that comes from His undeserved favor, or grace. John writes in his gospel that there is an overflowing fullness from Christ poured out to us "full of grace and truth. ...And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."(John 1:14,16).

We see Paul emphasizing God's heavenly love in action in Romans 5. First he says in verse 6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Further, in verse 8, he adds, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Even then he does not exhaust this miracle. He goes on in verse 10, “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” Add up the terms: we were helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. His great love is demonstrated in that He sent His Son to die for us while we were in such an awful condition!

That is why John cries, “What amazing love!” God is under no obligation to save us. He is not obligated or owes us love. You and I are totally in debt to God with an unpayable debt! The fact that God’s great love is a gift means that you cannot do anything to earn it or deserve it. All you can do is receive it. It is all grace. It is a miracle!

Oh let the love of God for you touch your mind and your heart. Let it amaze and astound you as you see what kind of love it really is. There is no other word for God’s love than amazing. It is a love that leaves us standing in awe. It is a love like no other.

Dear reader, to the degree that you behold the free grace of God, to the degree that you meditate on it and you let it become a holy fire in your heart, to the degree you experience and behold the love of God, to that degree you are going to agree with John and say and feel “How great is the love of God!” This morning John wants you to look, see, savor, and be compelled and wooed by the wonder of His great love for you. Oh for a spirit of wonder that permeates your life. That you would gaze at this love and look at yourself and say, "I am a Christian, a Son and daughter of God, now. I am deeply, eternally, loved by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! This is wonderful, incredible, miraculous, unbelievable! It is amazing that God is so good to me; that God is for me. All I get from Him is undeserved love and grace.

There is nothing more important for each of you than to see God’s love for all it is and to savor it for all that it is worth.

Pastor Bill

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED A YEAR LATER

Last May 4th I wrote a blog titled "What I have learned since I stepped down from my church". It is now a year later and I will be divorced this coming Sunday May 8th. So many things have happened and so many lessons i have learned over this past troubling year. So I thought I would simply bullet and comment upon what I have learned since last year.

-Living in the "Now" is the happiest, most peaceful, and most freeing way to live.
-Either humble yourself to God or He will humble you.
-God loves me even when I am not feeling or being very spiritual.
-This simple prayer has brought much comfort to me: "Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me. Holy Spirit come. Abba Father, find me in your love."
-Things don't always get better in life, sometimes they get worse, but God is good.
-Keep your expectations only in God and not yourself, people, and circumstances.
-Kiss the pain in your life. Do not try to run from it, deny it, compensate for it, and minimize it.
-There are two things that happen in every adversity we face; the adversity itself, and the way we respond to the adversity. How we respond will either transform us or destroy us.
- The Psalms are God's prayer book. They have been my life line when I have been scared, sad, weak, lonely, stressed, broken, doubting, and lost.
-The Lord really does take care of us.
-Listen to God. His ways are always right, true, and best for us no matter what seems right to us in the short term.
-Be sure to take care of your soul above all things. If you don't, the time will surely come when you will find out that you did not and you will wish that you did.
-The hardest person to know is ourselves. Our hearts are full of self deception and there is a way that seems right in our own eyes that always leads to death.
-The only way to know ourselves is to know God.
-God is always speaking if we would only become open, alive, and alert to Him speaking through the Word, nature, daily providence's, and others.
-God speaks to us through our brothers and sisters. Be humble, be open, and be teachable. It might save your life.
-The spirit is very willing but the flesh is very weak.We need to be self aware and utterly depend upon His strength in order to live the lives He has called us to live.
-Do not make decisions when you are emotional. You will regret it.
-A man reaps what He sows. Disobey God and He will lovingly chasten you.
-Sin does not pay ever!Obedience pays both in this life and the life to come.
-Life is very short, don't waste it.
-Stay in fellowship with those more Godly than you, wiser than you, and who love God more than you, therefore will love you enough to speak truth to you.
-Submit to the place God has you in.
-Adopt to the pace He is moving and working in your life. Do not run ahead of Him.
-Hurting people will always hurt people and make it seem like its your fault.
-It is what you know after you have learned everything that matters.
-Let him who cannot be alone, beware of being with others. Let him who cannot be with others, beware of being alone.
-God is not concerned near as much about what I do as He is concerned for who I am.
-A clear conscience before God is the most freeing and wonderful way to live.
-Keep very short accounts with God. Confess your sins. Be honest with Him.
-Peace in my soul is the most important peace that I need.
-It is good to be quiet, cantered, and contemplative. God will get the glory and others will glean the benefits.
-Do not think that you can control your life or God. If you do, He will show you how out of control you really are.
-Do not presume upon God and put your trust in what you want, wish, or desire. If you do, you will become deeply disappointed in God. Put you trust in Him alone. He will fulfill His purpose for your life.
-The Father loves me.
-Apart from Jesus, I really can do nothing.
-His grace is the operating, moving, motivating, faith producing,enabling force in my life.
-Love is the most important thing there is in the life of a Christian.
-God wants us to be free and to allow others freedom. He wants us to be less intrusive and invasive in others lives. He wants us to learn to accept each others differences and not try to change people to be like us.
-Faith is acting like its so, when it seems not to be so, because God says so.
-Jesus is with me, even if I don't see Him, feel Him, or believe Him.
-You can always find numerous reasons for gratitude to God. Something happens in your soul when you become a thankful person.
-I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great Savior. On His kind arms I fall.

Reflective,
Pastor Bill