Monday, June 27, 2016
THE GLORY OF JESUS
Gods glory been a huge theme of my ministry and life for the past 39 years. I have spoken much and written much about the glory of God. Simply put, the glory of God is the manifestation of who God is in all of his beauty, greatness, grandeur, infinite love,holiness, and perfections. In short, glory is the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is all of God that makes God God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.
The supreme manifestation of God’s glory is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3). "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1: 1 5). The glory of Jesus has nothing to do with how He smelled or looked or the sound of His voice or the strength of His arms or the color of His hair or the way He dressed. Jesus is beautiful because He has a glory, an excellence, a spiritual supreme beauty-that can be self-evidently true. That is to say, when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension of the glory that you see. It’s like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet. There is a direct apprehension and attraction once you see Jesus that affects your thinking, your will, and your feelings, it goes deep and does something to your very soul. It changes your life. John writes of his experience with Jesus in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
When it comes to the glory of Christ, who can adequately describe glory and beauty that is infinite and is therefore beyond description? There is no one like Christ in this regard.
The entire life, ministry, and person of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the glory of God. Jesus prayed to the father at the end of his life and said, I glorified you on earth, having accomplish the work that you gave me to do. John 17:4. His entire ministry was aimed at this,: to make the father look glorious. Earlier in his ministry he cried out, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven: I have a glorified it, and I will glorify it again John 12:27–28.
How does Jesus show this glory? I love what John Pipers calls it:
the paradoxical juxtaposition of seeming opposites in Jesus Christ. This is at the heart of how God shows himself glorious to us. Jonathan Edwards summed it up in a great sermon called the "Excellencies of Christ". He drew attention to Revelation 5:5–6, where Christ appears as the lion of the tribe of Judah and as a lamb standing as though he had been slain. This is the picture of the paradoxes of the lion and Lamb. Jesus is both a lion – like lamb and a lamb – like lion. A lion is admirable for its ferocious strength and imperial appearance. A lamb is admirable for its meekness and servant-like provision of wool for our clothing. But even more admirable is this union of seeming opposites – a lion – like Lamb and a lamb – like Lion. What makes Christ glorious, as in where to put it, is an "admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies".
Christ's attributes work together in harmony. And there is a glory in Christ that exceeds any of His individual characteristics. It is like a rainbow in which the individual colors are beautiful, but their combination heightens the sense of beauty. Think about this we admire Christ for his transcendence, but even more because the transcendence of his greatness is mixed with submission to God. Marvel at him because his uncompromising justice tempered with mercy. His majesty is sweetened by his meekness. In His equality with God he has a deep reverence for God. Though he is worthy of all good, he's patient to suffer evil. His sovereign dominion over the world was clothed with the spirit of obedience and submission. He baffled the proud scribes with his wisdom but was simple enough to be loved by children. He could still the storm with a word but not strike the Samaritans with lightning or take himself down from the cross.
We were made to see, saver, no, and enjoy this person, Jesus Christ, a low the incarnation of the all – glorious God. Oh see the heart of this incredible glory, Remember I called this gods paradoxical juxtaposition of seemingly opposite truths and Jonathan Edwards calling it an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies. This incomparable pattern of gods self revelation in Jesus through a lion – like lamb and lamb like -lion.
May God open your eyes to see that s glory so that your hearts become enchanted, enamored, and engrossed with God; enthralled, enraptured, and entranced with God; enravished, excited, and enticed by God; astonished, amazed, and awed by God; astounded, absorbed, and agog with God; beguiled and bedazzled, startled and staggered, smitten and stunned; stupefied and spellbound; charmed and consumed; thrilled and thunderstruck; obsessed and preoccupied; intrigued and impassioned; overwhelmed and overwrought; gripped and rapt; enthused and electrified; tantalized, mesmerized, and monopolized, fascinated, captivated, and exhilarated by God; intoxicated and infatuated with God!
Amen!
Friday, June 17, 2016
A TRUTH THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
The more that I read the Word, the more I am astounded and savor its profound truths. There are some things that if you meditate on their meaning, implications, and significance about all you can do is respond with a Wow! This especially is what Colossians 1:27 evokes in me.
"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Very few things in life attract our interest like a good mystery or secret. In Paul’s day there were many mystery religions—much like secret lodges where only the insiders got to see and know the deep secrets of the organization. The power of that religion was in the secret knowledge that the group held tightly to itself. If the secret ever got out … well, the mystery was revealed, end of story.
Paul was the steward of a powerful mystery from God—a mystery so well hidden that it had escaped everyone’s notice for ages and generations. But now God had authorized Him to fully reveal one of God’s most profound and significant truths; the mystery he was appointed to reveal was the truth of Christ in you. Paul’s role didn’t end with revealing the mystery; his role was to unpack its significance so that the Church could act out that revelation.
I don’t know about you, but I have become so accustomed to verses like “Christ in you, the hope of glory” that I don’t respond with a wow of stunned amazement that I once had. As often happens, truth that is familiar to us quickly becomes common to us and loses its edge in our lives. When this happens, we actually run the risk of creating an environment of unbelief around that truth that limits what God is able to do in our lives. The danger is that what becomes common releases an unbelief in us that ultimately blinds us to the brilliance of Christ right before our eyes.
The Bible presents us with a progressive revelation of God’s creative design for His people. The progression of truth ultimately leads us to the big revelation that was hidden for the ages, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 27).
What an amazing truth this is: we who believe are now the new residences of God. Your body is now the sacred living chamber of God—that truth simply has to change everything about the way we view and do life. Now the real truth is that God is far too large and great to be contained in any physical location, but nevertheless He has chosen to be fully present and contained in me. The point is that yes, God does have an address, and it is not out there in Heaven someplace needing to be called down by us; His address is now inside of me. God doesn’t need to be coaxed to come down upon us; He needs to be seen, revealed, and “let out” of.
What has God really been looking to do throughout redemptive history? I believe that He is progressively revealing His design to literally dwell inside of us through Jesus Christ. This is seen in the progression from “God with us” to “Christ in us” in biblical history.
How different that is from the Old Testament. The unfolding revelation of God in the Old Covenant was about what we needed to do in order for God to dwell with us and come upon us as a people. At every turn we fell short through our sin and made His abiding presence with us a very fragile thing. Even David lived in the fear that his performance would cause God to drive him out and then lift from his life: “Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51: 11). In the Old Testament God was with us and upon us (depending on our relative sinfulness), but He never lived in us. And living in us was everything that God was ultimately out to accomplish in redemption (see John 14: 17). 3 He was with us in the Garden, with us in the Tabernacle and Temple, and ultimately ultimately with us in the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth. Yet all of those encounters were only a prelude to what God was always after—actually living inside of us and making us His portable homes and temples on this earth. Carriers of Christ in Us!
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."
We are now carriers of God—carriers of Jesus Christ who fully lives and abides inside of us. There simply is no such thing as more or less of Christ living in you—He’s either in you or not in you. If He actually lives inside of you, then He is fully present inside of you at all times. We are pots that contain the transcendent power of God.
I love this Scripture because it is such a study in contrasts—to think that God lives in my clay container. This contrast between my outsides and God who lives inside of me helps me understand why we need revelation of what is already within us. Paul describes the personal presence of God that now in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. Others translate this as the “transcendent power of God.” The bottom line is that God now lives inside of us, and where He is, the sky’s the limit. Actually, the limitless capacity of God is the limit, and it is His presence and power that simply transcends and overcomes every limitation, human or otherwise.
A Christian is an unimpressive container of the God, who is “power personified” and whose very presence is not limited by any of the laws that govern the physical universe. That is what is reverberating around inside of my “tent” at all times—the same presence and power that spoke time, space, and all existence into being. I am a “carrier” of all of that—a rather unimpressive tent or cheap clay pot that happens to be conveying God in my world.
Oh If only I could just “get” that truth a bit—if only it could sink in just a little bit deeper; it would immediately revolutionize my world. When I reach my hand out to heal the sick, I would realize it is never about me at all as a healer; it is always about what now is in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. I just need a revelation of what I truly am; then this world is mine to conquer through Jesus Christ!
Don’t let the cracked pot distract you from the real contents! So what is keeping me from that? To be honest, I have a hard time seeing past the “container” that I look at in the mirror. My problem is that I get stuck on the clay pot (or in some cases, the cracked pot) that looks back at me every time I look at myself in the mirror. In fact, I have a hard time looking past the ragged tents and other cracked clay pots in the Church. Their containers catch my attention more than the contents they carry. Their outsides are visible to me, but the real and substantive transcendent presence and power of God inside of them is hidden from my eyes. Thus, I am mostly struck by what I do see, and I mostly miss what is really present within myself and others who believe.
This is what we are right now, and it is the hidden piece of Christ in us that must be seen through His Holy Sprit or it will remain hidden. What each of us carries within is so much greater than what our physical eyes can see. We so desperately need vision to see what He has deposited within us because it is as gigantic as the fullness of Jesus Christ Himself.
When Christ comes to live inside of us, He isn’t somewhat present in our lives; He is fully present and alive inside of us, right here and now.He is in you and He is in your spouse, your kids, and the person sitting next to you in church.
Ask the Lord to open your eyes to this truth and evoke a whole new attitude in you towards Him, others, your purpose, and yourself. Let it change everything in you and bring change wherever you go, you who are containing and bringing the living Christ!
"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Very few things in life attract our interest like a good mystery or secret. In Paul’s day there were many mystery religions—much like secret lodges where only the insiders got to see and know the deep secrets of the organization. The power of that religion was in the secret knowledge that the group held tightly to itself. If the secret ever got out … well, the mystery was revealed, end of story.
Paul was the steward of a powerful mystery from God—a mystery so well hidden that it had escaped everyone’s notice for ages and generations. But now God had authorized Him to fully reveal one of God’s most profound and significant truths; the mystery he was appointed to reveal was the truth of Christ in you. Paul’s role didn’t end with revealing the mystery; his role was to unpack its significance so that the Church could act out that revelation.
I don’t know about you, but I have become so accustomed to verses like “Christ in you, the hope of glory” that I don’t respond with a wow of stunned amazement that I once had. As often happens, truth that is familiar to us quickly becomes common to us and loses its edge in our lives. When this happens, we actually run the risk of creating an environment of unbelief around that truth that limits what God is able to do in our lives. The danger is that what becomes common releases an unbelief in us that ultimately blinds us to the brilliance of Christ right before our eyes.
The Bible presents us with a progressive revelation of God’s creative design for His people. The progression of truth ultimately leads us to the big revelation that was hidden for the ages, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 27).
What an amazing truth this is: we who believe are now the new residences of God. Your body is now the sacred living chamber of God—that truth simply has to change everything about the way we view and do life. Now the real truth is that God is far too large and great to be contained in any physical location, but nevertheless He has chosen to be fully present and contained in me. The point is that yes, God does have an address, and it is not out there in Heaven someplace needing to be called down by us; His address is now inside of me. God doesn’t need to be coaxed to come down upon us; He needs to be seen, revealed, and “let out” of.
What has God really been looking to do throughout redemptive history? I believe that He is progressively revealing His design to literally dwell inside of us through Jesus Christ. This is seen in the progression from “God with us” to “Christ in us” in biblical history.
How different that is from the Old Testament. The unfolding revelation of God in the Old Covenant was about what we needed to do in order for God to dwell with us and come upon us as a people. At every turn we fell short through our sin and made His abiding presence with us a very fragile thing. Even David lived in the fear that his performance would cause God to drive him out and then lift from his life: “Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51: 11). In the Old Testament God was with us and upon us (depending on our relative sinfulness), but He never lived in us. And living in us was everything that God was ultimately out to accomplish in redemption (see John 14: 17). 3 He was with us in the Garden, with us in the Tabernacle and Temple, and ultimately ultimately with us in the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth. Yet all of those encounters were only a prelude to what God was always after—actually living inside of us and making us His portable homes and temples on this earth. Carriers of Christ in Us!
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."
We are now carriers of God—carriers of Jesus Christ who fully lives and abides inside of us. There simply is no such thing as more or less of Christ living in you—He’s either in you or not in you. If He actually lives inside of you, then He is fully present inside of you at all times. We are pots that contain the transcendent power of God.
I love this Scripture because it is such a study in contrasts—to think that God lives in my clay container. This contrast between my outsides and God who lives inside of me helps me understand why we need revelation of what is already within us. Paul describes the personal presence of God that now in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. Others translate this as the “transcendent power of God.” The bottom line is that God now lives inside of us, and where He is, the sky’s the limit. Actually, the limitless capacity of God is the limit, and it is His presence and power that simply transcends and overcomes every limitation, human or otherwise.
A Christian is an unimpressive container of the God, who is “power personified” and whose very presence is not limited by any of the laws that govern the physical universe. That is what is reverberating around inside of my “tent” at all times—the same presence and power that spoke time, space, and all existence into being. I am a “carrier” of all of that—a rather unimpressive tent or cheap clay pot that happens to be conveying God in my world.
Oh If only I could just “get” that truth a bit—if only it could sink in just a little bit deeper; it would immediately revolutionize my world. When I reach my hand out to heal the sick, I would realize it is never about me at all as a healer; it is always about what now is in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. I just need a revelation of what I truly am; then this world is mine to conquer through Jesus Christ!
Don’t let the cracked pot distract you from the real contents! So what is keeping me from that? To be honest, I have a hard time seeing past the “container” that I look at in the mirror. My problem is that I get stuck on the clay pot (or in some cases, the cracked pot) that looks back at me every time I look at myself in the mirror. In fact, I have a hard time looking past the ragged tents and other cracked clay pots in the Church. Their containers catch my attention more than the contents they carry. Their outsides are visible to me, but the real and substantive transcendent presence and power of God inside of them is hidden from my eyes. Thus, I am mostly struck by what I do see, and I mostly miss what is really present within myself and others who believe.
This is what we are right now, and it is the hidden piece of Christ in us that must be seen through His Holy Sprit or it will remain hidden. What each of us carries within is so much greater than what our physical eyes can see. We so desperately need vision to see what He has deposited within us because it is as gigantic as the fullness of Jesus Christ Himself.
When Christ comes to live inside of us, He isn’t somewhat present in our lives; He is fully present and alive inside of us, right here and now.He is in you and He is in your spouse, your kids, and the person sitting next to you in church.
Ask the Lord to open your eyes to this truth and evoke a whole new attitude in you towards Him, others, your purpose, and yourself. Let it change everything in you and bring change wherever you go, you who are containing and bringing the living Christ!
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
GRACE SUFFICIENT FOR TODAY'S REALITIES
Imagination can be an amazing tool or a great hindrance to your life. How is your imagination? We imagine many scenarios and in that imagination we can worry about many things that will never happen. I like the definition of worry I recently came across: Worry is interest paid on a debt we may never owe. That’s a definition worth remembering because it exposes the futility of worry. Is it no wonder why three times our Lord commanded us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-34 (Verse 25, 31, 34)
Today is Wednesday, not Thursday. How much of Wednesday have you spent imagining? I do not mean the good use of imagination: wondering, dreaming, and thinking up new possibilities. I mean the negative use of your imagination: mentally rehearsing difficult or stressful circumstances from your make-believe future. Have you been wasting Wednesday by mentally “trying on” what it might be like to get through your forecast for Thursday?
When we worry we become fearful, burdened, stressed out, and ineffective in the present. What is this dynamic of worry about? Do you have some future fears about family, work, health, relationships, ministry, or the economy? When we worry, we lay out imagined scenarios and forecasts. Do you have imagined scenarios of homelessness, loneliness, abandonment, failure, rejection, uselessness, demotion, purposelessness, severe trials, persecution, sickness, or painful death? The more we think about our imagined forecasts, the more troubled we become.
Someone once said, “God doesn’t give us grace for our imaginations.” In other words, God does not give you grace for your imagined futures. This is one of those fundamentals we seem to always forget. Paul wrote, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God gives us grace for today, grace for what’s right in front of us. Today is
Wednesday . And today God has given us the supply of grace we need for navigating Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in (our present) tie of need.” In short, today’s mercies are for today’s troubles, not tomorrow’s imagined troubles. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help (in our very present time of) trouble.” Notice in both passages that the promises are for now, today, Wednesday. ut today, Wednesday, God hasn’t given us the grace to handle Thursday or our imaginations of Wednesday.
Stop for a second. Where has your imagination been all day? What have you been imagining about tomorrow, next week, or next year? Those imaginations have made you heavy because God doesn’t give you grace for your imagination. He doesn’t work that way. He works this way:
“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day” (Exodus 16:4).
God’s grace is like manna. Just like God gave manna to the Jews in the wilderness, God gives us “a day’s portion every day.” This is why Jesus taught us to pray to ask the Father for our “daily” bread, not “next week’s” bread in Matthew 6:11.
When we worry and fear we are a lot like chipmunks. Have you ever watched one at work? They spend their days constantly running around stuffing their cheeks full of acorns not for today, but to store up for the future. Brethren, we are not chipmunks! We don’t need to try and stuff our cheeks with today’s manna, anxiously storing up fuel for the nasty winter we imagine around the corner. God doesn’t give us grace for our imaginations; He doesn’t give us grace for our chipmunk approach to life.
Hear the good news: today God has given you today’s portion of grace. You can quit wasting Wednesday with all your imagining and cheek stuffing. If you've trusted Christ, you have a Sovereign Lord who sits on a big throne in heaven (Read Revelation 4+5), exercising detailed oversight over both your Thursday and your Friday so that you can devote your full attention to what he has called you to do today: Wednesday June 8, 2016.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
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