I have heard many sermons and have read many books on success but I have virtually never heard anyone speak or write on failure. So this week I felt I would write on it because I feel very equipped and qualified to write on such a subject. I would consider myself one has has earned a PHD in failure.
If I could describe my life it would be in terms of failures, flops, stumbles, and fumbles. I have made big mistakes and I have done so many dumb things in my life I could write a book. I have failed willfully, foolishly, blindly, hilariously, well intentioned, pridefully, carelessly, shamefully, rebelliously, and I know that I am not alone and that every one of you has failed and will fail. It seems as inevitable as death and taxes as long as we are here on earth. Failure is something we all share in common and we all fail often. Not only that, we fail in many different ways. James 3:2 reminds us “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.”
We fail in our words, deeds, thoughts, and attitudes. Because I am a man and not yet perfect I will continue to fail until the day I die. The only guarantee against my future failures is death. Here is what I have learned in more than anything else about failure. The issue in our lives isn't whether we fail but rather whether we profit from it. The issue isn't whether I fall down, it's do I stay down. We all know how to fall down, but do we know how to get back up? Will I be built up or destroyed by it? Failure either makes us or breaks us. In his profound book “the Screw tape letters” C.S. Lewis has the devil speaking to one of his apprentice demons named wormwood say, “Get Christians preoccupied with their failures. From there the battle is won.” Though we all have failure in common, we don’t all profit from it. Some fall down and stay down, others get up and as I have heard it said, "fail forward".
How can we successfully fail?
1. LEARN FROM IT Allow failure to be your teacher. The old saying is that the road to success is paved with failure. What’s important about a mistake is what you learn from it. I love what John Wooden used to say, “It’s what you learn after you know everything that matters.” You can't learn from mistakes you don't make. Jesus honored Peter’s decision to walk on water knowing that he would sink. But He allowed him to fail because it was key to his learning and growth. He learned dependence, trust, and reliance on God alone. I have heard Moses life described like this: The first 30 years Moses thought he was somebody, the next 30 years Moses learned he was a nobody, and the last thirty years he learned that God can take nobodies and make them into somebody’s for His glory! Proverbs 24:16, "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again."
Let me tell you some of the things I’ve learned through failure: I can’t trust myself, only God; no room for pride, only humility; if I want what I deserve, I’ll get it, if I want what only God can give me, I’ll receive grace and mercy; I’ve learned mercy, compassion, and forgiveness towards others who fail.
2. LET FAILURE DRAW YOU CLOSER TO GOD Failure can be like Gordon MacDonald says, "one of those precious insightful moments when we see ourselves as we really are and see God as He really is". Remember the prodigal son and how it says, “he came to himself”? David fell like Saul, only in his failure he turned to God, repented, asked forgiveness, and was restored.
Psalm 51:1-13, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge...Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation."
Psalm 34:18, "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 40:17, "Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.
Psalm 50:15, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."
3. FORGET YOUR FAILURES Paul says in Philippians 3:13, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead."
I am learning to let my past failures become stepping stones instead of tombstones. There is a world of difference in failing lots of times verses saying “I’m a failure.’
Psalm 103:8-14 says to us, "The LORD is merciful and gracious,slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.He will not always chide,nor will he keep his anger forever.He does not deal with us according to our sins,nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." If God says He’s forgotten it, you need to as well. John reminds us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Therefore, I can get back up off the floor with confidence practicing Micah 7:7-10, "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?"
4. KEEP ON RUNNING THE RACE "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." ( Hebrews 12:1)
5. LOOK AHEAD It has been said that you cannot walk backward into the future. Paul says , "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14)."
6.LET GOD USE YOUR FAILURE FOR YOUR GOOD AND AS A LAUNCHPAD FOR HIS LIFE, MINISTRY, AND GLORY TO BE MANIFEST THROUGH YOU In this life God has committed Himself to working with failures, and in the process He brings glory to Himself and, by grace, accomplishes what is for the good of His children. God is for your success.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Philippians 1:6, "I am sure that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion." Romans 8:28-31 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Genesis 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
God knows all of your weaknesses, habits, character flaws, ineptitude, inability. He doesn’t go “oh man what am I going to do with Bill, he’s got this problem with his ____. "
Listen to what God can do it for you:
In Mark 10:27 we read, "Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Ephesians 3:20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."
God can take all of my sins, my failures, flops, and fumbles and use them all as the ingredients to achieve His glorious purposes in my life!
Remember the great failure of Peter who boasted that he would never deny Jesus and yet denied Him three times? In John 21 we get a beautiful picture of restoration and sending out:
John 21:15-19, "When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep…"Follow me!"
Human failure opens wide the door through which grace alone can enter. In the midst of shameful failure, Peter found forgiveness and restoration. God’s favor was not granted as a reward for faithfulness, but because of failure. Here is grace greater than all our sins. Romans 5:20 reminds us, "where sin abounds, grace super abounds." In short, you cannot out-sin or out-fail God’s grace!
I am convinced I am utterly unable to live the Christian life. Left to myself I will screw everything up. After 37 years my flesh is still flesh! But God is the God who takes nothing and speaks a universe into existence and takes our failures, turns them around, and brings His glory through them.
I am so encouraged by 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, "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 hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body."
God’s work cannot be accomplished by resolution, determination or self-effort—not even by a positive mental attitude. God’s work can only be done in God’s way—by our distrusting of ourselves and completely depending upon His enablement. The greatest truth you can know is what Jesus tells you in John 15:5 “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Remember what God said to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." As a result Paul could say, "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9,10)
Remember dear reader that God does not fail - "Be strong and of good courage, fear not, for the Lord thy God ... will not fail nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6).
God’s Word does not fail - "Not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed" (Joshua 23:14).
God's love and compassion do not fail - "It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because His compassion's fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22,23)
So if you have fallen down, get up and join me as together we "fail forward".
Pastor Bill
Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
THERE'S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT GOD!
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to y you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek’."
Psalm 27:1-8
In 2005 and 2006 I spent eleven days right above Panama in the southernmost part of Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula at a place called Cabo Matapalo. To get there you have to take a red eye flight on a very cramped and uncomfortable airplane. When you land in San Jose you then have to take an hour cab ride which is much like Mister Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland to get to another airport where you need to fly to get to Puerto Jimenez. From there you fly an hour of pure turbulence on a puddle-jumper prop plane. When you land in Puerto Jimenez, that is, if you survived the flight; you then take a forty five minute ride in a four wheel drive truck on a potholed, narrow, rugged road with numerous deep river crossings. Then you arrive at Matapalo and are utterly thrilled both to have survived the ordeal and to behold this place. What is it about Cabo Matapalo that makes people go through all of what I shared to get there? There must be something about Matapalo that made the pursuit worthwhile? There has to be a reason that I would be willing to go through all of that hassle. The answer is that Cabo Matapalo is right at the top of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen. The pleasant tropical weather, the density and beauty of the tropical rain forest, the uncluttered and secluded beaches, the incredible surfing, the warm 80 plus degree water, the variety of birds, monkeys, and wildlife, the solitude and quiet of only hearing the sounds of nature, are but a few of the things that attract me to this place and make me desire to go back again and again. To show you pictures, to try to describe it, will never impact you until you’ve actually been there and seen it yourself.
However, as wonderful as Matapalo is, there is nothing as breathtaking as God! What is it about God that makes him so enjoyable? What is it about God that makes our pursuit of Him a worthwhile endeavor? What is it about God that is so fascinating? What is it about God that causes people to turn from all worldly allurements and diversions to focus on knowing and seeing and experiencing Him? What is it about Him that brings in our soul emptiness for anything less than His companionship and presence? What is it that caused a man named Augustine, who indulged in every form of earthly pleasure to say “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure…Oh Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.”
There must be something about God that brings a pleasing pleasure, a longer-lasting joy, a fullness of joy, a turning from fruitless joys to finding the superior pleasure in God alone. There must be something that makes Him more appealing than what the world, the flesh, and sin have to offer. Do you feel like that this dear reader? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't and when I don't, it grieves me.
King David felt that there was just something about God in Psalm 27:4. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”.
Throughout Psalm 27 David seems to be ransacking the Hebrew language for nouns to describe this desire for God's beauty: to dwell in the house of the Lord (v.4); to inquire in his temple (v.4); in His dwelling (v.5); the shelter of His tabernacle (5-6). This desire spoken in all these ways is centered in one thing, the main thing: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the incomparable, transcendent, all satisfying, awe inspiring beauty of God.
When I speak of the beauty of God, I am speaking of His glory. When I speak of His glory. I am speaking like David of the beauty of God unveiled. Augustine rightly insisted that God is beauty itself, referring to Him as “my Father, supremely good, beauty of all things beautiful.” Glory is the external manifestation of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and feel when God goes public with His beauty.
The wonderful thing about God is that He desires us to see His beauty. He wants us to not only see it, but cherish it, enjoy it. Jonathan Edwards shows that this is the root of worship.
“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures . . . in two ways:
1. By appearing to . . . their understanding.
2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by understanding and in the heart.”
God is always manifesting His beauty in creation, in providence, in scripture, and preeminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). His purpose in radiating His beauty is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s beauty is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world. God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in his presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds, and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His beauty and glory!
For David nearness to God in order to see Him in all his beauty and glory was the only experience that could truly satisfy him. Only God could satisfy a heart like David’s and David was a man after one thing: the beauty of God. This is what we were created and redeemed for! That is why Jonathan Edwards wrote: “God’s is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by in His glory being rejoiced in.” God’s beauty satisfies the heart with joy and delight.when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension of the beauty 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.
Oh how I long for a fresh experience of seeing this beauty!!! I am praying for myself and for you that there would just be something about God that would strike our appetites, affections, desires, and priorities.
You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek’
Longing to think and feel that there is just something about God,
Pastor Bill
Psalm 27:1-8
In 2005 and 2006 I spent eleven days right above Panama in the southernmost part of Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula at a place called Cabo Matapalo. To get there you have to take a red eye flight on a very cramped and uncomfortable airplane. When you land in San Jose you then have to take an hour cab ride which is much like Mister Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland to get to another airport where you need to fly to get to Puerto Jimenez. From there you fly an hour of pure turbulence on a puddle-jumper prop plane. When you land in Puerto Jimenez, that is, if you survived the flight; you then take a forty five minute ride in a four wheel drive truck on a potholed, narrow, rugged road with numerous deep river crossings. Then you arrive at Matapalo and are utterly thrilled both to have survived the ordeal and to behold this place. What is it about Cabo Matapalo that makes people go through all of what I shared to get there? There must be something about Matapalo that made the pursuit worthwhile? There has to be a reason that I would be willing to go through all of that hassle. The answer is that Cabo Matapalo is right at the top of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen. The pleasant tropical weather, the density and beauty of the tropical rain forest, the uncluttered and secluded beaches, the incredible surfing, the warm 80 plus degree water, the variety of birds, monkeys, and wildlife, the solitude and quiet of only hearing the sounds of nature, are but a few of the things that attract me to this place and make me desire to go back again and again. To show you pictures, to try to describe it, will never impact you until you’ve actually been there and seen it yourself.
However, as wonderful as Matapalo is, there is nothing as breathtaking as God! What is it about God that makes him so enjoyable? What is it about God that makes our pursuit of Him a worthwhile endeavor? What is it about God that is so fascinating? What is it about God that causes people to turn from all worldly allurements and diversions to focus on knowing and seeing and experiencing Him? What is it about Him that brings in our soul emptiness for anything less than His companionship and presence? What is it that caused a man named Augustine, who indulged in every form of earthly pleasure to say “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure…Oh Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.”
There must be something about God that brings a pleasing pleasure, a longer-lasting joy, a fullness of joy, a turning from fruitless joys to finding the superior pleasure in God alone. There must be something that makes Him more appealing than what the world, the flesh, and sin have to offer. Do you feel like that this dear reader? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't and when I don't, it grieves me.
King David felt that there was just something about God in Psalm 27:4. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”.
Throughout Psalm 27 David seems to be ransacking the Hebrew language for nouns to describe this desire for God's beauty: to dwell in the house of the Lord (v.4); to inquire in his temple (v.4); in His dwelling (v.5); the shelter of His tabernacle (5-6). This desire spoken in all these ways is centered in one thing, the main thing: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the incomparable, transcendent, all satisfying, awe inspiring beauty of God.
When I speak of the beauty of God, I am speaking of His glory. When I speak of His glory. I am speaking like David of the beauty of God unveiled. Augustine rightly insisted that God is beauty itself, referring to Him as “my Father, supremely good, beauty of all things beautiful.” Glory is the external manifestation of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and feel when God goes public with His beauty.
The wonderful thing about God is that He desires us to see His beauty. He wants us to not only see it, but cherish it, enjoy it. Jonathan Edwards shows that this is the root of worship.
“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures . . . in two ways:
1. By appearing to . . . their understanding.
2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by understanding and in the heart.”
God is always manifesting His beauty in creation, in providence, in scripture, and preeminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). His purpose in radiating His beauty is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s beauty is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world. God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in his presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds, and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His beauty and glory!
For David nearness to God in order to see Him in all his beauty and glory was the only experience that could truly satisfy him. Only God could satisfy a heart like David’s and David was a man after one thing: the beauty of God. This is what we were created and redeemed for! That is why Jonathan Edwards wrote: “God’s is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by in His glory being rejoiced in.” God’s beauty satisfies the heart with joy and delight.when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension of the beauty 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.
Oh how I long for a fresh experience of seeing this beauty!!! I am praying for myself and for you that there would just be something about God that would strike our appetites, affections, desires, and priorities.
You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek’
Longing to think and feel that there is just something about God,
Pastor Bill
Monday, March 7, 2011
THOUGHTS ON THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AND MY SINFULNESS
“To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).
In his book Disappointment with God Phillip Yancey says, “What we think about God and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.” I would add, what we think about Justification by Faith matters- really matters-as much as anything in life matters.
Some days I forget to live on the rock-solid truth of what happened for us when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead. It grieves me that in this life we will always be sinful and imperfect. Therefore, in ourselves we will always be guilty. Some days I feel so guilty that even when I have confessed my sins I find myself in the darkness of discouragement and depression. I ask myself: Does God still love me? Am I going to heaven? Am I a Christian? Am I saved?
This why I must constantly remind myself of the reality of justification by faith. It is one of the most foundational and the most important things we do in what Paul describes as "the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12).
The biblical truth of justification says that my rescue from sin and God’s wrath is a legal rescue completely outside of myself. I am legally absolved of guilt and credited with a righteousness that I don’t have. That is, I am declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven, where God sits as judge, and where I, without justification, would stand condemned by his law. That’s what the word “justify” means: not make just, but declare just.
We are sinners and do not have a righteousness of our own. That’s why we are guilty and destined for eternal punishment. This is the deepest root of all our misery, shame, and sorrow. God’s gift of justification on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness severs this root of misery.
To make a way for us to be saved, God sent Christ to live a perfect divine-human life, and die an obedient death. In this way Christ became both the substitute punishment for our sins (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18) and the substitute performer of our righteousness (Romans 5:19; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9). Therefore, in the courtroom of God, my guilt for sin is removed by Christ’s blood (“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7); and my title to heaven is provided by Christ’s obedience (“By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). I am declared just—freed from the punishment of sin and now possessing a title to heaven. This is what the Bible means by justification.
We must remember that justification is by faith alone apart from works of the law. Paul said, “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. . . . To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5). The best news in all the world to the “ungodly,” who grieve under the cloud of darkness, shame, condemnation, unforgiveness, and guilt, is the news that God, by faith alone, counts them as righteous because of Christ. This is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the storms of darkness, guilt, shame, and condemnation come. Justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit), through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God alone (not ours).
The legal issue before God is settled. In the courtroom of heaven, we ungodly sinners are declared righteous by faith alone. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. We do not have a righteousness of our own when God accepts us; we never do. Our faith was not our righteousness. It was our desperate receiving of Christ and all that he is for us. We had not yet become righteous. Instead, with empty hands we received Christ whose faithful life of love perfectly fulfilled the law of God. By faith alone we were united to Christ. And all that he is was imputed to us, the ungodly. This is justification. This lays the axe to the root of our turning justification by faith into justification by performance. God accepts us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not ours period!
This means that right now at this moment God is 100% for you! John Piper puts it this way:
What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.
Do you hear this? God 100 % irrevocably for you?! O what a difference it makes to be assured, in the discouraging darkness of our own imperfection, that we have a perfect righteousness outside ourselves, namely Christ’s. For you and me there is a perfect, objective, external righteousness imputed to us that is not our own but Christ’s.
I love what the great John Bunyan said about the moment he came to experience and understand this precious truth:
One day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And . . . I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he [lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [about the unforgivable sin] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.”
Oh would you join Bunyan rejoicing that you see that your righteousness is outside yourself? It is in Jesus Christ! I pray that this will be your and my experience too. How? Here is where I start? I start with my despair. I mourn and grieve inside. I despair because I cannot find any answer in myself. I can find no hope, no assurance, no confidence within me and my feelings, thoughts, and self. I cease from all efforts to look inside myself for the rescue, forgiveness, assurance, and deliverance that I need. I do not allow my feelings of guilt, shame, God's disapproval, condemnation, to rule me and determine reality; I can only in desperation cast myself on Christ. I say to him, “You are my only hope. I have no righteousness in myself. I am overwhelmed with sin and guilt. I am under the wrath of God. My own conscience condemns me, and makes me miserable. I am perishing. Darkness is all about me. Jesus Christ, Son of David, Have mercy upon me a sinner. I trust you.”
Jesus has promised not to turn you away. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). By this act of faith God will unite you to Jesus. You will be “in him,” and in Him you will be now and forever loved, forgiven, and righteous in God's eye. He is for 100% for you (Romans 8:31). God will hold onto you (Jude 24). He will finish what He started in you (Phillippians 1:9). You will make it. That is his promise: “Those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). The glory is coming, you will be with Jesus in perfect sinless bodies forever and ever.
Resting in the finished work of Christ for me,
Pastor Bill
In his book Disappointment with God Phillip Yancey says, “What we think about God and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.” I would add, what we think about Justification by Faith matters- really matters-as much as anything in life matters.
Some days I forget to live on the rock-solid truth of what happened for us when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead. It grieves me that in this life we will always be sinful and imperfect. Therefore, in ourselves we will always be guilty. Some days I feel so guilty that even when I have confessed my sins I find myself in the darkness of discouragement and depression. I ask myself: Does God still love me? Am I going to heaven? Am I a Christian? Am I saved?
This why I must constantly remind myself of the reality of justification by faith. It is one of the most foundational and the most important things we do in what Paul describes as "the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12).
The biblical truth of justification says that my rescue from sin and God’s wrath is a legal rescue completely outside of myself. I am legally absolved of guilt and credited with a righteousness that I don’t have. That is, I am declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven, where God sits as judge, and where I, without justification, would stand condemned by his law. That’s what the word “justify” means: not make just, but declare just.
We are sinners and do not have a righteousness of our own. That’s why we are guilty and destined for eternal punishment. This is the deepest root of all our misery, shame, and sorrow. God’s gift of justification on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness severs this root of misery.
To make a way for us to be saved, God sent Christ to live a perfect divine-human life, and die an obedient death. In this way Christ became both the substitute punishment for our sins (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18) and the substitute performer of our righteousness (Romans 5:19; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9). Therefore, in the courtroom of God, my guilt for sin is removed by Christ’s blood (“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7); and my title to heaven is provided by Christ’s obedience (“By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). I am declared just—freed from the punishment of sin and now possessing a title to heaven. This is what the Bible means by justification.
We must remember that justification is by faith alone apart from works of the law. Paul said, “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. . . . To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5). The best news in all the world to the “ungodly,” who grieve under the cloud of darkness, shame, condemnation, unforgiveness, and guilt, is the news that God, by faith alone, counts them as righteous because of Christ. This is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the storms of darkness, guilt, shame, and condemnation come. Justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit), through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God alone (not ours).
The legal issue before God is settled. In the courtroom of heaven, we ungodly sinners are declared righteous by faith alone. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. We do not have a righteousness of our own when God accepts us; we never do. Our faith was not our righteousness. It was our desperate receiving of Christ and all that he is for us. We had not yet become righteous. Instead, with empty hands we received Christ whose faithful life of love perfectly fulfilled the law of God. By faith alone we were united to Christ. And all that he is was imputed to us, the ungodly. This is justification. This lays the axe to the root of our turning justification by faith into justification by performance. God accepts us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not ours period!
This means that right now at this moment God is 100% for you! John Piper puts it this way:
What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.
Do you hear this? God 100 % irrevocably for you?! O what a difference it makes to be assured, in the discouraging darkness of our own imperfection, that we have a perfect righteousness outside ourselves, namely Christ’s. For you and me there is a perfect, objective, external righteousness imputed to us that is not our own but Christ’s.
I love what the great John Bunyan said about the moment he came to experience and understand this precious truth:
One day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And . . . I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he [lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [about the unforgivable sin] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.”
Oh would you join Bunyan rejoicing that you see that your righteousness is outside yourself? It is in Jesus Christ! I pray that this will be your and my experience too. How? Here is where I start? I start with my despair. I mourn and grieve inside. I despair because I cannot find any answer in myself. I can find no hope, no assurance, no confidence within me and my feelings, thoughts, and self. I cease from all efforts to look inside myself for the rescue, forgiveness, assurance, and deliverance that I need. I do not allow my feelings of guilt, shame, God's disapproval, condemnation, to rule me and determine reality; I can only in desperation cast myself on Christ. I say to him, “You are my only hope. I have no righteousness in myself. I am overwhelmed with sin and guilt. I am under the wrath of God. My own conscience condemns me, and makes me miserable. I am perishing. Darkness is all about me. Jesus Christ, Son of David, Have mercy upon me a sinner. I trust you.”
Jesus has promised not to turn you away. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). By this act of faith God will unite you to Jesus. You will be “in him,” and in Him you will be now and forever loved, forgiven, and righteous in God's eye. He is for 100% for you (Romans 8:31). God will hold onto you (Jude 24). He will finish what He started in you (Phillippians 1:9). You will make it. That is his promise: “Those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). The glory is coming, you will be with Jesus in perfect sinless bodies forever and ever.
Resting in the finished work of Christ for me,
Pastor Bill
Monday, February 21, 2011
THE LOSS AND GAIN OF EXPECTATIONS
"My soul, wait silently for God alone,for my expectation is from Him." Psalm 62:5 NKJV
Ten months ago my life was a peaceful rhythm of confident expectations. I expected to grow old and have a happy life with my wife. I expected to pastor my church till I died.I expected my finances to remain stable and to live a comfortable life. I expected to have a great year after the year I had had before. Then suddenly my expectations were all shattered. I lost my marriage, I gave up my church, I lost my income, and ended up having the worst year of my life.
Shattered still to this day, I have wondered if I can expect the same expectations of the life I once had before and have now lost, considering the death of all the things that had made my life what it was. Now I find that I do not know what I can possibly expect out of life. It is hard to look forward to a life that seems like it will fall far short of what I planned, wanted,or expected. To think that life can still be good seems almost irreverent to me at times. I ask myself, how can my life be good without the people or the conditions that once promised to make it good? Frankly, having high expectations seems overconfident, foolish, and absurd to me at times.
But then, I ask myself, is that really true? Am I foolish or naive to think that my life can still be good? Can my expectations remain high? I think that they can remain as high as they were before all that I lost if I am willing to change my focus.
I cannot expect to grow old with my wife for that path is closed to me. I cannot expect to pastor my old church because that path is closed to me. I cannot expect the old life that I once lived. There are other expectations as well that if I hold onto them, I will or may be deeply disappointed.
But...perhaps, if God is God, I can expect something else that is equally good and new and fresh, only different. If I place my expectation in a loving, purposeful, merciful, God, my expectations can remain high if I am willing to adapt them to my new set of circumstances that He has allowed or placed me into.
This is not easy for me at all. Because of the loses that I have suffered I find it very difficult to keep my expectations high. I prefer the way my life once was even though now I look at it with new eyes and realize it was not a s good as I thought it was. Therefore, I have hesitated and struggled to believe my life can be good now. Here is what I have learned about my struggle with expectations:
Often times my sense of meaning to my life, my happiness, and inner tranquility are dependent upon circumstantial and environmental factors-good health, happy marriage, nice home, economic security, structured life, meaningful work, close friendships.
My losses have revealed to me the dominant role that these things have played into determining my own happiness. Loss has stripped me of everything I rely on for my well being. It has knocked me on my back. It has brought me to the end of myself.
But in coming to the end of myself, in my tears, loneliness, and brokenness,I am learning to go deeper in my relationship with God. I am learning to not expect nor put confidence in circumstances, environment, people, and my own expectations, but to do as David who said in Psalm 62
"Truly my soul silently waits for God;From Him comes my salvation.He only is my rock and my salvation;He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved...My soul, wait silently for God alone,For my expectation is from Him.He only is my rock and my salvation;He is my defense; I shall not be moved.In God is my salvation and my glory;The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.Trust in Him at all times, you people;Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." (Psalm 62:1-2,5-8)
Oh how easy it is to take favorable circumstances for granted! My losses have brought out anger, ingratitude, depression and have exposed my weakness of soul that depends upon external factors for my well being.
I am now searching for a new life, one that depends less on circumstances and more on a depth of soul living on God and trusting in Him. He is one who says in Ephesians 4:32 that He is "able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." With God reality may be much more than we ever thought it could be. he is one who loves us dearly and passionately and who says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." In coming to the end of myself, I am newly learning to hold onto in my expectations, one who is moving me and my life forward to wonderful and higher purposes in spite of what i see or feel or hope or dream.
So here I am learning simply to be whether we are divorced, ill, unemployed, widowed, abused, sick, or even dying. We can trust and expect in a God who loves us in our broken bodies and souls, our confusing thoughts, and our troubled emotions. We can trust that though life may not be what it once was, life can still be good and perhaps even better, just not the way it once was.
So, like Paul "the one thing I do, I forget what lies behind and press on to the high mark of my calling." (Philippians 3:13)
Learning to expect only in Him,
Pastor Bill
Ten months ago my life was a peaceful rhythm of confident expectations. I expected to grow old and have a happy life with my wife. I expected to pastor my church till I died.I expected my finances to remain stable and to live a comfortable life. I expected to have a great year after the year I had had before. Then suddenly my expectations were all shattered. I lost my marriage, I gave up my church, I lost my income, and ended up having the worst year of my life.
Shattered still to this day, I have wondered if I can expect the same expectations of the life I once had before and have now lost, considering the death of all the things that had made my life what it was. Now I find that I do not know what I can possibly expect out of life. It is hard to look forward to a life that seems like it will fall far short of what I planned, wanted,or expected. To think that life can still be good seems almost irreverent to me at times. I ask myself, how can my life be good without the people or the conditions that once promised to make it good? Frankly, having high expectations seems overconfident, foolish, and absurd to me at times.
But then, I ask myself, is that really true? Am I foolish or naive to think that my life can still be good? Can my expectations remain high? I think that they can remain as high as they were before all that I lost if I am willing to change my focus.
I cannot expect to grow old with my wife for that path is closed to me. I cannot expect to pastor my old church because that path is closed to me. I cannot expect the old life that I once lived. There are other expectations as well that if I hold onto them, I will or may be deeply disappointed.
But...perhaps, if God is God, I can expect something else that is equally good and new and fresh, only different. If I place my expectation in a loving, purposeful, merciful, God, my expectations can remain high if I am willing to adapt them to my new set of circumstances that He has allowed or placed me into.
This is not easy for me at all. Because of the loses that I have suffered I find it very difficult to keep my expectations high. I prefer the way my life once was even though now I look at it with new eyes and realize it was not a s good as I thought it was. Therefore, I have hesitated and struggled to believe my life can be good now. Here is what I have learned about my struggle with expectations:
Often times my sense of meaning to my life, my happiness, and inner tranquility are dependent upon circumstantial and environmental factors-good health, happy marriage, nice home, economic security, structured life, meaningful work, close friendships.
My losses have revealed to me the dominant role that these things have played into determining my own happiness. Loss has stripped me of everything I rely on for my well being. It has knocked me on my back. It has brought me to the end of myself.
But in coming to the end of myself, in my tears, loneliness, and brokenness,I am learning to go deeper in my relationship with God. I am learning to not expect nor put confidence in circumstances, environment, people, and my own expectations, but to do as David who said in Psalm 62
"Truly my soul silently waits for God;From Him comes my salvation.He only is my rock and my salvation;He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved...My soul, wait silently for God alone,For my expectation is from Him.He only is my rock and my salvation;He is my defense; I shall not be moved.In God is my salvation and my glory;The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.Trust in Him at all times, you people;Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." (Psalm 62:1-2,5-8)
Oh how easy it is to take favorable circumstances for granted! My losses have brought out anger, ingratitude, depression and have exposed my weakness of soul that depends upon external factors for my well being.
I am now searching for a new life, one that depends less on circumstances and more on a depth of soul living on God and trusting in Him. He is one who says in Ephesians 4:32 that He is "able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." With God reality may be much more than we ever thought it could be. he is one who loves us dearly and passionately and who says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." In coming to the end of myself, I am newly learning to hold onto in my expectations, one who is moving me and my life forward to wonderful and higher purposes in spite of what i see or feel or hope or dream.
So here I am learning simply to be whether we are divorced, ill, unemployed, widowed, abused, sick, or even dying. We can trust and expect in a God who loves us in our broken bodies and souls, our confusing thoughts, and our troubled emotions. We can trust that though life may not be what it once was, life can still be good and perhaps even better, just not the way it once was.
So, like Paul "the one thing I do, I forget what lies behind and press on to the high mark of my calling." (Philippians 3:13)
Learning to expect only in Him,
Pastor Bill
Monday, February 14, 2011
YOU ARE GREATLY LOVED
What keeps us going when times are tough? When circumstances tell you that you are alone? Abandoned? Forsaken? Rejected? One way is to know that we are “greatly loved.”
Do you feel loved by God today? Some days I don't. Often times I measure His love for me by how well I perform and live the Christian life. Other times I measure it by whether or not I feel His love for me. this of course is conditioned by my emotional history, my circumstances, my mental and emotional health, and how I understand Him.
How do you know if God loves you? The place that I constantly must return to is His word. In the book of Daniel we read of the difficulties Daniel had faced and of the future difficulties that God told him he was going to face.
Three times an angel tells Daniel he is “greatly loved.”
"You are greatly loved.” (Daniel 9:23)
“O Daniel, man greatly loved.” (Daniel 10:11)
"O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” (Daniel 10:19)
Do you hear this? Daniel is not just told by God that he is liked by God. Daniel is not told that he is loved by God. Rather, God wants to make sure Daniel knows and feels the magnitude of how God feels about him by saying: YOU ARE GREATLY LOVED!
The love of God is a great power in the midst of difficult times.
Everyone who believes in Christ is meant to experience the same love:
“But God...because of the great love with which he loved us...made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Oh reader, you are loved with “great love”—divine love, omnipotent love, omniscient love, unstoppable love, eternal love.
May the Lord open your eyes to see this, hear this, and feel this precious truth.
May you “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:18-19).
The word of the Lord for you this day is:
"You (put your name here) are greatly loved."
“Oh, (put your name here), man or woman greatly loved.”
"O man or woman greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage."
Let these words sink into your heart, mind, and soul. Let them wash your mind and emotions. Let them rise you above how people have and are treating you. Let them cast away the lies about how you feel that God feels about you. Let them make you out of reach of your enemies and circumstances. Let them be the power by which thrusts you into your work and your day and your trials and your ministry. Let it be the sword you weld against bad news and difficult times.
"He brought me to the banqueting house,and his banner over me was love." Song of Solomon 2:4
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:28-39
Marveling that God loves me and me and strengthened in that reality,
Pastor Bill
Do you feel loved by God today? Some days I don't. Often times I measure His love for me by how well I perform and live the Christian life. Other times I measure it by whether or not I feel His love for me. this of course is conditioned by my emotional history, my circumstances, my mental and emotional health, and how I understand Him.
How do you know if God loves you? The place that I constantly must return to is His word. In the book of Daniel we read of the difficulties Daniel had faced and of the future difficulties that God told him he was going to face.
Three times an angel tells Daniel he is “greatly loved.”
"You are greatly loved.” (Daniel 9:23)
“O Daniel, man greatly loved.” (Daniel 10:11)
"O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” (Daniel 10:19)
Do you hear this? Daniel is not just told by God that he is liked by God. Daniel is not told that he is loved by God. Rather, God wants to make sure Daniel knows and feels the magnitude of how God feels about him by saying: YOU ARE GREATLY LOVED!
The love of God is a great power in the midst of difficult times.
Everyone who believes in Christ is meant to experience the same love:
“But God...because of the great love with which he loved us...made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Oh reader, you are loved with “great love”—divine love, omnipotent love, omniscient love, unstoppable love, eternal love.
May the Lord open your eyes to see this, hear this, and feel this precious truth.
May you “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:18-19).
The word of the Lord for you this day is:
"You (put your name here) are greatly loved."
“Oh, (put your name here), man or woman greatly loved.”
"O man or woman greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage."
Let these words sink into your heart, mind, and soul. Let them wash your mind and emotions. Let them rise you above how people have and are treating you. Let them cast away the lies about how you feel that God feels about you. Let them make you out of reach of your enemies and circumstances. Let them be the power by which thrusts you into your work and your day and your trials and your ministry. Let it be the sword you weld against bad news and difficult times.
"He brought me to the banqueting house,and his banner over me was love." Song of Solomon 2:4
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:28-39
Marveling that God loves me and me and strengthened in that reality,
Pastor Bill
Monday, February 7, 2011
GRACE:NEVER TO GOOD TO NEED IT NOR NEVER TOO BAD TO RECEIVE IT
"...so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:7-8
Do you think you are above the need for grace because you are so good, so moral, so devout, so much better than most people? Or perhaps, do you feel that you are too bad to be able to receive grace in your life? I have discovered, both in my own life and in counseling others for 34 years, that left to ourselves, we think we are either too good to need grace or too bad to receive it.
This morning I read David Paulison on this matter and he has given me lots to think about in this pervasive battle. So this week I take some of what he has written and a few of my thoughts to help you to be amazed again by grace!
Are you too good to need a major redemption? Do you know someone or live with someone who is “above” needing Christ?
Do you work with someone who lives for himself or herself: who feels superiority to others, who is full of self-pity, who has greedy cravings for more and better stuff, who holds well-nursed grievances, who constantly is chasing pipe dreams of success and happiness?
Grace pesters, perturbs, points to, and pursues us—it is grace, after all, that makes me even aware that sin is my deepest problem. Grace reveals that without it I am in serious trouble before God.
Are you a person who has contempt for someone else?
A person who has written off someone as a hopeless case?
A parent who frets or seethes at your children?
A person whose life is stained by disgruntlement because you’ve been shafted by life?
Grace wakes you up to your need for grace. You were dead and dark (2:1-3; 5:8). God made you alive (2:4-10). Don’t go back into darkness (4:17-19). Walk in light (5:9-20).
Perhaps you have been sinned against terribly.
Perhaps your own selfishness and sense of entitlement make you magnify minor offenses into capital crimes.
Perhaps your own sins provoked others to retaliate sinfully, reaping what you sow.
In any case, the riches of mercy for you can make you merciful to others. The wealth of forgiveness can make you forgiving to others. The depth of God's love can make you a lover of others.
Grace turns you upside down: the self-righteous and destructive become the grateful and constructive. Grace turns bitter and resentful and merciless to become kind, forgiving, and forbearing.
Are you too bad to receive grace?
Grace woos and comforts us when we think we are too far gone to be rescued.
How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?
Perhaps you are tempted to despair about yourself.
Perhaps someone you know is tempted to give up: “God could not possibly love me or help me. My failures are too much, too often, too strong. My sins are incurable. My situation is hopeless. I’m stuck and will never change. God is as disgusted with me as I am disgusted with myself.”
Is there anyone whose badness exceeds the diagnosis God makes of each of us?
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
If the diagnostic shoe fits, wear it. But then look at the wonderful, specific cure!
Is there anyone whose badness is so bad that it exceeds the scope and power of the cure?
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4f).
God lavishes grace on us in Christ.
Paul Tripp says,
Grace will make you finally acknowledge that you cannot earn God's favor, and it will once and for all remove your fear of not measuring up to his standards. Grace will humble you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had ever imagined. You can be sure that grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down.
Grace will enable you to face shocking truths about yourself that you have hesitated to consider, while freeing you from being self-consciously introspective. Grace will confront you with profound weaknesses, and at the same time bless you with new-found strength. Grace will tell you again and again what you aren't, while welcoming you again and again to what you can now be. Grace will make you as uncomfortable as you have ever been, while offering you a more lasting comfort than you have never before known .
Grace will work to drive you to the end of yourself, while it invites you to fresh starts and new beginnings. Grace will dash your ill-founded hopes, but never walk away and leave you hopeless. Grace will decimate your little kingdom of one as it introduces you to a much, much better King. Grace will expose to you the extent of your blindness as it gives you eyes to see what you so desperately need to see. Grace will make you sadder than you have ever been, while it gives you greater cause for celebration than you have ever known.
Grace enters your life in a moment and will occupy you for eternity. You simply cannot live a productive life in this broken-down world unless you have a practical grasp of the grace you have been given.
Are you living out of this amazing grace? Does it shape the way you respond to your personal struggles, your relationships, and your work? Does your trust in this grace form how you live with your husband or wife? Does it propel the way you parent your children? Does it give you comfort when friends have disappointed you? Does it give you rest when life is unpredictable and hard? Does it make you bold and give you courage in places where you would have once been timid? Does it make the idols that tempt you less attractive and less powerful? Do you wake up and say, "I don't know what I will face today, but this I do know: I have been given amazing grace to face it right here, right now."
May God help you to understand and rest in the grace that you have been given!
You are never too good to not need grace and you are never too bad to receive grace!
Amazed again by grace,
Pastor Bill
Do you think you are above the need for grace because you are so good, so moral, so devout, so much better than most people? Or perhaps, do you feel that you are too bad to be able to receive grace in your life? I have discovered, both in my own life and in counseling others for 34 years, that left to ourselves, we think we are either too good to need grace or too bad to receive it.
This morning I read David Paulison on this matter and he has given me lots to think about in this pervasive battle. So this week I take some of what he has written and a few of my thoughts to help you to be amazed again by grace!
Are you too good to need a major redemption? Do you know someone or live with someone who is “above” needing Christ?
Do you work with someone who lives for himself or herself: who feels superiority to others, who is full of self-pity, who has greedy cravings for more and better stuff, who holds well-nursed grievances, who constantly is chasing pipe dreams of success and happiness?
Grace pesters, perturbs, points to, and pursues us—it is grace, after all, that makes me even aware that sin is my deepest problem. Grace reveals that without it I am in serious trouble before God.
Are you a person who has contempt for someone else?
A person who has written off someone as a hopeless case?
A parent who frets or seethes at your children?
A person whose life is stained by disgruntlement because you’ve been shafted by life?
Grace wakes you up to your need for grace. You were dead and dark (2:1-3; 5:8). God made you alive (2:4-10). Don’t go back into darkness (4:17-19). Walk in light (5:9-20).
Perhaps you have been sinned against terribly.
Perhaps your own selfishness and sense of entitlement make you magnify minor offenses into capital crimes.
Perhaps your own sins provoked others to retaliate sinfully, reaping what you sow.
In any case, the riches of mercy for you can make you merciful to others. The wealth of forgiveness can make you forgiving to others. The depth of God's love can make you a lover of others.
Grace turns you upside down: the self-righteous and destructive become the grateful and constructive. Grace turns bitter and resentful and merciless to become kind, forgiving, and forbearing.
Are you too bad to receive grace?
Grace woos and comforts us when we think we are too far gone to be rescued.
How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?
Perhaps you are tempted to despair about yourself.
Perhaps someone you know is tempted to give up: “God could not possibly love me or help me. My failures are too much, too often, too strong. My sins are incurable. My situation is hopeless. I’m stuck and will never change. God is as disgusted with me as I am disgusted with myself.”
Is there anyone whose badness exceeds the diagnosis God makes of each of us?
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
If the diagnostic shoe fits, wear it. But then look at the wonderful, specific cure!
Is there anyone whose badness is so bad that it exceeds the scope and power of the cure?
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4f).
God lavishes grace on us in Christ.
Paul Tripp says,
Grace will make you finally acknowledge that you cannot earn God's favor, and it will once and for all remove your fear of not measuring up to his standards. Grace will humble you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had ever imagined. You can be sure that grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down.
Grace will enable you to face shocking truths about yourself that you have hesitated to consider, while freeing you from being self-consciously introspective. Grace will confront you with profound weaknesses, and at the same time bless you with new-found strength. Grace will tell you again and again what you aren't, while welcoming you again and again to what you can now be. Grace will make you as uncomfortable as you have ever been, while offering you a more lasting comfort than you have never before known .
Grace will work to drive you to the end of yourself, while it invites you to fresh starts and new beginnings. Grace will dash your ill-founded hopes, but never walk away and leave you hopeless. Grace will decimate your little kingdom of one as it introduces you to a much, much better King. Grace will expose to you the extent of your blindness as it gives you eyes to see what you so desperately need to see. Grace will make you sadder than you have ever been, while it gives you greater cause for celebration than you have ever known.
Grace enters your life in a moment and will occupy you for eternity. You simply cannot live a productive life in this broken-down world unless you have a practical grasp of the grace you have been given.
Are you living out of this amazing grace? Does it shape the way you respond to your personal struggles, your relationships, and your work? Does your trust in this grace form how you live with your husband or wife? Does it propel the way you parent your children? Does it give you comfort when friends have disappointed you? Does it give you rest when life is unpredictable and hard? Does it make you bold and give you courage in places where you would have once been timid? Does it make the idols that tempt you less attractive and less powerful? Do you wake up and say, "I don't know what I will face today, but this I do know: I have been given amazing grace to face it right here, right now."
May God help you to understand and rest in the grace that you have been given!
You are never too good to not need grace and you are never too bad to receive grace!
Amazed again by grace,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
WHEN LIFE MAKES NO SENSE AND SEEMS OUT OF CONTROL
"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations." Psalm 33:10-11 ESV
What do you do when your world falls apart? When you lose a spouse? A job? A child? A friend? A dream? Do you feel like your life is under the control of people's decisions over you? Circumstances? Chance? Fate? The government? The courts? Your boss? Do you fear that decisions that you have made have irrevocably affected your future? Do you find yourself in a sea of regret from your past or looking ahead to a scary, dark, and uncertain future? Do voices in your mind or do people tell you that it is all up to you and that depresses and frightens you? How do we make sense of all these things? Do you feel defeated and discouraged about your present and your future?
All of these things have at one time or the other played in my mind these past nine months of my life. I lost my marriage, my ministry, my income, my support system, and finally my health last year. There were many moments where I felt on the brink of despair with feelings that my life was completely out of control and a ruled by nothing but outside forces. Many times it felt as if God had utterly abandoned me and left me to myself and to the control of others. Looking within and looking all around I could see absolutely no light. My grief was so deep and my brokenness of such magnitude that I thought I could not go on another day. My future seemed hopeless and all the tools I used to rely on seemed pathetically useless. All my inner strength, my survivoal instincts, my tenacious personality,my focus, my self discipline, my ahtletic delayed gratification all failed me. There were moments when all I could see was through the lens of my circumstances and emotions and I felt lost, broken, fearful, abandoned, helpless, powerless, and alone to a bleak future.
But, I want to tell you a secret that has sustained me and kept me going no matter what I see or feel. I have anchored my life in the nature of God; the character of God as revealed to me in the scriptures. I have grounded my life in the truth of God no matter what I see, think, or feel and it has made all the difference for me.
These are the truths of God that I repeatedly go back to and preach to myself over and over again to keep people, circumstances, my emotions, and life from determining reality for me. Jesus said that "if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32).
1. The truth is that God is in control of my life, of all circumstances, all people, and that nothing and no one can thwart His purposes or act outside of his purposes.
No matter what decisions people are making, no matter what trouble comes my way, no matter what pain I may feel I will cling to Him and trust in His love, His sovereignty, and His wisdom. He is the rock to which my suffering heart must cling.
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.(Proverbs 16:9)
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. (Proverbs 21:30)
Who has spoken and it came to pass,unless the Lord has commanded it? (Lamentations 3:37)
2. Neither the willful, malicious decisions of other, the unintended mistakes of others, nor my own sinful decisions and failings can thwart God's purpose for me.No detail of my life is insignificant for your heavenly Father's attention. No circumstance is too big for Him to control it.
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.(Proverbs 21:30)
I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)
3. God is invisibly arranging circumstances and human actions to accomplish His purposes for you.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:3-4)
4. No plan of God for you can be thwarted. God does as He pleases and ONLY as He pleases. All of His plans are perfect in love and wisdom.
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.(Psalm 115:3)
I know that you can do all things,and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted(Job 42:2)
For the LORD of hosts has purposed,and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back. (Isaiah 14:27)
Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand;I work, and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 43:13)
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose(Isaiah 46:10)
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35)
5. God not only has a purpose and plan for you, He also has the power to carry out that plan.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.(Romans 8:29)
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me(Psalm 138:8)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope(Jeremiah 29:11)
6.God is never surprised, never caught off guard, never frustrated by unexpected developments. He is sovereign over both the good and bad in my life.
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him(Ecclesiastes 7:14)
I form light and create darkness,I make well-being and create calamity,I am the LORD, who does all these things(Isaiah 45:7)
So dear reader, let these truths be the rock solid places to root your soul when the ground all around you is shaking. "When all around me gives sway, this is my hope and my stay." These are the ballast for your boat when the storms are raging. These are the weapons you can raise up against feelings, opinions, half truths, emotions, and lies about you, your life, your future, and God's unchanging love and unwavering purpose for you. These are what can empower you to glorify Him in all your life no matter what happens to you. These are the truths that you can fill your soul so that your circumstances, people, and your failings do not bring death to your soul and your hope; but instead letting God be God and letting His word transform you with life, faith, hope, courage, and joy as you look at Him, the loving, wise, sovereign one.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22)
What do you do when your world falls apart? When you lose a spouse? A job? A child? A friend? A dream? Do you feel like your life is under the control of people's decisions over you? Circumstances? Chance? Fate? The government? The courts? Your boss? Do you fear that decisions that you have made have irrevocably affected your future? Do you find yourself in a sea of regret from your past or looking ahead to a scary, dark, and uncertain future? Do voices in your mind or do people tell you that it is all up to you and that depresses and frightens you? How do we make sense of all these things? Do you feel defeated and discouraged about your present and your future?
All of these things have at one time or the other played in my mind these past nine months of my life. I lost my marriage, my ministry, my income, my support system, and finally my health last year. There were many moments where I felt on the brink of despair with feelings that my life was completely out of control and a ruled by nothing but outside forces. Many times it felt as if God had utterly abandoned me and left me to myself and to the control of others. Looking within and looking all around I could see absolutely no light. My grief was so deep and my brokenness of such magnitude that I thought I could not go on another day. My future seemed hopeless and all the tools I used to rely on seemed pathetically useless. All my inner strength, my survivoal instincts, my tenacious personality,my focus, my self discipline, my ahtletic delayed gratification all failed me. There were moments when all I could see was through the lens of my circumstances and emotions and I felt lost, broken, fearful, abandoned, helpless, powerless, and alone to a bleak future.
But, I want to tell you a secret that has sustained me and kept me going no matter what I see or feel. I have anchored my life in the nature of God; the character of God as revealed to me in the scriptures. I have grounded my life in the truth of God no matter what I see, think, or feel and it has made all the difference for me.
These are the truths of God that I repeatedly go back to and preach to myself over and over again to keep people, circumstances, my emotions, and life from determining reality for me. Jesus said that "if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32).
1. The truth is that God is in control of my life, of all circumstances, all people, and that nothing and no one can thwart His purposes or act outside of his purposes.
No matter what decisions people are making, no matter what trouble comes my way, no matter what pain I may feel I will cling to Him and trust in His love, His sovereignty, and His wisdom. He is the rock to which my suffering heart must cling.
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.(Proverbs 16:9)
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. (Proverbs 21:30)
Who has spoken and it came to pass,unless the Lord has commanded it? (Lamentations 3:37)
2. Neither the willful, malicious decisions of other, the unintended mistakes of others, nor my own sinful decisions and failings can thwart God's purpose for me.No detail of my life is insignificant for your heavenly Father's attention. No circumstance is too big for Him to control it.
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.(Proverbs 21:30)
I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)
3. God is invisibly arranging circumstances and human actions to accomplish His purposes for you.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:3-4)
4. No plan of God for you can be thwarted. God does as He pleases and ONLY as He pleases. All of His plans are perfect in love and wisdom.
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.(Psalm 115:3)
I know that you can do all things,and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted(Job 42:2)
For the LORD of hosts has purposed,and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back. (Isaiah 14:27)
Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand;I work, and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 43:13)
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose(Isaiah 46:10)
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35)
5. God not only has a purpose and plan for you, He also has the power to carry out that plan.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.(Romans 8:29)
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me(Psalm 138:8)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope(Jeremiah 29:11)
6.God is never surprised, never caught off guard, never frustrated by unexpected developments. He is sovereign over both the good and bad in my life.
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him(Ecclesiastes 7:14)
I form light and create darkness,I make well-being and create calamity,I am the LORD, who does all these things(Isaiah 45:7)
So dear reader, let these truths be the rock solid places to root your soul when the ground all around you is shaking. "When all around me gives sway, this is my hope and my stay." These are the ballast for your boat when the storms are raging. These are the weapons you can raise up against feelings, opinions, half truths, emotions, and lies about you, your life, your future, and God's unchanging love and unwavering purpose for you. These are what can empower you to glorify Him in all your life no matter what happens to you. These are the truths that you can fill your soul so that your circumstances, people, and your failings do not bring death to your soul and your hope; but instead letting God be God and letting His word transform you with life, faith, hope, courage, and joy as you look at Him, the loving, wise, sovereign one.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22)
Anchoring myself in His love, wisdom, and absolute sovereignty,
Pastor Bill
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