“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you.”
John Owens “Communion with God”

It is going on five years since I have given my life over to Christ. The more that I learn, the more I understand, the more my faith grows in Jesus Christ. One of the things that I have struggled with over my time as a Christian is that God not only, so LOVED the world, but He so loved me, that he gave His only begotten Son… (John 3:16).

I have spent most of my life isolated from the world. Only in the last 5 years or so have I really started being a bit more social. I am not very good at relationships. I am not very good at having people close to me, I struggle on how to do relationships. In a lot of ways I am very immature when it comes to dealing with people. In a word I tend to be a misanthrope, far easier to avoid and hate everyone, than have to deal with people. It is hard enough for me now to believe that I have such quality people in my life. It is even harder for me to believe that these people would befriend, and even go further to love me and call me brother.

Though I have been a Christian for the last five years I could never wrap my mind around the fact that God loved me. Just like in my relationship with people I always take the cynical route. I just couldn’t believe for any reason that God really wanted me to be part of the Kingdom. I could certainly see why God loved others, but never could understand how he could me. I often sabotage myself to fulfill the self-proclaimed “prophesy”. Sometimes even sinning, just to thumb my nose at God, and to try to put up another barrier between God and myself. To be loved has always scared me.

Coming face to face with the “burning heart” of God has destroyed all pretense that the Love of God is only for those who are better than me. God’s Word says that in love he predestined us for adoption before the foundation of the world. God knows exactly who and what I am. He knows how I am going to succeed and how I am going to fail. He chose me anyway. He didn’t choose me because of who I am, but because of who He is. Though I am not a very good Christian, a slow learner, I want to live a life that honors and glorifies God. I want to learn to be holy and be sanctified and transform from one degree of glory to another.

It is through His promises that he makes out his great, passionate, steadfast love that sustains us on the trail of holiness. Even as I struggle through some of my darkest times of depression, His love is a beacon in the darkness.

His love has brought me from death to life, and if you let Him, He will do the same for you!

Last night I wrote a blog entry that I am pretty sure no one really understood. Well that is okay. I can live with that. Most people don’t understand what I am thinking about anyway…

The point of yesterdays blog is that EVERYTHING God does is of such a huge scope that it should blow us away. I think most of us understand how bad the wrath and disapproval of sin and where that is going to lead. But do we understand the greatness of God’s love for us?

The love that God has for us is of a scope beyond our comprehension. For someone like me, who is only beginning to learn to love, learning to know what it means to be loved by friends and church family, that is scary enough as it is. All of our attempts to love each other combined in comparison to His is like a thimble full of love in comparison to His Universe full of Love which is lavished upon us (1John 3:1 ESV; I like the NIV version better) undeserved rebellious people who deserves the worst of punishments. We love, both God and others because God loved us first (1John 4:19 ESV). God’s love is as intimate as a loving father (Romans 8:15 and Hebrews 12:7,8,11) and big enough to save the world, not only the world today, but those 2000 years ago and into the future until Christ comes again (John 3:16-17)

I hope that we never become jaded enough where we the Love of God becomes a ho-hum experience. I hope we all, those that are still experiencing the newness and those who have grown up being loved by family, church and God, are still blown away at how incomprehensible God’s love for us is. I pray that when people think about God’s love, that it is not just a nice little reminder, but that it is a knee dropping, take your breath away, God praising experience.

Please tell me what part of God’s love takes your breath away and drops you to your knees in praise to God.

“Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me?”
(Jeremiah 5:22 ESV)

Come on… Fear the Lord? Who has time to fear the Lord? There are real things to worry about. I am to busy worrying about my job, how much money I have, how I am going to eat, my possessions, a new computer, how I look, how much I weigh, how I wish I had a family, how I wish I had a new car, how frustrated I am with people, what I am going to do on the weekend (by the way I could of taken a few more pages with my fears, but I figured you got the point) etc. etc. etc.

Maybe that is one of my problems… I am to busy lost in my petty little fears to realize who God is.

“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.

(Jeremiah 5:21-25 ESV)

In Jeremiah God is preparing to show the people judgment for their sin.

Do we dare look at who God is? God is the God of justice and the God of righteousness and the God of Love. Knowing how much we deserve God’s wrath for our sin and how much we deserve punishment and Hell, do we ever tremble when we read verses like these?

““For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28 ESV)

“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 8:35-39 ESV)

“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 ESV)

““Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.””
(Exodus 14:13-14 ESV)

“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.”
(Micah 7:8-9 ESVS)

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6 ESV)

““Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
(Matthew 6:25-31 ESV)

This is the God who spoke the world in to existence, this is the God who contained the Red Sea and drown the Egyptians. This is the God who day in and day out holds together the world preventing it from falling into chaos. I don’t believe God does anything casually. He didn’t decide on a whim to even at the beginning of time to decide to save us. God made a deliberate choice to love us, to take care of us, to give His Son to take our place and to take His wrath. His wrath is terrifying and yet I find it is His LOVE more than anything else that drives me to my knees and am driven to my knees trembling in fearful reverential, prayerful worship towards the Lord.

I have been awed by a couple of verses, that have been driving me to my knees in showing me God’s ultimate authority and power.

““Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10 ESV)

“You follow me!” (John 21:22 ESV)

I imagine being in conversation with Jesus, spilling out my cares and worries, and after a while Jesus says “you follow ME, now be still, and know that I am God”.

These two verses, are powerful because they do two things. First they end anxiety, worries, concerns, objections, jealousies and pride. Secondly they reminds us to take a good long hard look at who God is.

The discussion is over. The doubt is over! Faith and worship begins!

__________

Please share verses in the comments that drive you to your knees and help you to end the doubt in your mind.

There is a story in Matthew 8 of a centurion who comes to Jesus about his sick servant.

“When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”
(Matthew 8:5-10 ESV)

I have been thinking about this story for several days now because of the faith the centurion has. He understood what authority Jesus carried. He had faith and trust in that authority.

We look at the world and we worry. The economy is close to a recession. People are losing their jobs. We are concerned with the new president ready to take office. We tend to look to our selves and our government to save us from our troubles.

Do we have that faith and trust in what God has promised us?

“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 8:31-39 ESV)

The concept of substitution maybe said, then to lie at the heart of both sin and slavation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prergatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.

John Stott “The Cross of Christ”

Technorati Tags: Learning

Last night the message was about that one of the purposes; of suffering is to help us focus on being silent and with God. It helps us let go of all the shallow, banal, unimportant things in life and to focus in on the important things; God.The text we looked at was Lamentation 3. It is amazing to me to see Jeremiah how he starts looking at his suffering and then moves into the comfort of the Lord. Jeremiah states after listing off how the Lord has made him suffer; he states that the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord… Let him sit alone in silence… (Lamentations 3:25;28

I am one of those people who analyzes and questions everything.I would analyze and come up with EVERY single thing that could go wrong and count on it going wrong. This morning I ran across a verse that puts that to an end. What can I say to this?

Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10

In just a few words, God ends our questioning of him, our futile attempts at telling God how to run our lives and reminds us who HE is. He is God.

It is really time that I shut my mouth and truly know that He is God!

Technorati Tags: Awe, Bible, God, Suffering

hero |?hi(?)r?| |?hiro?| |?h??r??|

noun ( pl. -roes)

a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities : a war hero.

• the chief male character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.

• (in mythology and folklore) a person of superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one of those whose exploits and dealings with the gods were the subject of ancient Greek myths and legends.

• (also hero sandwich) another term for submarine sandwich .

Growing up I role played a lot of different super heroes. Some of my favorites were the Six Million Dollar man, Starbuck (Battle Star Galactica), Green Lantern and the Flash. I suppose it is a male thing. I wanted to be a super hero. Why not? Look at who they were. They had neat costumes, good writers, amazing powers and were out to make a difference.

Who wouldn’t want to be Bruce Wayne living the millionaire life style and then every night suiting up and playing hero. What a great way to relieve the tension of hours in the board room or suffering the cocktail parties.

When I got a little older, I always wanted to be a samurai/ninja (Yes, yes I know that is an oxymoron, someday we can discuss Japanese history if you want). I always was fascinated with martial arts (took 10 years of karate when I was young, and in shape). I liked the idea of slipping unseen into a place and kicking butt.

One of the common themes I see in all these heroes whether super hero or just movie hero is anger, rage, cold steel determination. They are fueled with anger, (The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine), or the anger drives them to fight better (Martin Riggs (Lethal Weapon), Superman, Batman, Spider man). The other thing I notice is it seems that all of the super heroes that I can think of have had to use the “evil doers” methods. They will steal, hurt, kill in order to save people, usually their loved ones.

There is one, who was something incredibly different than what we consider a hero. This man was ordinary, gentle, despised by the world, probably thought of as a coward, never stooped to someone else’s level to win a battle. He has more power than any hero before or after him, real or make believe. He fought his battles in the most unexpected ways. He used love and kindness. He confounded his contemporaries, going against every worldly thought they had. He used gentleness instead of power, he used love instead of anger. What kind of hero was he?

He allowed himself to be sacrificed in the most humiliating way.

He was whipped, and beaten

He was nailed to the cross

He hung there in pain, each nail being pounded in to his hands.

He took all the sin, all the slime that this despicable world had and embraced it to take it from the world.

He hung there and did nothing. Why didn’t he do anything?

He had power beyond belief. He didn’t have to suffer.

He hung there because he HAD to die.

He had to die in order to save us!

Christ came to save us. From the time he started his ministry (maybe from the time he was born) he had one mission that is to prepare us for the moment on the cross. He did not do this for glory. He did not do this for fame. He did it out of love and obedience. He did it to fulfill his Father’s plan of our redemption.

Christ redefines what a hero is. My hero worship only goes to one place now!

Technorati Tags: Awe, Cross, Jesus Christ

I sit here early Christmas morning beginning to comprehend the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. Jesus Christ’s physical death on the cross was heinous, gruesome and brutal. Jesus not only died physically on the cross, he took the punishment for all the sin of mankind. As Isaiah 53 describes so vividly is that “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we were healed.” In 1Corinthians Paul talks about “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God took the submissive, pure and innocent lamb and slaughtered him physically on the cross and crushed him with His wrath. That is the punishment we deserve. That is the punishment I deserve. The apostle Paul knew who we were, “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””
(Romans 3:10-18 NIV-G/K)

Jesus willingly took the punishment that we deserved. There is a word that describes what Jesus did for us it is propitiation. Propitiation means “that which appeases the wrath of God against sin.” Jesus Christ became our atoning sacrifice. His death on the cross turned aside the wrath of God.

Jerry Bridges in his book “The Discipline of Grace” describes it this way: “First God presented Him, or set Him forth as an atoning sacrifice. It is God the Father who initiated the whole plan of salvation. It is God the Father who provide the sacrifice of His Son to satisfy His justice and appease His own wrath.”

Did you catch that? God the Father KNEW he was going to have to give up his Son in order to save the wretched creatures he created.

One two cent theory is that the creation of the universe was created out of an outpouring of God’s love. God knew that by the creation of the universe we were going to need the sacrifice of His son. The plan of salvation by sacrificing His Son was created before He created the universe.

John Piper in an article called “The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God” says “The entire universe exists to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God“ Piper goes on to say that “the death of Christ in supreme suffering is the highest, clearest, surest display of the glory of the grace of God…. The suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be.

Grace has been defined as the undeserved favor of God shown to those who deserve His wrath. In simpler terms it is love. All of what God has done is about love. He created us to show us his outpouring of love. He gave us the Old Covenant Law to help us realize that we need a savior. He gave us a savior, His only Son, to rescue us from the consequences of our actions. He gives us a path towards everlasting life and fellowship with Him.

In the end, Jesus had to die on the cross in order to show us how much God, the Father and Jesus the Son loves us.

Merry Christmas and remember God’s love for us!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16 NIV-G/K)

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.”
(Ephesians 2:3-5 NIV-G/K)

Technorati Tags: Cross, Gospel, Jesus Christ

Every Sunday I go to a Remembrance Meeting. This is a time where we praise and worship God, we take the Lord’s Supper and we remember what God and Christ has done for us. I am a Christian and this is a central point of my life. Sadly, sometimes I find it very easy to gloss over what the Son of God has done for us. We are talking about the greatest tragedy, the greatest love story and the greatest victory of all time. Nothing that man has ever done, will do, or could do, could compare. My goal over the next several days is to write about the tragedy, the love story and the victory that our Savior gave us to help us remember the importance of living for Him.

Jesus, the Son of God, who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens, tempted but never sinned. He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. He came down to earth as a man, ”but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26 Philipians 2:7-8; Isaiah 53:7,9). And that is exactly what we did to Him.

In the United States, in this day and age we execute people as humanely as possible. Execution is the exception, usually taking years before it happens making sure every legal recourse is taken. Two thousand years ago, there was no such legal protection. Crucifixion was designed to produce a slow death with maximum pain and suffering. There is an article written by doctors at the Mayo Clinic and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association called “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” which details the physical trauma that the human body goes through in crucifixion. This article gives us some perspective on what a heinous death our Lord suffered. The article details how flogging was the legal preliminary to most crucifixion, the whip typically used had sharp sheep bones and iron balls braided into it. It details how scourging would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of flesh. Usually by the time the flogging is done the victim is going into shock. It talks about the condemned having to carry the cross bar (patibulum) which weighs between 75 – 100 pounds and carrying it to execution ground. The Romans then took the spikes and nailed His wrist to the cross. The positioning of the spike went through nerve and muscle would have caused excruciating pain. To prolong the crucifixion process, a horizontal block would be secured serving as a crude seat. One poignant detail to me is this statement ”The major pathophysicologic effect, beyond the excruciating pain, was a marked interference with normal exhalation…. Adequate exhaltion required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders… However this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain.“ Crucifixion was not about killing someone it was about torturing him, punishing him, death was only the end of the process.

Christ came down as the least of men, to be tortured and to die the most humiliating and painful death man could conceive. Jesus certainly didn’t have to do this, he could of stopped this at any time, he could of called legions of angels to prevent this. Why didn’t he? One answer is found in Matthew 26:53-54. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

More on this in part 2.

Technorati Tags: Cross, Gospel, Jesus Christ