He Meets Us

Nothing argues as fiercely against the presence of God as the unbending hardships we face.  They press against us like pointed spears and we wonder when our deliverance will come.  We wait and pray and cry out for help and yet the oppression remains and we wonder what sort of God would allow what we face.  The Christian community is filled with silent mourners who have grown weary of praying.  Sometimes they rise up against God and bitterly denounce Him.  Other times they simply sneer when given spiritual platitudes that sound good only in theory.  Our world is broken and filled with shame and sorrow and we must face the facts as they are.  Our children's hearts are rubbed raw by their disappointments and our friends sigh without relief in sight.  Is it any wonder that God is ignored today in the very circles where we would expect His name to be praised?  There is within us though a cry rising up; a mourning hope that waits for God with the expectancy of a child.  Like the blind man on the side of the road calling out to Jesus, we wait also for Him.  With the prayer of the woman whose bleeding nearly drove her mad, we reach out to Christ.  The amazing part of God that we overlook is that He too was, as the King James translation puts it, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."  (Isaiah 53:3)  In the Garden of Gethsemane our Lord admitted to His disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  (Matthew 26: 38 NIV)  God did not drop us down into a universe where suffering and sorrow continue and refuse to let them both hammer Him also.  As David silently hid in the cave with his men, Christ also huddles with us in our sorrow and pain and waits with us for it to end.  The day is coming when we shall exclaim triumphantly that we are "more than conquerors through Him who loved us" but for now the faith of many is weak and the suffering brought on by a sin marred and Satan infiltrated world stands opposed to our victory cry.  The miracle of our Lord's crucifixion and resurrection is that our Savior is not aloof and His encouragement not mere cliché.  We too shall overcome this world and in the dark of night, our Lord comes to us with a tender touch of love and comfort that somehow carries us past our sorrow and lifts our spirits with supernatural joy and peace.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.      John 14:27 NIV

The Worthiness of Jesus Hearing

Malachi 3:16 NIV

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.

How Important Is Listening?

The other day I went to get my haircut and after getting me seated in my chair, the hairstylist took a look at what she had before her and told me I had great hair.  Now, I know that I am an old man with gray popping up everywhere and I have been shown how my hair is thinning in the back of my head but I must admit I kind of strutted a bit after I heard that comment.  I felt younger, handsomer and more impressive yet nothing about me had changed.  I was the exact same person I was before I got my haircut with the same list of accomplishments and failures, the same talents and abilities and the same looks but on this day I heard that I had a “great head of hair” and it made a difference.

What is it that you love hearing most?  Is it a compliment?  Would it be the sound of laughter or a baby cooing?  How high on your list would be jazz music or classical music or rock or rap?  Do you love the sound of wood crackling in a fireplace or popcorn popping just before it is ready or the gurgling sound of a mountain stream?  Maybe it’s the roar of the ocean, a good story or a podcast?  Perhaps it is the sound of birds singing or the Bible being read aloud.  Do you love the sound of your children’s voices, of your husband or wife on the phone?  Do you like to hear the sound of thunder or rain drops or the quiet stir of snow falling?  Do you recall hearing the sound of your baby’s heartbeat for the first time or the interviewer telling you that you got the job?  Do you have a favorite sound of all time?  How important is listening to you?

The Bible often speaks of God hearing.  The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. (Psalm 6:9 NIV)  Again in the Psalms we see, In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (Psalm 18:6 NIV)  And in Psalm 40: 1 is the declaration, I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. (NIV)  Because God is Spirit, it is perhaps a bit strange to think of God hearing as a person hears but we must remember that all the language of the Old Testament that gives God the same characteristics as humankind possess are prophetic of what is to come; that one day God would indeed have the very features of people because our Lord was to become flesh and dwell among us.  (Consider John 1: 14)

When our Lord did become flesh, His ability to hear was human in every way.  Just a few examples will illustrate what we mean here.  A Roman centurion approached Jesus begging him to heal his ailing servant.  Jesus offered to go with the centurion and heal the servant at the centurion’s home but the centurion responded to this offer in a stunning way.  The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed…When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8:8.10 NIV)  Jesus, just like you or I heard the centurion’s reaction to Jesus’ offer and reacted to what He heard.  Another example and we will make our point regarding our Lord.  In John 9 is the interesting account of a man born blind who was healed by Jesus.  The religious leaders in Jerusalem were not happy with how the man who had been healed answered their questions regarding Jesus and the miracle and would not let the man have access to the synagogue.  Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" (John 9:35 NIV)

In both cases and in every example we can find of Jesus hearing something said, He heard just like we do.  There is no evidence, as far as we can find, that Jesus had any supernatural power to know in advance what was going to be told Him.  He reacted just like we do to news we hear.  It was in real time as it was happening.  Jesus was astonished, just like we would be at new news He received regarding the spoken faith of the centurion.  When the man He healed was thrown out of the synagogue and Jesus heard about it, our Lord went and found him.  Like us, Jesus heard for the first time a wide range of statements and ideas and accounts and when He heard them, He had to process like we do what He heard.  He did not have ten thousand years to think about what He already knew.  It was for Him as a man fresh every time, the words He heard.  God experienced what it is like for us to hear something, be shocked by it, excited by it, amused by it, saddened by it, appalled by it and then have to think through what He heard.  That is an amazing revelation of Scripture.  God had ears just like us, a mind just like us and He had to process what He heard just like we process it.  We know how hard it is to figure out what to do with what we hear when we hear it.  God also knows how hard it is because He has faced the struggle Himself to take what He has just heard and decide what to do with the new information He has gained.

In Genesis 2 and 3 we have the first descriptions of hearing occurring.  Some sort of hearing is discussed in Genesis 2.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17 NIV)  It would seem that because everything in this passage is physical and not spiritual: Adam put into a physical garden and directed to do the physical work there of taking care of the garden and then given a command about the physical act of not eating fruit from a particular physical tree that the talking that takes place was also physical but we cannot say for certain.  It certainly seems like God was speaking to Adam in a normal physical way and Adam heard Him in a normal physical way.  Later in chapter 3 a physical being spoke to Eve, a serpent.  That physical creature asked Eve a critical question that Eve answered.  "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NIV)  Eve knew what the serpent said and responded to what she heard.  "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3 NIV)

This is precisely what God did say to Adam and so Adam had to have repeated this to Eve who heard it.  The conversation ends with the serpent insisting that God was wrong about them dying if they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden and that what they didn’t realize was that the fruit from the tree would make it so that like God they would know the difference between good and evil.  Eve of course did eat the forbidden fruit and so did Adam and immediately their eyes were opened but not as they hoped.  It was horrible for them.  Sin completely wrecked their personalities and they were ashamed of their nakedness. The way Adam and Eve processed information was ruined by the Sin they committed and no longer could they think how God built them to think.  They were broken people.  How they processed what they heard next is telling.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:8-9 NIV)

There is in this a fascinating admission in Scripture.  There was a time when God allowed Himself to be physically heard by people.  Adam and Eve heard God rustling about in the garden like all of us hear.  The way they processed this hearing is critical because it clearly was not in the same way as before they sinned.  The two hid from God; they now were afraid of Him.  Whereas before, the sound of God made them happy; after they sinned it paralyzed them with fear.  From this point forward, people began to no longer physically hear God.  After He sent them out of the garden, God would make Himself heard in a physical way only a few times.  The Bible says that God spoke to Moses face to face as one person speaks to another.  He spoke physically to Abraham before that and Jacob but almost never did He give people the opportunity to hear Him speak through the normal process of ears to brain.  Satan became completely cut off from man’s ears.  Never again in the Old Testament do we read of Satan speaking in a physical way to people; Satan could only talk directly to God  Demons spoke and speak but not Satan.

What were we to do though if God stopped speaking to us physically?  Something amazing happened when Jesus Christ came as a man and became a part of human society.  Satan was given his voice and allowed to speak physically with Christ but only with Christ and the Father spoke physically with Jesus too and let the Disciples hear Him speak.  A rip in the barrier between the physical and spiritual realms occurred with the coming of Jesus.  Both the horrific evil of Satan could be heard physically as well as the perfect love of God.  In this great moment in time, salvation came to us.  Jesus Christ put us back in touch with God by letting Satan do every possible terrible act in the physical realm to Him; let Him arrange His beating, scourging and crucifixion.  Upon His death, the power of Satan was broken in humanity and Sin could no longer keep us from God.  In that instant, when Satan tried to destroy Christ and every single link between God and His people, Christ rose victoriously.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ brought to all who put their faith in Him for salvation the magnificent new way for God to speak to us.  The Holy Spirit joins with us in conversations that are in a completely different manner than anyone has ever spoken with us in the past; in a supernatural way.  But like babies, we don’t realize when He is talking with us, understand what He is saying or try very hard to make sense of God’s way of getting through to us.   It is humiliating at times, frustrating often and sad to admit how little we recognize the Holy Spirit’s communication with us but it will not always be like this.  By reading the Bible we learn how God really speaks to us…how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and the Holy Spirit breaking through our thoughts to talk to us…Spirit to spirit…  Take a week to practice listening for the Holy Spirit speaking to you.  Every opportunity you get, invite God to guide you, show you what to do, how to respond to what you face.  The Holy Spirit will bring Scripture to mind, past experiences to mind and point out ways you can make the most out of the opportunities God gives you to be loving, generous and kind.

The Worthiness of Jesus Sight

Isaiah 6: 9 NIV

He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'”

Have You Missed Something?

When I first went to New Orleans to attend graduate school, I was invited to the First Baptist Church by a friend.  The church had a large singles group and I joined it immediately.  After a couple months, the singles had their annual meeting to elect officers.  I sat far in the back of the room as a casual observer, curious about who would be chosen for the various offices but not having any real opinion about who should be elected.  The president was elected, vice president elected and several other positions filled when all of a sudden my name was presented for one of the offices.  You must realize that there were more than a hundred in the singles group and I had only been attending for a few months so I was not prepared for being nominated for any of the positions on the board.  In stunned disbelief, I did not say anything.  My mouth may have been agape for all I know.  But in the silence of the moment when my name still hung in the air, a young college student turned around and looked straight at me, mouthing the words, “accept the nomination.”  I could not remember meeting her; did not know why she thought I should run for the office and was not sure what to make of her encouragement to accept the nomination.  She had bright blue eyes, an effervescent smile and was beautiful.  She clearly had noticed me before and seemed to know me; I on the other had felt like this was the first time I ever laid eyes on her.

Seeing is an interesting matter to consider.  Everyone knows how three witnesses to the same accident can come away with three completely different accounts of what they saw.  Perhaps you have had a disagreement with someone over what the two of you each saw.  It is often said that “seeing is believing” but that is not always the case, especially if it is someone else doing the seeing.  You have not seen what others claim they saw and wondered if their report is true.  Perhaps someone has asked what you saw in a certain person as if you were missing critical details.  It is almost an accusation as if there is something wrong with you.  “What do you see in her?”  You probably must admit that there have been times when you saw but didn’t really see.  Seeing is one of the most important parts of our existence; critical to how we live our lives.  Today we are going to take a look at seeing and how you can make the most of your opportunity to see.

The Bible has much to say about seeing; it is in fact an important theme in Scripture.  In the very beginning of the Bible, we are told that after each day of creation, “…God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1: 10 NIV)  The most common understanding of this comment is that as God looked at what He created, He noticed that it was all well done.  There is another way we often use the expression “saw that” which may be pertinent.  If I say that she “saw that the job was done right”, it can mean that this person “made sure” that the job was done right.  She saw to it that everything was well done.  Now is that the sense of what Genesis is indicating about God as each day of creation came to a close?  He made sure it was done well!  That could be there too.  It was after all the Lord who did all the creating and after He finished it, the work was perfectly accomplished.  God saw that it was good.

We find that in the Old Testament God sees but also in the New Testament God sees.  Of Jesus we find that, When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick…When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. (Matthew 8:16, 18 NIV)  In this case, God saw and what He saw resulted in Him acting.  Later, Jesus returned to His hometown and came across another man needing help.  Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." (Matthew 9:2 NIV)  What Jesus saw here was more than just a simple act of a collection of men carrying a paralytic to Him for healing!  He saw the faith in the men doing this.  More than just noticing the externals of the action, Jesus saw what was going on within these men when they brought their friend to Him.  Faith in God was working within them.  A third example of Jesus seeing is found in John 1.

Early in Jesus’ ministry as Savior, He began to gather disciples about Him and one of them was Nathanael.  When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."  "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.  Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."  Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." (John 1:47-49 NIV)  We have no idea what Nathanael meant by, “How do you know me?”  Any attempts to get at it are speculative.  What did Jesus “know”?  We can’t say.  Clearly however, when Jesus saw Nathanael, He knew something about the soon-to-be disciple that Nathanael was stunned Jesus knew.  There was in God’s seeing that extended to knowing, a knowing that was stunning to those who came across it.

The Scriptures indicate that there are times when God deliberately makes it impossible for us to see and we want to explore this.  No matter how hard someone might stare at something, he or she cannot see what is there.  Color blind people would readily accept this premise but we are talking about something much more profound than that.  In Isaiah 6: 9 we find this statement by God.  "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'” (NIV)  God shut down the ability of the people to see and comprehend the critical work God was doing in their midst.  Our Lord is quoted repeating it and the Apostle Paul also echoed it.  He (Jesus) said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'” (Luke 8:10 NIV)   Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.  They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: "'Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." (Acts 28:24-26 NIV)  What is troubling about this work of God is that those who don’t see what is there, don’t realize they don’t see it but in their pride they assume we know all there is about the matter.

There are two very ordinary examples in the Old Testament that illustrate this perfectly.  Both are found in 1 Samuel 17.  A Philistine giant named Goliath famously challenged anyone among the soldiers of Israel to fight him.  Whoever’s champion won the battle would then without a fight enslave the loser’s people.  There is an almost comical description of what happened when Goliath issued his dare to the fighting men of Israel.  When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. (1 Samuel 17:24 NIV)  What all these soldiers saw was the death of them.  They saw defeat, suffering and horror.  With their eyes they saw something that was quite different than what David saw when he looked at Goliath.  He saw a defeated foe, a broken warrior, and opportunity for God to be glorified.  Later when David came out to fight Goliath with just his normal clothes and a sling and some stones, Goliath looked at David and saw only a boy.  His reaction was recorded in the Bible.  He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.  He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. (1 Samuel 17:42-43 NIV)  What Goliath saw was a victim, but who David actually was he did not see.  David was a victor.  It is human to think we see someone and not see that person at all.  Consider the interesting case of Samuel and his mission to anoint the next king of Israel.

Before this, the prophet Samuel was sent to a particular family living in the small village of Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel.  The problem was that Samuel didn’t know who God had chosen of a family of eight boys.  He saw one that looked perfect for the job but he wasn’t God’s choice.  Samuel went through seven of the sons and none of them were who God chose but the eighth, David was who the Lord wanted as the next king of Israel.   The problem Samuel the prophet had in this selection process was that Samuel did not possess a crucial skill set that was needed.  God explained it to him.  …the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV) 

How many of us can do that?  We think we can see things clearly; that we get it and yet who is able to look at the heart?  Who can go beyond what is visible on the outside and see within a person?  It is of course impossible for us; just like it is impossible for someone colorblind to see blue.  It is not just that we aren’t trained to look into the heart; we are unable to do it.  It has been said that there is always, when we begin to judge someone’s character or motives, one more part of that person we don’t know.  There is one piece to the puzzle we don’t have that would if we had it explain a great deal.  We are incapable of judging a single soul, whether good or bad.  Our Savior does not ask us to figure out people, to get “a handle on them.”  We cannot really see them; see in the heart which is why that is not what He wants us to do.  The Lord has given us this one responsibility when it comes to others.  We are to love them.   We say we can’t do that either.  Yes we can if Christ has become a part of us.  His love, flowing out of the power of the Cross becomes the love we have at our disposal at any time.  You may not be able to figure out what is in the heart of that person next to you but you can love the person next to you.  What God wants you to see whenever you look at someone is that person must have my love and I will give it to her…just like Christ loves me.

Frustrating Circumstances

It is sometimes expressed and many times thought that if something is tough or dangerous or psychologically distressing, it cannot be God's will.  That is the theology of children.  The Bible is filled with examples of His people laboring without reward, success or encouragement of "a brighter day".  Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel come to mind!  Paul often stayed where he wasn't wanted but did not assume the Holy Spirit was taking him elsewhere.  David spent ten years wandering about without a home  and no clear indication that  he would ever get to where he hoped to be and yet he still was the Lord's anointed and the chosen future king of Israel.  The Lord brings us through many side trails and tough spots on our journey;  although it may seem like we are wandering aimlessly or off track, we may be precisely where God wants us.  God's greatest servants had a "vagabond" quality to them.  They often seemed to be out of sorts with what they thought was "God's plan" for them.  Joseph did nothing wrong ( even if he may have been a bit arrogant) to warrant his years in prison and in fact it was the rightness of his life that opened the door to imprisonment.  Would we tell Joseph that he was not aligned with God's plan for him and should find some other direction for his life when he was responding to the needs of the Baker and Cupbearer?  Did he "miss the boat" as he delivered meals to his fellow prisoners or was Joseph working within the full orchestration of God's will?  We grow weary of our labors, wondering if we have fallen out of line with God.  Because it is hard, our frustration builds and we start swinging our head from side to side frantically looking for some way out of our troubles.  Jesus said that we were to come to Him when we were weary and heavy laden and He would give us rest.  He might move us along or keep us right where we are but either way, it is Christ who is our rest and not the change of course.    To "trust in the Lord" is not for the fainthearted.  There are times when it seems far more rational to make up a new plan and step away from the hardships we face.   Year ninety-nine of Noah's ark building project may be similar to what you are facing today.  Be careful not to throw away all God is doing in and through you because you are frustrated by your lot in life.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.   Romans 8: 20-21 NIV

Thought Provoking

How much thought do you give to God...clear concentrated thought?  We think about dinner, we think about broken relationships, we think about our finances and conversations we have had, movies we watched and plans that we have made but do we think about God?  We think about the arguments we have had, the disappointments we have faced, the level of affection others have for us, how we look and what new purchases we will make but is our mind on God?  The atheist claims she never thinks about God and the Christian makes much of her loyalty to Him but have we become more like the atheist than the believer when it comes to how our mind operates?  What good is it really to be Christian if your mind is not engaged with the mind of your Savior?    Nothing is more absurd than having all the thoughts of God at your disposal and living within the poverty of your own understanding.  We would feel badly for the poor fool who goes begging for scraps of food when he has been blessed with a full and abundant bank account.  God has joined His mind to yours when you are born again and all the wisdom of heaven is at your disposal if you would just begin to think with Him.  It is not easy to set your mind on God.  We are like little children; so easily distracted by every flitting thought that passes through the mind.  Yet with just a little bit of effort, we can think with God on every matter we face.  He can comfort us and encourage us and guide us at every minute of each day.  It takes faith to believe that when you turn your thoughts to God, He is with you in it and ready to organize your thinking.   Whisper your fears to Him, ask Him for help with the decision you need to make, give Him the sorrow you possess, comment on what you see and how it affects you.    There are boundless opportunities to let the Lord in on your thoughts but you must open the door for Him to enter there.  Take a moment to tell God you know He is a part of your mind and that you welcome His help right now.  Just begin to think about Him when it comes to you and soon enough you will find you are thinking about and with God more than you imagined possible.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:2-3 NIV

The Worthiness of Jesus...Heart

Psalm 73: 26 NIV

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What Is In Your Heart?

This past week our family on the 4^th of July went to the fireworks program put on by the city of Milpitas.  It was not a huge extravaganza but it was fun and a great way to end the holiday.  There is a football field that is used for seating that is first-come, first-served.  I got there early to get a spot for my family but was disappointed to discover that because we did not get our tickets in advance, I would have to wait in line for an hour to get our passes.  My knee had been bothering me a lot and so standing in line was not an ideal way for me to spend the afternoon.  Finally I was able to get my ticket and pick out a spot for our mat and then I began the long wait for my family to arrive.  Because I didn’t have a cell phone and there were lots of people crowding onto the field, I had to be vigilant for my family’s arrival.  Rather than relax and read a book, I was constantly scanning about to see if I could spot them.  Family after family arrived with their coolers, their cold drinks and their dinners.  Kids played with their parents, adults talked together and laughed and told stories and I sat by myself waiting…waiting…waiting.  Finally, two and a half hours later, my family arrived and because I hadn’t eaten much lunch, no breakfast and had been sitting out for so long in the warm sun, I was both famished and thirsty.  But when they arrived, all that was brought for me were chips!  Chips?  Others had barbecue, sandwiches and boxed dinners from restaurants and I was handed some chips.  Not only was I disappointed that I had to sit by myself for so long, I was bent out of shape by the lack of good food and drinks.  Now we would generally speak of my anger and frustration as cause related.  I was tired, perhaps feeling lonely and definitely thirsty and hungry.  The Bible however would describe it as a heart issue.

Have you ever gotten angry or depressed over something that others might call “no big deal”?  Perhaps you lost your cool over someone cutting you off on the road or a friend’s or co-worker’s insult.  Maybe you were so frustrated by your wife or your husband that you would not talk to him or her all evening.  Have you ever hurt someone’s feelings because she reminds you of someone that treated you badly in the past?  Do you let yourself get depressed when things don’t go as you planned?  Have you fallen for someone that didn’t really like you because you were lonely and desperate to be loved?  Do emotions ever spring up within you that don’t seem justified?  Are you surprised by how badly you react to circumstances that later don’t seem so bad?

There is much about us that we can’t give a rational explanation.  It makes for good TV to make some people out to be like robots but none of us are.  We are complicated and the root of nearly all of our senseless reactions is found in what the Bible calls “the heart”.  Our modern view of the heart is different than how the Bible uses the term “heart”.  Just a few passages from the Psalms will illustrate this.  No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. (Psalm 58:2 NIV) If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; (Psalm 66:18 NIV) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 NIV) My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. (Psalm 131:1 NIV) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV)

When the Bible talks about the heart, it is referring to what we commonly speak of as the mind.  But it really is more than just the mind, the heart as the Bible uses the term, is the very core of our personality, who we are and what we shall be forever as people. Within our heart we process our experiences, decide what we will do or not do, settle on our relationship with God and take in from God His attributes and spiritual gifts.  Joy comes to the heart as does sorrow and wisdom.  The heart is bigger than our minds can comprehend and within the heart is far more than we realize.  The body may die but the heart continues to live for it is who we are eternally.

The Bible speaks of the heart of Jesus a few times.  Christ says of Himself, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29 NIV)  This revelation of Jesus that He is gentle and humble in heart should make us pause and consider exactly the ramifications for us.  The God who created the universe is gentle and humble in heart.  He does not lord over us His power and although this world is tough and often full of pain, He is gentle.  We must always take this into account when we think of God and what we face.  His heart is gentle.  His heart is humble.  We also need to acknowledge that the heart of Jesus is compassionate.  In the small town of Nain as Jesus was walking and teaching, he noticed a funeral procession.  A widow’s only son had died and a large crowd was mourning with her.  Gazing at the poor widow, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry." (Luke 7:13 NIV)  Jesus then walked over to the casket and raised the son from the dead and restored him to his mom.  Later on, during the week that Jesus was betrayed, He admitted that His heart was in turmoil over what He faced at the end of the week.  "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?  'Father, save me from this hour'?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!" (John 12:27 NIV)

There is one more characteristic of Jesus’ heart that is critical to note. His heart is without sin.  There is not a hint of corruption to it, cruelty, bitterness, worry, or hatred for people.  He is called in the Bible a high priest who understands all the pain and sorrow we face and realizes in His heart how difficult it is to do what is right.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV)  In contrast, our hearts are thoroughly warped and distorted by sin and they generate all sorts of shocking behaviors.  Jesus, who understood human psychology better than anyone ever, has asserted, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:19 NIV) We like to insist that we would never do certain bad things others do and have done yet in this vast ocean of human personality called the heart is all that is needed for murder, slander, sexual immorality and theft to immerge.  There is a depth of evil in our hearts we cannot calculate but God knows exactly what is there.  As the prophet Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord put it, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV)The misperception of many is that the heart is basically good but that is not the case.  Our Lord says it is tremendously wicked and warped and there is a monumental amount of evil each heart, yours and mine, can produce.

Although we are clear on how Jesus forgave our sins by dying on the Cross, the overlooked aspect of what Jesus Christ accomplished at the Cross is His work to recreate us so that we can live happily without sin.  Perhaps the most profound couple of statements ever made on the psychology of the human condition brought about through the death of Christ on the Cross are found in Romans 5.  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:1-5 NIV)

Peace with God is not possible given the condition of our hearts.  We are irrational and uncontrollable with the heart each of us has.  Hatred and worry and lust and selfishness are always possible with us.  But something rarely ever discussed occurred when Jesus Christ died for us and in faith we gained God’s grace.  Part of that grace, perhaps the biggest part of that grace is not just that our sins are forgiven but that God has made it possible for us to have good and holy hearts.  How can that happen given what Christ has said about our hearts?  The miracle of the Cross also includes the amazing decision to pour into our hearts God’s own love.  The Holy Spirit does this and it changes the entire composition of our hearts.  They now have God’s love working out of them the corruption of Sin and making them good…good at the level of God’s goodness.  Another English translation says that God has “shed abroad” His love into our hearts which essentially means He floods our hearts with His own love, washing them of all the filth of collected Sin and hurt.  The Holy Spirit makes our hearts able to empower righteous and moral and loving actions that could not happen with God’s love not there.

Your heart though will be at war and you will never be at peace with God as part of it unless you give up your right to govern yourself.  The most miserable people in the world are those whose hearts are a battle ground between Sin and the love of God.    As soon as you let Christ take charge of your life, your heart will be at peace.  Jesus put it this way, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NIV)  A simple practice can make the peace of God a reality for you.  When lust pops up, say to the Lord, “I trust you with this lust.”  When anger boils within, say, “Lord, I trust you with this anger.”  When it is jealousy, “Lord I trust you with this jealousy.”  You are feeling sorry for yourself, “Lord I trust you with my disappointment.”  You feel bitter about mistreatment, “Lord, I trust you with my hurt feelings.”  The happiest and most contented people in the world can be Christians if we let our Lord have control of our hearts by trusting Him with our lives.

He Meets Us

Nothing argues as fiercely against the presence of God as the unbending hardships we face.  They press against us like pointed spears and we wonder when our deliverance will come.  We wait and pray and cry out for help and yet the oppression remains and we wonder what sort of God would allow what we face.  The Christian community is filled with silent mourners who have grown weary of praying.  Sometimes they rise up against God and bitterly denounce Him.  Other times they simply sneer when given spiritual platitudes that sound good only in theory.  Our world is broken and filled with shame and sorrow and we must face the facts as they are.  Our children's hearts are rubbed raw by their disappointments and our friends sigh without relief in sight.  Is it any wonder that God is ignored today in the very circles where we would expect His name to be praised?  There is within us though a cry rising up; a mourning hope that waits for God with the expectancy of a child.  Like the blind man on the side of the road calling out to Jesus, we wait also for Him.  With the prayer of the woman whose bleeding nearly drove her mad, we reach out to Christ.  The amazing part of God that we overlook is that He too was, as the King James translation puts it, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."  (Isaiah 53:3)  In the Garden of Gethsemane our Lord admitted to His disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  (Matthew 26: 38 NIV)  God did not drop us down into a universe where suffering and sorrow continue and refuse to let them both hammer Him also.  As David silently hid in the cave with his men, Christ also huddles with us in our sorrow and pain and waits with us for it to end.  The day is coming when we shall exclaim triumphantly that we are "more than conquerors through Him who loved us" but for now the faith of many is weak and the suffering brought on by a sin marred and Satan infiltrated world stands opposed to our victory cry.  The miracle of our Lord's crucifixion and resurrection is that our Savior is not aloof and His encouragement not mere cliché.  We too shall overcome this world and in the dark of night, our Lord comes to us with a tender touch of love and comfort that somehow carries us past our sorrow and lifts our spirits with supernatural joy and peace.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.      John 14:27 NIV

The Worthiness of Jesus: Will

Psalm 143:10 NIV

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

How Are You Aligned?

In England, it used to be called an “electric torch”, in the US it is known as a flashlight.  The elderly woman who owns the home we are renting was taken to live in a nursing home and among the thousands of items she left behind that we have had to clear out of the house were half a dozen flashlights.  She had them all stacked in the front room which would have been convenient I guess if someone were breaking into the home at night and wanted to know what to steal without turning on the lights.  However, the only problem was that only one of the six flashlights worked.  The batteries had all corroded and so I took them out, wiped down the battery compartments and bought new batteries for the three flashlights not ruined.  Here was the catch.  You have to align the batteries properly for the flashlights to work.  No joke, the positive end of each battery must touch the correct terminal for it to work.  Because these flashlights required two batteries, every battery had to be aligned correctly for them to each work.

Of course it is silly to waste time on this but what is important is how you are aligned.  How are you aligned with regard to your internet browsing, your relationship with your husband or wife, the way you respond to difficult people?  How are you aligned in your use of money, your expression of anger or the types of words you choose in conversations?  How are you aligned with the people at work or school, with the movies you choose or the TV shows you watch?  How are you aligned with the troubles you face and the trials you are encountering?  How are you aligned in regard to what you say about others when they aren’t with you?  What is your alignment with the Bible, with the Church, with God?

Alignment is always a matter of the will.  Each of us has a will, it is what determines how we decide and what we decide.  The Bible makes two assumptions with regard to the will.  Human beings all have a will.  Each of us is free to make choices…important choices and trivial choices and we are accountable for the choices we make.  The second assumption with regard to the will is that our will is either aligned with God or with Satan at any given moment.  This is made clear throughout the Bible.  The will mostly operates in micro decisions that seem trivial and inconsequential.  But if your will is aligned with God, even the micro decisions are done through Him.  If though your will is aligned with Satan, what may seem to be insignificant decisions might have macro ramifications depending where your will was aligned.  For example, the micro decision to argue with your husband about his work schedule may be reasonable but was your will aligned with God in it?  If not, how could it affect each of you?  You might make the micro decision to go out with your friends and not study for your test but was that decision aligned with God or Satan?   It is your will that makes these decisions and if your will is aligned with God, every decision you make will turn out for your good but if your will is aligned with Satan, then it is never for your good even if the decision seems to work out for you at the moment!  Whatever decision you make that is aligned with the will of Satan is sin and the wages of sin is always death.

When King David made the decision to count all the fighting men in Israel, it seemed reasonable to him.  We find in 1 Chronicles 21 that David had aligned his will with Satan not realizing perhaps that was the case.  Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.  So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are." (1 Chronicles 21:1-2 NIV)  David was not a puppet of Satan.  He made the choice freely to call for the census but his will was aligned with that of Satan which explains his decision.  Even the deceitful and murderous Joab, his general, could see that David was acting badly in this but David could not be dissuaded.  But Joab replied, "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?"  The king's word, however, overruled Joab… (1 Chronicles 21:3-4 NIV)  Of course, to David, this was a wise and proper decision to count the fighting men.  It was reasonable to him to know just how many soldiers he could count on having if he went to war. He probably was not even aware that he had aligned his will with that of Satan’s and you would have had a very tough time making him see it.  It was only later that he realized the ramifications of what he had done in siding with Satan.  This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.  Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing." (1 Chronicles 21:7-8 NIV)

A second example should be considered; that of the king before David, Saul, who went against the will of God and offered a sacrifice to the Lord anyway.  The Lord through the prophet Samuel gave Saul clear instructions in his fight with the Amalekites.  “This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'" (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NIV)  Saul though was afraid of what his soldiers would think if he did this; they wanted the best of the cattle and sheep spared.  Saul also, in a piece of convoluted logic, believed that if he sacrificed some of the cattle and sheep to God, the Lord would be proud of his piety.  Saul was greatly mistaken.  God’s response to Saul through the prophet Samuel was fierce.  “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king." (1 Samuel 15:23 NIV)

Perhaps Saul really believed that he was doing what was best when he decided to save the choice cattle and sheep from slaughter but in making this choice, he was aligning his will with the will of Satan.  Logical choices can be Satanic choices and decisions aligned with the will of God do not always make sense.   Just consider the decision of King Jehoshaphat to send his small band of soldiers up against the vast army of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites.  Rather than sue for peace, he aligned himself with the will of God.  The Lord told him through the prophet Jahziel, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you." (2 Chronicles 20:17 NIV)  It was not logical for Jehoshaphat’s little army to go to battle with the invading foreign hosts but they did because Jehoshaphat and the rest of the people of Judah aligned themselves with the will of God and trusted Him with the outcome.

When Jesus Christ faced the terrors of the Cross, He made a solemn commitment to the Father while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NIV)  It was the Father’s will for Christ to die on the Cross so that He might destroy the Sin of the world.  To follow that will of the Father, Jesus had to be beaten, His flesh torn by whips and then take the Cross as His way of death.  Nothing could argue for such a choice except only this.  He believed the will of the Father to be good.  Satan argued otherwise.  Satan’s will was that Jesus could take another way to bring the world to Him…an easier way, a more comfortable way.  Satan seemed wise and sensible but in the end our Lord’s decision was clear and certain.  The Father’s will was good and it would be the Father’s will that would be done.  Jesus’ alignment to the very end was with the Father.  Do you believe the will of Christ to be good?  Have you made that decision, that regardless of how things seem, the will of Christ is good?  Are you clear in this that the will of Satan is wicked regardless of how good it seems?

Suppose you had been put in a Nazi Concentration Camp and one of the guards was more brutal than all the others.  He made you and others strip down just so he could stare at you, he beat prisoners out of cruelty, he insulted and ridiculed you and was rumored to have raped several women in the camp.  He was particularly cruel to your sister who died while there.  After the war, you come face to face with this guard.  He has just become a Christian and stretches out his hand to greet you.  You look long and hard into the eyes of this man.  You must at this moment decide where your loyalty lies.  Whose will shall you choose?  Will it be that of Satan or of God?  The scripture has come to your mind and you cannot just discard the memory of it.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven… (Matthew 5: 43-45 NIV) The temptation of Satan is to renounce your absolute loyalty to the Father and walk away from this man without touching him.  But the will of Christ is clear.  How do you respond?  Whose will shall rule over you as you fix your eyes upon the guard who wants to shake your hand?

How is your will aligned right now?  Is it aligned with the easy and comfortable will of Satan who smiles warmly as you and I decide what to do?  Is it aligned with the sometimes difficult and perhaps even painful will of Jesus who waits silently for you to decide?  How will you align yourself as you choose the kingdom that has your supreme loyalty?  How will your will be aligned this week?  Align it one way and it brings light to the world.  The other way only offers darkness.  How will you align yourself today?

His Holy Zeal

There is a violence to God's working into your life Christ's personality.  The perfect picture of this is our Lord chasing the money changers from the Temple with a whip.  If you believe the Christian life is to be a serene holiday, you have not read either Job or Romans.  There is a temptation in Christian circles to kid ourselves about what we should expect from God.  A great deal of teaching makes it seem like a life free of diseases and distress ought to be ours if we just practiced greater holiness but it cannot be so.  In this life we face a tremendous amount of trouble and countless heartaches and that goes for both the "saint" and the "sinner".  When our Lord enters your life, He begins to cut out from you every strand of rebellion and ungodly desire and this does not come with anesthesia.  He gives you the pain of your sorrow over sin that you might die to Sin emotionally and psychologically.   We are being made to be like Christ in how we think about things and what we desire.  Sin has corrupted not just the core of us psychologically but also how we feel about every inch of the world.   Do we realize that our Lord does not laugh about the foibles of sexual sin like we do, that He does not chuckle when we snap at our wife or criticize our parents.  Holiness is going to be built into us and perfect love shall bind our personality together.  Until this is accomplished no amount of "self-realization" grounded in Sin will be tolerated for it is the realization of God that is being worked in us.    His hope, His faith and His love are becoming ours but not without cost.  Sin must go.  Pride must disappear.  Self-determination will be eliminated.  What will be left is a perfect union of Christ and us; our personalities born again at every level of being.  The unconscious and the conscious are being conformed to Christ and nothing will get in the way of our Savior redeeming us into a new creation.   Settle this matter quickly.  God will do whatever it takes to work His perfect love into you that what will come out of you will be joyful holiness that is pure and unconquerable.

His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me.    John 2:17 NIV