Feel the tension of
Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
Do you get the sense that his love is a great dam restraining his own righteous anger against sin and sinners.
Jesus knows this inner tug of war.
Luke 12:49 "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
Yet we read…
2 Peter 3:9 He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Patience is the prerequisite of the perturbed. God is no simpleton with a singular undiluted emotional state.
The psalmist David, a man after God’s own heart prays…
Psalms 6:1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Yet we can be unconcerned about Gods anger, demanding pure comfort from our religion with no hint of tension that would compel us to pursue holiness. We don’t always wish to see the appropriate state of emotional turmoil that God rightly experiences concerning the lack of holy passion in our lives. But we get some sense of God’s internal conversation In Luke 13:6-9 as his mercy and patience wrestles with his righteousness and justice.
Luke 13:6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig-tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 "‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"
No matter what we may call ourselves, our acceptance on that final day will be dependent upon holiness in our character brought about by the Spirit. We must produce fruit or be felled.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Whom God Hates and Loves
We hear that God loves people. Are we aware that he hates some and that he even has something of a love-hate relationship with those he loves?
Psalms 5:5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
Do I, at least some times fit into this category?
Psalms 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
Do I ever love violence in a video game or in a movie or at a sporting event?
Psalm 21:8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. 9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. 11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; 12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow. 13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
I think we can never know the depths of the love of God until we recognize the reality of his righteous hatred toward sinners like us. His love is displayed to us in mercy and grace, mercy that does not treat us as our sins deserve and grace that lavishes blessing on us that we do not merit. Until we acknowledge the depth of God’s hatred for sin and sinners, we will not appreciate and value rightly the quality and magnitude of his love for a sinner like me.
Psalms 5:5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
Do I, at least some times fit into this category?
Psalms 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
Do I ever love violence in a video game or in a movie or at a sporting event?
Psalm 21:8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. 9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. 11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; 12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow. 13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
I think we can never know the depths of the love of God until we recognize the reality of his righteous hatred toward sinners like us. His love is displayed to us in mercy and grace, mercy that does not treat us as our sins deserve and grace that lavishes blessing on us that we do not merit. Until we acknowledge the depth of God’s hatred for sin and sinners, we will not appreciate and value rightly the quality and magnitude of his love for a sinner like me.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Repentance After a Second Marriage
Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.18 For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife."
Do you notice how John the Baptist is still harping on Herod concerning the legality of his marriage to Herodias after the marriage had already taken place? Look at the verb tense…
“ his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.”
They were already married yet John was saying "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife."
It seems that John was still protesting the marriage after it had taken place. It seems like there was still repentance work to be done despite the fact that vows had been made and the marriage consummated.
A second marriage is no safe haven from the one who sees the heart. Just because you have remarried, does not mean that you do not have repentance work to do from sin that contributed to the failure of your previous marriage.
Isaiah 30:15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Know that your heart will resist repentance. May the Holy Spirit harp on those who have hard work to do, cleaning out what has been swept under the rug. Just because you cannot un-digest an apple does not mean you cannot repent of stealing it.
Do you notice how John the Baptist is still harping on Herod concerning the legality of his marriage to Herodias after the marriage had already taken place? Look at the verb tense…
“ his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.”
They were already married yet John was saying "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife."
It seems that John was still protesting the marriage after it had taken place. It seems like there was still repentance work to be done despite the fact that vows had been made and the marriage consummated.
A second marriage is no safe haven from the one who sees the heart. Just because you have remarried, does not mean that you do not have repentance work to do from sin that contributed to the failure of your previous marriage.
Isaiah 30:15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Know that your heart will resist repentance. May the Holy Spirit harp on those who have hard work to do, cleaning out what has been swept under the rug. Just because you cannot un-digest an apple does not mean you cannot repent of stealing it.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Lord of Loss 2
Jesus recognized that it was God himself who was responsible for his looming crucifixion, telling his disciples, “ …the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd…'” (Matthew 26:31)
The father himself takes full responsibility for his intentions in what he has ordained.
Isaiah 53:10 … it was the LORD’s will to crush him (Jesus) and cause him to suffer…
Acts 2:23 This man (Jesus) was handed over to you (those who crucified him) by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.
Jesus died at the hand of God to satisfy the wrath of God kindled by the justice of God in the face of the offence of sin which was intentionally allowed by God to fully display the fullness of the mercy and righteousness of God . Jesus sits at the father’s right hand adoring the one who crucified him, in perfect fellowship, holding no grudge against the Father for the perfect act of appointing propitiation.
No-one, including Christ himself, dies for any other ultimate reason than the will of God.
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
If my best friend murdered a man, it would be an issue between us. I would be angry, feel separated, distanced from him because of his brutal act. But if my best friend were a policeman who shot someone in the line of duty and it was deemed a “righteous” kill, there would be no issue between us. He would have done the right thing. He would still be considered good.
Every kill of God’s is a righteous kill. All have sinned and the wages of sin is death. We were told. We willfully disobeyed. We will all die. God will never, can never, be accused of an unrighteous kill. Jesus adores a perfectly righteous God despite the fact that God takes every single life.
Adoring a perfectly righteous God. I want to be there. I plan to be there. If I could identify anything that keeps me from being there it would only be that I am too small, too unable to comprehend, too infantile, juvenile, too faithless to worship the One who takes every single life.
Father help me to get where I need to be, where I want to be. Where I know I must end up, not just trusting you, but rejoicing in who you are and what you do.
I need to do more than merely trust God. I need to believe there is not a malicious bone in his body. I need to believe that though he ordains that evil be, he himself is not evil, but perfectly righteous, worthy of all praise. And he is.
The father himself takes full responsibility for his intentions in what he has ordained.
Isaiah 53:10 … it was the LORD’s will to crush him (Jesus) and cause him to suffer…
Acts 2:23 This man (Jesus) was handed over to you (those who crucified him) by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.
Jesus died at the hand of God to satisfy the wrath of God kindled by the justice of God in the face of the offence of sin which was intentionally allowed by God to fully display the fullness of the mercy and righteousness of God . Jesus sits at the father’s right hand adoring the one who crucified him, in perfect fellowship, holding no grudge against the Father for the perfect act of appointing propitiation.
No-one, including Christ himself, dies for any other ultimate reason than the will of God.
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
If my best friend murdered a man, it would be an issue between us. I would be angry, feel separated, distanced from him because of his brutal act. But if my best friend were a policeman who shot someone in the line of duty and it was deemed a “righteous” kill, there would be no issue between us. He would have done the right thing. He would still be considered good.
Every kill of God’s is a righteous kill. All have sinned and the wages of sin is death. We were told. We willfully disobeyed. We will all die. God will never, can never, be accused of an unrighteous kill. Jesus adores a perfectly righteous God despite the fact that God takes every single life.
Adoring a perfectly righteous God. I want to be there. I plan to be there. If I could identify anything that keeps me from being there it would only be that I am too small, too unable to comprehend, too infantile, juvenile, too faithless to worship the One who takes every single life.
Father help me to get where I need to be, where I want to be. Where I know I must end up, not just trusting you, but rejoicing in who you are and what you do.
I need to do more than merely trust God. I need to believe there is not a malicious bone in his body. I need to believe that though he ordains that evil be, he himself is not evil, but perfectly righteous, worthy of all praise. And he is.
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Lord of Loss
Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things… 9 Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker…
Deuteronomy 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no-one can deliver out of my hand.
Exodus 4:11 Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
Acts 17:26 …he determined the times set for them…
James 4:15 …If it is the Lord’s will, we will live…
Hebrews 9:27 …man is destined to die…
Job 1:21 …the LORD has taken away…
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 16:20 …those who trust the LORD will be joyful.
Deuteronomy 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no-one can deliver out of my hand.
Exodus 4:11 Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
Acts 17:26 …he determined the times set for them…
James 4:15 …If it is the Lord’s will, we will live…
Hebrews 9:27 …man is destined to die…
Job 1:21 …the LORD has taken away…
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 16:20 …those who trust the LORD will be joyful.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Empty But Full
I have been experimenting, trying to replace temporal hope with eternal hope. So far it has proved a dismal failure. Eternal hope is like poured concrete which provides a good foundation, but one does not furnish his home with concrete.
We are temporal beings who need some kind of temporal goals and dreams in order to muster strength for the day-in, day-out. So what do we do when there is no short-term desire and aim?
After bouts of exhausting grief and crying jags that leave my eyes parched, I am beginning to realize and experience God as my present-tense strength, hope and joy.
He is my strength to love his people and serve them.
He is my hope. I have him. I don’t need him to do more or be more than he already is.
He is my joy, where every other can seem as though it has been stripped away. I have Christ and rejoice in him and so have joy that enables me to enjoy those he has given me.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
We are temporal beings who need some kind of temporal goals and dreams in order to muster strength for the day-in, day-out. So what do we do when there is no short-term desire and aim?
After bouts of exhausting grief and crying jags that leave my eyes parched, I am beginning to realize and experience God as my present-tense strength, hope and joy.
He is my strength to love his people and serve them.
He is my hope. I have him. I don’t need him to do more or be more than he already is.
He is my joy, where every other can seem as though it has been stripped away. I have Christ and rejoice in him and so have joy that enables me to enjoy those he has given me.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Genuine Christian Hedonist
1 Peter 1:6b …now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine.
If my faith is being proved genuine, at very least to myself, by means of its continuance and growth through these difficult times, then I need to affirm and others should know that it is the faith of a Christian-Hedonist that is being tested and confirmed.
Psalm 84:5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
If God himself, standing by me, is my strength and strength is the means by which we may experience victorious joy in the battle against doubt and bitterness and anger and apathy and temptation which constantly attack the one in grief, then I have found my joy even as I walk through the valley of weeping.
How could I ask for more than the Apostle Paul who described himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”? (2 Corinthians 6:10) This is what a Christian Hedonist seeks: Strength in God, Joy in God that frees one to pursue the priorities of God to the glory of God which includes the believers eternal joy.
Psalms 50:15 “…call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
God gets glory by our rejoicing in him for the sanctification he accomplishes by means of our trials. Sanctification means holding on to faith and growing in holiness as the necessary prelude to glorification.
Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 12:14 without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
If you are not finding your strength in Christ which gives you joy amidst grief, then I encourage you to find out what a Christian Hedonist is and become one.
http://www.desiringgod.org/about/our-distinctives/our-beliefs/what-is-christian-hedonism
If my faith is being proved genuine, at very least to myself, by means of its continuance and growth through these difficult times, then I need to affirm and others should know that it is the faith of a Christian-Hedonist that is being tested and confirmed.
Psalm 84:5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
If God himself, standing by me, is my strength and strength is the means by which we may experience victorious joy in the battle against doubt and bitterness and anger and apathy and temptation which constantly attack the one in grief, then I have found my joy even as I walk through the valley of weeping.
How could I ask for more than the Apostle Paul who described himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”? (2 Corinthians 6:10) This is what a Christian Hedonist seeks: Strength in God, Joy in God that frees one to pursue the priorities of God to the glory of God which includes the believers eternal joy.
Psalms 50:15 “…call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
God gets glory by our rejoicing in him for the sanctification he accomplishes by means of our trials. Sanctification means holding on to faith and growing in holiness as the necessary prelude to glorification.
Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 12:14 without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
If you are not finding your strength in Christ which gives you joy amidst grief, then I encourage you to find out what a Christian Hedonist is and become one.
http://www.desiringgod.org/about/our-distinctives/our-beliefs/what-is-christian-hedonism
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)