Archive for January, 2023
Aids to Optimism – Part Three
“For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100: 5
“God is good…” He always is. Things aren’t always good, but God is. Complexity consequences when we fail to distinguish between God and things. As a result, we often end up feeling it is God Who isn’t good.
Water is always wet.
Fire is always hot.
God is always good.
Those are basic unchanging characteristics of each. Things aren’t always good, but God is. Don’t confuse the two.
In Richmond, Virginia a woman named Mary Green God sued David A. Hurt. The cases were posted as God verses Hurt. Spiritually that is our God versus our hurt. He still opposes our hurt as He did on Calvary.
“…His mercy is everlasting….”
Grace is God supplying the good we don’t deserve. The good.
Mercy is God sparing us what we do deserve. The bad.
His mercy is everlasting.
If given a box of sand and told there were particles of iron filings in it, you might search for them with your eyes and fumble for them with clumsy fingers without finding them. However, if you were to sweep through the sand with a magnet the almost invisible particles would be drawn to the magnet by the power of the magnet’s force field.
An unthankful heart, like our clumsy fingers in the sand, may discover no mercies. Let a thankful heart sweep through a day and as the magnet finds iron, so in every day you will find heavenly blessings. His mercy is everlasting.
“…His truth endures to all generations….”
In a culture that professes its foundation to be relativism, He offers stability. Many in our society profess there are no absolutes, everything is relative, insecurity. As a result pessimism abounds.
To such perplexed people God offers truth that endures. As there are rules that remain constant once a sporting game has begun, so there are spiritual concepts that don’t change in the game of life. Game on!
The Bible repeatedly presents goodness as a core quality of our Lord. It is His very unchanging nature. Therefore, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. (I Chronicles 16:34) It is just Him.
“No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18) Daily our experiences confirm both aspects of that.
Walk with Him and you can say with the Psalmist, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:8-9) Trust Him, try Him, prove Him. Do it and you will become more optimistic.
Aids to Optimism – Part Two
“Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm. 100: 3, 4
Some people strut their moment on life’s stage quoting, “I am the captain of my fate…I am the master of my soul.” Not!
Some live by these words of W.E. Henley in his poem “Invictus”:
“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as a pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever God may be
For my invincible soul.”
Be real! Jesus put things in perspective when He asked, “Who can add one cubit to his height….”
We do better to quote the Christian counterpart of “Invictus” written by Dorthea Day, entitled “My Captain”:
“Out of the light that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ — the Conqueror of my soul.”
An attitude of gratitude is fertile soil for optimism. Exaltation is elevating. Therefore, “Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Vs. 4B)
William Law asked and answered his question. “Who is the greatest saint? It is not the one who prays most or who does most, it is the one who is most thankful.”
It is not the happy people who are optimistic.
It is the optimistic people who are happy.
Happiness doesn’t produce optimism, rather optimism consequences in happiness.
Do you always feel thankful? Be real! The honest answer from all of us is “NO!” Psalm 116: 17 – 19 speaks to such an emotional moment: “I will offer You the sacrifice of thanksgiving….” A sacrifice is something we give that costs us. Sometimes the sacrifice is thanksgiving and it costs us dearly.
Often thanksgiving comes as an act of faith, not from elation over circumstances. “Faith,” regards a suspicious person with an arched eyebrow. Many feel faith is a thin thread by which to be suspended. Instead it is the anchor of the soul.
Robert Jastrow, noted astrophysicist, in addressing the American Association for the Advancement of Science, noted, “For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream.”
A counter comment is included by Martin Luther in the introduction to his commentary to the Book of Romans: “Faith is confidence in God’s grace so strong and so confident that a man will stake his life on it a thousand times.” So live demonstrating it. That is cause for optimism.
Aids to Optimism – Part One
“Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100: 3, 4
Jesus does not want your attitude held hostage by circumstances. He does not want circumstances to control your attitude. Rather, He wants your attitude to influence circumstances.
Believers can rejoice because Jesus met their worst enemy, Satan, and overcame him. Because of Jesus’ victory, we work from victory not for victory. It is Jesus’ victory that enables us to be victorious.
The King of Kings has defeated the “prince” of this world.
Don’t ever step into a never-before-lived-day without a spirit of optimism. You choose your attitude. The choice is yours. Jesus in you is the hope of glory.
Yogi Berra said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”
General W. J. Slim was a little more precise in this statement: “When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action to take … choose the bolder.”
Dealing with some of the difficulties of life is like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you get tired. You quit when the gorilla gets tired.
Our Lord knowing this has provided numerous uplifting influences to enable us to regain our footing when knocked down by events that jolt us.
“Enter His gates… and into His courts.”
This was an expression by the ancient Hebrews that speak of public worship. Public worship puts God in focus. It is like looking at an object through a magnifying glass? With the object in the center of the glass in focus you could see it best. However, around the edges everything else might be fuzzy or faded. Worship enables us to get God in focus and things to fade.
It is often ourselves that needs to be put in proper focus. Sometimes we are defeated, depleted, and deflated. At other times we operate from an inflated ego. Worship gives balance. Therein we are dealing with One bigger and more able than we.
Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. Neither limit your worship to public worship. Walk through life as though the world around you is a great cathedral, and in it worship the God of creation. Be mindful of Him amid His artful creation and silently express adoration to Him. Remember it is He we are to worship, inspired by nature, but it is not nature we worship.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24: 1)
Worship is in essence focusing on God formally and informally. Live with a sense of His presence and worship Him. Having such a companion is cause for optimism.
Cheap Grace – Part Three
(The lifestyle advocated in this post should not be understood as an effort to earn grace, but as a result of already having obtained grace. This lifestyle is not the cause of grace, but the consequence of grace, and cannot be lived without having obtained the grace to do it.)
A slow contemplative reading of the following will open your eyes to what true grace really is. It is tough! As you read, pause after each quote and ask yourself what it means to you, and how you should apply it. No cheap grace is offered here. Dietrich Bonhoeffer who stated them lived them out to the end in a Nazi death camp. In doing so he attracted his detractors to Jesus. The same result is gained today by those who know no cheap grace.
“[Jesus] stands between us and God, and for that very reason he stands between us and all other men and things. He is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality. Since the whole world was created through him and unto him (John 1:3; 1st Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:2), he is the sole Mediator in the world…”
“To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is indeed a narrow way. To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, his enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way. To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way. To see the weakness and wrong in others, and at the same time refrain from judging them; to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine, is indeed a narrow way. The way is unutterably hard, and at every moment we are in danger of straying from it. If we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an external command, if we are afraid of ourselves all the time, it is indeed an impossible way. But if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step, we shall not go astray.”
“The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behavior must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus; it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus.”
“True prayer is done in secret, but this does not rule out the fellowship of prayer altogether, however clearly we may be aware of its dangers. In the last resort it is immaterial whether we pray in the open street or in the secrecy of our chambers, whether briefly or lengthily, in the Litany of the Church, or with the sigh of one who knows not what he should pray for. True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows our needs.”
“Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.”
“‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself.’ The disciple must say to himself the same words Peter said of Christ when he denied him: ‘I know not this man.’ Self-denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.’”
“The child asks of the Father whom he knows. Thus, the essence of Christian prayer is not general adoration, but definite, concrete petition. The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.”
And now the application. These quotes demand we abandon cheap grace, grace without accountability, and apply true grace in all of life.
Happiness: The By-Product of a Job Well Done 9/24/03
John 17: 1 – 19
JESUS CHRIST gathered with His disciples in Gethsemane for His last teaching session. The garden was near by the temple area. Here, Christ prayed the high priestly prayer just before His personal sacrifice was to be made.
The N.T. records 13 specific instances of Jesus praying. (John records three: 11:41, 42; 12:27, 28; 17).
He prayed a prayer of CONFIRMATION (11:41, 42) requesting the resurrection of Lazarus. The purpose was stated “that they might believe.”
He prayed a prayer of COMPLIANCE (12:27, 28) first in agony requesting that the “cup” be removed from Him. He knew the pending pain of desertion, betrayal, and crucifixion and in His flesh was repelled by it. In the spirit He prayed a prayer of submission, “Father, glorify Your name.”
He prayed a prayer of CONSECRATION (17) asking the Father to sanctify you. Jesus Christ prayed for YOU.
When you pray, pray to God. Most persons are more preoccupied with what they are praying for rather than the one to whom they are praying.
When Ethelred the Saxon King of NORTHUMBERLAND invaded Wales in 1010 A.D. he saw a group of pious persons kneeling in prayer. He asked who they were and what they were doing. When informed that they were harmless Christians praying for their land, he ordered them executed exclaiming: “They are my most powerful foes.”
I. HIS SUPREME DELIGHT (Vss. 1 – 5)
His supreme delight was the Father’s glory. Jesus glorified the Father by doing the work He sent Him to do, John 1:14. We are to glorify Him in the same way. “As my Father hath sent me…” (Vs. 18). To God, glory means character. To man, it means prominence, prestige, preeminence and praise.
Jesus glorified the Father by revealing His character. We glorify Jesus when we show by our conduct and conversation His character.
Jesus was a living embodiment of Colossians 3:32.
Jesus now wants the Father to glorify Him as He was before creation in order that His glory might be manifested through us.
His character was even more misunderstood.
Christ revealed His true character.
Jesus said, “I am glorified in them” (Vs. 10).
Believers are given to Christ by the Father.
Believers give Christ glory by serving the Father.
Jesus PROPOSED
1. Joy (Vs. 13). Jesus prayed, “…that they might have My joy fulfilled in them.” His joy was not the result of a perfect world full of embracing and caring friends. It was shown in the midst of a bunch of dull, groveling, critical, blood thirsty brutes.
Scripture says “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” If so, how strong are you? Does His joy show through you? Joy is a magnet that draws people to the likeness of Christ in you.
In a heavy rain recently I realized I was hearing something. It was a bird singing. Amid that storm he was still singing. The storm didn’t disrupt what was happening in his little bird heart. Some Christians manifesting little or no joy give excuses. They say, “I know we are suppose to have joy, BUT you just don’t understand….” I don’t have to understand. Get that conjunction out of your system. You have to understand joy is within you and often a counterpoint to conditions around you. If it is shown amid adversity it is as distinctive as that bird singing in the rain.
Take a bottle half full of water and shake it up. There is turmoil in it. Shake a full bottle and there is no turmoil. The reason one is tranquil is because it is full and no outside motion influences what is inside. When your life is spirit filled there is joy.
2. A warning (Vs. 14). If you are a follower of Christ you are an alien in this world. Jesus was hated by secular minded people. Note how you are described as being “not of this world.” To bear His name marks you as an alien in this world. This can provoke trouble for you in a spiritually hostile world.
Jesus PRAYED
1. For unity, “that they may be one as We are” (Vs. 11).
Church members need to realize their attitudes and actions either contribute to or take away from a united congregation. Jesus depicts us as fulfilling His joy by a display of unity.
Jesus did not pray for us to have units, but to be a unit. Where there are clicks, where there is competition, exclusiveness, division, and disunity the prayer of Christ is frustrated.
The unity spoken of by Christ comes from our Holy Father. For there to be unity there has to be one point of unity. If every believer is fine turned to the Father they are of one mind, His mind.
There is strength in unity. The weakest most attenuate thread, when woven with others of like capacity makes a strong cord.
A single drop of water alone is a weak and powerless thing. But an infinite number of drops united by the force of attraction will form a stream, and many stream combine to form a river and together they flow into the ocean whose pounding waves defy the power of man.
Divide the mighty torrents that flow over Niagra Falls and it is but a gentle falling rain. United they could quench the fires of a hundred volcanos like Vesuvius.
The church divided is an insipid unproductive assembly of individuals. Combined it is a mighty force for our Lord.
2. Christ wants His followers to be commitment to Truth. He said, “I have given them the words which you have given Me” (Vs. 8). We are stewards of His word.
Most of our problems result from us basing our choices on unreliable authorities, such as:
Culture: “Everybody’s doing it.”
Tradition: “We’ve always done it that way.”
Reason: “It seems logical.”
Emotion: “It just feels right.”
All these have one common flaw. They come from us and not the Lord.
3. Christ prayed for our protection, “…that you should keep them from the evil one” (Vs. 15). Thank you Jesus! The Lord God Himself is the sentinel to stand guard over your life. Within His will is peace and success. He has a perfect will that we should seek. Often disobedience results in His permissive will coming into play. He often permissively permits us to enact our will.
We should pray, “Dear God, we want none of your permissive will. We want only your perfect will.”
II. OUR SANCTIFIED DEDICATION (Vss. 16 – 19)
Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (Vs. 17).
Sanctify, HAGIAZEIN, came from the adjective HAGIOS, which means separated – dedicated. A thing or person that is hagios is different from the ordinary.
To sanctify does not mean to get rid of sin and become sinlessly perfect. If it did, Christ would not have sanctified Himself (vs. 19), because He had no sin. It means set aside for a specific use. Every believer is.
In regeneration, God sees the believer in Christ.
In sanctification, the world sees Christ in the believer.
The believer is to be doubly sanctified:
“In the truth” as they are set aside from the world.
“For the truth” as they go into the world with the truth.
We believers are to: He deserted His eternal character in order to enable us to have His earthly character.
Jesus showed character that glorified the Father by:
1. CULMINATING HIS WORK – “The hour is come…”
2. COMPLETING HIS WORK – “I have finished…”
3. CERTIFYING HIS WORK – “That they might know thee…” Not just have knowledge of Him, but KNOW him – experience intimacy with the Father.
4. CONFIRMING HIS WORK – The individual’s enjoyment of eternal life is a living confirmation of His work. Eternal life is a term that speaks of more than duration. It refers principally of quality of life. It is the life of God’s believers experience here and now, such as, joy, peace and quality of life which are characteristic of the Father.
Jesus arrived with the supernatural nature and acquired the natural through physical birth.
We arrive with the natural nature and acquire the supernatural through spiritual re-birth.
When God clothed Himself in human form, He enabled us to see His glory (character).
III. OUR SECURE DEFENSE (Vss. 6 – 15)
His prayer for His disciples involves submission and is based on obedience. He prayed for His own. Who were they? They were sleepy-headed, doubting, quizzical persons. Jesus showed He had faith in God and in people.
Vs. 6 – “I have shown… (manifested “thy name…”). He was not referring to what the Father is called, but what He is like. “If my people…called by my name…” His nature. Jehovah’s name was unknown and/or unspoken.