Some time ago I was talking with a man who found out that I was a pastor. I had heard him speaking prior and was amazed at how quickly his vocabulary changed toward the religious vein when he discovered what I did for a living. He told me that he had looked into many of the world religions, no doubt expecting me to be impressed. I replied, “I don’t like religion all that much!” He was shocked! I then explained that I have come to understand that the basis of my faith was built on a relationship rather than a religious system. “That makes sense,” he replied, “but I still can’t commit to something I don’t fully understand.”
Life is full of things that we don’t understand, but we make them a part of our lives anyway. For instance, I don’t understand the thermodynamics of internal combustion and the hydraulics of an automatic transmission (and be honest, unless you are an engineer, neither do you) but that doesn’t prevent me from driving my car. I must admit that I don’t understand electricity, but I don’t sit around in the dark. Salvation is the same!
No one will fully understand how God could become man, how he could die, how his death could be the basis for our forgiveness, and how Jesus could give you and me a new life… but only a fool would ignore such a great opportunity just because we don’t understand it.
"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Our Old Nature Never Dies
In Genesis 20, Abraham deceives Abimelech by telling him that Sarah his wife is really his sister. God speaks to Abimelech in a dream and warns him of this deception. The next morning Abimelech summons Abraham and poses this question, "What was your reason for doing this?" (Genesis 20:10)
Has anyone had to say to you, "What were you thinking of when you did that?" Have you ever had to say it to yourself: "What got into me anyway? I thought I was further along in the Christian life than this. Here I have done this thing that I thought had long ago passed out of my life. Whatever got into me?" If you have ever had to ask yourself that, you need to learn the lesson Abraham had to learn in Genesis 20: You and I are still capable of the worst sin that you have ever committed—and more.
Abraham had been a coward for thirty years, and he is still capable of being the same coward he was at the beginning, hiding behind his wife, subjecting her to dishonor and disgrace and shame in order to protect his own skin.
Now before we are too hard on Abraham, we would do well to look into the mirror. Our old nature with which we are born, is perverted and twisted to such a degree that it never operates as God intended it to. This does not mean that we cannot do what appears to be nice in the eyes of others and even of ourselves. There is something about the old self, the flesh, which is able to simulate righteousness. In the flesh's pursuit after pseudo righteousness, even if it succeeds in an outward demonstration of a sweet and lovely nature, it has never achieved anything but self-righteousness. Self-righteousness always demands self-praise, a longing to be admired and to win the attention of others. If you fail in your pursuit of self-righteousness, the result is self-pity. Either way, it is the flesh, and it can never please God.
We need to understand that when God comes into the human heart through Christ, He never tries to do anything about cleaning up that old nature. He writes it off as worthless. No matter how it looks in the eyes of others, if it comes from the self-advancing, self-centered core, it is worthless, and it always will be. What you now are in the flesh you always will be, if you live a hundred years. If you lay hold of that concept, you will find it one of the most encouraging truths in your Christian life, because it will release you from that awful burden of self-effort that tries to make the old nature behave itself. You must renounce self as the Word of God tells you to and quit feeding it, protecting it, polishing it up, trying to make it look good. Give it up. Accept all that Jesus Christ is in you and wants to be through you, for His nature is perfect.
Any dependence upon self always results in the kind of problem that Abraham had. After thirty years of walking with God and learning wonderful lessons in his spiritual life, the minute he steps out of a dependence upon God, he steps back into that same ugly nature he had in the beginning. Old natures have to be kept under control by walking in the Spirit.
"Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature," Paul tells us (Galatians 5:16).
Has anyone had to say to you, "What were you thinking of when you did that?" Have you ever had to say it to yourself: "What got into me anyway? I thought I was further along in the Christian life than this. Here I have done this thing that I thought had long ago passed out of my life. Whatever got into me?" If you have ever had to ask yourself that, you need to learn the lesson Abraham had to learn in Genesis 20: You and I are still capable of the worst sin that you have ever committed—and more.
Abraham had been a coward for thirty years, and he is still capable of being the same coward he was at the beginning, hiding behind his wife, subjecting her to dishonor and disgrace and shame in order to protect his own skin.
Now before we are too hard on Abraham, we would do well to look into the mirror. Our old nature with which we are born, is perverted and twisted to such a degree that it never operates as God intended it to. This does not mean that we cannot do what appears to be nice in the eyes of others and even of ourselves. There is something about the old self, the flesh, which is able to simulate righteousness. In the flesh's pursuit after pseudo righteousness, even if it succeeds in an outward demonstration of a sweet and lovely nature, it has never achieved anything but self-righteousness. Self-righteousness always demands self-praise, a longing to be admired and to win the attention of others. If you fail in your pursuit of self-righteousness, the result is self-pity. Either way, it is the flesh, and it can never please God.
We need to understand that when God comes into the human heart through Christ, He never tries to do anything about cleaning up that old nature. He writes it off as worthless. No matter how it looks in the eyes of others, if it comes from the self-advancing, self-centered core, it is worthless, and it always will be. What you now are in the flesh you always will be, if you live a hundred years. If you lay hold of that concept, you will find it one of the most encouraging truths in your Christian life, because it will release you from that awful burden of self-effort that tries to make the old nature behave itself. You must renounce self as the Word of God tells you to and quit feeding it, protecting it, polishing it up, trying to make it look good. Give it up. Accept all that Jesus Christ is in you and wants to be through you, for His nature is perfect.
Any dependence upon self always results in the kind of problem that Abraham had. After thirty years of walking with God and learning wonderful lessons in his spiritual life, the minute he steps out of a dependence upon God, he steps back into that same ugly nature he had in the beginning. Old natures have to be kept under control by walking in the Spirit.
"Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature," Paul tells us (Galatians 5:16).
Saturday, June 16, 2007
The Immutability of Christ
This Sunday we will celebrate the Lord's Supper. As we approach the table of our Lord for this commemorative celebration, we are instructed to "do this to remember Me." (I Cor 11:24) It dawned upon me recently, that while I always challenge people to remember, I don't know that enough emphasis is given with regard to "what" we are to remember about our Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the great comforts to us as believers is the immutability, the changeless nature of Christ. Hebrews 13:8 declares, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever."
We live in a world that is in a constant state of change. In fact, most of us find the changes happening so fast, it is hard to keep up with all of them. The earth is in a constant state of change, one season follows another. Countries and kingdoms are in a constant state of change. Recently when I was in Vienna, I met believers from countries that comprised the former Soviet Union. I had to update my geography, that part of the world has changed drastically over the past few years. Families change, from one generation to the next. Even you and I change as our bodies age and grow. Change is a constant in life.
Yet, Hebrews 13:8 tell us Jesus does not change. What a great comfort for us. If we can grasp this fully, the beauties, excellencies and perfections of Christ will be a great consolation for us.
Consider His person! He is the express image of the true God. He is the Heir of all things, the Lord of Glory. Jesus is unrivalled in His glory, His exalted position and throne are immovable. The praise and honor due Him is exhaustless and eternal. He is self-existent, truly the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Maybe most noteworthy is the vastness of His love to us. Love is the unalterable essence of His nature. Above all else, He is love. This love is expressed to us in so many ways, yet it is never lessened or affected by the circumstances of this life. Jesus remains the source and fountain of gracious love. This love is most wonderfully manifested in His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. The virtue and merit of His sacrifice extend to every age and avail for a guilty world. I believe it availed for Abel in Genesis as he bought the appropriate sacrifice and it extends down through the ages to every contrite sinner who in faith has responded to the Gospel, the efficacy of which is unimpaired. It is guilt-removing, soul-purifying, and peace-procuring.
Here's a story that brings all of that into focus.
When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door, and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, THAT is middle C!”
The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one “still point in a turning world.”
For Christians, the one “still point in a turning world,” the one absolute of which there is no shadow of turning, is the immutable Jesus Christ .. "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Isn't that a powerful comfort for us in a world of constant change?
Do this to remember Me! Oh, may Jesus be an anchor to your heart and soul!
One of the great comforts to us as believers is the immutability, the changeless nature of Christ. Hebrews 13:8 declares, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever."
We live in a world that is in a constant state of change. In fact, most of us find the changes happening so fast, it is hard to keep up with all of them. The earth is in a constant state of change, one season follows another. Countries and kingdoms are in a constant state of change. Recently when I was in Vienna, I met believers from countries that comprised the former Soviet Union. I had to update my geography, that part of the world has changed drastically over the past few years. Families change, from one generation to the next. Even you and I change as our bodies age and grow. Change is a constant in life.
Yet, Hebrews 13:8 tell us Jesus does not change. What a great comfort for us. If we can grasp this fully, the beauties, excellencies and perfections of Christ will be a great consolation for us.
Consider His person! He is the express image of the true God. He is the Heir of all things, the Lord of Glory. Jesus is unrivalled in His glory, His exalted position and throne are immovable. The praise and honor due Him is exhaustless and eternal. He is self-existent, truly the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Maybe most noteworthy is the vastness of His love to us. Love is the unalterable essence of His nature. Above all else, He is love. This love is expressed to us in so many ways, yet it is never lessened or affected by the circumstances of this life. Jesus remains the source and fountain of gracious love. This love is most wonderfully manifested in His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. The virtue and merit of His sacrifice extend to every age and avail for a guilty world. I believe it availed for Abel in Genesis as he bought the appropriate sacrifice and it extends down through the ages to every contrite sinner who in faith has responded to the Gospel, the efficacy of which is unimpaired. It is guilt-removing, soul-purifying, and peace-procuring.
Here's a story that brings all of that into focus.
When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door, and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, THAT is middle C!”
The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one “still point in a turning world.”
For Christians, the one “still point in a turning world,” the one absolute of which there is no shadow of turning, is the immutable Jesus Christ .. "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Isn't that a powerful comfort for us in a world of constant change?
Do this to remember Me! Oh, may Jesus be an anchor to your heart and soul!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Going Back Home
This incredible true story captures in a very poignant way, the power and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christina ran away from home breaking her mother’s heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her daughter, the mother hurriedly packed to go find her.
On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth and spent all she had on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded a bus. She knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up.
Knowing this, she began to search. At each place she left her picture—taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. Her money and pictures ran out, and she had to go home.
It was a few weeks later that her daughter Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to be home. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and began to fill with tears as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” She did.
Spiritually all of us are runaways. We have turned our own way and we have run from God, breaking His heart. But the Gospel says to us, “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.”
Will you?
Christina ran away from home breaking her mother’s heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her daughter, the mother hurriedly packed to go find her.
On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth and spent all she had on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded a bus. She knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up.
Knowing this, she began to search. At each place she left her picture—taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. Her money and pictures ran out, and she had to go home.
It was a few weeks later that her daughter Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to be home. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and began to fill with tears as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” She did.
Spiritually all of us are runaways. We have turned our own way and we have run from God, breaking His heart. But the Gospel says to us, “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.”
Will you?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
How Important is the Truth?
We are rightly perplexed by many of the maladies that face our society in these days. The foundational truths that have long served us so well, have been jettisoned and replaced by the whim of popular opinion. Consequently, we find ourselves in a situation like that in the book of Judges, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6)
Ironically, this trend is also invading the church. From all appearances Christianity is thriving. Mega churches are springing up everywhere. Christian music and book sales seem to be booming. Christian political groups are being heard all the way to the White House. Yet, the evangelical church seems largely to be a white-washed tomb. Truth in the church is also in danger, being replaced by a rather subtle fascination with gathering a crowd any way you can. Hence, we look for ways to be market-driven.
In reality, there are no new remedies for old problems. The best answers are still found by coming back to the old paths. We must capture again the centrality of the Biblical truth. We must remain faithful to its reliability. Rather than be market-driven, let us remain Word-centered, God-exalting, Christ-centered, and Spirit-empowered. This commitment must originate in our pulpits.
Charles H. Spurgeon witnessed first hand the decline of dynamic Biblical preaching. He issued the following plea: "When the good old truth is once again preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar (Isaiah 6), this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land... I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men's ears to hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless His churches."
Truth,, especially Biblical truth is of utmost importance to us in these days. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
Ironically, this trend is also invading the church. From all appearances Christianity is thriving. Mega churches are springing up everywhere. Christian music and book sales seem to be booming. Christian political groups are being heard all the way to the White House. Yet, the evangelical church seems largely to be a white-washed tomb. Truth in the church is also in danger, being replaced by a rather subtle fascination with gathering a crowd any way you can. Hence, we look for ways to be market-driven.
In reality, there are no new remedies for old problems. The best answers are still found by coming back to the old paths. We must capture again the centrality of the Biblical truth. We must remain faithful to its reliability. Rather than be market-driven, let us remain Word-centered, God-exalting, Christ-centered, and Spirit-empowered. This commitment must originate in our pulpits.
Charles H. Spurgeon witnessed first hand the decline of dynamic Biblical preaching. He issued the following plea: "When the good old truth is once again preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar (Isaiah 6), this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land... I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men's ears to hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless His churches."
Truth,, especially Biblical truth is of utmost importance to us in these days. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
We Get Accustomed to Our Blessings
I have felt for a long time that one of the particular temptations we all must face is that of getting accustomed to our blessings. Emerson said that if the stars came out only once a year, everybody would stay up all night to behold them.
We have seen the stars so often that we don’t bother to look at them anymore. Likewise, we have grown accustomed to our blessings.
This is not a new situation by any means. The Israelites in the wilderness got accustomed to their blessings. God had fed them with heavenly manna each morning, and yet the people were getting tired of it. “ (Numbers 11:6) They were experiencing a miracle of God’s provision every morning; yet they were no longer excited about it. Nothing but manna! The Israelites remembered their diet in Egypt and longed to return to the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. They were saying, “The people in Egypt are so much better off than we are!” Obviously, they had forgotten the slavery they had endured in Egypt and the terrible bondage from which God had delivered them.
One of the evidences that we have grown accustomed to our blessings is this same spirit of criticism and complaining. We are often like the Israelites! Instead of thanking God for what we have, we complain about it and tell him we wish we had something else. You can be sure that if God did give us what we asked for, we would eventually complain about that as well. The person who has gotten accustomed to his blessing can never be satisfied. Another evidence of this malady is the idea that others have a better situation than we do.
The admonition of the Scripture is noteworthy on this subject, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts...and be ye thankful. (Colossians 3:15)
We have seen the stars so often that we don’t bother to look at them anymore. Likewise, we have grown accustomed to our blessings.
This is not a new situation by any means. The Israelites in the wilderness got accustomed to their blessings. God had fed them with heavenly manna each morning, and yet the people were getting tired of it. “ (Numbers 11:6) They were experiencing a miracle of God’s provision every morning; yet they were no longer excited about it. Nothing but manna! The Israelites remembered their diet in Egypt and longed to return to the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. They were saying, “The people in Egypt are so much better off than we are!” Obviously, they had forgotten the slavery they had endured in Egypt and the terrible bondage from which God had delivered them.
One of the evidences that we have grown accustomed to our blessings is this same spirit of criticism and complaining. We are often like the Israelites! Instead of thanking God for what we have, we complain about it and tell him we wish we had something else. You can be sure that if God did give us what we asked for, we would eventually complain about that as well. The person who has gotten accustomed to his blessing can never be satisfied. Another evidence of this malady is the idea that others have a better situation than we do.
The admonition of the Scripture is noteworthy on this subject, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts...and be ye thankful. (Colossians 3:15)
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