A God Who Understands

A God Who Understands

Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:15-16
“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted…”

“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. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

There is such truth and power on tap for all of us here, but we so often fail to look close enough. The author of Hebrews demonstrates that one reason Jesus was made man, made to suffer, and made to be tempted was to intimately experience our struggles. How precious this promise is to those of us who struggle! Jesus (all God in every way) became human so that our struggles and pains could be experienced and covered with mercy. That is not a picture of God who sits on high waiting for us to mess up so He can strike us with punishment, but rather one of God who becomes one of us to experience our flesh and respond to our weaknesses with compassion and mercy. Rejoice!

There is something else quite precious here: the passage says that Jesus was “without sin.” He committed no sin in the midst of the sufferings and temptations “in every way.” Even when faced with death, He did not respond in human weakness by running away. However, He did respond: He stressed to the point that He sweat drops of blood—that was “human” Jesus seeing the pain of what lay ahead. However, “God” Jesus was able to overcome the temptation to flee and endured the cross for the glory of His name and the salvation of all people. That gives me hope! We have “God” Jesus to respond to us in the full memory of what it meant to be “man” Jesus. Not only does it give me hope, but it also gives me a new charge concerning my way of living. I know that to be Christ-like in my living, I cannot struggle in my own strength. I must instead rely on the mercy and grace of He Who Overcame. Therefore, my prayers, now, are becoming: “You went through this Jesus and did not fall—Oh, please help me with that strength.”

So, I see these hopes standing:
-When Feeling Lonely: Jesus never married and yet stayed pure with full satisfaction in God.
-When Feeling the Money Crunch: Jesus was not wealthy and yet rejoiced in what He had without worry of tomorrow.
-When Uncertain of the Future: Jesus knew well the cross that awaited Him and yet faced it with confidence and God-centered, human emotion.
-When Angry: Jesus responded humanly in anger, yet never sinfully.
-And On and On…

When we are overwhelmed with all that weighs us down, God gives us The Strength. When temptations, sufferings, and struggles mount, we have The One who truly understands and overcame without sin. He is Jesus—100% us (human) in all emotion and pain, and 100% God in all perfection. So, we must pray to Him to overcome…we must rely on Him for hope and victory…we must never lean on our own “strength,” because even the “weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Cor. 1:25)

Amen

What a Difference a Week Makes!

“Years ago He was a swinging speck in the distance; now He is close enough to hear His singing.  Soon I will see the lines on His face.”

How to Have All You Ever Wanted

Here is thought (possibly quite complicated) concerning this awesome, but often misused, verse:

Psalm 37:4-
“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

“There it is! The secret to all of my searching. I will simply ‘delight in God,’ and He will give me all I want…He has to, it’s a promise.” That is an easily deceiving idea. Do you see the contradiction present in that kind of thinking? Well, maybe not yet, but soon (hopefully) it will be clear.

Let’s start by trying to understand delight and desire. Dictionaries define delight as a “great joy or pleasure.” They define desire as a “wish, craving, or longing for something.” Let’s insert these words and see if it helps us see this verse in a different light:

Find great joy or pleasure in the LORD and He will give you the wishes, cravings, and longings of your heart.

There is huge promise (with a condition) in this verse. Yes, God does promise to give us all we want, but only with the condition that we find great joy or pleasure in him. What I am hit by here is how these two things—our delight and our desire—are intimately connected. Let me explain. I have never been able to FULLY find great joy or pleasure (delight) in anything unless it is also a deep wish, craving, or longing (desire). Furthermore, I have never been able to FULLY wish, crave, or long for something unless it has some promise to bring great joy or pleasure. Therefore, our delight cannot exist independent of desire, and desire cannot exist independent of delight. They must go hand-in-hand in order to be fully expressed.

Take eating for example. It is a single event that can bring either great routine, or great pleasure. It is a routine event when we are not hungry. We have no cravings, and thus the act is not joyful. It is also a routine event if the food we eat is tasteless and brings no pleasure. Even with the cravings, the act is less satisfying because we did not receive any pleasure from it. On the other hand, fast for a week, and eating will consume all thought. Skip lunch and surely dinner will become more enjoyable because of the great longing that has been built up. As craving increases, the promised joy of eating increases. Likewise, eating our favorite dessert, whether we are full or not, will make us happy (there’s always room for dessert!) because there is great pleasure attached to that food. Even the pleasure of something we love creates a new craving!

So you see, we delight in something the more we long for it, and we long for something the more we delight in it. We can never fully delight ourselves in the LORD unless we are consumed with longing for Him and His presence. Do you see, then, why He loves to give us the desires of our heart…if we desire Him, then why would He not haste to satisfy us?

But I also want marriage and success and chocolate. Are not these, too, “desires of my heart?” Yes! Most certainly, yes! See how the LORD graciously says “desires,” plural. He wants us to have all that we crave and long for. But, there exists a hierarchy of desire that must be maintained. To FULLY have joy in something, it must be a consuming longing.

Our primary desires play into our primary delight. All other things fall behind secondarily. When we are consumed with something, we forget everything else for the moment. I have been known to read and “zone-out.” Being consumed with the words on the page, I close out the world and its “cares”—you could even tell me a story, and I would not receive a single word of it. Or take Christmas time for example. What else does a kid think about for weeks? The presents! He does not care about brushing his teeth or finishing his peas. He only thinks about presents. What we consume ourselves with directs our life—everything else falls aside.

The danger and frustration we experience in life comes when we interchange this order. If we ever make God’s presence a secondary desire, we will never be able to fully delight in Him. Furthermore, the “other” things we more strongly long for will never be fully satisfying. The result is us cursing God’s goodness and never seeing all of our desires fully satisfied…devastating!

Look at Matt. 6:32-33. Jesus talks about how pagans chase after what they consume themselves with. God knows that we desire and need all of the things that so easily consume us. However, we must seek Him first…we must put Him primary in our desires, and everything else will come in His time. Our ultimate goal as Christians should be to desire to be with God so much that we take complete joy in his presence, even if it means the delay of all the other things we want. But our ultimate joy as Christians is that we WILL see our other desires satisfied…maybe not now…maybe not even on earth…but we have the promise of Heaven, and in that we can rejoice!!

Do our desires really matter, then, once we place them secondary to God? Yes!! We never fully abandon our desires. Our desires were created by God and are good, so we never fully give them away (nor should we). We should only place them in proper alignment with God. Do I have to kill my desire for coffee and love and good conversation and sunsets? No, they still remain desires of my heart, but they become SECONDARY to my consuming Father.

So finally, brothers and sisters, how do we get everything we ever wanted? We must stop wanting as if there is nothing else that will satisfy. It’s like the phrase, “You’ll find what you are looking for when you stop looking for it.” It is clear, then, how we must live. We must strive to seek God first and be consumed by Him. All other cares will fall behind secondarily and will be satisfied someday in His glorious timing (even if that someday does not come until Heaven).

Why I Follow Jesus

From time to time one must step back and examine why he does or believes what he does.  The question of why I follow Jesus has been echoing through my head lately as if someone who didn’t know Jesus was curious to know what this God thing was all about and why it is the way to go.

Why do I follow Jesus?

Why is the sky blue or do I need air to breathe?  I follow Jesus because He called me and I could do no other but answer.  Jesus is “the founder and perfecter of (my) faith.”  (Heb 12:2)

Okay, But what benefit do I have in following Jesus?

This answer is always changing as I age.  I bet it will continue to change and will only be accurately answered when I’m face to face with Jesus.  Matthew 10 promises struggles for believers, so there must be a reason to stay in Christ.  Consider these:

-Peace
-A reason to wake up without dread every morning
-A purpose for living
-Love
-Complete acceptance of who I am
-A reason to not fear death, and thus to not fear life

Well How do I tell someone that Jesus is the answer they are looking for?

It is hard to convince an unbeliever that we are all full of sin and need forgiveness.  You may as well be speaking English to a Russian.  If they don’t have an understanding of the words, then they will be meaningless.  The gospel is good news for anyone who would believe.  The end of Romans 4 states that righteousness will be credited to all “who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  But later, in 1 Cor 1:18, “the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

I am convinced that we need not be creative with the gospel.  Jesus’ life stands on its own.  His words are true…no need to re-invent them.  No matter of explanation or argument or clever presentation will convince someone to place their faith in who Jesus says He is and in what He says He did.  Unless the Spirit of Jesus moves in my heart and mind, you may as well be speaking to me in a foreign language.  But you must speak, none-the-less.  With your words…simple and true.  With your lives…pure (as possible) and real.  With your faith…firm and continually reliant on God.  There is hope for us all who follow Jesus.  A new life of freedom and purpose and peace.

Back to the point:  Why, then, do you follow and how can others follow as well?

I follow Jesus because He called me.  I don’t know why He did, and I don’t know why He puts up with me, but He remains in me as I remain in Him.  I came to Him because it was clear that my life was a maze of darkness with no real finish…Jesus was the light and the way out.  I saw that as clearly then as I see it now, even though the gospel presented to me then was not stated any different than it had been many times before.  I saw it clearly then as I see it now, even though I tried previously and wanted to see it sooner.  Jesus made it clear and continues to keep it clear.  Now I have a reason to have peace and a reason to face the day and a reason to not fear anything that would come as I move forward.  Good argument did not provide this, only Jesus.  And good argument will not save our world, only Jesus…only Jesus.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

We are left to live as light and pray that Jesus would move.  Let us end and and let us echo Paul as we do:

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”  (Eph 1:18-19)  AMEN!

What is This Fear Thing?

Phil. 2:12 (NIV)
-“Continue to work our your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Hebrews 12:28 (NLT)
-“Let us be thankful and please GOD by worshiping him with holy fear and awe…our GOD is a consuming fire!”

Ezekiel 5:7
-“Stand in awe of GOD.”

Fear (my definition):
-Trembling in the presence of something awesome (awe-worthy)

Something that stands out to me as I read the Bible is the word “fear.” Fear the LORD…it is all over the Bible. What does it mean to fear? I have heard another word used in the place of “fear” before—“awe.” Awe the LORD…it says the same thing in perhaps a much different way.

These two words—fear and awe—match up well, I think. Both seem to evoke a feeling of being frozen—stillness with anxiety and an inability to move. The feelings are all the same: peering down from the top of a cliff, gazing into the face of a lion, or standing on the edge of an endless desert. Fear and awe both have the unique ability to make us still. But this stillness, however, is an active stillness—a trembling waiting for something more. These experiences of fear and awe beckon for more—they cry out for relief.

When have you felt most alive? I always feel most alive after my senses have been rocked—after they have been taken to their ultimate limits. Adrenalin flows and endorphins kick in, and life somehow seems more full. Have you ever heard of adrenalin junkies? These are people that live on the absolute edge of fear and danger in order to experience the fullest sensations of life. I want to be an adrenalin junkie. I want to stand in the presence of something awesome and dangerous and walk away with my life—not just my life, but a fuller version of it.

God is also calling us all to be junkies. He wants us to get our fix regularly. He has called us and created us to desire and seek out this euphoric experience often. It is a good sensation, but oh how sadly miss aimed it can be! Not knowing our way, we run around from pleasure to pleasure seeking fulfillment in ways that always fade. The fading may come slowly at first, but it eventually quickens to leave us strung out on pleasure after pleasure while the deep core of our being dies away.

My call is not that we run from pleasure. That is not our problem. I am calling us to embrace our needs—we should not apologize for our desires to be alive. I am not sorry that climbing, biking, skiing, cheeseburgers, and coffee bring me much pleasure. However, I am acutely aware that these pleasures, while good, pale in comparison to the joy I have found in Christ. So, as much as you desire earthy joys, desire God’s presence even more. We must seek Him out…and often. Fall on your face in fear and awe before the One who created the very desires that you seek so desperately to satisfy.

How we respond to God’s invitation to gaze and tremble depends largely on how we view Him. If you see God as a distant disciplinarian, then being close to Him feels like punishment. If we see Him as “Santa-like,” waiting to fulfill our wish lists, then sitting with Him does not seem like enough. If your view of Jesus is as many picture—a quiet, meek man who taught wisely and loved children and widows—then spending time with Him seems boring. However, if you see Him as He is—tossin’ tables, rebuking spirits, toeing the line with the Pharisees, destroying rebel armies, crumbling cities, bringing floods, judging sin, setting fire to water-logged altars…a whisper in the wind following the thunder and earthquakes—if you see God as a consuming fire, then you will fall helpless with mouth gaped wide, eyes shut tight, knees-a-knockin’, heart-a-poundin’, and body trembling in fear and awe!

So how do we learn to fear Him? Psalm 34:11 gives us some insight:
“Come my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”

God promises to teach us how to fear Him. So, sit back has He reveals Himself as He is. Draw close to His flame knowing full well that it may quite possible mean your death. If it is danger you seek, then live on the edge of God’s presence. Live on the edge on something greater and more terrible than your heart can contain. Live on the edge of his all-consuming desire, forsaking all counterfeit desires to pursue the One who does not ever disappoint us. Oh, how He is calling us to be junkies! Drink deep and get your fix. Pursue God’s life, and you will never thirst again. And above all, do not fret; God gives us His grace—we may not know how to pursue Him in fear now but someday we will.