Loving Jesus

Go here to read J.C. Ryle's thoughts on Loving Christ practically.

The Crossing of the Red Sea

In our Bible Study yesterday, we contemplated the Crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites.  Gang reminded us to look for three things: 

1. Details (What details jump out at you as you read Exodus 14?)
2. Similar Patterns (What major themes or patterns do you see?)
3. Christ (The Whole Bible is about Christ.  How is He presented here?)

Verse 8:  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

They'd been slaves in Egypt, and they'd seen astounding things.  They watched as the Lord God Almighty systematically destroyed the false gods of the Egyptians.  When it came time to march out of there, they went out defiantly.  

I can imagine them saying, "Ha!  You got what you deserved, you nasty slave-drivers! "  They took the gold and silver and precious things offered to them by the Egyptians, and left.

Ha!  

They were feeling pretty good.  They had a "high hand".  They were on top of the world.

Until they saw Pharoah pursuing them, that is, with 600 chariots.  Oh, No!  They were going to die in the wilderness.  What was Moses thinking, bringing them out there in the desert to die?  What would they do?  What should they do?

Verse 14 holds the Key:  The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to be silent.

The Lord will fight. 

For you.  For all of you miserable people, who'd only known slavery all of your lives.

And all you have to do is shut up and watch.  

Be still, and know that I am God.

Are you still in the face of your enemies?  Do you know, deep down, that God is the one who fights your battles?  Have you learned to stay silent and watch as the Lord fights for you?

But Moses had something to do.  God gave him an order:

"Stretch out your hand."  

"Moses, I am about to do a marvelous thing here, but I want you to do something, too.  Stretch out your hand over the sea."

Remember, it was God's work.  Moses knew this:

[13] And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. [14] The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

(Exodus 14:13-14 ESV)

God did the work, but He required Moses to stretch out his hand to accomplish His purpose.  Did He need Moses' help?  Of course not!  But He graciously gave him a job to do, and validated his leadership before the people.

Pattern:  God does the work.  He builds the church.  He feeds the family.  He accomplishes His purposes, all of the time.  Nothing can thwart His will.  Yet He has work for us to do.  We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  

Are you doing the work God has prepared for you to do?  Are you faithfully stretching out your hand?  Do you acknowledge that any good thing you do is because of the Lord's mercy and grace, for it is His work?  

Pattern:  They could do NOTHING to save themselves.  Pharaoh and his armies were pursuing them, and there was nothing they could do.  They were weak, and helpless, and afraid.

Take a quick peek at 2 Chronicles 20.  You'll see another pattern there.  Jehoshophat cries out to God, overwhelmed by his enemies.  God tells him, "Don't be afraid.  The Battle is the Lord's!"  

Notice that in 2 Chronicles 20 and in Exodus 14, the children of Israel saw the evidence of God battling on their behalf.  They saw the dead Egyptians on the shore; they saw the dead enemies lying on the ground.  

God not only fought the battles, He made it clear that the enemy was defeated.

Do you live as one who has victory over sin?  It's defeated!  

Christ tore the veil.  He fought the Battle for us!  The enemy is defeated.  The old nature is dead.  

Christ is the Rock - the Way - the Path through the sea.

The path through the sea for the Israelites meant life.

The path through the sea for the Egyptians meant death. 

Check out 2 Corinthians 2:15, 16. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,  to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

(2 Corinthians 2:15-16 ESV)

Here's a summary of the Chapter:

[30] Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. [31] Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

(Exodus 14:30-31 ESV)

The Lord Saves! (He'll save you, too!)

Israel saw the enemy defeated. (He fights your enemies, too!)

Israel saw the great power of the Lord.  (His great power never changes.)

Israel feared the Lord.  (He is worthy of our praise.  He's a good lion, but never a tame one.)

Israel believed in the Lord, and in His servant Moses.  (Do you believe in Him?  Do you trust Him to fight your battles, to work on your behalf?  Do you pray for your spiritual leaders?)

Remember:  The Lord will fight for you.

You only have to be silent.

Hard to Understand

Look around you.  What do you see?  You don't have to look very far to see injustice in this world.  Rioting in the streets of London left innocent people dead - among them an elderly man and a beloved young son.  Greediness and mismanagement has left many national economies in a shambles.  Some countries are controlled by a few outrageously rich and influential families who bribe government officials so they can maintain their power.  The price of a barrel of oil drops and is not reflected at the pumps.  The list goes on.


Worse that that, for you, could be your personal struggles.  Failed relationships, misunderstandings.  Bad communication.  A job that ended with no explanation and no warning.  A terrifying diagnosis.  A feeling of failure.  


You may ask yourself, "Why do others seem to do so well, while my life sucks?"


"I don't understand."


Job's friends insisted time and again that the wicked lived a short life full of inevitable pain and poverty.  They had a simplistic view that the wicked suffer in this world.  Job refutes that claim. (See Chapter 24)


So much wickedness and sadness goes on in the world.  The wicked are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.  Much evil happens in the night.

Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty BY HIS POWER; He gives them security, and they are supported, and His eyes are upon their ways.  They are exalted a little while, and then are gone. They are brought low and gathered up like all the others; they are cut off like the heads of grain.

Do you see?  The oppressor is being supported by the mighty power of God, who holds all things together by the Word of His power!  (Col. 1:17)


Do you see?  He is watching.  Judgment is coming!


Do you see?  The wicked will be brought low and cut off.  They'll bear no fruit.  They'll have no posterity.


Psalm 147 reminds us:


The Lord 

• gathers the outcasts 
• heals the brokenhearted
• binds their wounds
• lifts up the humble
• casts the wicked to the ground

Job didn't always understand.  He had no idea why God ordained that he should suffer so deeply.  Sometimes, he didn't even know if God was there.

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,and backward, but I do not perceive him;on the left hand, when he is working, I do not behold Him;He turns to the right hand,but I do not see Him.

Do you see that?  Job cannot perceive God, but HE IS WORKING.

Life is confusing and difficult.  The trials we endure seem never-ending, and life is hard to understand.  But God is working!

Job continues, 

But He knows the way that I take;When He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

Do you see?  We don't know now what God is doing, but we know He is working.  We don't understand why our path in this world leads through thorns and thistles, trials and tribulation.  But we know some day, we shall come out of the fiery furnace, purified.

Farther along, we'll know all about it.  Farther along, we'll understand why.

"Farther Along" - Josh Garrels from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Farther along we'll know all about it
Farther along we'll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand this, all by and by

Tempted and tried, I wondered why
The good man died, the bad man thrives
And Jesus cries because he loves 'em both
We're all cast-aways in need of rope
Hangin' on by the last threads of our hope
In a house of mirrors full of smoke
Confusing illusions I've seen

Where did I go wrong, I sang along
To every chorus of the song
That the devil wrote like a piper at the gates
Leading mice and men down to their fates
But some will courageously escape
The seductive voice with a heart of faith
While walkin' the line back home

So much more to life than we've been told
It's full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
Wash away all the things you've done
Forgiveness alright

Farther along we'll know all about it
Farther along we'll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand this, all by and by

Still I get hard pressed on every side
Between the rock and a compromise
Like the truth and pack of lies fightin' for my soul
And I've got no place left to go
'Cause I got changed by what I've been shown
More glory than the world has known
Keeps me ramblin' on

Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall
I'm free to love once and for all
And even when I fall I'll get back up
For the joy that overflows my cup
Heaven filled me with more than enough
Broke down my levees and my bluffs
Let the flood wash me

And one day when the sky rolls back on us
Some rejoice and the others fuss
'Cause every knee must bow and tongue confess
That the Son of God is forever blessed
His is the kingdom, we're the guests
So put your voice up to the test
Sing Lord, come soon 

Farther along we'll know all about it
Farther along we'll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand this, all by and by. ~ Josh Garrels 

43 years of Amazing!!

John MacArthur decided 43 years ago to preach through the entire New Testament, verse-by-verse.

Watch the last few minutes as he accomplishes this goal, extolling his Amazing Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ:

Can't Stop Love

"If there is anything I have learned in my life, it's that so very little is within our control. Our passions arise to surprise us. Our loves jump out at us like boogeymen as we round a dark corner or open the closet. We try and we try to make things fit, to steer the events of our lives a certain way, to create boundaries of experience and feeling, to wall ourselves off from one another, to stop love - which should never be stopped, ever - and my dears, it simply cannot be done." ~Quote from Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos.

We are miserable creatures, we humans.  We want to love and be loved, to feel good about ourselves, to see ourselves in the best possible light.  We tend to hang around with those who make us happy, and avoid those who make us uncomfortable.  If we could, we'd wall ourselves off from each other and live in mansions of ease,  interacting only with those who are invited to enter our hallowed halls.


But God designs families His way.  He puts into our lives exactly those people who will sharpen our rough edges and expose our hidden sins.  He causes the man at the gas station, the girl at the grocery store, the truck driver who cuts us off on the highway to behave in such a manner that we react, and spew out what is really inside our hearts.  Wickedness.  Spite.  Hatred.  Pride.  Self-centeredness.


We can't put up walls.  We can't steer the events of our lives a certain way.


All we can do is to flee to Jesus.  We can look to Him, and ask Him to show us where we need to change.  It's not about changing others - it's all about our hearts before God.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way” The Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith”

“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me.”

They have all the answers.

Smart people. 

There are lots of them out there.  They are the ones who can look at another and just know what they ought to do.

Job ran into some of them.  Zophar was one.  I've paraphrased his words:

"You're suffering, Job?  Oh, that's because you've sinned.  Consider the fate of the wicked.  They have a short life fraught with inevitable pain and poverty.  You must be wicked, too... look at the pain you're in!"

Job is weighed down by their words.  He seems to be at the end of his rope in Chapter 21, but he cannot let Zophar's simplistic view stand without refutation.

"Keep listening to my words. . . Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on."

Even though he fully expects his friends to keep mocking, Job cannot remain silent.  He gives many examples of the prosperity of wicked people, who have no fear of God.  He concludes that one man dies in full vigour, after a life of fun, food and song, while another dies in bitterness of soul.  Don't tell me the wicked don't prosper.

How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?  There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.

What I know is this:  I serve an AWESOME GOD.  He really does know.

When I am confused, He knows the answer.  When I am lost, He knows the path.  When I am weak, He fights the battle.  When I am discouraged, He gives me strength.  When I am overwhelmed, He bows the heavens and comes down!

Psalm 144:1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,

who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge,

You are my Rock, O Lord, and I know You design my trials to shape me so that I am a better soldier of Christ.  I know you love me steadfastly, never wavering, never taking Your eye off of me.  You are the One I turn to in all of my distress.   You are the One on Whom I depend.

You know the way that I take.  You plan out my days and order my steps.  I take refuge in You.  I trust You with all my heart, and I follow You fervently.

Everyone but me seems to know all of the answers.

I don't know.

I only know this.  I must love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.  I must love my husband, my children, my neighbour... preferring them above myself.
There are people in my life with all of the answers, too.  They know exactly why we are suffering, and they know what to do about it.  At least, they think they know. 

Not Fair. Not Equal.

There is no symmetry in the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead, God’s Kingdom is completely lopsided. God has done it all. He pursued, loved, forgave, blessed and promised a lavish inheritance. We can never meet God half-way, and we should stop trying.~ Ed Welch

If you want to read the entire blog post about God's lopsided kingdom, go here:

Fair is a Four-Letter Word

Windy Words

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
(Psalm 139:1-6 ESV)

The beginning of Psalm 139 is as mind-blowing as it is humbling.  God is Omniscient - He knows EVERYTHING about me.

• my actions
• my habits
• my thoughts
• my days
• my plans
• my words
• my rest

He hems me in, behind and before, and lays His hand on me.  This knowledge is too wonderful for me.  To know that God knows everything about me is humbling, to say the least.  Nobody else really knows me.  Nobody else really knows you, either.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
(Psalm 139:7 ESV)

God is Omnipresent - He is everywhere.  There is no place that I can hide from God.  There is no place you can hide from God, either.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
(Psalm 139:14 ESV)
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
(Psalm 139:17 ESV)

God is Omnipotent - He created everything.  He intricately formed each of us in our mother's womb; He made the stars and the sand and the snail and the slug.  His thoughts are unfathomable.  I can't begin to understand Him.  You can't begin to understand Him, either.  

David acknowledges how wonderful God is, and how precious God's thoughts are to him.  As he contemplates God's omniscience, His omnipresence, and His omnipotence, he looks around and sees those who do not care.  They are wicked men of blood, who speak against God with malicious intent, and take his name in vain.  David hates them.  He loathes them.  He wants God to slay them.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.(Psalm 139:19-22 ESV)

Don't we all do that?  We look around us and see injustice and horror and hatred and pain.  And we get angry.

There is much to be sad about in this world.  We read of a widow bereaved of her husband and left with two small children to care for, and we grieve for her, and pray for her, and wonder why.  We see pictures of devastation and loss in tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, and we are saddened, and we pray, and long for a better day.  

But these things, sad though they are, are not what really gets us riled.  

It's stories like these that make us angry:

• Horrific tales of cruelty in Kosovo
• Torture in Rwanda (young girls given the choice of which hand they want to lose first)
• Tales of persecution in Romanian prison camps
• Anecdotes about rude, rebellious teens and their bad behaviour in public places
• Fraud that decimates people's life savings

The list goes on.  We cry out to God, Oh, that you would slay the wicked.  We solve the world's problems, sitting on the deck with a glass of wine and plenty of opinions.  We think we know the answers, and we think we have the solutions.  We cheer when the Bin Ladens of the world are taken out, or when the Bernie Madoffs are sent to jail.  

We know nothing.

David had an inkling after he cried out to God to slay the wicked.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
(Psalm 139:23-24 ESV)

He'd just finished crying out to God to slay the wicked.  He thought he hated what God hated.  He thought he understood.

Then he realized, he knew nothing.

Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?  (Job 15:2  ESV)

Who are we to decide the fate of another?  It is God's decision.

Who are we to think we're better than another?  We are just as deserving of hell.

God is the One Who is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent.  We are not.  God may intend to spare those wicked men we rail against.  We have no idea.

If you go back up and click on the link to the video of people who survived the Romanian prison camps, you'll be humbled.  You'll realize that men and women who were tortured and raped and humiliated can find the grace to say, "I'd rather be the tortured than the torturer."

I'd rather walk with God than pursue Christians.  

I'd rather have a stable family life than be in a gutter with track marks on my arm.

I'd rather suffer financial woes than be dancing on a world-wide stage, half naked, and not knowing it.

There but for the grace of God.

Therefore, we need to keep our mouths shut, and stop the windy words.  We need to walk humbly and thankfully with God, marvelling every day that He is a God of Compassion and Mercy who treads our iniquities underfoot.

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:8 ESV)

God's Steadfast Love and Compassion

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

He will again have compassion on us;

he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

(Micah 7:18-19 ESV)

Never acceptable to God.

“Christ must increase, but I must decrease.”—John 3.30
 
“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ's sake, or we cannot be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe; it is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing, nor does the nature of our relationship to him, or to God through him, ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces, or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on his blood & righteousness alone that we can rest.”—B.B. Warfield

“The sinful nature still present within every believer tends toward a legalistic spirit as much as it tends toward sin. The sinful nature despises the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ as much as it despises the ethical righteousness that comes from obeying God's law. If we are going to serve in the newness of the Spirit, we must resist the legalistic spirit of trying to “live by the law” as vigorously and persistently as we do temptations to sin.”—Jerry Bridges


Never acceptable apart from Jesus, that is.  We rest in Him.

Conversion

Saul really wasn't a nice guy.  Oh, he was educated by the best of teachers, and could trace his roots to the most prominent of families. In his own words, he had reason for confidence in himself:

 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
(Philippians 3:4-6 ESV)

But his confidence was misplaced.  His zealousness was evil.  He persecuted the followers of Christ, breathing threats and murder against men and women belonging to the Way.

But Jesus stopped him in his tracks.

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
(Acts 9:3-4 ESV)

Saul couldn't believe what was happening to him, I'd imagine.  He had no idea Who was speaking to him, holding him accountable for his murderous actions.  I think he must have been trembling in his boots.

"Who are you, Lord?"  The question must have come falteringly.  Saul really didn't know.  Then came the answer that would hit him like a blow to the stomach:

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."

Notice this.  Saul was persecuting the disciples of Christ, men and women who belonged to the Lord.  When Saul heard the question, "Why are you persecuting me?" his mind must have been racing, thinking back to the different people he had hunted down, arrested, and brought in chains to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  Which of them had such power?  Was it Stephen?  No, he had died.   Could it be...?

So he questioned, "Who are you, Lord?"

I am Jesus.

Wait, Saul must have thought, his mind wildly racing.  Isn't Jesus the man who was crucified a few weeks ago?  It's his followers that I am chasing down.

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

There is an inseparable union between Christ and His followers.  Those who revile and maim and torture and imprison Christians are doing it to Jesus Christ.  Make no mistake.  They will answer to Him.

 You can read the rest of the account of the conversion of Saul here.  Go to Philippians 3 to read what happened to him internally.

His life changed.  Dramatically.  God converted him from a murderous persecutor of Christians to a preacher of Christ.  He was chosen by God to carry His name before Gentiles, before kings, and before the children of Israel.  He was chosen to suffer much, to strive hard, to work diligently for the sake of Jesus Christ and His people.

It's funny though... the people in Jerusalem didn't welcome him with open arms.  Even though he spent a good deal of time in Damascus, preaching boldly and learning from the Holy Spirit, by the time he got to Jerusalem about three years later, he was regarded with suspicion.

...they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

Barnabas had to stick up for him and vouch for him. In time, the rest of the Christians could see that Saul had changed and that his conversion was genuine.

Go to Philippians 3 and read how Saul was changed.  This is how we know that someone's faith is genuine.

• their gains are counted as loss
• they know Christ intimately, sharing life with Him
• they are in Christ (counting His righteousness as their own; not relying on themselves)
• they share in His sufferings
• they obey His will

Genuine Faith in Christ is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on Jesus.  It is the confident, continuous confession that the only One we trust in is Jesus.  It is the confident, continuous confession that our only hope is in Him - that His righteousness has been imputed to us, and that some day we will attain the prize that is unattainable on earth - the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Confident - Jesus is Who He says He is.  He is the truth.  He is always faithful.

Continuous - Every day I must put on the Armour of God and stand firm.

Confession - Acknowledgement of the helplessness of my estate, and the Sufficiency of Christ.

“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. 

(Robert Murray M’Cheyne p. 179)

Saul's faith was genuine.  His confidence changed from confidence in his own flesh to confidence in Christ.  His faith was continuous - daily, he prayed; daily, he obeyed.  His faith was repentant, as he acknowledged that without Christ, he was nothing.  

Is there someone in your life who has made a profession of faith?  You may be reluctant to welcome him because of his former evil ways.  Pray for him, and watch to see if he has a confident, continuous confession of total dependence on Jesus.

Is there someone in your life who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk?  Pray for him, that God will meet him on his "Damascus Road" and open his eyes to the truth of Jesus.

Go here to read "The Sinner's Opinion of Himself", which ties in beautifully to this post.