31 March 2011

Psalm 42, 43; Jer. 10:11-24; Rom. 5:12-21; John 8:21-32

The complaint here is that while the other nations chased after idols made with their own hands or gods that were not gods at all the Israelites had access to and knowledge of the one true God. Theirs alone the God who created all things and in whom all things hang together. Other nations can worship gods of particular things that require then a multiplicity of gods but in Israel alone is there true monotheism. Zoroastrianism is monotheism but to Israel alone of all the nations was given the revelation, lovingkindness and word of the God of all. In spite of their chosen-ness, they went after the gods of the nations. He warned them up front that He was a jealous God and would not tolerate their apostasy and adultery. The plea from the prophet was simple, correct me in justice not in anger for if you correct me in anger I will come to nothing. As we are constantly reminded in the Old Testament particularly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

“Who are you?” It is a simple question but, like the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men says, you can’t handle the truth. Jesus doesn’t give them a straight, simple answer by their standards, they need to come to this conclusion on their own. If He tells them now who He is, the Messiah, they will never be able to receive it. He begins pointing to the end, when they have lifted up the Son of Man. He has used this language with Nicodemus in chapter 3 and now He uses it again to define His ministry. This day will come and then they will have all the information they need to decide for themselves who Jesus is. Some begin to come to at least belief but that belief needs to be nurtured by abiding in His word if it is to become faith. The tender shoot of belief needs nurturing if it is to grow into something like faith. Discipleship is the process of nurturing belief through the disciplines of the church into faith that will endure.

Paul sees that grace abounds in Jesus because that grace covers so many sins. In Adam, sin came into the picture and mankind needed now to be reconciled but more than that, we all sin. We are not guilty of simply the sin of the race of humanity, we are guilty of actual sins in our own right. The free gift of grace indeed is amazing. What Jeremiah saw, that he did not want God to judge Him in anger but in justice, is nothing compared to grace. Grace is better than justice and yet too many Christians take it for granted when we should constantly be both amazed and thankful.

Set our feet on lofty places,
Gird our lives that they may be,
Armored with all Christ-like graces,
In the fight to set men free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee,
That we fail not man nor Thee.

30 March 2011

Psalm 119:97-120; Jer. 8:18-9:6; Rom. 5:1-11; John 8:12-20

We like to get things over in a hurry, particularly when they are painful. It is human nature to believe that, yes, we have done some things wrong, sinned if we must use that language, but surely this will all be over soon. Here we see that the Lord’s punishment is not over soon, it lingers beyond expectations, the harvest is past, summer has ended and yet we are not saved. They have underestimated their sin and the Lord’s anger, the wound is severe because they still are not prepared to repent and the Lord continues His complaint. It sounds very much like the words we hear in Genesis 6 where every intention of man’s heart was only evil all the time. Our problem is that we tend to get inured to God’s word, we move a degree at a time into a worldly mindset and we lose sight of what it means to be Godly and it is difficult to move us back into line, not a quick healing.

If He isn’t speaking truth is there any question that Jesus statement is the most arrogant thing anyone has ever said? "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Such a statement certainly would cause most of us to take a step back from anyone who said it. There are very few good ways to react to such a claim, we might have the person institutionalized. Most of us wouldn’t change our opinion through the rest of the conversation either. We would want to know who was the Father who sent Jesus, was this a make-believe friend He was talking about. The other side of that is that Jesus has also done some things at this point that beg for an explanation as no one has ever done them. We have to come to terms with CS Lewis’ statement, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a boiled egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”

Paul says it is all about Jesus. We have peace with God through Jesus. We have access by faith in Him to grace. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, we rejoice in suffering, we have received the Holy Spirit. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, not friends but enemies. We have been justified by His blood and saved from the wrath of God (see Jeremiah passasge). We are reconciled to God by Jesus and we are able not to react to Him in fear but to rejoice. He is the light of the world, just as He claimed to be!

Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.

29 March 2011

Psalm 78:1-39; Jer. 7:21-34; Rom. 4:13-25; John 7:37-52

What a horrific vision of devastation. As I write this the world is coming to grips with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2011) and I just read a headline that a tide of 1000 bodies washed ashore, crematoriums are overwhelmed and aid workers have run out of body bags. Our minds reel at such things and yet Jeremiah has to tell his own people that the Lord plans this against his people as punishment for their sins. What is the Lord’s main complaint? They have relied too heavily on sacrifice and too lightly on obedience. Sacrifice is for those who have failed to obey and as they have become a wealthy nation, they can afford to sin more. Obedience is God’s preference, not more sacrifices. He wants a people who will show the world what it means to live according to His plan, not a people who count on forgiveness.

There is some parallel between this passage and the Samaritan woman at the well. Here, they are celebrating God’s provision of water as they move through a dry season and towards a rainy one. They celebrate by pouring out the water they have in joyful expectation of new provision from God. Jesus stands in the midst of this celebration and offers what He offered the Samaritan woman, rivers of water from inside. The people don’t have a consensus about what to make of this, but we don’t see what we see in Samaria, people believing completely in Him. There are too many other voices to listen to, too many other opinions, for them to obey only Jesus’ voice.

Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness and Paul points out that Abraham proved his faith by believing that in spite of the impossibility of fathering a child at nearly 100, with God it was indeed just possible that he and Sara would conceive. His faith wasn’t complete, the Lord had to urge him in this regard, and Sara certainly thought it was a joke, but Abraham continued to walk in righteousness. In the Christian faith we continue to walk in righteousness and seek after the things of God rather than setting our lives on anything else. We are impelled by a vision of the kingdom of God and our lives are oriented towards that goal. We have received Jesus’ offer of this water of true life and we are pursuing righteousness. Does that describe you? Is your number one goal in life Christ-likeness?

Lo! the hosts of evil ’round us,
Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways.
From the fears that long have bound us,
Free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.

28 March 2011

Psalm 80; Jer. 7:1-15; Rom. 4:1-12; John 7:14-36

If the temple is to truly be the dwelling place of God, the people have to keep their end of the covenant. It all begins with the first commandment to have no other gods before Him. If we keep that commandment we will have less trouble with the rest. If we recognize Him as our God, recognize Him as the supreme and sovereign creator of all then we will have an easier time recognizing Him as the law-giver, He is the only one who knows how we were intended to be. We must recognize that He is not only great but also good. In the law He states what He has done for them that He should be their God, He delivered them from slavery in Egypt, He is good. His call to the people here is that if He is to be their God, they must amend their ways and their deeds. Confession isn’t enough, repentance is required, the turning away from sin and false gods to righteousness and the one true God.

These teachings must surely have confused the people. They thought they knew all about Jesus, where He was from, how He got where He was today, and He tells them they don’t even know where they came from. They “know” He never studied but they marvel at His wisdom. They “know” He comes from Galilee but He says only He knows the truth about where He came from. He points always to the Father, His one aim is to give glory to the Father and because He doesn’t care for honor for Himself the words He speaks are true, they are not self-serving, they express only His love and regard for the Father. The people are confused but are beginning to decide based on the evidence of the works and are willing to at least temporarily suspend their judgment based on their “knowledge.” The leaders, however, can’t abide this and try and move against Him. The time is not yet but the die is cast.

What does it mean to have faith? Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness but how do we know that he had faith? He continued to walk with the Lord, he didn’t turn back when the fulfillment of the promise was delayed. In order to get the blessing, perseverance is required. It is a hard thing to continue when nothing happens, especially when you are waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of my heroes in this regard. She had a promise from God concerning her first-born son and yet she waited thirty years for Him to begin His ministry and then she watched as He was crucified. What must she have thought, what were her prayers like in those difficult times? Certainly she had some times that gave her joy but the ups and downs of His ministry must have been grievously difficult for her. How do we respond to those times in our life with God?

God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

27 March 2011

Psalm 93, 96; Jer. 6:9-15; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Mark 5:1-20

This prophecy is a painful word to hear. The judgment of the Lord will fall on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, beginning with the children in the street and progressing through to the elderly whose homes will be given to others. The wrath of God is so complete it is overflowing. Greed seems to be the primary sin of the people, something we rarely think or hear about in our churches except when we point the finger outward. The Lord never condemns gain per se but here it is clear that exploitation is occurring, they are after “unjust gain.” The Lord says that all are guilty of this, commerce has become their cultural god. Is it too much to suggest that this has also been a problem in our day in our land? The healing of the wounds of the people lightly by saying peace is something that presses in on me particularly. Reconciliation is hard work and we cannot get there without truth, a band aid won’t do the job when the wound is deep.

This healing is a display of great power. The man had been shackled and chained many times yet he broke free so great was the demonic strength working in him. In spite of this, something in him remained human enough and hopeful enough that when he saw Jesus he ran to Him and fell at His feet. Jesus’ power was in His words, not physical strength. The chains didn’t bind the source of the strength and Jesus spoke to the problem not the symptom. The matter was spiritual and the cure was the spiritual power of the Word of the Lord commanding the spirit to leave. It is no wonder the people of the area wanted Jesus to leave, His power was greater than anything they had ever seen. When was the last time a church was asked to leave because of a demonstration of God’s power? We need more of that power.

Too often we are enslaved by desire not set free from those desires in the power of the Spirit. We have been given the Holy Spirit to cause us to will as God wills, the power that Jesus relied on to overcome all the temptations that were flung at Him from the time in the wilderness all the way to the cross when the crowds shouted for Him to prove Himself by coming down. We fail to live into not our human potential but our God-given potential because we rely on ourselves rather than the Spirit. Cultivating a life of constant prayer, constantly living in the presence of God by the power of the Spirit should be our goal, abiding in Christ. If we would see progress in our lives towards becoming Christ-like, we must begin where He did, constant prayer.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.