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Read:
Romans 1:18-32
What do you think? Are the lost really
lost? Do you think the wild man from Borneo, who has never heard of Jesus
Christ, never given the opportunity to respond to the good news, will spend
eternity separated from God?
Are the lost really lost? It’s an important question for us to answer as we
focus on missions during the next four weeks. For how we answer the question
will effect the way we think about missions.
What are the options? There are those who say, “No, the lost are not really
lost. God is a God of mercy and love and those people who have not accepted
Christ as Saviour and Lord will indeed be given a second chance when they come
to the judgment seat of Christ.” The idea is called universalism.
Universalism appears to be kindly, humane, compassionate and tames our
righteous indignation at the thought that God would send anyone to hell.
But what does our text say? The text begins with the thought of the wrath of
God being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those
who by their wickedness suppress the truth.
“Well,” we say to God, “we can understand that and we can accept that. Those
who seek to suppress the truth of God’s love and grace will experience God’s
wrath. They have obviously turned their back on God. But we want to know
about those who have never heard the message.”
And as we read the text, we discover that Paul is talking about these very
people. He is speaking of those people who have witnessed God with their very
eyes through the revelation of Creation. He says in verses 19-20, “For
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to
them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine
nature invisible though they are, having been understood and seen through the
things he has made. So they are without excuse.”
Are the lost really lost? Yes. Why? Because God has revealed Himself
plainly and universally through Creation. All creation seems to sing, “God
is real, God is real, God is real.”
But the questions about God’s mercy and grace might persist and someone might
ask the question of universalism a little differently. You might ask, “Would
God send the lost to hell for simply not believing in a Christ that they have
never heard of?”
And the answer to the question when stated like this is, “No.” This is not to
say that they will not go to hell, but it is to say that this is not the
reason. They will go to hell if they have turned their back on the revelation
of God they have received. They are indeed lost and on their way to eternal
separation from God, not because they have never heard about Christ, but
because they have rejected the revelation of God that they have received
through Creation.
Look, if you push the argument of universalism to the absurd conclusion, it
would – as James Kennedy points out – run like this. If every one who did not
hear of Christ went to heaven, then we have a great system of evangelization.
That is simply for us to close all the churches, fire all the ministers, burn
all the Bibles, and all other religious literature, and in a few generations
no one will have heard of Christ and everyone will go to heaven.1
But that’s not logical.
The truth is, humanity is condemned for one thing and one thing only, and that
is sin. To hear of Christ and to reject Him is the worst sin a man or woman
can commit, but it is nevertheless, one of thousands of sins which a man or a
woman can commit. And the truth is that all have sinned. I love the way
John Stott puts it, “No one can plead innocence, because no one can plead
ignorance.”2
This truth is not to cause smugness. It is rather to wake us up from our
spiritual slumber and realize that we have a missionary task to do. We are
called to go into a dark world and share the light of Christ. For too long
the church has dragged its feet. But my friends, we must realize the lost are
really lost. And if we do not go show the love of Christ to them and give
them an opportunity to respond to the grace of Christ then they will be lost
forever.
-
James Kennedy, Evangelism Explosion, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale
House Publishers, 1983), 80.
-
John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News For the World.
(Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 68.
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Read:
John 11:1-25
Did you know that God hates death? In I
Corinthians 15 we are told that death is one of God’s enemies.
But not only does God hate death, He is willing to do something about it.
What did He do? He sent His Son and as soon as He set foot on earth there was
an open declaration of war on death. For in Him was life and that life was
the light of all people (John 1:4). He came to give life and give it to the
full (John 10:10). He is the bread of life (John 6:35). He is the way the
truth and the life (John 14:6). Jesus declared war on death. And this
declaration could not be more clear than what we read in our text this week:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and
believes in me will never die.”
Jesus speaks these words in the midst of funeral, in the midst of a cemetery.
He speaks these words in the face of death. His friend Lazarus has been in the
grave for four days. But Jesus approaches the tomb and orders that the stone
be removed. And He stands before the open tomb, with the stench of death
filling His nostrils and He declares open war on death. Jesus calls to His
friend, “Lazarus, come out.” And if you listen carefully, you can hear
gauze stretching and linen popping. Lazarus comes out of the tomb and Jesus
says, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
My friends, the good news of Easter is that God’s Son Jesus Christ has come to
do battle with death and He has won!
The resurrection of Lazarus is but a prelude to our Lord’s own glorious
resurrection so that He is proven right when He says, “I am the
resurrection and the life.”
The great stone is placed in front of His tomb on the day we call Good
Friday. The official seal of the Roman Emperor is placed on the rock and the
soldiers are posted to guard His tomb. But the stone is moved, the Roman
seal is broken, and the soldiers are shaken to their core. The tomb is empty!
Death is not able to hold Jesus Christ. The war against death is won on
Resurrection Day. This is the glorious fact that Easter commemorates.
I
recently spoke with a Christian woman who had just visited her relatives in
China. She said that there was a hesitation among her family to become
Christian because they had heard that if they became a Christian they would
not be able to cry at funerals. Of course that is absurd. When we become
Christian it doesn’t mean that we deny the pain or the heartbreak of death.
We do indeed grieve. But in the midst of that grief, we realize this glorious
truth – that if our loved one is in Christ, then death is not goodbye. There
will be a reunion. For our Saviour and Lord has conquered death and gives
life, now and forever, to each who believe in Him.
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Read:
John 15:1-17
Jesus said, “I
am the vine; you are the branches.”
(John 15:5)
I grew up in the garden. My father was a
gardener by profession so we kids spent many hours pulling weeds, watering
plants and pruning shrubs. But you don’t have know much about gardening to
know that the vine is the source of life for the branches. If the branch is
to grow, that ability is gained through attachment to the vine. The source of
its nutrients are from the vine. If the branches are to spout leaves and bear
fruit that ability is gained through attachment to the vine.
So, if a branch becomes severed from the
vine it will not grow, it will not bear fruit - it will wither and die.
What does this tell us of our relationship
with Jesus Christ? It tells us that He is the source of life for you and me.
It is as we are attached to Him, it is as we depend on Him and look to Him
that we are able to live this Christian life.
I was at a conference the other month at
which a speaker pointed out that Jesus Christ as not come to add a little
something to your life, but has come to be your life. He went on to say that
we in the North American Church have often missed that idea. We mistakenly
think that Jesus is someone who can give us encouragement, or joy, or
peace. While it is true Jesus does give us those things, that’s not the sum
of it. Jesus has come to be the source of our life.
It was Hudson Taylor, that great missionary
to China, who spent the first 15 years as a missionary in that country utterly
frustrated by his own failure to serve God effectively, to produce the fruit
he felt God was asking of him.
He prayed, he agonized, he fasted; he tried
to do better; he made resolutions. He read the Bible more carefully; he
ordered his life to give more time for rest and meditation. But all this had
little effect.
It was then that he discovered what he
termed the exchanged life. As he wholly surrendered his life to
Christ, Christ gave His life wholly to him. Now it was not what he could do
for Christ, but what Christ could do through him.
It was as he meditated upon our text that
he found the secret to a fruitful life.
“How great seemed my mistake,” he said, “in
having wished to get the sap, the fullness out of Him. I saw not only that
Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body and that apart
from Him I could do nothing. The vine now, I see, is not the root merely, but
all – root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit - and Jesus is not
only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times
more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh the joy of seeing
this truth.”1
May we all discover this week that Jesus
Christ has not come to add a little to our life but has come to be our life.
-
Dr. & Mrs. Howard
Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, (Chicago: Moody Press,
1989) 161-162.
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Read:
John 14:1-9
Jesus said, “I
am the way the truth and the life.”
(John 14:6)
These words seem rather exclusive, don’t they? If you think that’s exclusive,
read the next sentence, “No one comes to the Father but by me.” Talk about
exclusive!
There are many in the church and outside the church who
think that there are many ways to God. “The preacher on Sunday morning,” they
say, “should offer Christ and something or someone else. If we give Christ
center stage why not also welcome Mohammed, Buddha, and Brahm?”
But with this one phrase Jesus excludes everyone from the
stage but Himself. He is the only way to God.
If we think about it, it makes logical sense. If we were
to believe that all religions lead to God and that all were equally valid,
what kind of God would we have? I suggest that we would have a schizophrenic
God who reveals Himself as identical with the universe in Buddhism, but who
reveals Himself as the Creator of the universe in Christianity. Which is it?
Or He is one who reveals Himself as impersonal and beyond the reach of
humankind in Islam but who reveals Himself as the One who became flesh in
Christianity.
What kind of God is this? He is not the God who is
revealed to us in Christ. Logically we would have to agree that it cannot be
Christ plus this other faith – it can only be Christ. To say that all faiths
lead to God is as illogical as saying that all roads lead to Markham. They
don’t.
One of the problems of course is that as soon as we agree
with Christ that He is the way the truth and life and that no one comes to the
Father but through Him we are labeled by our culture as intolerant, hate
mongers, narrow minded and bigoted. And we may begin to question ourselves,
and ask, “Maybe I am being narrow-minded.”
But don’t you believe it! We must understand that truth by
its very nature is intolerant of error.
Let’s pretend for a moment that there are a group of people
who say that two plus two equals twenty-six. But you and I know that two plus
two equals four. Are we being intolerant of those 26ers when we say that two
plus two equals four? No. We are not being intolerant we are only stating
the truth.
As one commentator states, “The same principle applies in
religious matters. One must be tolerant of other points of view and respect
their right to be held and heard. We cannot, however, be forced in the name
of tolerance to agree that all points of view, including those that are
mutually contradictory, are equally valid.”1 That would be
nonsense.
It is an amazing fact that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh
who has come to assure us of our place in heaven and to assure us that we know
the way. It is not through a system, or through any other faith, but only
through the person of Jesus Christ. He gave His life for us on the cross and
is only through faith in Him that we can approach God and live with God.
Understand that it is not with any sense of glee that we
dismiss other faiths. It is with a heart full of mourning, for here are a
group of people with whom we have much in common. We share a common hunger
for God. We share a common desire to know God and see Him fully. But the
difference is we have seen God in the person of Jesus Christ and they are
still groping around in the dark. We need to have our heart broken for such
people, so much so that we are willing to share the truth with them.
All we have to offer is Jesus Christ. But we know that He
is enough.
-
Paul
Little, Know Why You Believe, (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press,
1968), 97.
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Read:
John 6:25-59
Jesus said, “I am the
bread of life.”
(John 6:35)
Imagine a teenage boy
who owns an old Volkswagen Rabbit. He loves his Volkswagen. And you can
understand why he loves that car. It’s his first car. Even though it
constantly breaks down on him the boy loves his car. Everyday after school
and every Saturday he works on his old VW Rabbit. He can always be seen with
his head under its hood as he is tightening its bolts, changing its filters,
and adjusting its plugs. Now imagine his father trying to get his attention.
It is hopeless, because every time his father wants his son’s attention his
son’s head is under the hood of his old VW Rabbit. Until one day his father
has a plan.
He goes to the boy and
calls, “OOOO son”. Nothing but a grunt comes from the boy. The father
continues, “Look what I have! Keys to a brand new Lexus.” What do you think
the reaction of the boy would be? Of course! He looks up, gives his old VW
Rabbit a kick and comes running!
This same dynamic is
happening in this week’s text. Here is the crowd and they have their heads
not under the hood of an old VW but they have set their hearts on something
that is worth just as much. They have their hearts and heads set on food,
food that spoils.
And in some ways we can
understand why. I mean just the day before Jesus had performed a wonderful
miracle. There in chapter 5 we read of how Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 with
5 loaves and 2 fish. It’s a miracle. And that bread must have tasted
delicious don’t you think? For one thing the crowd was hungry. Food always
tastes better when you are really hungry. But more than that, this food is
baked in heaven’s ovens, prepared by divine hands. The fish is perfect, the
bread fresh, just the right consistency. I’m sure that the fish and the bread
that Jesus provided would have melted in the mouth, it would have tasted
marvellous.
So having had their
stomachs filled – filled for free! – they are hungry again and they come to
Jesus looking for more.
And what does Jesus do?
Jesus uses the opportunity to try to lure the crowd away from their love for
that which is temporary, which in the end will spoil and rot, and lure them to
that which is so much better.
He says to them at verse
27,
“I tell you the truth,
you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you
ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for
food that endures, to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
Now, having read those
words we have to evaluate whether or not we will leave our old VW’s, so to
speak, and go for what Jesus is offering. For the crowd, their old VW was
bread. What is it for you? Can you see that it is but dust compared to what
Jesus offers you? Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” The life that Jesus
offers us is his own life. He willingly plants his own life in you when you
receive him as Saviour and Lord. And that life is eternal, it will not ever
be extinguished, it can’t be stolen from you and it will never wear out or
rust out.
Jesus
comes to us and says to us, “OOOOO son/daughter!” And we hardly look up from
our pursuit of this and that. But then he says, “I am the bread of life”.
May our spirits jump up and take notice. For here is one who offers us
something so much better than what we usually hunger and thirst for. May we
receive the offer with faith and thanksgiving.
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Read:
John 8:12-30
Jesus said, “I am the
light of the world.”
(John 8:12)
This is a bold statement. It is equal to
Jesus saying “I am God,” for
this metaphor is one that is used for God all through the Old Testament. For
example, Psalm 27:1 reads, “The Lord is my light and salvation.” And,
when God revealed Himself to the ancient Hebrews in
the desert it was as a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22).
This is what Jesus is saying, “I am the
light that your ancestors knew and looked for. I am the light of the world
who has come to lead you out of the slavery of sin and against the forces of
the evil one.”
When you think of Jesus how do you picture
Him? Do you recall those pictures from your Sunday
School days? Pictures of Jesus in white robes and a blue sash over one
shoulder. Do you see him as “gentle Jesus meek and mild?” I wonder if we get
too much of that and if for many of us Jesus has become pale, anaemic, even
namby-pamby.
That is not the picture Scripture paints
for us. Jesus is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is the light of the
world who has come to take on all the forces of darkness – He
is not some pale Galilean. He is the one in whom lies all authority.
Two weeks ago the Super Bowl was televised
across the globe. Millions of people tuned in to see if the New England
Patriots could hold a perfect record. When you watched,
did you discover who was in control of that game? Was it the three hundred
pound linebackers? Was it the defensive line with
men the size of refrigerators? No. They weren’t in control of the game. The
one who controlled the game was the one with authority and the one with
authority was a scrawny, thin man, dressed in stripes with a whistle. When he
blew that whistle the play stopped. He was the one with authority. Jesus
Christ is the one with authority.
It is Jesus’ authority that is questioned
throughout this text by the Pharisees. Jesus replies that His
authority is from God (John 8:16), His heavenly
Father and will ultimately be seen when He
is “lifted up” (John 8:28).
All through the conversation it appears
that the Pharisees have Jesus backed into a corner. It looks like they have
the upper hand, they are riddling Him with questions
like an interrogating officer. But notice verse 20. The text reads, “he
spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple area …
Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.” Do you see who
is in control? The one who is in control now and will be in control forever
and ever. The one in whose hand lies all authority. Jesus our Lord.
People say that we live in a dark age. The
task for goodness and holiness is enormous. The powers of darkness are too
strong. The world cannot be changed. But those voices are wrong. We have a
victorious Saviour who has been exalted. In His
hands rests all authority. In Him is the light of
life – and hear the good news: "the
light has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it"
(John 1:5).
May we live in the authority of
His
light.
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Read:
John 10:11-21
Jesus said, “I am the good
shepherd.” (John
10:11)
In his book entitled A Shepherd Looks
at the 23rd Psalm
Philip Keller tells about his experience as a shepherd in east Africa. The
land adjacent to his was rented out to tenant shepherd who didn’t take very
good care of his sheep. His
land was overgrazed, eaten down the ground, the
sheep were thin and diseased, and there was very
little shelter to protect the suffering sheep from storms and blizzards.
Keller especially remembers how the neighbour's
sheep would line up at the fence and wistfully stare in the direction of his
rich pastures. It was as if they were pleading to
be delivered from their abusive, indifferent shepherd. They longed to come to
the other side of the fence and belong to him.1
In our passage this week Jesus compares
Himself to the hired hand who does not care for the
sheep. Jesus is not like the hired hand. Instead He
is the good shepherd who knows His sheep and cares
for His sheep. So His
care for you is so deep and true that He willingly
laid down His life for you (John 10:15). His care
for you is so intimate and personal that He
knows you by name (John 10:14).
The question for
us
is, “Am I resting in
His
care for me?” Are you trusting in His care so that
when you walk through dark times in life you do not fear any evil? This is
not simply whistling in the dark to keep your spirits up, but a steadfast
trust in the loving care of our Shepherd who gave His
life for you.
Sometimes it’s difficult to rest in
His care. We have three children. Our first child was an
angel baby. He slept through the night, was healthy and fun loving. He
lulled us into thinking that we could have another just like him. So when
Janet became pregnant with our second child we had such dreams, such hopes.
But soon after Mark was born we realized that those hopes and dreams were
misplaced. Mark never slept through the night. In fact, he would wake up
screaming. It was obvious as we watched and interacted with him day after
day that he was developmentally delayed. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a
doctor to diagnose the problem. Finally it was Sick Kids hospital in Toronto,
after Mark had turned three, who was able to diagnose Mark with autism.
And I was left at that point wondering,
“Where is our caring shepherd?” Here we are a little Christian family, with a
little Christian child, serving in a little Christian church, praying for a
healthy child. What happened, God? Were you simply
standing in the corner with your hands in your pockets? Why didn’t you look
after my child?
I can give you an elaborate theological
answer to that question – it includes sin and the fall of creation.
But what I discovered is that in the midst
of all the pain and the sorrow, God didn’t cease to be the caring shepherd
that He revealed Himself
to be in Christ. As I look back over the years I can see how God cared for us
and enabled us to carry on. I think of one family in our church in particular
who connected with Mark from the very beginning and cared for him and would
often say to us, “You need to get away – we’ll look after Mark, you guys go.”
And to this day they have been a demonstration of God’s care for us. I think
of other times, and other events that God has come along side and shown his
care in the midst of difficulty.
Scripture says that God sees the sparrow
fall. It falls, to be sure, but not without the care of our good shepherd.
Our little sparrow fell but we were still in the hands of our caring shepherd.
Are you going through a difficult life
situation right now? Can I encourage you to continue to love God and trust
Jesus Christ to be your good shepherd? He cares for you deeply and even
though this present difficulty may be clouding that truth it still remains.
Jesus is your good shepherd who cares for you, his sheep.
-
Phillip
Keller A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (Grand Rapids
Michigan: Zondervan, 1970) 30-31.
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of February 4
- 10, 2008
Read:
John 10:1-10
Jesus said, “I am the
gate.” (John
10:7)
During the weeks leading up to Easter,
I want us to be thinking about the question, “Who is Jesus?” This is a
question that is on everyone’s lips the day Jesus healed a blind man (John 9).
The Pharisees don’t know who Jesus is and they question the healed man in
order to find out the answer (John 9:13-41).
It is this incident that sets the scene for
the words that Jesus speaks in John chapter 10. He says, “I am the gate.”
(John 10:7). Why does Jesus choose this picture to describe Himself?
The context tells us that Je uses
this to show us the difference between Himself and
the Pharisees. In verses 1-6 Jesus explains that the Pharisees are thieves
and bandits - they do not care for the people. In
contrast, Jesus is the real shepherd of the sheep - He
is the one who cares for the people. He has come through the gate, and did not
sneak in through a back door. No, He came through
the gate, meaning He came in accordance with
Scripture. He is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament promises in a
Messiah.
But this picture of Jesus as the gate also vividly depicts
who Jesus is for all Christians today. He is the gate of salvation. He says,
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”
(verse 9)
Think of this salvation for a moment. We celebrate the
fact that Jesus has saved us from our sins and from death. But have you ever
thought that Jesus has also saved you from yourself? Some people of have not
been saved out of a situation, but have been saved from a
situation. For example, many of us have a great deal of nervous energy. Have
you ever thought what you would have become with all that nervous energy
without God in your life? Some of us have a character that is easily
angered. Have you ever thought what you would have become without Christ in
your life? Jesus is the gate of salvation.
Then Jesus says that He is the
gate of protection. Verse 10 reads, “The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full.” Jesus is the gate. He is the one who
lays down across the entrance of the sheep fold to protect the sheep. Jesus
is not promising that we will never have any difficult times. He is promising
that that we can be sure of His continued care and
provision in the midst of such times.
I once heard Dr. Tony Evans tell of how he and his wife
were on a cruise to Alaska. On their way back, they hit a huge storm. The
waves were 40 feet high and the ship was being tossed around like a rowboat.
And Dr. Evans said, “My wife was evangelically ticked off.” She was upset
because the captain knew that they were going into the storm. She wondered,
“Why would he leave where they were, where it was safe and the sea was calm to
go where they needed to be when the radar clearly told him that they would
have to go through the storm?”
So Dr. Evans says that his wife decided to get on the
telephone and give the captain a piece of her Christian mind. When she
dialled she got the operator who told her, “The captain is on the bridge and
can’t speak to you right now.”
Mrs. Evans said, “May I leave a message for him?”
“Of course,” said the operator.
“Well I want to know why if he knew a storm was coming he
didn’t try to avoid it but instead, sailed right into it?”
The operator said, “Okay I’ll will relay that to the
captain.”
Five minutes later the phone rang. It was the operator.
She said, “I just want to let you know that I asked the captain your
question. And he said that I was to relay two messages back to you. The
first is, 'Lady go to sleep. I’m awake on the
bridge so there’s no need for both of us staying up.'
The second is, 'This ship was built with this storm
in mind.' ”
Jesus says that He is the gate.
That means that He knows the danger we are facing.
It means that we are safely in His fold and there
is nothing and no one who can snatch you out of the
palm of His hand. We can rest in the “sheepfold”
because He is awake keeping watch over us.
This week let us celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is the
gate. Through Him
we have complete salvation and we have total protection during the storms of
life.
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of January
28 - February 3, 2008
Read:
2 Samuel 24:11-25
"I will not offer burnt offerings
to the Lord my God that cost me nothing."
This is one of the greatest sentences in the whole Bible,
for it sums up the attitude and captures the heart of all
true faith in God. If David had never uttered another word or penned another
psalm and only said these words, he would still be
considered a man after God's own heart.
David has just sinned greatly by counting all his fighting
men. It was a sin of pride which God judged by sending a plague on the whole
land. Thankfully David is humbled and acknowledges that God is sovereign.
As a sign of repentance he plans to erect an altar on the
threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David offers to purchase the
site Araunah refuses the payment. In turn David refuses the gift and says, “I
will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.”
It has been said that a religion that counts is religion
that costs. This is at the heart of David's statement. And it is a sentiment
that is echoed by our Lord. He is constantly telling His
disciples, us, to count the cost. He said, "Any
of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
(Luke 14:33)
This week I want you to be asking yourself, “What does my
faith cost me?” To be sure,
the gospel of Jesus Christ is the story of the wonderful finished work
He performed for us on the cross of Calvary. In a sense
the gospel of Christ cannot be paid for. God's grace comes to us unearned,
and unmerited. We have this treasure without having to lay a cent down. Bill
Gates the millionaire must accept the grace of God just as the poorest of the
poor in a Calcutta slum. And each is received equally by God.
However our God does demand something of us once we are in
the faith. So ask yourself, “What does my faith cost me?”
Is it costing you your worship? Are you coming to
worship prepared spiritually and mentally to meet God? Are you coming to
worship ready to participate with your attention and concentration? So many
people are unwilling to pay the cost of worship and thus leave the worship
experience empty.
Is your faith costing you materially? Is the Lord
at the top of your creditor list or at the bottom? Is your giving adequate,
generous or sacrificial? May we each be like the poor widow who gave
sacrificially to the temple treasury and won the praise of our Lord. (Luke
12:41-44)
What is your faith costing you in the area of service?
Are you giving your time and abilities to God as His
servant? Or are you allowing others to carry the load in your church?
What is your faith costing you in the area of self?
Have you given up your agenda, plans and dreams and said, “Lord,
not my will but yours.”
As we ask ourselves these questions we may need some
motivation. I can think of no better motivation than the fact that God is
God. The one we are worshiping, the one to whom we are giving and serving is
God. He is the King. He is the one to whom our worship and offering of
finances and service is due. He is the one who calls us to die to self so
that He can live through us. He is the King
and we are His servants.
If a king were to come and visit our home for dinner would
we dare offer to the king some little trifle? Would we use every day dishes?
Would we simply open the freezer and see what left over we had stored there?
No, we would offer our best to the king. So let us give our best to the King
of kings. Let us not settle for a faith that costs
us nothing.
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of January
21-27, 2008
Read:
Romans 12:1-8
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2
This text describes God’s will as being
good, pleasing and perfect. This week I want us to think of three myths
surrounding God’s will. I want us to be aware of the errors that many people
fall prey to when thinking and talking about God’s will.
The first myth is that God’s will is
good for me. You may have heard preachers say, “God has a
wonderful plan for your life.” But we must be very careful when we say that.
There is a danger of selfishness when we talk about God’s will for our lives.
We think about what God can do for me, of what God can give to me.
Sure, the text says that God’s will is good but it may not be good in the way
we sometimes think. We have to understand that God’s plans and purposes are
much bigger than your life or my life. The truth is, God has a wonderful plan
and you may have a part in that plan, but it is not designed for your
self-gratification.
The second myth surrounds the word
“pleasing”. The text says that God’s will is “pleasing”. Pleasing to
whom? Well, to God obviously. But it is also pleasing to us. It must be
stated that while God’s will is not a means for self-gratification he is not
up in heaven trying to make life miserable for us. It is a myth to believe
that if you are enjoying what you are doing then you must be out of the will
of God. The truth is God likes you - He loves you.
He planned for you and gave you likes and dislikes, abilities and talents –
He made you the way you are for a reason. You are
not an accident.
So, if you have a talent for music and
enjoy it don’t assume that you have to keep on praying for a revelation of
God’s will about it. No, keep on practicing, keep on singing, keep on
playing. If you have an aptitude for business and love to make the deal,
then do it. If you love to teach and have the ability to communicate with
children, then do it. Don’t assume that because you
enjoy doing something then it must not be God’s will for you. Remember – we
do it all in order to please God. We offer our skills and gifts to Him
(Romans 12:1).
Finally our text says that God’s will is
“perfect”. This means that it is complete or whole. There is nothing that
God’s will lacks. We need to take this in because sometimes we fall into
the trap of believing that what we are doing is insignificant and of no
consequence. And the devil comes and whispers in your ear, “What you are
doing means nothing, you are worth nothing and you have nothing to offer to
the Kingdom.”
But that is a lie. God’s will is perfect.
While we cannot see the whole of it, God can. While we cannot understand all
the ramifications of what we are doing, God can.
I once heard Charles Price tell of a time
when he was speaking at a conference and he mentioned the name of Victor
Smadzer. Victor is a Christian Jew who lives in Israel and has a strong
outreach to the people of Jerusalem.
After Charles was finished speaking a woman
came up to him and said, “I know Victor Smadzer.”
“You do?” replied Charles.
“Yes. My husband and I were called by God
to be missionaries in Tunisia in North Africa and we were there for over 30
years. And in those 30 years we only ever saw one convert. And one day when
he had grown up, in his early 20s he came to us and said, “I’m Jewish. And I
have the right to return to Israel. So, I’m going back to settle there.”
She said, “We were so disappointed. The
only convert we were leaving behind was leaving the country.”
“That must have been very difficult,”
said Charles.
“Very. But do you know his name?”
Charles took a guess, “Victor Smadzer?”
“Exactly.” Said the woman. “We had no idea
that God sent us to Tunisia for 30 years to evangelize and nurture one Jewish
boy. God sent us to Tunisia to evangelize Israel.”
The truth is we will never see the full
ramifications of our obedience to God this side of heaven. So never, never
believe that what he has called you to do is of little importance or that your
contribution is insignificant. You are valued by God.
My friends, when
we really mean business with God and say, “Lord, I
present myself to you,” it
has to be unreservedly, not for self-gratification.
Know that His will is pleasing. And if in the
process of serving God we never see results, that’s God’s business. One day
we will see and we will hear Him say, “Well done,
good and faithful servant.”
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of January
14-20, 2008
Read:
Acts 13:1-5
“While they were worshipping
the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and
Saul for the work to which I have called them.' ”
(Acts 13:2)
The
question I want to address this week is, “How can I know God’s will for me in
a particular situation?”
Last
week I stated that God sometimes
does make His particular will plain to us. For
the church in Antioch it was made plain to them that they should “set
apart Saul and Barnabas for the work to which God had called them.”
It was that specific.
This
text gives us some principles upon which to build an answer to our question,
“How can I know God’s will for me in a particular situation?” The first
principle is quite simple – we must be looking for it. There must be a desire
within us to know God’s will for our lives and a conscious effort to seek
God’s guidance. Note what verse 2 says:
“While the church in
Antioch was
worshipping the Lord and fasting
the Holy Spirit said …”
They were actively coming to God seeking
His
will for their church.
This
means that we can’t come to God asking
Him to bless plans we’ve made already.
We all get insulted when someone comes to us for advice, when what they
really want is our blessing for plans they have already made. Let’s not do
that to God - it insults
Him.
It
also means that we must be willing to allow God to veto our decisions that are
not in accordance to His will. So many people say they want God’s will to be
done in their lives but let God’s will contradict
their will and they want
nothing of it.
If you
truly want to know God’s will, then match that with a desire to obey God.
The
next principle we learn from this text is that God reveals
His will to us when
we are in prayer. When seeking God’s guidance we sometimes look for a pillar
of cloud or a burning bush. But the truth is, God leads and directs most
often when we are on our knees in prayer. The church in Antioch is in an
attitude of prayer when the Holy Spirit reveals God’s will to them.
The
third principle is this: God uses two agents to express and confirm
His
specific calling in our lives: the Holy Spirit and the church. There is a
very clear partnership in our text between the Holy Spirit and the church
(verse 3 and 4). This means that when we are seeking God’s will for our lives
we need to be in fellowship with other Christians through whom the Holy Spirit
speaks.
Finally, the fourth principle: If there is any doubt about the direction we
are to take, wait. There is no sign of doubt in our example in Acts 13. They
received a clear direction from the Holy Spirit. But notice verse 3 –
after
they received this very clear direction they still prayed and fasted before
they acted. Both are actions expressing dependency upon God.
The
point is, if the church in Antioch prayed and fasted after they received a
clear direction, how much more should those who are in doubt about God’s
direction wait upon Him. Someone has said that when you are seeking guidance,
there are 3 words that are important. The first is “wait”. The second is
“wait”. And the third is “wait”. Don’t allow anyone or any circumstances to
pressure you into action when you’re not sure. Oswald Sanders has said, “We
need to trust that although God is never in a hurry
He is never late. His
timing is perfect.”1
-
J.
Oswald Sanders, Every
Life is a Plan of God,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Discovery House Publishers, 1992): 60.
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of January
7-13, 2008
Read:
Romans 8:18-30
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28)
Does God have
a plan for my life?
Does God have a plan for my
life? This is a question many people ask and the answer quite simply is,
“Yes”. This week’s text is a passage about prayer and how the Spirit helps us
in our weakness in prayer. However, the text introduces the idea of God’s
will at verse 27 and it is mentioned again in verse 28. So while God’s will
is not the key teaching of this passage, the idea is woven through its
verses.
Does God have a plan for your
life? According to verse 28, yes He does. Is it possible to know it? Yes it
is. Verse 29 makes God’s purpose for us plain:
“For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the likeness
of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers.”
God’s will for your life is clear
– it is that we be conformed to the likeness of His Son. The Holy Spirit
tells us that God has taken certain steps to make this happen. Verse 29
speaks of foreknowledge and predestination, and verse 30 speaks of calling,
justification and glorification. All of these are steps God has taken to
fulfill His plan for you to be like Christ.
Once we have grasped the idea
that God’s plan for us is that we become more like His Son a whole lot of
questions find quick answers. Sometimes we face difficult decisions and we
just aren’t sure what God wants us to do. But I think if we remembered that
God’s will for us is to become more like Jesus Christ we’d be able to decide
pretty quickly what God wants us to do.
J. Oswald Sanders in his book
entitled Every Life is a
Plan of God suggests
several helpful questions that we need to ask ourselves to help us discover if
an action will help us become more like Christ.
-
Is
the thing that I want to do beneficial?
-
Is it
constructive? It is for the good of others and for myself?
-
Will
it enslave me?
-
Will
it hinder me in my journey toward Christ-likeness?
-
Will
it strengthen me against temptation?
-
Is
the thing I want to do, characteristic of the world or of the Father?
-
Could
my decision harm others?1
When you face a difficult
decision take time to ask yourself these questions. In a spirit of prayer I
believe that God will make it plain what you are to do.
Does God give
us a detailed plan for life?
There is another question many
people ask and that is, “Does God give us a detailed plan for all of life?”
When people ask this they are usually asking, “Will God tell me what person to
marry?” or “Will God tell me if I should be a pastor or a farmer?” Such
people are looking for a detailed road map for life. And the answer to that
question is “Not often.” Sometimes you will receive detailed plans, (we’ll
look at this next week) but most often you won’t. You will not receive such
information from God. He calls us to trust Him in the small steps of every
day living and leave the big picture to Him.
There is then an element of
mystery in God’s will for you and for me. When Moses was delivering his
farewell message to the nation of Israel, he made this statement, “The
secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us
and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
(Deuteronomy 29:29).
So here we have the truth that
God has indeed revealed in Scriptures everything necessary to enable us to
live godly and joyous lives. But there are areas of life, which are hidden
from us. There are secret things that belong to God alone and we’ll have to
wait until these things happen or until we enter eternity to find them out.
Instead of fretting and asking
God for a detailed plan for your life a much better attitude is to trust God.
Our Lord loves to be trusted. God has made His will plain to us – to become
more like His Son.
But we say, “What about the
particulars?” Those things may remain hidden, but what is clear is that we
are to trust God every step of the way.
-
J.
Oswald Sanders, Every Life is a Plan of God. (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Discovery House Publishers, 1992): 133-135.
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Weekly
Devotional
for the week of December
31, 2007 - January 6, 2008
Read:
Jeremiah 29:1-14
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.” (Jeremiah
29:11)
It has been said that the sole
function of the preacher is to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the
disturbed.
To disturb the comfortable.
The prophets were good at that. I think of the prophet Amos who called the
women of Bashan “cows” because they continued to grow fat and indulge
themselves while they oppressed the poor and crushed the needy. (Amos 4)
Sometimes there is a real need for a word from our pulpits that disturb the
comfortable.
To comfort the disturbed.
But there is also a real need in our day for a word of comfort. The
prophets were equally good at this. Jeremiah in particular struck this
note when he wrote to the people of God exiled in Babylon. These
people had had their homes destroyed, their land pillaged and they were now
living far from the promised land. They were people without hope
or a future. All they could see was struggle and hardship. We are
told that they wept by the Rivers of Babylon, saying, “How
shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
(Psalm 137:4) And in the midst of this distress Jeremiah relates the word of
the Lord who says:
“I know the plans I have for
you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.”
These are words that comfort the disturbed.
There is first the comfort that comes from knowing that God is in control.
Can you imagine what the
Israelites were thinking? “All is lost. All hope is gone, our homes are
destroyed, our land pillaged, and all is now under foreign ownership.”
But in the midst of this God says, “I have a plan for you.
I am still in control. Do you think Babylon is in control? No.” God says, “I
am in control and I have plans for your future to give you hope and
prosperity. Don’t despair.”
Isn’t that a wonderful word of comfort? We look at our
world and we think, who’s in control here? Crime seems to be escalating, wars
and rumours of wars increase rather than decrease, it seems like we move from
one disaster to another. We often ask, “Who is in control here?”
And God says, “I am in control.” We can trust that
ultimately everything is going to be okay because God is in control.
Also, these are words that
comfort the disturbed because they remind us that God is gracious. God made
this promise to the Israelites in the midst of their sin and rebellion. The
Israelites are in Babylon at this time because they had rebelled against God.
Yet here is Jeremiah telling them that God is still for them and with them.
It’s an amazing word of grace. For even after the Israelites had rejected God
He came and said I have a plan for you – a plan to give you hope and a
future.
And so God comes to us. We are
broken by sin, prone to rebel against everything that is holy and yet God says
to us, “I know you have let me down in the past but you are my child and
through your faith in my Son’s sacrifice I forgive you. Now, I have a plan
for you, are you interested?”
I find that very comforting.
God still wants us even though we fall into sin.
I pray that these words will
bring comfort to you as we go into this New Year. It is God’s promise. “I
have a plan for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future.” They are words of comfort because they invite us to
rest in his sovereignty and rejoice in his graciousness.
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