Love Incomprehensible

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isaiah 9:6

Lately, I have been pondering why exactly it is so exciting and awesome and worthy of praise that Jesus was born.  Well, there is the obvious and very true answer—that Jesus was born, dwelt among us, and died to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could have the hope of eternity, forever spent with the one true God.  But what does it really mean that Jesus “became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” as it says in John 1:14?

Jesus, the Son, who had been around since Creation, decided to debase himself to a level even lower than angels.  He left the comforts of heaven where He was “seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple,” as it says in Isaiah 6:1.  He left a world where He was praised and exalted, where the angels called to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).  There He was rightfully known and revered as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

As the pastor at a Christmas Eve service I went to yesterday said, “He gave up a wonderful life for a horrible life so that we could exchange our horrible life for a wonderful life.”

Jesus had it all and it gave it all up for us.

He came knowing:

• That He, though He was the Lord Almighty, would born as a helpless baby, relying on others to care for him
• That He would be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected (Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. Matthew 22:15)
• That He, His love, and His coming would be misunderstood (“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?  Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us?  Where then did this man get all these things?”  And they took offense at him.  Matthew 13:55-57)
• That He would be betrayed by His closest friends (“I tell you Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” Luke 22:34)
• That He would experience loneliness (Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1)
• That He would face hunger (After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Matthew 4:2)
• That He would be tempted by Satan (The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Matthew 4:3)
• That He would experience deep anguish (And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  Luke 22:44)
• That He would face an excruciatingly painful death being nailed to the cross.
• That He would face a separation from God the Father with whom He had always had a perfect relationship. (About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46)

Jesus lowered himself to our level, knowing all of these things.  It blows my mind to think of how Jesus came to face all those things, knowing that the people He came to save would be the very ones that reject and crucify Him.  I think I’ll never understand the depth of God’s love for us.  Today, on Christmas, let’s remember together how deeply Jesus loves us in that He would give up everything to give us everything. Let's thank God for Jesus' birth. :) Merry Christmas!

Bleak Circumstances

"Submission frees us to embrace God's plan for our lifes, a plan He has put together with our very best interests in his heart and mind."  --Nancy Guthrie, The One Year Book of Hope, p. 315

For me, a lot of the times, I fail to submit to God because of a lack of faith in Him.  I too often look at the circumstances and say to God, "Do You see this?  It's so hard.  Are You sure You can do it?"

Today, my friend reminded me of a passage from Romans 4 that talks on the subject of faith:

Verses 18-21--Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

In reading this, a few things struck me:

1. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed--Even though circumstances looked bleak, Abraham trusted in God
2. and so became the father of many nations--Because of his hope in God and trust in God, he then became the father of many nations.
3. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--Abraham was not in denial saying that there were no bleak circumstances.  He acknowledged the bleak circumstances, but didn't let them waver his faith.
4. but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised--Instead of letting the bleak circumstances shake his faith, Abraham turned it into praise to God.  If anything, I think this verse means that he trusted in God even more in light of the circumstances and that his picture of God grew.  He trusted in God and was "fully persuaded" that God was able to do what He had promised.

In times of bleak circumstances, I think we can follow Abraham's example by doing four things:

1. Trust in God, despite the circumstances
2. Acknowledge the circumstances
3. View the circumstances as mediums through which God is going to display His power all the more
4. Give glory to God when circumstances are overcome, instead of minimizing the bleakness of the circumstances

In facing seemingly overwhelming circumstances, we can be discouraged or encouraged.  We can be discouraged thinking that God is not powerful enough to overcome anything, even though Jesus overcame death.  Or we can be encouraged knowing that God is faithful in keeping promises and that the circumstances will be means through which God will awe us with His power and show us that He truly is the Lord Almighty.

Psalm 73

Sometimes it may feel to me, just like it did to Asaph in Psalm 73, that it seems easier to not follow God when you see the unrighteous prospering.  It seems that they’re doing well, while we’re living lives in which following God seems very hard sometimes.  I finally understand what is meant by our temporary trials achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17).  The choice is ours:

1.      Live a life following God with some hard times, but with the knowledge that God works everything out to the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28) and also with the knowledge that in the end after we leave this earth, we’ll have no more tears or death or mourning or pain or crying (Revelation 21:4) and we’ll spend eternity in the presence of God.

2.      Life a life not following God with some hard times, seeing no rhyme or reason behind those hard times and spending eternity apart from God and everything that is good, loving, and joyful.  To me, that spells out hard times for eternity.

Unthankful Hearts

During a Sunday worship service, our congregation said this prayer of confession in unison: “Gracious God, like many believers before us, we complain when things do not go our way. We want abundance of everything rather than what is sufficient to sustain us. We would rather be elsewhere than where we are at the moment. We would rather have the gifts You give to others than what You provide for us. We would rather have You serve us than serve You. Forgive our lack of gratitude for what You give.” –David C. McCasland (from the Our Daily Bread devotional)

How true that prayer is.  So often we are so focused on what we lack that we forget all that God has given us.  We forget that God will give us everything to do His will (1 Thessalonians 5:24—He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it).  It also shows how weak our flesh is.  We are continually drawn to things of this world that other people have that we do not have.  We forget to delight ourselves in the Lord and so we miss out on God giving us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4).

Knowledge of Good and Evil

As part of my training work, I am to read How People Grow by Henry Cloud and Stuart Townsend.  In the part that I read today, they talk about how one of the roles God intended during Creation was that God was the judge of life and we weren't; we were to experience life.  They write, "[God] didn't want humans to 'know' what he knew about evil.

Even though we, as humans, ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we do not and cannot completely comprehend good and evil.  We have finite vision of what is to happen in our lives, linear vision of time, and limited vision of good and evil.  This made me consider:  How can I come before God, knowing that I do not have full knowledge of good and evil, say to God, "This is not good for me, please take it away"?  How can I say to God, "This is good for me, please allow me to have it"?  Or how can I saw to God, "Why are so many bad things happening to me?" How can I say these things if I do not have total knowledge of good and evil?  How do I know whether certain things are truly good or truly bad for me?

It was such a great moment of realization.  How arrogant I had been, thinking I knew what was good and what was bad in my life.  Only God knows.

I was thinking further on this subject and realized that one of the biggest lies Satan can tell us is that we know good and evil or that we are capable of knowing fully about good and evil.  If we believe Him, then we will start to wonder why "bad" things happen to "good" people.  In doing so, we'll be just like Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and we'll think we completely know good and evil and we'll take things into our own hands instead of trusting the One Who fully knows good and evil and will be with us through everything.

The Calmer of Storms

Jesus Calms the Storm (Matthew 8:23-27)

I love this picture of Jesus calmly standing in the midst of the storm.  A lot of times when I face difficult situations, I face Jesus, kind of like how the disciples did, saying, “Do you see this?  Do you see what I’m going through?  I can’t make it through.  How come it seems like you’re not doing anything?  Are you aware that this is going on?”  And of course Jesus always knows and He responds, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  Why is it that when I face times of trials and tribulations that I am so afraid?  Jesus can squelch the storms of our lives with a simple word and bring complete calmness like he did in this passage.  Even if the storm is not immediately calmed, God promises to provide us with everything we need to do His will.  He is the Lord Almighty.  Why am I so afraid?

Not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance

2 Peter 3:9—The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

I was reading through Matthew and realized something.  It seems so sad that some people genuinely thought that Jesus was heretical.  It seems so sad that though God came down to show people the way, people rejected him.  It’s sad that on the last day, people like Herod, Caiaphas, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Pilate will have to sleep in the beds that they made.  It’s sad to think that they’ll have that feeling, “Oh, I was so, so terribly wrong.”  I think that’s why Jesus, as he was being crucified, said, “My God, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”  They truly didn’t know.  They were genuinely doing what they felt was right.  It seems so sad that anyone should perish, though in reality, we all deserve it.  I hope that this motivates me; I hope that I will have a heart like God’s--He loves everyone in the world and doesn’t want anyone to perish.

And in turn I hope that this will motivate me to have compassion on people of this campus and beyond this campus.  I hope that I will not desire anyone to perish and in turn go and share the gospel with people.  I hope that this love will overcome any fears that I might have.  I hope that my love for them will cast out any fear that I feel—any fear of rejection, any fear of breaking of a relationship.  I hope that I will truly deem God’s relationship and my friendship with him greater than the friendship with anyone on this earth.  I want that to be true in my life.  I want doing His will to overshadow everything on this earth; I want it to all fade into the background.  I want to share His gospel, scary as it may be sometimes.  I hope that my love for them will cast out any fear that I fear.  Any fear of rejection, any fear of breaking of a relationship.  I hope that I will truly deem God’s relationship and my friendship with him greater than the friendship with anyone on this earth.  I want that to be true in my life.  I want doing His will to overshadow everything on this earth; I want it to all fade into the background.

I really believe that God's heart for everyone is revealed in 2 Peter 3:9.  I believe that that is why in Matthew 24:14, it says how the end will come after the gospel is preached to all nations (i.e. people groups).  God wants everyone to have a chance to come to repentance, so He’s giving people the chance and waiting.

Though as a Christian, I often think of the last day as a time of joy, but for the ones who do not have the assurance of salvation or for those who reject God, it will be a time of weeping and deep sorrow and regret.  I don’t want anyone to perish and to have that awful feeling of regret.  Out of love for them, I owe it to people to share this wonderful knowledge with them.  Out of love for them, I ought to tell them what God has done for them and I ought to tell them of the full and abundant life God has for them.