Control

Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.  (The servant's name was Malchus.)  So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"

--John 18:10-11

A lot of times in my life, I've thought, "Let me help you out God.  Let me do this."  ....like God really needs my help.  I, a human being, with finite knowledge and wisdom, so often think that I know what is best, when, in all actuality, only God knows.  I only know what I have gone through and what I am presently going through.  There is no way that I am able to truly figure out what is best for me and for the Kingdom.  My thinking would have been exactly like Peter's, just thinking of the immediate circumstances.  But God was thinking of eternity; if Jesus didn't die, then people would never be able to experience intimate fellowship with Him.  Similarly, in our lives, we only see the immediate, surrounding circumstances and desire to be brought out of them, when in reality, God may be doing great things in our hearts and in the kingdom through us, if only we'd relinquish control and willingly drink the cup that God has given to us.

Embodiment

I've been reading through Disappointment With God by Philip Yancey.  The subtitle is:  Three questions no one asks aloud.  It has been really great reading through this book and seeing how Yancey uses the Word to respond to the questions of "Is God unfair?", "Is God silent?", and "Is God hidden?"  The chapter that I was reading today was entitled, "Why God Doesn't Intervene."  And I was just blown away at what Yancey was saying that I knew I needed to (externally) process/try to summarize what he was saying and I thought I'd share that :)

There is the spiritual realm and the physical world.  People today are so quick to separate the two, where in all actuality, the two are inextricably linked.  What God does is that He seeks to bring the world back to its original state where "spirit and matter dwelt together in perfect harmony" (p. 224).  What happens when we become believers, then, is that we, with our physical bodies begin reconnecting with the spiritual world.  "One might say our task is the very opposite of reductionism.  We look for ways to re-enchant or 'hallow' the world:  to see in nature an engine of praise, to see in bread and wine a sacrament of grace, to see in human love a shadow of ideal Love" (p. 225).  And in this, Christ unbelievably joined the two worlds together as he, the Word, become flesh and dwelt among us, "unifying creation in a way that had not been seen since Eden" (p. 225).

When Jesus ascended, he left behind his actual presence in the church.  Our goodness becomes his goodness; our actions become his actions.  "The two worlds merge in Christ" (p. 225).

"Is God silent?  I answer that question with another question:  Is the church silent?  We are his mouthpiece, his designated vocal chords on the planet" (p. 225).

God chose to have these incredibly inferior, insufficient, and humiliating human beings bear his perfect, spotless, beautiful, and magnificent image.  "He deemed it well worth the risk and the humiliation" (p. 228).

"Embodiment is the end of all God's works." --Jurgen Moltmann

I am, on one hand, so overwhelmed by my unworthiness to bear the image of God and yet so blown away by God's goodness and grace in His choice to still allow me to be His hands and feet.

A Seed in Good Soil

I read the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) this morning and made a few observations about what it means to be a seed in good soil.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. (Luke 8:14)

• Choked--cut off from the life source (God)
• By cares and riches--People who are burdened by worries and preoccupations of this world, losing sight of the eternal perspective.  In our minds, we let our circumstances overcome the power of God.
• Pleasures of life--By definition, pleasure is something enjoyable.  Otherwise, if it was easy to deny, give up, or not do, it wouldn't be a sacrifice.  Even if it feels good to us, we have to trust that God knows best and wait for His purposes and His timing.
• Fruit does not mature--There is fruit, but it stays at an immature state.  The fruit is not brought to full maturity and completion.  It has started, but has stopped growing.

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an 

honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15)

• Hearing the word--(I'm not sure what tense the original Greek is, but...) hearing is not past tense, so we need to continually hear the Word.
• Hold it fast--we need to cling to the Word.  So often, our lives will not make sense or we'll feel like God is not near.  We need to cling to the Word because it is the truth and our feelings and emotions are not.
• Honest and good heart--We need to make our hearts places receptive to God.  We need to uproot the bitterness and rage in our hearts so that the Word can take root in our hearts.  We need to provide the right environment so that God can do His growing work in our hearts.
• Bear fruit--not only do we bear fruit in our own lives, but cause others to bear fruit too as we share the Good News with others
• Patience--when we share God with others, it takes time and lots of patience.  The same with bearing good fruit in our lives, it takes time to rid ourselves of our old selves and put on our new selves.

Mercy

I've previously had a hard time figuring out the place of mercy ministry in evangelism.  I always leaned more towards the actual act of sharing the gospel being more important than taking part in mercy ministry.  Though I still have a lot more to learn about the place of mercy ministry, I've realized a few reasons as to why Christians need to participate in mercy ministry:

• Oftentimes we need to meet people's felt needs before they will be more receptive to delving into their core needs, including their need to draw near to Christ.  Felt needs are "the door to core needs."  While sharing the gospel is the most important in terms of eternal significance, that does not necessarily mean that it must always come first. 
• We perform good deeds to show how the results of sin can be transformed by the gospel.  Sin brought alienation from ourselves, from others, and from God.  As we transcend this alienation, we move towards the world God originally created.
• If people have limited exposure or conception of even what conditional love is, then seeking to understand what God's unconditional love is downright impossible.  When we love others through acts of mercy, it provides them with a tangible glimpse into what God's love is like.

[A lot of these thoughts developed as I worked through a Bible study based on Timothy Keller's Ministries of Mercy:  The Call of the Jericho Road.]

Glorify

John 17:15--My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect him from the evil one.

Whenever I face difficulties, my prayer is almost always that God would take me home so that I wouldn't have to continue to face the struggle. What a selfish request that is! Why should my temporal sufferings be more important than the potential impending eternal suffering of people around me? I must endure here on earth so that more can know Jesus. Afterall, that is the reason I am here on earth, not to feel good, but to glorify God.

Surrender

"...the gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart.  New desires.  New longings.  For the first time, we want God.  We see our need for him, and we love him.  We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation.  We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God.  So we yearn for him.  We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him.  This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel."  --David Platt (Radical, p. 39)

In his book, Radical, David Platt challenges Christians to extricate our faith from the American Dream.  As I read through the second chapter today, I couldn't help but think about how I've been settling for mediocrity and this life over radical faith and abandonment for the gospel; I've become too comfortable.  As I noticed more recently, my dreams and hopes have become more about what I want rather than what is best for the Kingdom.  In short, I need to surrender.

As I think further about surrender, I can't help but think that if I truly desired to live fully for God's Kingdom, why wouldn't I pursue vocational ministry?  Why wouldn't I pour all my time and efforts into reaching the lost every second of the day?  And yet, I know that God needs people in all sectors of society, as businessmen and women, as teachers, as doctors, as lawyers.  To surrender means to yield my thoughts and dreams, even my ideas of what would be best for the Kingdom and instead, to trust in God's wisdom.  I might think that my best contribution to furthering God's Kingdom is by pursuing full-time vocational ministry, but God, in His infinite wisdom, has called me (I think) to be a missionary in my workplace as a teacher, at least for the time being.  Surrender means being ready to go wherever God is calling me to do whatever God is calling me, whenever God is calling me.  It is saying, "Here am I, send me."

Questions for myself:  Am I fully surrendered to God?  How can I do more?  How can I give more?

Self-Seeking

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

21From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!^e This shall never happen to you.” 23But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance^f to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever would save his life^g will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

When Peter rebukes Jesus and says that his suffering will never happen, it may seem that Jesus' response is especially harsh.  After all, Peter was in line with the prevailing school of thought at that time, that Messiah need not suffer.  But upon closer examination, perhaps Jesus' response was necessarily frank.

"Jesus' memorable rebuke seems mercilessly severe.  But the fact that He identified Satan as the source of Peter's words describes precisely and appropriate the character of the advice Peter tried to give:  'Save yourself at all costs.  Sacrifice duty to self-interest, the cause of Christ to personal convenience.'  Peter's advice was satanic in principle for Satan's primary aim is to promote self-interest as the chief end of man."

--p. 33, The Bondage Breaker  (Neil T. Anderson)

It is completely in line with the world's ways to value safety, comfort, and life above all else, even God's plans.  At the heart of Satan's plan is to trick us into thinking that life is all about us.  How will my needs be met?  Why is my life so hard?  What will be best for me?

"Satan has deceived [many Christians] into thinking they are serving themselves when in fact they are serving the world, the flesh, and the devil."

--p. 33, The Bondage Breaker (Neil T. Anderson)

After this response, Jesus moves to weed out faulty theology by reminding the disciples that it is not about them.  In verse 24, Jesus tells his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross and follow me."  In other words, if you want to live for God, you cannot live for yourself; you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).  If we live for ourselves, then ultimately, we are living in line with Satan's purposes which are at odds with God's purposes.  We cannot--it is impossible to--live for ourselves and live for God.

In verse 25, Jesus continues, saying, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."  Who can save himself?  We may try living good lives, hoping to earn salvation.  We may try seeking every new spiritual fad, hoping to reach God.  We may try accumulating worldly pleasures and material things, in hopes that we'll achieve salvation on earth.  But ultimately, who can safe himself?  No one.  There are two paths that we can take:  (1) We try saving our lives on our own, apart from the work of Christ.  Since it is impossible, we fail and lose our lives anyways.  Or, (2) We yield and lose the claim to our temporal earthly life, and find eternal life, the life we were created to experience.

Jesus then poses the final question of this section, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (verse 26).  What will all the world--with all its temporal riches, pleasures, power--mean without God?  What would these transient riches mean if one is eternally separated from God and from everything that God is?  And what on this earth could ever be equivalent to the price of a man's soul--a soul that is precious, made in God's image, and made to be fulfilled by God and God alone?  

How could we ever give our hearts and our souls to anything or anyone less worthy?

Christmas

⁶ 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

What Christmas especially means to me this year:

• We can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).  Because of Jesus, we are now able to boldly approach God and have an intimate relationship with Him.  We no longer will be struck down because of our sinfulness and God's holiness, but we have been justified and have Jesus' imputed righteousness.
• The God of the universe became flesh and made his home among us (John 1:14).  He descended to our level to help us to see God and His love.  He went through the stages of development, even beginning as a helpless baby.  He came to earth knowing full well what the end of His live would be.  He came down knowing that he would be misunderstood and hurt, even by His closest friends.  He came knowing that He would be rejected and wrongfully punished.  He knew that He would experience separation from God for the first time of His life.  He knew he would be flogged unjustly.  He knew one of his closest friends would deny him; another would turn Him in.  Knowing all this, Jesus still came down and willingly subjected Himself to the will of the Father.
• Jesus endured the pain of life on earth and in crucifixion for the joy to come (Hebrews 12:2).  He had the eternal perspective:  we endure temporary pain now for eternal joy later.
• We no longer have to continually offer the sacrifices of animals because Jesus' sacrifice paid for all sins for all time (Hebrews 9:13-14).  We all can take hold of Jesus' sacrifice paying for all of our sins if we open our hearts to Him.
• Jesus lived on earth and experienced trials of all sorts and thus understands the depths of trials in our lives (Hebrews 4:15).

Without Jesus, I could never have a personal relationship with God.  Without Jesus, I would have had to try hard to earn salvation and still inevitably fail.

With Jesus, I have abundant life, both here on earth and in eternity.

Thank you, Jesus, for your love for me.

Merry Christmas!

Freedom

“We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be.”  (Oswald Chambers, Conformed to His Image, 354 L)

Illuminate

I recently returned from the 2011 West Coast Epic Conference.  Students from all across California, and Oregon, Minnesota, Hawaii, and many other places gathered together to meet God.  It was so exciting to see so many students passionately seeking God and so eager to hear from God. :)  And also to see students mobilized and sent out around San Francisco during the day of outreach.

The theme verse was 1 Peter 2:9--But you are a chosen people a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Here are some media highlights from the conference:

• Epic West Coast Conference in action video:  http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=155054654532795
• Epic West Coast Conference Highlight slideshow:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=845720642048
• Epic West Coast Conference Illuminate video:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=819475742037&comments

This video is one about a student's changed life that was shown at the Epic Conference that happened in Dallas, TX over the same weekend:  http://vimeo.com/18849861

Idolatry

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.  It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place….Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous.  The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.”  --A.W. Tozer

Good without God?

Back in October of last year in New York around the time when Greg Epstein’s book Good without God was released, there was an advertising campaign with the slogan “A Million New Yorkers are Good Without God.  Are you?”  (More about it here:  http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/good-without-god-atheist-subway-ads-proclaim/)  (This summer, I saw some signs that I suppose were done in response to this advertising saying, “I am good with God.”  (More about this here: http://www.goodwithgod.org/thecampaign.html).

So in thinking about this, I wasn’t thinking of whether I think people are good with or without God because I believe what the Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  None of us is good without God.  People are imperfect and are incapable of being perfect.  And because of this we deserved a separation from God [death]:  “For the wages of sin is death.” But instead, God gave us the greatest gift:  “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  And so Jesus exchanged His righteousness for our unrighteousness and He paid the penalty for our sins.  So now, when God looks at us, He sees Jesus’ righteousness and not our unrighteousness.  Because of Jesus we were made righteous.

But anyways, I digress.  What I was thinking was okay, so people who are not Christians say that they are “good without God.”  But I wonder, how many people in the Christian community, in how they live their lives, are saying the same?  Perhaps they are not broadcasting it our saying it out loud, but how many people’s lives are demonstrating the exact same thing?  How many Christians are trying to become “good” people without God’s power?  How many people are focusing on conforming to society’s standards of “good” behavior or conforming to the church’s standards of “good” behavior, rather than abiding in God, remaining in Him, and being transformed from the inside out and bearing much fruit?  How many Christians are trying to perform, perform, perform for other people and for God?  How many people are trying to live the Christian life out of their own power and strength?  Instead of remaining in the vine as it says in John 15.  Or how many people rely on their strategies and their methods to try to see life change in people rather than depending upon God? 


I know I’ve definitely seen this in my own life.  Those are the times when I think the Christian life is so difficult.  Those are the times when I realize of course it’s difficult because I’m not relying on God to do the transformation.  I’m trying so hard to change the outside through my actions, when it’s my heart that really needs the transformation.  It’s in those times that I need to remind myself of Jesus’ words in John 15:5—“I am the vine, you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Psalm 37:4

I believe that Psalm 37:4 is true—Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.  God knows deeply what the desires of our heart are.  He sees beyond our feeble attempts to fulfill our desires and sees what we really need.  He sees what our deepest longings are; He sees how to most fully satisfy those desires.  And He is more than capable of meeting those desires.  It reminds me of a quote of Amy Carmichael—“It is a safe thing to trust Him to satisfy the desires He creates.”  


But why is that contingent upon our delighting ourselves in the LORD?  I think that God knows that He is the only one who can satisfy.  I think that He knows that by giving us other things, they could potentially draw our eyes away from Him and onto something else.  It is only when we have deep satisfaction in God that we have become trustworthy enough to have Him satisfy the desires of our hearts.  When He knows that we will follow Him regardless of what He gives us or takes away from us, that’s when He’ll most fully satisfy the desires of our hearts.  


And the psalmist says “Delight ourselves in the Lord.”  He doesn’t say, “Obey all the Lord’s commands.”  He doesn’t say, “Follow God wholeheartedly.”  He doesn’t say, “Have daily quiet times.”  What is most important is to “Delight ourselves in the LORD.”  To love Him to the utmost that our hearts can, to regard Him not as a Master, but as a Lover, to run to Him eager to spend time with Him, to smile when thinking about Him.  All these things are signs of delighting ourselves in the LORD.  It is God's desire for us to delight in Him, not just obey Him.

Broken

[I'm currently in week 2 in a 5 week long summer project/missions trip in NYC.  I'll post more stories soon!]

If there was one word that I could use as the theme of my time here in New York, I would use the word broken. Not that brokenness is only seen in New York and not anywhere else, but that God is really opening my eyes to see how things are not as He had intended or designed. And it breaks my heart. To see such deep family hurts in students’ lives, to see homeless people sleeping on the stairs in the subway station, to see sex shops on street corners, it breaks my heart. Then I realize that as much as these things break my heart, I’m sure it grieves God all the more. He fully sees what the world was meant to be and He fully sees how far the earth is now.


And yet, I have hope. The world has hope. This, right now, is not the end of the story. Students with deep hurts is not the end of the story. People going to those sex shops on the street corners is not the end of the story. Homeless people sleeping on stairs is not the end of the story. In Him, we have hope; we indeed have hope in Him who sees the beginning from the end. God is the ultimate Redeemer and He is coming to redeem the world. He will come back to restore the world to the way it was supposed to be. And I can’t help but long for that great day. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4). How I long to live in the world that is as God designed and intended!

Unfailing Love

May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.

-Psalm 119:76

To have something be unfailing is a curious thing. I think that nothing in this world is unfailing. After some amount of time, things fail. People disappoint. Brakes fail. Hearts fail. In this world full of change and tumult, there are no things that are unfailing. But there is God. He is unfailing. There will never be a time when you run to Him and He doesn’t open His loving arms to you. There will never be a time when God doesn’t listen to your prayers. There will never be a time when God stops loving you. God is unfailing. His love is unfailing. He is constant, this current world is not.

Taking Things Day By Day

Exodus 16—Manna and Quail

The Israelites left Egypt and were in the dessert. At this point, they were starving. They thought back to the times when they were in Egypt and had all the food they wanted. Now, they were blaming Aaron and Moses, saying “…you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Exodus 16:10—While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.

God provided. He heard their grumbling and provided them with bread each day, with the exception of the Sabbath. On non-Sabbath days, the Israelites were to eat as much as they wanted on that day, but they could not keep the manna overnight because it would become filled with maggots and would reek. I think God might have done this to develop the Israelites faith day-by-day. It also caused the Israelites to run to God each day and remember Him. (It is in times of excess when we are more tempted to forget about God.) Each day they had to trust Him for that day’s bread. Each day they had to trust that God would provide.

I think that it is similar in following God throughout our lives. Many of us want to have everything mapped out from beginning to end. We want to know where we will be five, ten, twenty, fifty years in the future. Instead of promising us the map, God promises us His presence. He wants us to take it day-by-day. He wants us to trust Him every step of the way. He wants us to run to Him each day.  It would be so easy to forget about Him if we had the map, saying, "Well, I know where I'm going, no need to consult God."

One of the verses I like that speaks of following God is Psalm 119:105:

Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.

Someone once pointed out to me that if you put a lamp to your feet, you can only see where you will take your next step. That’s what it is like in following God—you only see enough to take your next step. I think sometimes God reveals more than just one step, but oftentimes it is only a step. But that’s what faith is—trusting that God isn’t going to lead you off a cliff if you follow Him.

Jeremiah 34

In this chapter, God speaks to Jeremiah telling him to go to Zedekiah, King of Judah, and tell him that he will be captured by the king of Babylon.  However, even though that is to happen, God promises (Jeremiah 3:4-5): You will not die by the sword; you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers, the former kings who proceeded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, O master!"

It’s interesting because I think that in many of the prophets’ visions and even in our lives now, God tells us as it is—that we’ll face hardships and sufferings (like in John 16:33b—In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.).  God tells us that it’s going to be hard.  However, He doesn’t just leave us there; He promises a coming victory.  He promises to come back and usher in a new time where there will be no more suffering or grief or tears or hardship.  It will be a time where see Him face to face and delight in His presence.  What’s great about this, especially when we face hardships, is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we’ll reach it; we will see God.

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.