Prayer Request for Honduras Mission — May 19-27th, 2012

Please be praying for Pastor Wade and the upcoming mission trip to Langue, Honduras with the Christian Medical and Dental Association organization, lead by Dr. Andy Sanders. The 25 member team, consisting of numerous doctors, dentist, nurses, and other personnel, and one pastor (guess who?) will leave May 19th and return on May 27th. Pray for the safety and health of the team; for divine appointments to be keep; for ministries of mercy to be offered in a Christ-honoring manner; for souls to be saved, bodies to be healed and local believers to be blessed and build up in the faith, and for team members to be radically impacted with the mission mandate for potential world impact! Pray for Pastor Wade as he teaches a small group of local leaders on how to fulfill the Master’s mandate as well as ministering to the team and serving in whatever capacity is most needed. A special thanks to Pastor Brian Fields and the saints at Grace Fellowship, as well as various individuals, for their prayers and financial assistance that makes such efforts possible.

Hope in the Lord’s Mercies is the Only Treatment for Misery — Part 2

(Read Lamentations 3:17 — 36)

In spite of the book of Lamentations being the most mournful, misery-filled, of all the books in the Bible, it contains five verses in Chapter Three that make it the most hope-filled book in the Bible! Several different Hebrew words in this chapter are used to translated the word “hope”:

Lam 3:18, “And I said, My strength and my hope [towcheleth, to-kheh'-leth; expectation] is perished from the LORD:”

Lam 3:21, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope [yachal, yaw-chal'; a prim. root; to wait; by impl. to be patient, to hope, be pained, stay, tarry, trust, wait.].”

Lam 3:24, “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope [yachal] in him.”

Lam 3:26, “It is good that a man should both hope [chuwl, khool; to stay, tarry, travail (with pain), tremble, trust, wait carefully (patiently)] and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

Lam 3:29, “He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope [tiqvah, tik-vaw'; lit. a cord (as an attachment that hooks us up with expectation].”

Combining all these variations of the Hebrew word translated hope by our English Bible, we are to conclude that biblical hope is an expectant, confident, patient, enduring confidence that all that God promises He will perform.

For the child of God, the key to being able to maintain a hope-filled heart in miserable circumstances is found in allowing Christ, who in us, is the hope of glory, to continually turn memory into the handmaid of encouragement instead of the allowing it to function as the servant of discouragement and despair.(Lam 3:21,  “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope…”)

 In the face of forgotten prosperity, the prophet Jeremiah declares that his strength and hope have perished from the LORD. In light of his afflictions and misery, he cries that the wormwood and the gall cause his soul to remember and sink within him. Yet he takes charge of his memory and declares by faith, “This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”  Hope in the Lord’s mercies is the only treatment for misery.

Dr. J.I. Packer sets forth the true source of hope as he declares, “To moderns drowning in the misery of hopelessness, disappointed, disillusioned, despairing, emotionally isolated, bitter, and aching inside, Biblical truth comes as a lifeline, for it is future-oriented and hope-centered throughout … the hope that the Scriptures bring us arrests and reverses the drowning experience here and now, generating inward vitality and renewed joy, and banishing forever the sense of having the life choked out of us as the waves break over us … the Bible throughout is a book of hope!”

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory that God will Lead us Through the Grief of Our Loss

Biblical hope doesn’t cause denial of the facts. The Prophet writes five chapters that are entitled “Lamentations.” He doesn’t tell his people to just cheer up and forget about the past. Instead he leads them “through” a grieving process “to” true hope in a merciful Father. The nature of the hope that God implants in the heart of His people enables them to release their grief once and for all before the Lord, instead of repressing it into their memories or constantly rehearsing it to themselves and anyone else who will listen.

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory that even when God’s Hand of Chastisement is Heavy upon Us, His Heart of Compassion is NEVER against Us!

Lamentations 3:22-23,25 – the Lord is always good, gracious, and great! Lam 3:22, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.” 3:23, “They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lam 3:25, “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.”

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory to Recall that the Lord’s Compassion far Outweighs any Sorrow He Sends

Lam 3:32, “Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”

Someone wrote: “The Christian life is like the dial of a clock. The hands are God’s hands, passing over and over again?? the short hand of discipline and the long hand of mercy.  Slowly and surely the hand of discipline must pass, and God speaks at each stroke.  But over and over passes the hand of mercy, showering down a twelvefold blessing for each stroke of discipline and trial.  Both hands are fastened to one secure pivot: the great unchanging heart of our God of love.”

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory to Recall that the Load of Grief and the Times of Misery will come to an End

Lam 3:31, “For the Lord will not cast off forever.” Do not accept your present temporary situation as your future permanent address!  It too shall come to pass.”

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory to Recall that the Lord doesn’t send Affliction Willingly

Lam 3:33, ” .. for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” God doesn’t afflict for His pleasure or excitement.

“The Lion of the Judah in His present risenness purses, tracks, and stalks us here and now. When we cry out with Jeremiah, “Enough already! Leave me alone in my melancholy,” the Shepherd replies, “I will not leave you alone. You are mine. I know each of My sheep by name. You belong to me. If you think I am finished with you, if you think I am a small god that you can keep at a safe distance, I will pounce upon you like a roaring lion, tear you in pieces, rip you to shreds, and break every bone in your body. Then I will mend you, cradle you in my arms, and kiss you tenderly.

The Lion and the shepherd are one and the same. Ferocious pursuit and unwavering compassion are dual facets of the tremendous Lover who knows not only what hurts us, but what heals us. And this savage and soothing God is also the Lamb who suffered the pains of death on our behalf. The Lion who will kill all that separates us from Him; the Lamb who was killed to mend that separation  — both are symbols and synonyms for Jesus. Relentless tenderness; indivisible aspects of the Divine realty.” (Brennan Manning)

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory to Recall that the Lord is the All-Sufficient Portion and Happiness of His People

Lam 3:24  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

Abraham Poljak: “I am one of the Jews that escaped from Germany. I thank God for all the strokes with which I was driven from darkness to light. It is better that we arrive beaten and bleeding at the glorious goal than they we decay happily and contended in darkness. As long as things were all right with us, we did not know anything of God, and the salvation of our souls and the world beyond. Hitler’s arrows and our misery have led us to the innermost heart. We have lost our earthly home but found the heavenly one. We have lost our economic support, but won the friendship of the ravens of Elijah. On the bitter ways of emigration we have found Jesus, the riches of all worlds!” Lam 3:24  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

Pastor Andrew Bonar’s wife Isabella died, to his great grief and loss, on Oct 14, 1864. Writing in his diary on the anniversary of her death more than twenty years later he noted: “Memorable to me is the anniversary of my beloved Isabella’s sudden departure to be with Christ. And now my grandson, a child of three days old has been taken. Broken cisterns, broken cisterns all around: but the fountain remains full!” Only those who are satisfied with all that God’s promises to be for us in Jesus will not be seized with panic, worry, and despair when troubles come. We have His great salvation, continual presence, unerring wisdom, fatherly care, infallible guidance, everlasting love, eternal inheritance, complete sufficiency, and most of all we have HIM!

Jesus, my all in all Thou art, My rest in pain; the medicine of my broken heart; In war, my peace; in loss, my gain; My smile beneath the tyrants frown; In shame, my glory and my crown!
In want, my plentiful supply; In weakness, mine almighty power; In bonds, my perfect liberty; My light in Satan’s darkest hour; My help and stay whenever I call; My life in death; my heaven, MY ALL!

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory that Waiting upon the Lord is always Right and Quitting and Quarreling with the Lord is always Wrong

Lam 3:25, “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.”3:26, “It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.” 3:29, “Let him put his mouth in the dust; There may yet be hope.”

Waiting upon the Lord involves doing everything I can do – and leaving everything I can’t do up to Him! In the words of Pastor Richard Lee, “Don’t let the past drag you down — you can’t change it. Don’t let the future frighten you — you can’t control it. Instead, learn from the past, plan for the future, and live life to its fullest in the present!”

Biblical Hope Reminds Memory that God has Never Promised a Soft Trip but a Sure and Safe Landing

What if ? What if the bottom falls out of the economy and we lose every material thing that we have acquired? What if misery and heartache fill our lives? Does this leave us without hope for the future? NO, ten thousand times no!

Christ, who is our hope, intends for us to live in security in the midst of all the storms of life. In Hebs. 6:19, we are told that “this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. The Greek word translated “sure” is “asphale,” which means “not to totter or fail when put to the test.”  The God?derived hope will not totter or fail under the most severe of life’s tests. This hope is “steadfast.” The Greek word is “bebaian.” It means “that which won’t breakdown under the weight of something that steps on it.” Glory!  Hope will bear you UP!  Dear Christian, you may get way down by the problems and pressures of life, but you can’t get beneath hope. It will take you back up. 

The hymn writer was right when he sang: “In times like these we need an anchor, in times like these we have an anchor!” The word anchor suggests safety and stability. The words sure and steadfast suggest that God’s promises are strong and will not slip and guaranteed, thus trustworthy.

Let the winds blow, and billows roll, Hope is the anchor of my soul. His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. 

Hope is God’s holding power that gives a consistent flow of joy beneath the waves of trouble in the winds of sorrow. Hope invades the mind and heart with joy and gives us the deep confidence that we are God’s forgiven children and he will never let our little ships be wrecked. We may experience the severe discomfort of sea?sickness, but we are never in danger of dying on board or overboard!

“The tempest may sweep over the wild stormy deep ?? but in Jesus I’m safe evermore! 

No wonder the hymn writer Thomas Chisolm was moved to write, using Lams 3:23 as the heart of hope for his hymn:

“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand has provided — Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright HOPE for Tomorrow, blessings all mine with ten thousand besides!”

“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope!”

 

Hope in the Lord’s Mercies — The Only Treatment for Misery –Part 1

(Read Lamentations 3:17-26)

Misery loves company and sooner or later all of us find ourselves in the throes of misery’s woes. You pray, you work, you try to do what is right, but nothing good seems to come of it. The faster you run the further behind you seem to get. It seems as if you’re in a race with no finish line in sight. You feel like a runner in a long dark night, an unwilling entry in a midnight marathon. You can’t see where you’re going, yet you keep putting one foot in front of the other, all the while feeling as if your heart will burst and your legs will collapse. Where is the dawn?

In our text, the nation of Israel has had a “Y586″ problem. (The year 586 BC is the date of the third and final assault and destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians.) What the “experts” prophesied never could or would happen did! The results were not “brown-outs,” or black-outs,” but a “total melt down” of the nation precipitated by the judgment of God, using the instrumentality of the invading armies of Babylon. Those who had survived had witnessed massive starvation, violent and pervasive civil unrest. They experienced their possessions being taken forcefully from them along with their family and friends being carried off to Babylon. Those left behind were prisoners of war in their own country. The entire nation was brutally destroyed by the invading enemy. Dreams were shattered over night — hearts were broken with grief, and tears become their diet day and night. Their minds were clouded with confusion. The present seemed unbearable and the future looked bleak and hopeless. Was there power for living?  Jeremiah, the weeping prophet tells the covenant people of God, “Yes, in spite of the horrific times of misery, the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. There’s is hope in the Lord, even when all appears hopeless.

In the midst of the direst of adversities, Israel and we, as well, are offered hope. The word that the Lord gives the prophet is not about answers to the problem of evil or suffering; not a word about systems of politics or of theological systems; it’s a word about the heart of our Heavenly Father. Even in the midst of judgment, He is faithful, loving, gracious, full of compassion. He is our hope, our inheritance, and our prospects of the future are as bright as His promises!

Listen Christian, irrespective of the potential disasters that may befall us internationally or personally, even if we are brought to the end of our rope, there is HOPE in HIM! It’s time to repent of unbelief and re-tie the knot of faith and HOPE ON — not until the bitter end, but for the better end!

The Times of Misery

Misery is epitomized in the first twenty verses of the third chapter of Lamentations. One paraphrase reads: “Constant stumbling, blind alleys, and confusion overtake me. Everywhere I turn, I am stymied and defeated by the hand of Almighty God. I am withered and without strength, unable to function normally. Everywhere circumstance is filled with bitterness, and overwhelming difficulty. I am like the living dead. Imprisoned by inescapable circumstances, held down by heaviness, my prayers don’t even “hit the ceiling.” There is nowhere to turn and every direction is a maze of frustration. Like a hunted animal, I have been stalked, and caught and torn apart and in constant pain. My mind and emotions are excruciatingly dying a slow death. I am a joke to all that see me, my only nourishment is bitterness and harassment. The depth of my being is raw and exposed. What should be food turns to stone in my mouth destroying even my ability to eat. I’m not only humiliated but totally trampled on and left in the dirt. There is no such thing as peace or prosperity. Everything that gave my life meaning is now totally missing!”

The Treatment of Misery

A. Hope is Energized in Order to Turn Memory into the Handmaid of Encouragement Instead of the Servant of Discouragement –3:21,24

In the face of forgotten prosperity, the prophet declares that his strength and hope have perished from the LORD. In light of his afflictions and misery, he cries that the wormwood and the gall cause his soul to remember and sink within him. Yet he takes charge of his memory and declares by faith, “This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”  Hope in the Lord’s mercies is the only treatment for misery.

While visiting the Menninger Clinic, (a Psychiatric Hospital) Pastor Bruce Larson asked some of the doctors, “What is the single most important ingredient in your treatment here?”

The doctors answered, “We know it’s hope. We don’t know how it comes or how to give it to people, but we know that when people get hope, they get well.”

Hope will get us up, even if it’s a false hope, (this is the principle behind placebos) but only true Biblically defined, supernaturally wrought, and personally experienced hope can keep us up.

Lamentations Chapter Three is the most hope-filled book in the Bible! Several different Hebrew words in this chapter are used to translated the word “hope”:

Lam 3:18,  “And I said, My strength and my hope [towcheleth, to-kheh'-leth; expectation] is perished from the LORD:”

Lam 3:21,  “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope [yachal, yaw-chal'; a prim. root; to wait; by impl. to be patient, to hope, be pained, stay, tarry, trust, wait.].”

Lam 3:24, “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope [yachal] in him.”

Lam 3:26,  “It is good that a man should both hope [chuwl, khool; to stay, tarry, travail (with pain), tremble, trust, wait carefully (patiently)] and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

Lam 3:29,  “He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope [tiqvah, tik-vaw'; lit. a cord (as an attachment that hooks us up with expectation].”

Combining all these variations of the Hebrew word translated hope by our English Bible, we are to conclude that biblical hope is an expectant, confident, patient, enduring confidence that all that God promises He will perform.

In our ordinary conversation hope is something less than faith, but in the Bible it is something more ?? it is faith developed into a full assurance. The NT Greek word is “Elpis.” It is used 145 times in the Bible, 66 times in one form or another in the NT. It does not mean something we wish for but probably won’t get; something that we wish would happen, but probably won’t. The word means anticipation and expectation combined with desire. Confident expectation of promised blessings not now present or seen. It is God’s guarantee that what He has promised will be fulfilled.

For the Christian, hope never resorts to the attitude of — “I wish, perhaps, maybe, who knows, or, “We just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best”, or a “well, we’ve got to just keep hoping that things may get better.’ Christian hope says, rather, ‘Things very well may get worse: anything may happen; my friends may forsake, and my foes may fight against me, my finances be depleted, my freedoms taken from me – BUT GOD! – IS OUR HOPE! Biblical hope is steadfast and sure, an anchor of the soul, because it is not grounded in fluctuating and uncertain circumstances, or the way others treat us, or in the moods of our own fickle hearts, but in Christ, who does not change and who is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Prisoners of Hope!

 Zechariah 9:12, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.”

The people of Zechariah’s day were still prisoners under the yoke of a foreign government. They had waited so long for the fulfilling of the promises of God that they were no longer “standing on these promises” but just sort of “sitting on the premises”! Their dreams had been shattered, the future appeared ever so shaky, and hope seemed to mock them! Through the prophet, God says, “View yourselves, not as prisoners of horrible governments, but as “prisoners of hope” in Holy God!” “Prisoners of hope” is a description applied to the Israelites because they had, by way of God’s blood covenant, the hope of redemption. They were captives who had good hope of deliverance because they were still in covenant with God.

Some of you reading this have lost heart and hope over a promise God gave you; over a personal dream that hasn’t been fulfilled; over the future of the church; over the future – period! You have come to feel that pessimism about the future is your best defense against further disappointment. If so, it’s time to let hope arise and do a little of the “Messiah’s Math” on your outlook on life. Let Him divide “disappointment,” subtract a “d” and add an “h”! This will cause you to see the happenings of life as “His – Appointments” that will bring you to seeing His will done, His name hallowed, and His kingdom coming more fully in you and through you for His glory and your good! You then will become a captive, a detainee, a Prisoner of HOPE!

If we are to be “prisoners of hope” we must go on being re-converted and refocused to a real, radical, yet biblical vision of the Man, Jesus Christ. We need to see Him as fully God, fully man, fully sovereign, fully redeeming by his substitutionary, wrath-absorbing death, fully alive by His bodily resurrection and fully reigning via His ascension and heavenly enthronement. We need to see Him manifestly present in the throne gift of Heaven that He gave to men on the Day of Pentecost – the Other Jesus without a Body – Holy Spirit. We need to be fully committed to proclaiming Him in His fullness with sound biblical truth followed by Spirit-demonstrated miracles, signs and wonders!

The Glory of His Person should Captivate Our Hearts!
The Thrill of His Mission should Dominate Our Plans!
The Wonders of His Grace should Regulate Our Lives!
The Future of His Plan should Alleviate Our Fears!

We need to see Jesus’ coming in a greater soul-saving, heart-transforming, culture-impacting presence and power even now, right where we live so that His kingdom comes more fully and His will is done more freely. We need to ask for foretastes of what will someday fill Heaven and earth. We need to stay focused on His worthiness as the Son of God, the only Savior of Sinners and the Satisfier of the heart-hunger of the saints. We need to see Him in a fuller, personal, experiential way that heightens our awareness of the riches, resources, and reaches that are available in Him as the Revealer of God’s Person and the Redeemer of His people.

We need to see that the fullness of all His gospel riches and resources flow to us so that they can flow through us to the ends of the earth. We need for Christ to fire us with His zeal for the enjoyment and deployment of the glory of God. We need to begin now to see, savor, and share His life and love so that the People of God become a showcase of His majesty and glory before the nations.

We need to declare that Christ is ALL!

We need to ask him to give us the power to stay hopeful about our future, yet happy right now even with certain dreams and desires unfulfilled.

Christian, are you feeling as though you are hopeless? Well, you aren’t, but you very well may be helpless. God puts us in a position of helplessness or complete dependency in Him. The natural response is to struggle to gain back some measure of control over your life. The pain from this experience feels like hopelessness, but it’s really the condition of helplessness that is causing you pain. God wants you completely dependent on Him. Prisoners of hope know that they are shut up to Him.

Here’s the word you need — Zec 9:12  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.  Your stronghold is seeing, savoring and trusting in the loving Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting Him in spite of all the reasoning of your mind; in spite of all the circumstances that surround you; in spite of all the people that have hurt you. You were content to give God control of your life until He decided to do something with your life you did not like. You were happy to surrender all to Him, until He decided to give your promised job or promotion to someone else; until the healing of your loved one didn’t come; until your mate left you or your children turned to the world. You believe in God’s sovereignty, until His sovereign will conflicts with your will. Then you want to run from Him, but He is your refuge. So, run to Him and not from Him — return, child of God, to your stronghold, your fortress and remain a prisoner of hope in the assurance that all that God has promised to be for you in Jesus – He will be!

 

Are You a Carrier of the Christ And Syndrome?

In C. S. Lewis’s book, Screwtape Letters, the devil’s strategy is revealed. Lewis believed that the primary tactic of the devil was not to remove Christ altogether from the scene, but to propagate a “Christ And Type” religion. The book contains thirty-one letters from Screwtape, an upper-level demon, to a lower level demon named Wormwood, who happens to be his nephew and under Screwtape’s authority.

In letter 25, Screwtape instructs his nephew Wormwood: “What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of “Christianity And.” You know–Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychic Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian coloring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.”

Judging by the state of American Christians, it appears that this advice has been taken seriously. Multitudes are infected with the “Christ AND” syndrome and the “horror of the same Old Things!”

We see this in terms of Christ and Self-Esteem; Christ and Prosperity; Christ and End-Time Predictions; Christ and Healing; Christ and angels or demons; Christ and Marketing and Church Growth; and on we could go, until Christ himself becomes little more than an appendage to a religion that, after all, seems to be able to get on quite well without Him. Even in evangelical churches who claim to be Christ-centered, one hears more about Jesus, the Therapist, who can make you feel good about yourself, or Jesus, the Economists, who can make you rich, than of Jesus, who is the Sovereign God come in the flesh, the only Savior of sinners, and who must have supremacy in all things and will not have anything else added to His person or work!

The Bible is God’s Big Glory Story of Redemption and the one and only Star of the story is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is united in His Person. The Kingdom is all about the King, whose name is Jesus. The Bible says all the promises of God (and it’s been estimated by some scholars that there are over 7,000 separate promises in the Word of God) are YES to us in Christ Jesus. Thus, God has nothing for His people beyond who Christ is in Himself, and He will not tolerate “additives.” Christ is sufficient, superior, sovereign, supreme, and the summation of all God is and has for us. Christ alone and Christ above all!

To Value Anything Equal to Christ (including angels) is to Devalue Christ! Christ is never Truly Valued as Anything Until He is Valued Everything! He Values Christ not at All who doesn’t Value Christ above ALL!

If the scriptures are true, and they are, then any to attempt to add anything to Christ, or find something or someone that’s better than Him, is to be duped by the devil and deprived of the richness of relationship and resources untold! If He is who He claimed to be, how can we not submit to His reign in every area of our lives? We can trust Him, plus nothing, in every circumstance, every disappointment, and every heartache. We can trust Him, plus nothing, with every nook and cranny of fear, uncertainty and doubt. We can trust Him, plus nothing, in our bleakest, darkest, most desperate hour. When all seems lost, hopeless, and we’re helpless to change it, He is able, available, and more than adequate. When evil seems to have the upper hand, He is good. When weakness is our lot, He is our Strength. When change sends our minds reeling from confusion, He is clear, confirming, comforting and unchanging. He is worthy of worship, worthy of praise, worthy of all of the offerings we bring!

Have you been infected with the “Christ AND” syndrome that has filled you with a “horror of the same Old Things”?

Do you still love to hear the old, old story of the gospel?

Is there anything, any person, any problem, any need, that Jesus is not more than enough for!

Do you find yourself saying, “Well, I have Christ, but if I had Him and, Him plus– health, wealth, dates or mates, name and fame, etc. If you answered yes to any of the above then you are spiritually sick and need to repent of and refocus all your being upon Christ plus nothing, which equals everything!

Here is the whole truth and nothing but the truth — The person who has Christ and everything, has no more than the person who has Christ and nothing!

CHRIST IS ALL!

 

The New Math of Grace-based Living

Act 20:24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

In this verse the Apostle Paul reveals that for him the gospel of the grace of God was more valuable and precious than life itself, and that his sole desire was to be able to finish his course testifying to this good news. To him the grace of God was the gospel and in it was the proof of God’s love and good-will to us, and a means of his good work in us.

What has happened to Paul’s type of evaluation, calculation, persuasion and passion concerning the gospel of the grace of God? In my humble opinion, from observation and personal experience, most of us as Christians have never learned the new math of grace but tend to constantly revert back to the natural calculator with which we were all born. This calculator only has one function mode — the old math of performance-based living. The old math’s operating system always reads, “The more we do the more we earn, and the more God owes us.”

The performance-based calculator indicates that the gospel’s proper function was to give us entry rite into Christianity. As Pastor J.D. Greear  says, “Many Christians feel the gospel was the  diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity. After we get into the pool, we get into the real stuff of Christianity: mastering good principles for our marriage; learning rules and regulations of how to behave. The gospel, however, is not just the diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity; it is the pool itself. It is not only the way we begin in Christ; it is the way we grow in Christ.”

Phillip Yancy was right when he wrote: “Grace is the most surprising, twisting, unexpected-ending word in the English language. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less!”

The Gospel of the Grace of God is His Empowered Presence and not His Endless Presents

What is the meaning of the gospel of the grace of God? The typical definition of grace is God’s unmerited favor. However it is far more than that – it is the announcement of total victory, great power, and endless provision. It is true divine favor in the face of our total demerits!

Pastor Sam Storms defines grace as “God satisfying our souls with His Son so that we’re ruined for anything else.”

My definition of grace is the presence of God manifesting to us, who believe, His heart of love and hand of power in giving us all we need to be all He designed us to be and to do all that He commanded us to do — primarily loving Him with all our being! Grace is not sought nor bought nor wrought, but is instead a gift of Almighty God to needy mankind.

The gospel of the grace of God is to be an entirely new basis for all of our calculations — how we relate to God, ourselves, and others.

The gospel of the grace of God testifies that Nothing We do Guarantees the Blessings we Want!

“For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned – our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night’s sleep – all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. Even our fidelity is a gift. “If we but turn to God,” said St. Augustine, “that itself is a gift of God.” My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”  – Brennan Manning

The Gospel of the Grace of God is Available, Abundant and Necessary for Every Believer Everyday

Someone aptly said, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

The gospel of the grace of God is just as necessary and relevant after you become a Christian as it is before because the gospel doesn’t simply rescue us from the past and rescue us for the future; it also rescues us in the present from being enslaved to things like fear, insecurity, anger, self-reliance, works-based religion, bitterness, a sense of entitlement, and feelings of insignificance. It is when the word of the gospel of the grace of God in Christ grips our hearts, that we are set free and changed. The change is by grace through faith and not by the gritty determination of will-power to stop a wrong thing and start doing a right thing.

Grace is not our helper to assist us in measuring up or making it good or big in life. Grace is the sum and substance of our great salvation. What is begun by grace in us and for us is maintained and sustained in grace. Grace has given and will go on giving us the greatest gift of all – the mouth-stopping, complaint-ending, desire-deepening awe of God with us and in us and for us – both now and forever!

To receive God’s grace in Christ is to experience a joy that so far exceeds the pleasures that sin that we gladly let them go for the greater satisfaction.

Growth in Christ is never going beyond the gospel, but going deeper into the gospel. Whatever spiritual dysfunction you have in your life, the cure is the gospel. Do we want to be filled with passion for God? We should drink from the gospel. Do we want to get control of our bodies? We must be captivated by the gospel.

The child of God learns that they always are highly favored and blessed of God, irrespective of where they are, or what their circumstances are; or what they have or don’t have. They plead for mercy, rather than for fairness; they live by grace, rather than by performance; they expect His presence, and not just His presents; and they experience peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, irrespective of how hard, horrible or hurtful our circumstances may be – because God is in them, with them, over them, and for them. And He is the God who is able to make all grace abound toward them so that they always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

The Gospel of the Grace of God Must Continually Stun, Surprise and Amaze Us to Create Worship!

Centering your life in the grace that’s available in the gospel is like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time — the full display of God’s grace takes our breath away. It reveals that “naught have we gotten but what we have received and grace has bestowed it since we believed.” It fills the world with evidences of God’s sovereignty, mercy, grace, and generosity. It humbles the Christian for service based on receiving grace upon grace that always flows out of what Christ has done for us and not what we have done or must do for him.

Only when God’s grace stuns and surprises us will we worship – until then we will negotiate! In other words, our attitude will be, “God I did this for you and for such shabby, half-hearted, inadequate work, I expect you to give me all I need and want.

The old math of the performance-based lifestyle tends to abandon any serious fellowship with God when what has been calculated as good and desired falls apart and fails to come in. Those living by the new math of the grace-based life abandon themselves to God and avoid trying to tell God what He should be doing in their lives and declare their faith in the confidence that whatever He is doing is good and comes by way of grace and not merits.

Someone defined worship as celebrating and enjoying the availability of God. When we fail — preach the whole gospel to yourself and celebrate His grace. When we are blessed — celebrate the mercy aspect of the gospel. When others are blessed greatly –celebrate His gospel goodness and generosity. When others reject us, disappoint us — celebrate His gospel of grace love that will never leave us or forsake us!

What kind of math are you using in calculating what life is all about? Are you using the old math of the performance-based mentality that is constantly under pressure to perform in such a way as to insure God’s blessings? Are you using the new math of a grace-based mentality that declares, “O Lord, I desire your presence over all of your presents? I want my soul to see, savor, and be so satisfied with your Son that I am ruined for anything else.

The old hymn sums up the proper response to the gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus:

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold:
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I rather be faithful to His dear cause;
Id rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I’d rather be true to His holy name

He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; He’s sweeter than honey from out of the comb;

He’s all that my hungering spirit needs, I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead.

Refrain
Than to be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin’s dread sway.
I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.

 

 

Rehearsing in the Present the Future that Lies Ahead

For centuries, prior to the advent of Christ, men had queried, “What is the reason for our being? Is there a meta-narrative – a Story big enough to make all of our individual stories make sense? Is there life beyond the grave? Is death the victor? Shall our departed loved ones ever be restored to us? Who is he, where is he, that shall remove the great stone from death’s door? Would circumstances every change?

In March of 1992, a letter was mailed from the Department of Health and Human Services notifying a person that their benefits were about to be terminated. The letter read as follows: “Your food stamps will be stopped, effective March 1992, because we have received notice that you passed away. May God bless you! You may re-apply if your circumstances change!”

The incredibly good news of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, has made it possible for our circumstances to change for the best, forever. Christ has so fixed our liabilities to past debts, present desires and future destiny, that when we come to saving faith in Him, our circumstances change eternally. From that time forward, we get married to Him and have eternal benefits automatically applied to us! We can live in the comprehensive insurance and in the concrete assurance that neither the sin, self, Satan, or society will destroy us or defraud us of our inheritance. 

Salvation in the New Testament is what God has done to death, disease, sin-debt, and the devil in the resurrection of Jesus. In rising from the dead, Jesus has broken open and broken up the vicious cycle of death. The gospel is the announcement that in the death of Christ, death has met its end!

The salvation Christians enjoy now is like borrowing from the world to come and enjoying a foretaste of it now. The gospel announces that our future can be enjoyed and employed in the present with the confidence that the best is always ahead for the Christian!

Christian living is rehearsing in the present the future that lies ahead by experiencing resurrection life in Jesus NOW! We can live a purpose-driven plan because we become person-driven individuals. We can life by a divine plan that gives us a future and a hope — Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” You can become a part of God’s cosmic plan that has a never to be unemployed promise, and an incredible future with indescribable retirement benefits that you can start enjoying NOW!

Experiencing resurrection life via the new birth experience of the Holy Spirit means that our former life has been terminated, our inner life is being renovated; we are being set free from sin and self to serve God in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; fixed to be fruitful, and marked out to make it in! The awareness of where we are, whose we are and where we are headed enables us to live victoriously in every situation.

Christ’s Resurrection Means Standing Resolutely – ( 1 Cors. 15:58a – “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable…Literally, “Keep on becoming steadfast,  unshaken.” Settled in your own mind; Not susceptible to being excited and distracted by some new teaching

Christ’s Resurrection Means Working Diligently – “…always abounding in the work of the Lord…”  The Amplified Bible translates abounding as “… always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord.”

Christ’s Resurrection Means Knowing Assuredly – “…knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” The Amplified Bible reads: “…being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose].”

Because the early Christians believed that resurrection had begun with Jesus and would be completed in the great final resurrection on the last day, they believed that God had called them to work with Him, in the power of the Spirit, to implement the achievement of Jesus and thereby to anticipate the final resurrection, in personal and politi­cal life, in mission and holiness. It was not merely that God had inaugurated the “end”; if Jesus, the Messiah, was the End in person, God’s-future-arrived-in-the-present, then those who belonged to Jesus and followed him and were empowered by his Spirit were charged with transforming the present, as far as their calling allowed, in the light of that future.

The four gospels interpreted Easter in a very this-worldly, present-age meaning: Jesus is raised, so he is the Messiah, and therefore he is the world’s true Lord; Jesus is raised, so God’s new creation has begun—and we, his followers, have a job to do. Jesus is raised, so we must act as his heralds, announcing his lordship to the entire world, making his kingdom come on earth as in heaven. So, Christian, if you haven’t been doing it, repent and begin to rehearse in the present the future that lies ahead.

 

 

The End of Time has Come into the Middle of Time!

What does the resurrection mean? What is Easter really about then? Basically it means that God’s new creation is launched upon a surprised world, pointing ahead to the redemption and the renewal of the entire creation. The future has burst into the present. The new creation, and with it the resurrection, has come forward from the end of time into the middle of time. Jesus has not just come, as we sometimes say or sing, ‘from heaven to earth’; it is equally true to say that he has come from God’s future into the present, into the mess and muddle of the world we know. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says. ‘Resurrection’ isn’t just a doctrine. It isn’t just a future fact. It’s a PERSON.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus a new order of things had come into being.  Not just a new reality in the hearts of believers (although this true – “you ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart”—wonderful!), but there’s so much more — there’s a new reality in history. 

Salvation in the New Testament is what God has done to death, disease, the debt of sin, and the devil in the resurrection of Jesus. In rising from the dead, Jesus has broken open and broken up the vicious cycle of death. The gospel is the announcement that in the death of Christ, death has met its end!

The salvation Christians enjoy now is like borrowing from the world to come and enjoying a foretaste of it now. The gospel announces that our future can be enjoyed and employed in the present with the confidence that the best is always ahead for the Christian!

Christian living is rehearsing in the present the future that lies ahead by experiencing resurrection life in Jesus NOW! We can live a purpose-driven plan because we are drawn by the cords of love and driven by the power of the Spirit out of an eternal love relationship with the Person of Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus isn’t just a cold theological fact. It is the way to life abundant. It is the way to power for living that comes from and empty cross, and empty tomb, and a Holy Spirit?filled experience in the Upper Room!

Experiencing resurrection life brings a new impulse, a new vitality, a new power, a new vigor, a new movement, a new momentum, a new excitement, a new and unbelievable joy, and a new exhilaration to life.

Experiencing resurrection life via the new birth experience of the Holy Spirit means that our former life has been terminated, our inner life is being renovated; we are being set free from sin and self to serve God in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; fixed to be fruitful, and marked out to make it in! The awareness of where we are, whose we are and where we are headed enables us to live victoriously in every situation.

To receive the gospel message – the good news — that is God-authored, Christ-centered, and that has Cross-shaped, Resurrection-sized hole is to cease to be a last days people and become a new days people in a new age! It is the invitation of Acts 5:20 – to speak, see, and savor the words of this LIFE.

The new age has been formed in Christ—the new age is being formed in God’s redeemed people – the new age will be formed in the whole of creation – just as Isaac Watts song Joy to the World the Lord is come says – He makes the blessings flow–far as far as the curse is found!

The paraphrase The Message says concerning Romans 7:5, “When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.” Death will come for us if Jesus tarries, but it cannot keep us, because we have been married to resurrection life! Death’s door has been removed; its key is in the hand of our Husband, who declared, “I am He that was dead and now I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and hell!”

One day Death will hold an Open House for the Christian! For you see, Death has become the vestibule, the foyer, that leads to our Father’s House. Death is now a passageway and not a prison.  

In the light and glory of so great a salvation, I urge you to lift up your heart and voices and say with the choirs on earth and in heaven: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Amen.”

Climbing the Rainbow Through the Rain – Part 2

Last week we learned that the phrase that makes up the title of our study originated with the blind hymn writer George Matheson. If his going blind were not enough, there followed the heartbreak of the love of his life breaking their engagement due to his handicap. Out of the heartbreak he writes these words:

O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be.

From these words, we saw last time that:

Whenever the Storms are Raging in the Child of God’s Life, He Should Look for and Climb the Rainbow Through the Rain

There are other great truths that we can glean from this phrase:

The Rainbow, as a Sign of God’s Covenant of Grace, is God’s Pledge that Irrespective of How Hard the Rain May Fall Upon the Child of God, the Day of God’s Wrath is Past!

Noah saw the rainbow after the storm — Genesis 9:11-17; Ezekiel saw the rainbow in the midst of the storm — Ezekiel 1:28; John saw the rainbow before the storm — Revelation 4:3

Child of God, always look for the rainbow of God’s Covenant of Grace and Mercy!

There are dimensions to life which can never be understood or appreciated apart from a lonely walk through the dark nights of the soul. There are qualities of character which can only be found by those who know what true sorrow means.

In his book Higher Happiness, Ralph W. Sockman reminds us of the way the Arabs put it: “All sunshine makes a desert.” He then goes on to suggest that, “If we are always bland, always placidly confident, always smilingly untroubled, if there are no shadows of untoward circumstances, if our world contains no difficulties to conquer, no pain to prick our pride, no suffering to call forth our compassion, no unexplained sorrows to accept in faith and love, if our days were all sunshine, our lives would become a desert, our streams of sympathy would dry up, our eyes would become spiritually blind, and our natures swinishly selfish.”

The comfort Jesus promises is like the joy which comes when we see a rainbow through the rain, and know from this sign that the storm is past and the warmth of the sun will soon flood our hearts again.
The Rainbow of God’s Covenant Declares that the Mercies of God’s Promises are a Greater Reality than any Problems or Circumstances We Could Ever Find Ourselves In!

When you’re party is being rained upon; when you circumstances swirl you around in a whirlpool of confusion and a sense of being sucked to the bottom; when devastation lies all around you – Climb the Rainbow of God’s Covenant Faithfulness!

“Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” (1Thess. 5:24)

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Cors 10:13)

“Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” (Psalm 36:5)

The Rainbow of the Covenant Encircles the Throne of God and not only Secures Against Wrath, but Assures the Spirit’s Influences.

Revelation 4:3, “And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”

In Nature the Visible Appearance of the Rainbow is Brief, Even So in Grace the Rainbow of God’s Covenant Love is Not Always Seen or Sensed, but is Always a Fact!

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gail my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the overwhelming flood: when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay! On Christ the Solid rock I stand!

In Nature, it’s the S-U-N that Creates the Rainbow — in Grace it’s the S-O-N that Creates it!

Without the SON, there’s no rainbow! In the SON all the promise of God are yes and amen in Him!

Matt 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

It is taking the “u” out of mourning — “m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g” – by coming to the S-O-N, which creates a new morning — “m-o-r-n-i-n-g!” A new beginning. Clean. Pure. Comforting.
This is the happiness Christ has for you. Not over there and then, but here and now.
“For happy are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Child of God, in the midst of the storm, climb through the rain to the rainbow of God’s Covenant provisions for you!

Climbing the Rainbow Through the Rain!

How does one handle the floods of devastating situations that come sweeping into one’s life? How does one deal with the torrential rains of relational and domestic problems that threaten to drive us into a state of solitary confinement? How does one survive, yea, even thrive, in midst of the hail storms of life, where the stones are words that are fault-finding, condemnatory, and character-assassinating in nature?

For the child of God, the proper response is to climb the rainbow through the rain!

 Whenever the Storms are Raging in the Child of God’s Life, He Should Look for and Climb the Rainbow Through the Rain

Let me explain this strange expression, “Climb the rainbow through the rain.”

 From birth, George Matheson had trouble with his eyesight and it continued to deteriorate throughout his life. Nevertheless, he completed college and became a brilliant preacher and pastor. Crowds thronged to his 2000-member Scottish church to hear him preach. However, he suffered a severe blow when his sweetheart told him she could not marry him because of his blindness. In anguish he wrote the beloved hymn, “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” He later said, “The hymn was the fruit of my suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inner voice . . . .” His lyrics reflect his positive faith and repeat the psalmist’s belief that “weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
          O Joy that seekest me through pain,
          I cannot close my heart to Thee;
          I trace the rainbow through the rain,
          And feel the promise is not vain
          That morn shall tearless be. (2nd stanza)

But that is not what Matheson wrote. The third line of that third verse, as originally written, read, “I climb the rainbow through the rain…” Matheson changed the line to “I trace the rainbow through the rain…” at the request of the Scottish Hymnal Committee when the hymn was under consideration for inclusion in that hymnal. The committee must have thought “climbing rainbows” too undignified a thought for a Presbyterian hymnal.

However, there is a great deal of difference between those two images. It is one thing, in the comfort and security of one’s living room, to trace the rainbow through the rain as one looks out the picture window.

In contrast, when the Christian is out in the storm and fears sinking under the flood; when the trickle of rain like problems in your life develops into a raging torrent of pain, persecution, and pressures that threatens to sweep you away, the rainbow of God’s covenant grace is seen not merely as an image in the sky but as the promise of real mercy and grace, real divine faithfulness in the Promised One. One can climb something as real as that, hold on to it, and climb up out of the flood upon it. That is where Matheson saw himself that night, in that dark night of despair, through the rain of tears, groping for something to hold on to and finding at last the edge of the rainbow of God’s New Covenant mercies, made clear by the S-O-N, he grabbed on and climbed up to the safety of knowing that all God had promised to be for him in Jesus, he had and would continue to be.

The promises of God in Christ can, for all of us too much of the time, be largely words on a page. But God’s covenant rainbow is to remind us that they are much more than that — much more than mere words, because they all are intended to lead us to the Living Word — Jesus – in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen. When we allow the promises of God to lead us to the Promised One, then we discover that we do not have a hold on the promises, but the Promised One has a hold on us. Even when the darkness of the storms of life seem to hide His face, we can sing, “In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil – for it is on Christ the solid rock I stand.”

On his death bed the great hymn writer, Isaac Watts was asked by a friend in that rhetorical way questions can be asked at such a time: Do you believe the promises of God? He replied, “I believe them enough to venture an eternity on them!” He was climbing, not tracing the rainbow!

 

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