“You can reject the Cross, you can bear the Cross, or you can embrace the Cross.”
My biggest goal for today is to find God.
Archive for April, 2009
30
Apr
09
Quotes
From the message “Ten Shekels and a Shirt”. You can listen to the full message at www.sermonindex.com.
24
Apr
09
Built for Crosses
Here is a post from Eric Ludy that was suggested for this blog to me by a faithful reader. It is from www.braveheartedgospel.com. I hadn’t been to this site, however not because I was a stranger to Eric, for I have read several books that he and his wife wrote. He is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy and it will make you think!
We’ve all said things that we wish we could retract and somehow cram back into our mouths. Well, I made a quick statement in my latest blog entry (The School of the Prophet) that garnered some extra attention from all the die-hard phraseologists out there. And it was the strangest thing, even after looking back over the statement, I still thought it a good one. However, there were a few amigos who wished they could somehow cram the words back into my mouth (or in this case, my keyboard). To me it wasn’t that controversial of a statement, it just seemed like a rather obvious thing. But often, things that make total sense to us, don’t translate the same to everyone else around us.
I said, “God builds us for crosses.”
Most of those concerned about my provocative statement weren’t concerned about the rest of my blog, in fact they liked it, but they were concerned of what people might conclude if such a statement was left unclarified.
“Ludy, it sounds like you are saying that God erects two pieces of woods, removes some long painful nails from his toolbag, and then delights to crucify us.”
How come when I repeat the words, “God builds us for crosses,” that isn’t what pops into my mind?
“God builds us through crosses,” was a great suggestion from one of my good friends. By exchanging “for” with “through,” that uncomfortable zing can certainly be avoided from the statement. However, the statement would then only partially express what I believe.
You see, whereas I believe that God builds us through crosses, I also believe God builds us for crosses. No, I don’t believe that God seeks to strip us naked, scourge us, torture us, openly mock us, and kill us. Such hellish behavior is wholly the enemy’s business. God isn’t the inventor of crosses, and he isn’t the one who wields them as an instrument of suffering and death. But our God is the One who can take this horrible device of persecution and turn it into a supernaturally charged instrument of life. He takes what the enemy means for evil and turns it to a profound good.
What was Jesus built for?
I realize that there are various things you could shout out as an answer to that question.
“He was built to demonstrate the glory of the Father!” someone might say.
“He was built to live out the human life to perfection so that we could see the perfect pattern of righteousness!” Someone else might add.
“He was built to save us from our sins.” Yet another might throw into the hopper.
All very good answers, and perfectly valid answers to my question. However, there’s something specific I’m fishing for.
Drum roll please . . .
“He was built for the Cross.”
He was built for that One great Day – that Day when the sin of the whole world would come crushing down upon His shoulders. He was built to not faint, to not falter at Gethsemane. He was built to keep standing and march forward with audacity even when betrayed to His face and abandoned by his closest friends. He was built for endurance, for long-suffering, for the awful brutality He would endure at the end of the Roman whip. He was built to go as a Lamb silent unto the shearers. He was built to succeed in the most dreadful of circumstances, the most harrowing of trials. Jesus was built for the Cross. He was built for that decisive moment. He was built to win.
What is a Navy Seal built for in training? For the ease of furlough? No – for the dread of D-Day, the shock of Omaha Beach.
A Seal is built to remain standing under the greatest physical and mental strains. He’s built to be a hero amidst the greatest difficulties when other men might fail. He’s built to come out the other side of that bomb blast in one piece.
What is a football player built for? The comforts of the off-season? No – for the pressures of the Super Bowl.
He’s built for fourth and ten with the clock running down to zero – he’s built for exploits, for the guts to show themselves when the chips are down. He’s built to get that ball into the end zone in the face of the greatest obstacles. He’s built for victory NOT defeat.
What is a Christian built for? For the sweet songs of worship amidst the congregation? For the tender words of love shared between the beloved? Yes, but there is more.
Like Jesus, a Christian is built to win. God doesn’t build his men for failure, He builds them for victory. And so He constructs his men and women out of the stuff that gets them through this life in triumph. He builds us for Gethsemane, for rejection, betrayal, slander, shame, and ridicule. He builds us to keep walking when all around us falter. He builds us to stand Athanasius Contra Mundum when everyone about us sides against the Living God. He builds us to receive the cat of nine tails without forsaking our King and without relinquishing our mission. He builds us for those two pieces of lumber ruthlessly pressed down upon our shoulders and splintering our skin with agonizing pain. He builds us for the enemy’s nails, the enemy’s pain, and the enemy’s worst. He build us to rise victorious, to remain faithful, to not cower in the season of greatest trial.
Now, to be quite honest, in some ways I’m taking a dimension of the Christian life and putting it under a magnifying glass. For, though it is true that God builds us for crosses, He also builds us for the life in-between, which might not always be made of splintery wood.
So, in all fairness, you could say, “God builds us for today!” I mean, after all, what’s the good of being built for some day way in the future, if we can’t even make it through the trials facing us today with triumph and victory? This is obviously why Jesus says, “Pick up your cross daily.” And it would also be fair to say that there is a lot more than crosses that God builds us for. For instance, “God builds us for His pleasure; God builds us to bear much fruit; God builds us to bear the image of His Son; God builds us to be holy; God builds us to worship Him; and God builds us to effervesce with overwhelming love, extraordinary joy, and indescribable peace.”
You see, the Christian life is a bit too grand to stick into one small phrase. The small phrase may be true, but it might only be a piece of an even greater truth.
So, should I have said, “God builds us for crosses?”
I think so. It’s a mighty truth, a stunning reality.
But could I have said it in such a way that didn’t cause a mental trip-up for the phraseologists out there?
Probably.
One of my beloved phraseologist friends suggested, “God prepares us for crosses.”
Hmmm. God prepares us for crosses. That’s pretty well put. It’s true, and yet, it doesn’t carry around all that unnecessary mental baggage causing people to envision God erecting crosses and crucifying His children on them.
Long and short, the grand Truth of Heaven isn’t always that easy to communicate down here in this sin-encrusted world. Words can often be trip-ups rather than tools aiding us in our efforts. However, even though we might not say it perfectly, I think we should still speak it. And if we realize we could have said it better, we simply apologize for our inadequacy, and we say it better the next time. But we live in a world that is dying for lack of Truth, so speak we must, even if our words still lack that final polish.
20
Apr
09
Love that will not let me go
This old hymn by George Matheson is a good example of the cross angle life and why we serve the Saviour.
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be
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.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
“If Jesus had been unwilling to surrender to humanity’s worst crime, humanity’s salvation would have been impossible. But at Calvary the Lord of the Earth surrendered Himself into the hands of evil men. Yet, paradoxically, no one took His life from Him. He laid it down of His own will, offered Himself to the Father, “poured out His soul unto death,” became broken bread and poured-out wine for the life of the world. We live because He died. The power of the Cross is not exemption from suffering but the very transformation of suffering.” Christianity is not a complete coverage insurance policy. Jesus suffered “not that we might not suffer,” wrote George Macdonald, “but that our sufferings might be like His” ~ Elisabeth Elliot
20
Apr
09
Three Legged Stool of Holiness
Three Legged Stool of Holiness Here is an idea I have been working on for awhile, and I am not sure I am finished with it yet. I was thinking that holiness is somewhat like a three-legged stool. The three legs would be doctrine, experience, and lifestyle. I believe that holiness must first start as a doctrine. One cannot experience God without first having the right concept of God. For instance if we believe God is a hard taskmaster, then we will experience Him as a taskmaster, even if He really is trying to show us otherwise. It is vital in any Christian experience to have a right conception of God. The same is true about holiness. When people believe in holiness as God has taught it in the Bible, then they can experience God correctly. Our experience of an encounter with the holiness of God, then changes everything about us, or our lifestyle. It is foolish to think that an encounter with the holiness of God does not change us in the way we live at all. We might me able to meet the President of the United States, and it not really effect the way we live, but not so with God. C.S. Lewis said something like we go to God like we go to the dentist. We just want a tooth pulled to alleviate the pain, when God want us to do surgery. Often we want God to fix some hurt, when He is asking to do major open heart surgery. Specifically Lewis said, “If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell.” These three element must always come in this order, or holiness is not effective. I did not mean a person must have a theological degree to experience holiness, but they do have to understand what God wants and who God is. And certainly a lifestyle of holiness with out the holiness of God indwelling is mockery and only our own righteousness. Not only do these three elements have to be in order, but they have to all be there, or we will be as useless as a three-legged stool.
11
Apr
09
The Power of the Cross
A very powerful sony by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful Good Friday.
11
Apr
09
The Shepherd’s Goal
Dear Friends,
Many months ago in our Sunday school class, a question arose: What are the duties of a shepherd? Most of the adults quickly flipped to favorite passages concerning shepherds; a slapdash discussion ensued both as to why the shepherd does what he does, as well as to the application of each of the shepherd’s duties in our lives today.
Both because we have previously owned sheep and because the discussion seemed to be heading down a somewhat predictable path, my mind ambled merrily away on its own. But instead of wandering toward thoughts of lunch and my Sunday afternoon novel, that day my mind stayed somewhat on topic as I considered what the ultimate duty of a shepherd is. Why does he work so hard to feed, water, shelter, and protect? In many cases, his goal is not merely to keep the sheep safe and contented; it is to prepare them to die.
We do our church and families a disservice when we end the discussion of a shepherd’s duties at his kindly provisions, with no mention of this additional objective. Much of what the shepherd does is in the end focused on a sheep being fully prepared to die. How much richer will our experience be, in those moments that we feel called by God to shepherd another, if we see beyond the temporal need for protection or nourishment and seize each occasion as an opportunity to prepare that child or adult for death, for eternity. If each moment of every day were considered in terms of how it is preparing us for eternity, instead of what fleeting pleasure it will allow us, would we use our time differently?
Jesus is not only our Good Shepherd; He was also the sacrificial Lamb. He knew, like we will never know, how to live in such a way that when death came He was wholly ready. This week, as we prepare to celebrate the wonder of what He did for us, we also look forward to the day when we will be united with the One who has lovingly shepherded us to the end.
His is risen indeed!
(from Timberdoodle.com)
John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” NIV
There are four keys that I found in studying this question.
1. God throughout history has taken His name very seriously. Deuteronomy 18:19,20.
2. Welcoming a person in Jesus’ name is the same as welcoming Jesus’ Himself. Matt. 18:5.
3. One reason we can ask anything in Jesus’ name is so that we may bear fruit. John 15:16.
4. This privilege is given to us in order that the Father might be glorified. John 14:13.
The Amplified Version helps to unlock the meaning further. “So that whatever you ask the Father in my name (as presenting all that I AM) He may give it to you”. In my understanding this means that we can come to the Father in the Name, or authority, of all that Jesus’ presents. In the natural realm, if I were to seek an audience with the President of the United States, my name would not mean anything. However, If i could come to him in the name, or authority, of his chief of staff, I would much more likely gain an audience with him. In the spiritual realm, we are given this privilege by praying in Jesus’ name.
