Tag Archives: God

Chips Off The Old Block

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CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK 

“‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered.’If you were Abraham’s children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.’

“‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested.’The only father we have is God Himself.'” John 8:39-41 (NIV).

These were men who, a few verses back were said to have believed in Jesus. Yet here they were still scheming to kill Jesus.

They prided themselves on being the descendants of Abraham and they even went as far as claiming God as their Father. But so did Jesus. So who was telling the truth? They could not both be descendants of Abraham since the fruit of their lives was so vastly different.

The Apostle Paul argued that the real children of Abraham are those who did what he did, not those who were his natural descendants. What did Abraham do? “What does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.'” Romans 4:3 (NIV).

“It was not through the Law that Abraham and his offspring received that promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. Therefore the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” Romans 4:16 (NIV).

“Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7 (NIV).

It is clear that the argument of these religious leaders held no water because their attitude and the intentions negated their claim to be the descendants of Abraham. Their snide retort, ‘We are not illegitimate children,’ was a backhanded slap in the face of Jesus. Were they insinuating that He was illegitimate because Joseph was not His Father? Once again their assumptions led them into dangerously false allegations.

What of those who claim descent from Abraham but who hate and murder believers in Jesus in the name of their god. Do they not fall into the same category as these men who were contending that they were Abraham’s offspring yet they were planning to kill Jesus?

How important it is that we take the words of Jesus seriously! No matter what claims we may make, they are of no consequence if they are not backed up by fact. Our churches are full of people who believe that they are sons and daughters of God, yet they are no different from the people in the world. Signing a decision card or answering an altar call do not constitute a good enough reason for assuming that we are now children of God.

The real test is: Who do we resemble? The true children of God are those who resemble Him in their attitudes and behaviour. Jesus is God with a face. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” He told Philip. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word.” Hebrews 1:3 (NIV).

We can sum up the character of Jesus in two words — merciful and generous. The true followers of Jesus are those who obey Him. “If you love me, (you will) keep my commandments.” John 14:15. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 (NIV).

These so-called believers in Jesus just didn’t get it. Do you?

God-Killers

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GOD KILLERS 

“For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” John 5:18 (NIV).

Did these religious leaders also look forward to the coming of the Messiah? Judging by their attitude to Jesus, I think not. Jesus’ disciples certainly anticipated His coming even though their idea of what He would do completely missed the mark. They thought He was coming to deliver them from Roman domination and set up His kingdom in Israel to revive David’s rule.

It does not seem like the Pharisees had even that hope. They were in cahoots with the Romans and had altogether too cushy a life to want it to be disturbed by anyone claiming to be God’s Messiah. The idea that He was actually the Son of God outraged them and sowed murderous thoughts in their minds. This man had to be silenced before He made too many waves among the Romans and among the people.

“Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed…'” John 5:19-20 (NIV).

We can be very grateful for the altercations Jesus had with the Pharisees because we learn more about Him and His relationship with the Father from these than we do from any other source in the gospels. He speaks here of an intimacy and a unity with the Father that gives us a glimpse into the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. Later on during another argument with His opponents He said, ‘I and the Father are one.’

There are sects that deny the Trinity because they do not understand the nature of the Trinity. Jesus was not claiming to be a god. He was hinting at the heart of the Trinity – three persons who are one in nature and essence and in perfect unity with one another. There are false religions that deny that God had a Son because they do not understand the nature of His sonship either.

As the Father’s representative on earth, Jesus perfectly mirrored the Father in His nature and perfectly revealed the Father in His work. His religious opponents could not get their head around the compassion Jesus showed to people, especially those whom religion despised and ostracized because they did not measure up to their standards according to the god they had created and worshipped.

Their god put people into categories like “sinners” and “prostitutes” and “lepers” and “tax-collectors”. They did not mix with people like that because they were “holy” in their own eyes, not separate from sin but separated from the ones they despised and categorized as “sinners”.

Instead of being drawn to Jesus because of His mercy, they were repulsed by Him because He showed up their wicked hearts and they were not prepared to change. They loved their status and the power it gave them to manipulate people too much to recognize who He really was.

This was the nature and depth of their sin compared with the “sinners” they so despised. It touched the core of who they really were and triggered a hatred for the God they were supposed to be representing. They targeted Jesus for extermination. This is what the Bible defines as “envy”. Envy is not another word for jealousy. It goes much deeper than that. Envy hates the goodness in another person so much that it is willing to kill to get rid of that goodness.

“For he (Pilate) knew that it was for envy that they handed Jesus over to them,” Matthew 27:18 (NIV).

This envy began to chew at them when the compassion of Jesus showed up their callous indifference to the suffering of others and exposed the false religion they paraded as godliness which alienated them from the very people of which they were supposed to be a part.

We are constantly being called on to take a stand. Are we part of those who put people into categories or are we just members of the human race who need the grace and compassion of Jesus to forgive and make us whole?

Afraid Of What?

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AFRAID OF WHAT? 

“‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.

“‘Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.'” John 3:16-19 (NIV).

Strange that Jesus almost sounds as though He were a preacher preaching a sermon instead of the Son of God speaking about Himself — the simplest, most well-known and well-loved, yet profoundest words in the Bible!

These words are so simple that a child can understand them. “God loved the world so much that He gave His Son…”

Why did God give His Son? The world was in darkness. What is darkness? We’ve already spoken about John’s use of “darkness”. Adam’s choice to go it alone instead of submitting to God’s authority and doing life God’s way, brought the whole world into disrepair, messed up and falling apart. God had other plans for His creation, plans for everything, including people, to work together in perfect harmony with Him but instead, darkness…

The result was condemnation. God passed sentence on His creation; not just people but everything; the natural world and even the heavens come under the hammer — guilty, condemned and sentenced to death. We see the sad result everywhere.

But God had a solution — Jesus. He sent His Son to fix everything that was broken. How did He do that? He showed us what the Father is like and what a true son is like and then threw down the gauntlet to the devil, ‘Do your worst and I’ll take it. I’ll release my creation from the curse of their choice. Let’s see what darkness can do.’

Darkness did its worst but Jesus bounced back. There was no darkness in Him and darkness could not hold him captive. The Prince of Darkness did his worst through the darkness in people but it was not strong enough to snuff out the Light. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, darkness was overcome and He could offer pardon and peace to anyone who comes to Him.

No condemnation! That’s what Paul said. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NIV). They came to the Light, believed in the Light and shed their guilt, shame and fear — forever. God’s verdict is now, “Not guilty; cased dismissed.” Every case the devil brings to Him for judgment is thrown out of court. There is no case because the debt has already been paid.

But there is a peculiar twist to the tale — there are people who actually refuse to accept the verdict — not guilty — and prefer to carry on with the trial and accept a guilty verdict and the sentence that goes with it. Why? How can they be so perverse?

There is only one reason. They love their filthy, twisted, selfish, perverse lives so much that they would rather go to jail than come clean and be set free. It’s okay to enjoy your sin while you can and get away with it but you have to live with the consequences afterwards. That’s one of the problems. People deliberately ignore the “afterwards” bit.

Come on now, let’s be real. What keeps people in darkness? “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” John 3:20 (NIV). There it is! The oldest reason in the Book. Adam hid from God because he was afraid. People hide from God because they are afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of being found out. And when they are found out, they will be punished, so they think.

But wait a minute. Didn’t we say that Jesus has already been punished? No condemnation? So what’s the problem? They either don’t know or they don’t believe. “God so loved the world…” a love so big and so unfathomable that it sounds too good to be true. But it is true.

Listen to this one: “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love.”1 John 4:18 (NLT).

 

But there is also hope. “‘But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.'” John 3:21, 22 (NIV).

The Real Test

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THE REAL TEST 

“Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus.’Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?’ He answered, ‘What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?’

“He said, ‘That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence — and that you love your neighbour as well as you do yourself.’

‘”Good answer!’ said Jesus.’Do it and you’ll live.'” Luke 10:25-28 (The Message).

I think Jesus got it all wrong! Aren’t we supposed to accept Him as our personal Saviour and then we’ll go to heaven when we die?

But that’s not what the man asked Him, not what to do to get to heaven but what to do to inherit eternal life. But aren’t they the same thing? Apparently not, according to Jesus.

According to the Bible, whatever we would like to believe, the moment we are conceived we have human life and that life will never end. We live the first phase of it on earth in an imperfect world and among imperfect people. We have been given free will as part of the package of being human and that means that we have choices to make and we have to take responsibility for our choices. Our choices also have consequences which affect our lives and the lives of the people we interact with every day.

Our natural bent is doing our own thing, to be greedy and selfish and to hate God because we fear the consequences of our rebellion. Why? Because Satan lied to the first pair and lured them into disobedience with false promises. Now we live in the shadow of Adam’s foolish choice!

But God didn’t create us to live like that. He created the universe, the earth and everything on it to live together in peace and harmony as a reflection of His nature. In order to fulfil His dream He wanted us to choose to love Him and to obey Him because of our love for Him. But the devil had other ideas…and we live in the result.

But God was not put off. In fact He used these very circumstances to reveal one of the most beautiful aspects of His nature — what the Bible calls “what is heaviest in Him — His mercy.” Because of His mercy, He sent Jesus to show us what He is really like and to pay the debt of sin we owe Him. He took the punishment for our sin on Himself by sacrificing His life for us so that He could bring us back to the Father.

Because He has done away with the reason for our antagonism, God gives us the opportunity to return to Him and to submit ourselves to His authority. Amazingly, when we do that, He reciprocates by giving us His Holy Spirit to live in us. He replaces our old alienation with a new attitude and disposition.  Rebellion gone, we are now able to love Him and to express that love by the way we treat our fellow human beings.

This is what Jesus means by “life”, not endless physical existence but an exuberant life that embraces all people as family and cares more about them than about ourselves. In the environment of God, where nothing out of character with God can exist, everything that does not reflect Him gets pruned off. This is the process we go through as we serve out our apprenticeship in this life.

Eternal life does not begin when we die. It is God’s gift to those who choose to return to His original plan to have a family living together in harmony with Him and with one another in unselfish caring and generosity. This is the evidence that we are truly His family, living life His way here and now. Death is merely the completion of our apprenticeship and the beginning of participation with Him in His forever family in His presence.

Are you someone who had “accepted Jesus” and think you have eternal life or are you really living by loving Him and His children?

That’s the real test!

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Two

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DAY TWENTY TWO

 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the very nature God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,

but made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death –

even death on a cross !

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

This poem gives us a picture of Jesus full-face; both God and man.  Imagine God, creator, owner and ruler of the universe, choosing to become nobody so that you and I can become somebody!  Get a hold of that!