Tag Archives: hearts

Let Us Draw Near

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LET US DRAW NEAR

The Holy Spirit also testifies about this. First He says: ‘This is the covenant I will make with them, after that time,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’

Then He adds: ‘Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.’

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Heb. 10: 15-18).

With the sacrifice of Jesus, God put a full stop at the end of the prophetic sentence. Everything was complete with that one sacrifice – justice satisfied, sin atoned for, forgiven and removed as far as the east is from the west, the new covenant brought into effect, with better provisions based on better promises and mediated by a better high priest.

God was now free to put into effect what He had planned and set in motion at the beginning – a family of sons and daughters who would relate to Him as a Father and who would live with Him in intimate fellowship with nothing between us to obstruct our relationship with Him.

No longer do we need to go to the priest for instruction in God’s word, He has written it on our hearts and in our minds – not just the words but the spirit of His word, His nature, who He is and who we are in Christ. We are no longer slaves but sons, and the Spirit of sonship witnesses with our spirits that we are, indeed, sons and daughters of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8: 15-16).

The completion of Jesus’s work brings us into a new realm of living – in God’s presence – because all obstacles have been removed. We are no longer shut out by a heavy curtain beyond which we are not permitted to go. We no longer need to rely on an earthly high priest to mediate for us. We have a permanent high priest in the presence of God, who presents His own blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. We no longer have to wait for another Day of Atonement before we can receive the assurance that our sin has been forgiven for another year. Our sin has been removed – forever.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10: 19-22).

At last! This is what God has been waiting for – from the moment Adam sinned – His children restored to fellowship with Himself. What an invitation!

The Creator God of the universe, King of the nations, extends His sceptre towards us with the unconditional invitation to draw near. And yet – how few accept that invitation and truly draw near! We come with our crises; we come with our grocery lists of needs; we come with our gripes and complaints; we even come pouting, with our mistrust and suspicion, and we hope to get a reply by next week, or immediately if we need His intervention now! Is that what He means by drawing near?

David, a man who was still part of the old system, who did not know Jesus, who walked with God under the provisions of the old covenant, understood what it was like to draw near.

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple (Psa. 27: 4).

Something happens when we draw near and gaze on the beauty of the Lord. We are transformed – like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon after weeks of resting – metamorphosed into something ethereal and beautiful.

And we all who, with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3; 18).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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A New Covenant

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A NEW COVENANT

But God found fault with the people and said: ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them,’ declares the Lord.

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

By calling this covenant “new”, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear (Heb. 8: 8-13).

Why did God give His people the Mosaic covenant if He knew it wouldn’t work? It seems a futile exercise, doesn’t it?

The covenant that God entered into with His people at Mount Sinai was never intended to be His final dealings with them. It was an interim covenant which was meant to serve a specific purpose.

When Israel came out of Egypt, they had behind them a long history of life in a pagan society and slavery to a cruel and oppressive nation. It would take many generations to establish a culture into which their Messiah would be born. They had to unlearn and relearn many truths about God, themselves and their world in order to understand the nature of God, especially His holiness, His righteousness, His justice and His mercy.

The pagan gods of the Egyptians were the product of human imagination, created in the image of fallen man and often reflecting the worst of human nature. They were heartless, unpredictable and demanding. They were takers, never givers, and they certainly did not have the well-being of their worshippers at heart. Of course, behind every pagan god lay the originator of the evil that they were, Satan, their creator.

God could not simply step in and take over. It would take many generations to teach the people about Himself and to win their trust and their loyalty. How would He do it? He built it into their culture and the national and personal lives. He created a way of life for His people that reflected Him. All 613 “laws” were intended to show them how to live in harmony with Him and with one another, teaching them the nature and seriousness of sin, how to deal with sin and how to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and their neighbour as themselves.

God’s national constitution had a spinoff. It also showed up their impotence to obey God’s teachings. Instead of producing obedient children, it produced rebels. Every time God’s word said, ‘Don’t,’ they did, and every time His word said, ‘Do,’ they didn’t. This was also part of the preparation for the new covenant. Until God revealed their hearts by giving them instructions which they failed to follow, they would never realise how impossible it is to satisfy God’s perfection. They would never learn to rely on Him for the power to obey.

There had to be another way, a way which intervened so powerfully that their very hearts would be transformed. Their rebellion would need to go and be replaced by a new motive and a new internal direction. Rules did not work. They only incited rebellion. A prohibition was an invitation to break it. That’s the nature of the human being.

How would God solve this problem? It would take His divine power to overrule the natural inclination of man to go his own way. That’s what man chose in the beginning. He rejected the way of love and chose to make his own rules. Only God could restore him to what he was created to be. He needed a new covenant with new promises AND the will to obey.

That’s where Jesus stepped in. He became both mediator of, and the sacrifice that ratified God’s new covenant. But God added something else – the power of the Holy Spirit who withdrew when the first pair decided to go it alone. He is the key to the success of the new covenant. By removing sin through the sacrifice of Jesus, God could restore the Holy Spirit to the human race. He came at Pentecost to indwell and empower every believer who embraces and follows Jesus.

Jesus is the perfect fulfilment of God’s teachings. We no longer need laws and rituals. He shows us how to live as God’s beloved sons and daughters who resemble Him and reflect Him to the world. All we need to do is to watch and follow Him. He is the way. His word is in us by His Spirit, the Spirit of truth who leads us into all truth.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Dead, But Alive

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DEAD, BUT ALIVE

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3: 1-4).

The ‘elemental spirits’ of which Paul spoke still hold sway over the minds of unbelievers, ‘But,’ said Paul, ‘you have died to the ideas and beliefs and philosophies which are lies spawned by the devil to keep you in bondage.’ You have died to the demonic spirits responsible for the lies you believed, and they no longer have the power to influence your life and do to you what you believed they could do.

How sad that there are still many believers in Jesus who also believe in the power of the devil to ‘attack’ or harm them outside of God’s control! We have to make up our minds, once and for all, about who is in charge. What we believe is of vital importance because it is what or who we believe that ultimately has the control of our lives.

Jesus’s first words, after His inauguration into His public ministry at His baptism, when He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, was to announce, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is here!’ What was He saying? ‘Get your thinking straight. God is in charge!’ Prophet Isaiah had the same message for his people when the world seemed to be turning upside down for them:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ (Isaiah 52: 7)

What better news can there be in a world that seems to be spinning out of control? The solution is to believe what is true, not what seems to be true or what those who think they are in charge are claiming to be true. The only thing that will steady us in a world gone crazy, is the knowledge and assurance that God’s appointed king is on His throne.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and their rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath saying, ‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain’ (Psalm 2: 1-6).

Paul’s counsel is: ‘You know it; now believe it!’ When you watch the news on TV or read the goings on in the newspaper, screen the information through the truth – who is in charge? Set your heart and mind on the non-negotiable truth that God has raised Jesus from the dead and given Him the name and the position of highest authority (Phil. 2: 6-11). In spite of appearances, Jesus Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15: 25).

Why, then, does the world, and often our own lives, seem to be so out of line with who we know God to be? Where is the peace and joy that Jesus insisted He came to bring? What about suffering and evil? Why do bad things happen to good people? How does that line up with God being in control?

It all depends on our expectations. If we think that the real life Jesus came to bring is about living a trouble-free existence in this life, we have misunderstood His message.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world’ (John 16: 33).

We cannot expect to live a perfectly untroubled life in an imperfect world. We are surrounded by imperfection and cannot escape the consequences of Adam’s rebellion. The good news is that God uses it all, good and bad, to shape us for the real world which is still to come.

God has one overriding purpose in permitting us to be part of the suffering – the purifying of our faith, that is, bringing us to the conviction that, in spite of everything, He is in charge and He is trustworthy.  Why? Because what we believe will determine who controls our lives.

In every adversity He demands that we keep our hearts and minds steadfastly committed to the truth that He is good and that He is in charge.

These have come (all kinds of trials -1 Peter 1: 6) so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1: 7).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Will You Marry Me?

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WILL YOU MARRY ME? 

“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.'” John 14:1-4 NIV.

Such familiar words! Like the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, we learned them at our mother’s knee and heard them at every funeral we attended.

But this is not funeral talk; this is wedding talk! Wedding talk? Yes, this is part of the prospective bridegroom’s proposal and the conclusion of his courtship.

When a young Jewish couple has drawn up their ketubah, their pre-nuptial marriage contract, and signed it in the presence of their fathers, the groom would formally propose to his bride. If she agrees to marry him, and by this time, of course, she has indicated her intention to say yes, he would tell her, “I am going to my father’s house to prepare the bridal chamber.” She would reply, “When will you return?” and he would respond, “When my father is satisfied with the bridal chamber, he will send me back to take you to his house that where I am you may be also.”

This exchange would mark the beginning of the betrothal period which was as legally binding as the marriage itself. To break the engagement was regarded as divorce — hence Joseph’s dilemma when he found out that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant out of wedlock. He decided to divorce her privately rather than publicly disgrace her and risk her being stoned for infidelity.

In all the confusion of the escalating events and the disciples’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ intentions, did they catch the magnitude of what He was telling them? God (Jesus) had betrothed Israel to Himself at Mount Sinai, but they were persistently unfaithful to Him by their idolatry until He finally “divorced” them by allowing them to be sent into exile in Babylon. Now He was offering them a second opportunity to accept His marriage proposal and to be a chaste bride, unlike their forefathers, faithful to Him, their bridegroom.

The Bible is full of the imagery of a marriage to God. The Apostle Paul expressed his concern over the church at Corinth because, it seems, they did not understand the seriousness of the condition they were in. Some of them were dabbling in their old sinful ways, and he pleaded with them, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him.” 2 Corinthians 11:2 NIV.

Would they have understood that Jesus was inviting them into a relationship with Him as intimate as a marriage relationship? In the last tender moments with them before He left them for good, He wanted them to know that this was not the end of a lovely friendship. Unlike earthly friends or marriage partners who are separated when death comes His departure was to be the beginning of an association far closer and more intimate than His presence on earth with them had been.

Even if they did not understand at that moment, He was sowing the seeds of His word into their minds which the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance at a later time. Sorrow, uncertainty, apprehension, misunderstanding and confusion blocked them from making sense of what He was saying. As always, He tried to calm their fears with His reassurance, “Don’t be scared. Just trust me.”

That’s all He asks of us when stuff happens and life makes no sense. Hindsight will help us to understand but, in the meantime, Jesus encourages us as He did His disciples, “Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.” It is not easy when our whole world rocks or falls apart. Trusting Him means being still and letting Him guide us through whatever is happening. When our minds are in turmoil, we make foolish decisions out of our emotions.

Isaiah gives us a solid rock on which to stand while our world is “rocking”. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord Himself is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:3, 4. NIV.