Do You Honestly Believe That God Likes You?
The following comes from Brennan Manning’s Reflections for Ragamuffins (p. 4). It spoke to me and I hope it does to you as well.
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Several years ago, Edward Farrell, a priest from Detroit, went on a two-week summer vacation to Ireland to visit relatives. His one living uncle was about to celebrate his eightieth birthday. On the great day, Ed and his uncle got up early. It was before dawn. They took a walk along the shores of Lake Killarney and stopped to watch the sunrise. They stood side by side for a full twenty minutes and then resumed walking. Ed glanced at his uncle and saw that his face had broken into a broad smile. Ed said, “Uncle Seamus you look very happy.” ”I am.” Ed asked, “How come?” And his uncle replied, “The Father of Jesus is very fond of me.”
If the question were put to you, “Do you honestly believe that God likes you?” – not loves you because theologically he must – how would you answer? God loves by necessity of his nature; without the eternal, interior generation of love, he would cease to be God. But if you could answer, “The Father is very fond of me,” there would come a relaxedness, a serenity, and a compassionate attitude toward yourself that is a reflection of God’s own tenderness. In Isaiah 49:15, God says: “Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you” (JB).
God Alone
Psalm 62:1-2 says, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”
Throughout that Psalm, David tells us that there is only one place we can go where our frantic hearts can experience the rest it so desperately needs, and that place is God alone. This morning, a friend of mine named Don Brothers sent me the following hymn that so wonderfully describes this place of rest.
The following hymn was written by Gerhard Tersteegen, 18th century German reformed pastor.
Allured into the desert, with God alone, apart,
There spirit meeteth spirit, there speaketh heart to heart.
Far, far on that untrodden shore, God’s secret place I find,
Alone I pass the golden door, the dearest left behind.There God and I–none other; oh far from men to be!
Nay, midst the crowd and tumult, still, Lord, alone with Thee.
Still folded close upon Thy breast, in field, and mart, and street,
Untroubled in that perfect rest, that isolation sweet.O God, Thou art far other than men have dreamed and taught,
Unspoken in all language, unpictured in all thought.
Thou God art God–he only learns what that great Name must be,
Whose raptured heart within him burns, because he walks with Thee.Stilled by that wondrous Presence, that tenderest embrace,
The years of longing over, do we behold Thy Face;
We seek no more than Thou hast given, we ask no vision fair,
Thy precious Blood has opened Heaven, and we have found Thee there.O weary souls, draw near Him; to you I can but bring
One drop of that great ocean, one blossom of that spring;
Sealed with His kiss, my lips are dumb, my soul with awe is still;
Let him that is athirst but come, and freely drink his fill.
Have You Ever Been Punched In The Face?
HT: Chris Kritsas
The amount which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances. If you grasp what a treasure the presence and acceptance of God are, then even when life goes really wrong you will have a joy that sustains you, because you’ll recognize the value of what you have in Him. When life punches you in the face, you’ll say, ‘But I still have the love and acceptance of God, a treasure I don’t deserve.’ And the joy you find in that treasure can make you rejoice even when you have a bloody nose. You have a joy that death and deprivation cannot touch.
— J. D. Greear
Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary
(Nashville, Tn.: B & H Publishing, 2011), 81
52 Paid Vacation Days!
HT: Ray Ortlund (Tuesday Night Men’s Group @ Immanuel)
Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
If someone told you there was a way to glorify and enjoy God, slow down your jam-packed, over-committed pace of life, renew your family and friendships, engage in random acts of kindness, take a deep breath, think about the most worthy and exciting things in the universe, stop and smell the roses, take an afternoon nap – all at absolutely no charge, not counting against the number of annual vacation days at work, you’d want to know more about it. Well, here it is. Not the Sabbath, but The Lord’s Day.
If we remember to make Jesus a priority in our schedules for one whole year, one day per week, then by one year from today we will have enjoyed 52 days, seven and a half weeks, of paid vacation with Jesus and his people! You kiddin’me?!?
Surface Needs vs. Ultimate Need
The following comes from Michael Card’s A Sacred Sorrow (p. 127-29):
“And they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us” (Matt. 1:23, NIV). We saw earlier that the ultimate answer to all laments is not to be found in the specifics of what is lamented for. The true answer for a lament of disease is not ultimately a cure. The real solution for a lament of financial distress is never simply money. The answer is always found in the Presence of God. It is rarely what we ask for, but it is always what we ultimately need.
The coming of Immanuel, “God with us,” must be understood as the Father’s answer to ages of expectant laments. But God did not send the Messiah as the sort of solution everyone expected. They wanted someone who would kill the Romans. Jesus, instead died for the Romans. They wanted someone who would give them answers. Jesus gave them Himself. What else but His Presence could have perfectly answered all our deepest needs? For though we could have never imagined it, what we thought we needed, solutions for the problems that caused our pain, would have never fixed the problem.
Lament is the path that takes us to the place where we discover that there is no complete answer to pain and suffering, only Presence. The language of lament gives a meaningful form to our grief by providing a vocabulary for our suffering and then offering it to God as worship. Our questions and complaints will never find individual answers (even as Job’s questions were never fully answered). The only Answer is the dangerous, disturbing, comforting Presence, which is the true answer to all our questions and hopes.
The Gospel is Distinct from Our Response to It
The following comes from Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan (p. 81-83). I found these quotes to be particularly helpful as it reminds us that the gospel is not our response to the gospel. I think that we often confuse the gospel (what Christ did for us and who he is for us) with a proper response to the gospel (belief, faith, confession, etc.). May we lift up Christ repeatedly, showing to one another and the world his beauty. As we increasingly see him, we will fall more and more in love with him and act accordingly.
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The main message of the Bible about Jesus Christ can easily become mixed with all sorts of things that are related to it. We see this in the way people define the gospel or preach it. But it is important to keep the gospel itself clearly distinct from our response to it or from the results of it in our lives and in the world. If our proper response to the gospel message is faith, then we should not make faith part of the gospel itself. It would be absurd to call people to have faith in faith! While the new birth bears a close relationship to faith in Christ, it is a mistake to speak of the new birth as if it were itself the gospel. Faith in the new birth as such will not save us…
Related to the gospel event are other important aspects of God’s work which are not themselves the gospel. If we believe the gospel we will probably also believe these, but they are not the focus of our trust the way that the saving work of Jesus is. We do not preach them as the heart of our message to unbelievers….
We note that what you or I do in response to the gospel is not itself the gospel. You cannot say that repentance and faith are the gospel. They are what the Holy Spirit enables us to do about the gospel. If you tell unbelievers that they should trust Christ, believe the good news, or confess their sin, these things are undoubtedly true, but they are not the gospel. We must tell them what it is about Christ that they should trust, what the good news is so that they can believe it and why sins should be confessed.
On Mine Arm They Shall Trust
The following comes from Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning (per Aug. 31st):
“On mine arm shall they trust.” – Isaiah 49:5…..In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God, and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless, that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles, so pressing and so peculiar that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in Him. Dishonor not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; But be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness and when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in thy weakness, and magnify His might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you rest in Jesus this day.
Stay on the Anvil
The following post by Ray Ortlund was very encouraging to me. If you are experiencing suffering or are trying to make sense of past suffering, I hope that you will find this encouraging as well.
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When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into shapes and forms of clay
Which only God can understand.
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes
How He uses whom He chooses
And with mighty power infuses him
With every act induces him
To try His splendor out –
God knows what He’s about.
Author unknown.
He Will Certainly Satisfy Those Longings
The following comes from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning (Per August 22nd). I read this last night per the prompting of my wife, and the Spirit accompanied these words as I read. I hunger for Christ, I long for Him, and upon reading these words last night I was filled with joy that this hunger and longing will certainly be satisfied. I hope that you will experience this as well.
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“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”
Song of Solomon 5:8
Such is the language of the believer panting after present fellowship with Jesus, he is sick for his Lord. Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from him they lose their peace. The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus. What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us. What bread is to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us; and, therefore, if we are not consciously one with him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the words of the Song, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love.” This earnest longing after Jesus has a blessing attending it: “Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness”; and therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One. Blessed is that hunger, since it comes from God: if I may not have the full-blown blessedness of being filled, I would seek the same blessedness in its sweet bud-pining in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ. If I may not feed on Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after him. There is a hallowedness about that hunger, since it sparkles among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing involves a promise. Such hungry ones “shall be filled” with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after himself, he will certainly satisfy those longings; and when he does come to us, as come he will, oh, how sweet it will be!
