Father, thank you for having a plan for my life before I was even born.
Thank you for being at work in every unseen detail of my life.
I am so grateful that I get to go through life with you alongside me.
Please show me how you are shaping my life for your glory and my good.
Help me to become an active participant in Your Kingdom.
I ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen
This is how Aslam the lion is described by C S Lewis, and is the allegorical description of Jesus.
Along with, hopefully, all other born-again believers, I want to experience a closer relationship with this God whom I worship, but do I know what that means? Really?
In human terms, "a closer relationship" brings to mind a pleasant experience of love, affection, a sharing of hopes and desires, maybe a physical closeness depending on the type of relationship. But who is this God we seek to approach? In asking the question I don't claim to have all the answers, but having recently read through the first few books of the Old Testament I feel the need for caution.
In the New Testament we find Jesus who is God and who is
approachable. We read passages about love, affection, peace, joy, healing,
provision, freedom from worry, salvation for all without cost - all very
attractive reasons for choosing this god over others who demand more. To our
western thinking where the individual is key, where prosperity and ease are the
goals, we can distort the true nature of God by concentrating only on the
"nice bits"
Adam and Eve met the God who banished them from paradise for eating the wrong fruit. Noah met the God who wiped out the worlds population to start again with a faithful family. Moses met the God who spoke out of burning bushes, delivered plagues to Egypt, shielded Moses in the cleft of a rock so that he wouldn't fry Moses as he passes by, the god who caused the earth to open and swallow thousands of Israelites, the God who commanded rituals, blood sacrifices, glorious tabernacles, who gave detailed laws on who could approach and how it was to be done ........ I could go on but this God doesn't seem very cuddly!
We must learn about and try to understand this side of
the nature of God before we can appreciate the enormity of what Jesus has done
for us. Unless we grasp the eternal gulf that is between sinful man and the
perfect, holy God we will never really appreciate that from which we are saved.
Unless we take on board the fact that we are entering His eternal kingdom and
not that He is simply bowing down to ours we will get stuck in some sort of
distorted prosperity gospel.
Let us be careful to approach Him as He has revealed
Himself, and not invent our own God from the best bits as we see them.
The phrase "freedom in bondage (slaves) to Christ" appeared in something I read recently. For those who've been around church for a while, this might make sense but to many it will seem confusing, even a bit daft. You'd think the terms "free" and "slaves" don't belong together.
Definition of a slave: (i)A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another and forced to provide unpaid labour. (ii)A person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.
I felt the need to sit and consider this matter further, to be able to break this phrase down into something which might make more sense.
So the word "slave" generally has negative connotations in the usually accepted sense since it implies coercion. However the quality of life of a slave necessarily depends on the character of the owner. Let's ask a few questions about being a slave to Christ. .
Q: If I am a slave, who owns me?
A: Jesus
Q: There is a cost to buying a slave - what did I cost?
A: He paid with His life - nothing else was valuable enough.
Q: Why did He do that?
A: Because He has loved me since before time began
Q: Again, Why?
A: Because otherwise my sin would condemn me to death unless the penalty, price, cost was paid. Jesus paid for that - a life for a life, so that I can spend eternity with him. (Another strange concept - He died, yet lives for ever. The tomb was empty because He had risen)
Q: So He says He owns me - what if I don't want to be owned by anyone but myself?
A: That's where the freedom bit comes in - despite the fact that I cost Him His life, He still allows me to choose whether or not to submit to that, whether or not to accept that I belong to Him.
Q: If I decide that it's OK for Jesus to own me, is there then a set of rules to obey? And what's the punishment for not obeying?
A: The only rules Jesus ever said were (i) that we love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and (ii) that we love our neighbour as ourselves. There is no direct penalty for failing, only that we move ourselves out of close fellowship with Him. We only need to repent and turn back to find Him waiting for us.
Q: What are the benefits for me here and now?
A: Freedom! Freedom from the enemy of our souls (Satan), freedom from the bondage of sin, freedom to be who I am created to be.
So I conclude that I am bought with the blood of Jesus who sacrificed Himself to purchase my freedom - before that I was a slave to the prince of this world (Satan) whether or not I was aware of that fact. There is no middle ground. It's one or the other. Denying the existence of God and of Satan doesn't make either of them go away. Because of what He did, Jesus technically owns me but leaves me free to choose whether or not to submit to that fact.
As for me, I chose Him a long time ago and have never regretted it. I look forward to spending eternity in the presence of my Lord, Master, Saviour, Brother, Friend - starting now
Micah 6:8 "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God".
I thought of this verse whilst meditating on the Verse of the Day from my phone app. The verse was 1 Peter 5:6
"If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands".
These verses demand some self-examination regarding our attitude towards God. For example, how often have we prayed,"God, if you will do.......... for me, then I will ............" (You can fill in the blanks).
Please know that our Sovereign Lord, gracious, merciful and loving God does not perform for favours. Oh we might dress it up as laying out a fleece (as in Giddeon), or looking for guidance, but let us be very careful we are not trying to bargain with God.
Another worldly thought that can result in a creeping resentment towards God might be, "God I've been really good at/faithful in.........so surely I deserve ..............When do I get my reward?"
We must be very careful to understand that our salvation is through Jesus alone, His death in our place, His resurrection and His eventual return. We can do nothing to earn it, God can't love us anymore than He does. It doesn't depend on what we do or don't do. Our service to Him must be as a response to His love for us, not a means of earning it. But oh how the world's way of thinking creeps in if we're not careful!
How about this one:"My leadership team doesn't recognise me for all the hard work I put in. Why hasn't God prompted them to elevate me to a higher position? Are they not listening to Him?"
Jesus talked often of obedience, and the verse from Micah sums that up. What God desires from us is humble obedience to Him, and that we share His love, mercy and grace with those around us. Not so we gain reward, not as a tit-for-tat bargain.
Though things might be difficult for us at present we have the promise that He will lift us up at the right time. Sometimes there is stuff we must endure - if it's not through our own disobedience, it will be to strengthen and refine us.
We have the promised Holy Spirit within us - the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! He will never leave us or forsake us, we are not abandoned or unrecognised in His Kingdom. He knows what we need, where we often only know what we want. He is faithful, trustworthy, compassionate, all-seeing, all-knowing, eternally loving.
So let us make sure to check our response to Him.
Have a blessed day. 💖
Jesus
Thank you for overcoming the world. Because of that we can experience unity with you, and because we can be unified with you we can experience unity with eachother - in fact, you command it.
It is by you that all things hold together. As we seek to centre or lives around you, help us to see all the ways you are at work in the world.
Draw us close to your heart so that we begin to see others the way you see them, so that we look out for their interests above our own.
We want your Kingdom to come here on earth as it is in Heaven, so we pray you will unite us in purpose so that nothing prevents people searching for you and believing in you. May we know such unity that the world will know you sent us and that we love them unconditionally, as you do.
Come Lord Jesus and do in our lives what only you can do.
Amen
Do you ever watch people sitting around a table engaged in conversation? Do you notice the way they unconsciously mimic each other’s posture? This is just a minor example of how we become like those with whom we pass the time of day. During our lifetime among family and friends we pick up mannerisms, habits, patterns of speech and ideologies without even knowing.
To live with Jesus means having God in the person of the Holy Spirit as a constant companion, a friend, always there to talk to, always there to help, guide, comfort, support, encourage, empower, and to correct. Then sometimes we just need to simply BE with him.
On the other hand, Psalm 1:1
reminds us: “Blessed is the one who does not walk with the wicked or stand
with sinners or sit in the company of mockers”.
“May grace and peace cascade over
you as you live in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2)
My thoughts have been taken up recently by studied in Peter's 2nd letter, chapter 1.
It's around 65AD, he's in prison and facing execution for his faith, but still he writes to the Hebrew believers (Paul's mission was to the Gentiles, Peter's more to the Hebrews) about the precious faith given to us as Christians when we come to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Precious faith - a gift from God.
If something is precious we nurture it, care for it, don't let it out of our sight, protect it.
Peter talks about how to do this. He instruct us to make every effort to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love - suggesting we add them in a cumulative way, starting with goodness and working through until we get to love.
This all suggests that we can't rely on Agape love (God's sort of love) being a feeling. We can't sit around until we feel like doing the right thing. We can't treat others according to whether or no we like them. We can't expect to know about God unless we study His Word.
Why do we do this? Is there any help or do we sink or swim by our own efforts?
We read in this chapter that:
Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. As a result of this, he has given you magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature, by which you have escaped the corrupt desires that are of the world.
But we still must make the effort as Peter says' "Because of all this make every effort..........."
We have a precious faith given to us freely by our incredible, awesome God. Let us not waste it.
I close with the blessing:
May grace and perfect peace cascade over you as you live in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
