The Reason Why

January 25, 2015

"...for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me [Jesus Christ] and have believed that I came from God." John 16:27

I've been going through the book of John over the last few days. Today, that verse in chapter 16 stopped me in my tracks. I've read over it countless times, but on Good Friday 2015, I realized that Jesus Christ made clear the REASON for God's love. 

Scripture tells us that the fulness of God dwelt in the person of Jesus. That's what made Him THE Christ. Everyone did not believe that. That's what made them gather together with shouts of, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" 

Sometimes I wonder what that day was like... What did those who DID believe go home thinking? What was it like for the sky to go dark and for the earth to quake? Were there people IN the temple? How far away could the voice of Christ be heard?

Today, Christians throughout the world are remembering the day their Savior died. We are contemplating what He did and looking forward to celebrating what came next in just a few days. That Friday was good because it was a day that the glory of God was on display. Nearly two thousand years later, we haven't forgotten. 

May we praise God for making Himself known to us. May we praise Christ for taking the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin. May we praise the Holy Spirit for teaching us what He received from Christ. As we love Christ and have believed that He came from God, may we know that that is the reason for the Father's love for us. 

We go by the name "Christian" for a reason....On this, the day He died, may we pause to ponder yet another facet of exactly what He accomplished.  

 

Considering Jesus When...

On Friday I wrote about the time my vacuum cleaner taught me to consider Jesus.

Today I want to take the process of considering Jesus a little bit deeper.

Over the last few weeks the temperatures dropped where I live. The skies got dark and moody and we got a fair amount of rain. Do you know what people did? They responded IMMEDIATELY with coats and sweaters and quite a few grumbles. I noticed one woman trudging home from the post office with a slight scowl on her face and a stoop to her back and she pressed on against the weather.

Do you know what I did? I reminded myself that we are in the season that is known as summer. Because of this I can be assured that even though the temperature dropped way down and the sun has been replaced by rain, "summer" will return shortly.

Do you know why I can be sure of this?

Because of verses Daniel 2:21:

"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings..."


Now I am aware that season probably doesn't mean "winter, spring, summer, fall", but it does refer to God's reign and rule over EVERYTHING including time and "winter, spring, summer, fall".

I can be sure that summer will return in the same way that I can be sure that the sun will set tonight and rise tomorrow morning. Just like everything else, the seasons are in God's hand.

Just like the vacuum cleaner, this unexpected weather and people's reactions to it forced me to do one thing: consider Jesus. 

I could have joined the humdrum line of people going on about the weather or I could let that weather remind me that God rules and reigns.

How about a negative example? 

When I get super hungry my sin almost always comes out. I get short tempered, easily aggravated,  and rude. Those sins were all there and I gladly go through life sucking up more reasons to react that way and shoving them into the vacuum cleaner bag of my soul for later. When I get hungry I rip that bag out and sprinkle little bits of it on everyone around me. (Ask them....)

The first time I sense that sin bubbling inside of me, do you know what I should do?

Consider Jesus.

He is faithful. He calls me to be like Him and He even prays that God would make me like Him.

Even if I don't get to eat for days (which I know won't be the case), my sin needs to be submitted to Him.  I need to put off what comes naturally to me and put on what comes naturally to Him. And I can!

Do you know why I can be sure of this?

Because of Scriptures like Colossians 3:8-17:

"But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free: but Christ is all, an in all. 

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

On Friday, I mentioned that before we can ever consider Jesus we must be about the business of getting to KNOW Jesus as He really is, by means of the Bible.

He is all and He is in all of God's people and all of God's people are called to do everything in His name giving thanks to God through Him. 

When the weather is crummy. When we are hungry. When we think of telling someone off. When we grow anxious. We are called to consider Jesus.

When the weather is nice. When our soul seems clean. When we are at a table with all of our favorite people. When we think of the ones we love. When we are perfectly at peace. We are called to consider Jesus.

May we gather ourselves around God's Word in order to behold Him as He makes Himself known.

May that gathering lead us to we consider Jesus always.

Would you tell us about what God has been teaching you about who He is lately!

Would you tell us about a time you've recently considered Jesus and gave thanks to God?

A Real Problem

Writing this series has been so good for me. For the first week or so, I got up and sat down at the computer to write before the day was really started. Having a plan of what I was going to share and taking the time to sit long enough to say it was really good. 

Then, I started something else that really needed to begin during the time I was usually blogging....And then last week was CRAZY. I had stuff to deal with and on Wednesday morning, I headed out to spend a few days at my friend Heidi's. It was my first overnight visit with them since the end of July. 

We did some painting,  hauled some junk, cooked (and I mean COOKED, apple crisp, three different kinds of chinese meats and some egg rolls, breakfast pocket thingies, and I feel like I'm forgetting something), visited with everyone at the ranch, folded laundry, and got a good dose of chatting in. I also got lots of time with their kids reading stories, playing with busy bags, doing hair, and enjoying the funny things that come out of the mouth of a four year old. So many times, I just had to smile. I didn't realize how much I had been missing all of them. Needless to say, my heart was a little heavy and a little sad when it was time to head home.

And it's Tuesday. I skipped out on six days of posts, but I'm here again. Let's just say, you might be hearing some of the posts I had planned for a while. After October is over, I'll spread whatever posts I didn't get around to writing out here and there! 

*******

The last few weeks have been about understanding God's plan in creating this world and everything in it. 

We've been inspired by Isaiah where I came across these things:

A call to look and litsen.

The bigger picture of what it is we are too see and hear. 

The role of God's Word in how we are to look and listen. 

 

And now I come with some bad news....Honestly, it's the WORST news that you will ever hear. Ever. 

You and I are sinners. We are such sinners that we actually DELIGHT in sin. We cling to it, we look for it, we run to it. We find COMFORT in sin. 

It's sickening really. 

Here is the news straight from Isaiah 42:20,

"He sees many things, but does not observe them, his ears are open, but he does not hear."

Everyday we do look and we do listen. 

In our sin we see beautiful things and delight in THEM. We can't REALLY SEE...We don't see WHY they are beautiful, we don't see WHO made them, and we even mistake terribly disgusting things as things that are breathtaking. 

In our sin our ears only hear the things that are happening around us in real time. We can't REALLY HEAR...We don't hear the REASONING of what is really there, we don't hear WHOSE glory these things are proclaiming, and we even tune our ears into things that are destroying our souls. 

We are such sinners that we use our eyes and ears to feed sin rather than to kill it. 

That word OBSERVE really stuck out to me. I'm still trying to put my finger on why...I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that our culture is obsessed with pursuing meaning and influence. 

 

We dig deep, but for what? 

 

To look in a mirror and approve of what we see. 

 

To dupe people into thinking we are something that we're not. 

 

LOOK at me. LISTEN to me. 

 

Sin.

 

Today, you and I will see many things, but we will not observe them. Our eyes will be craving MORE. 

 

Today, you and I will have ears open, but we will not hear. We will still be longing to hear SOMETHING. 

 

This is reality and it's a problem. 

 

 

Click ^^^ for a list of posts in this series.