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5/19/2012
I pray that the Lord will listen when you are in trouble, and that the God of Jacob will keep you safe. Psalm 20:1 (CEV)
There are times in our lives when we feel completely alone and overwhelmed with the battle before us. The uncertainty of the future and the rugged trail of the present seem to keep us from making any headway at all on the journey.
Sometimes, in the midst of the turmoil, there are no easy answers. Sometimes when life seems at its lowest, there are no clearly defined routes to victory; no words of comfort. During those times it’s nice just to have someone to listen to us. We don’t need solutions (although they’d be nice). We don’t need sympathy or advice. We’d just like to know we are heard. We’d just like to be assured that our thoughts, the deep feelings of the heart are being listened to without judgment.
Other times, listening isn’t enough. We need a defender. We need someone who will come to our aid and fight the battle for us. Our strength is gone, our will to continue is waning, and our hope of victory is dim.
It’s as though the battles we fight are two-fold. One the one hand attacks come from within, from the depths of our very soul. Doubts about our faith seep like cancer into the very sinew of our being. Questions of our worth and value linger in the corners of our minds. Accusations and our past haunt us.
On the other hand, we are in danger physically. Financial woes keep us trapped. Family and relational stress weaken out resolve to even try to reconcile. Health and old age remind us that some of our dreams are no longer accessible.
It’s during these times that the God of Jacob comes to our aid. Jacob, the man who wrestled with God and refused to give up until he was blessed. His blessing carried with it a limp for the rest of his life. A reminder that his battle was huge, but he won. A reminder that his God was a God you could get down and wrestle with over the issues of life.
Jacob, the man who approached a brother that tried to kill him. Jacob was vastly outnumbered. Esau was powerful and heavily armed. Jacobs’s strength that day wasn’t his own; it was the strength of his God.
The Psalmist reminds us in his prayer that we have a God that will listen to our deepest longings and struggles. We are loved passionately by a God who honors those of us who would dare ‘wrestle with him’ into the dark hours of the night. We are protected by a God who put his very life on a cross to guarantee our eternal protection.
Today, whatever trial you face, may you know that the God of Jacob is with you to listen, to protect and most of all to forgive.
PRAYER: Lord I thank you today that you listen to me in my hour of need. I praise you for the protection you offer in my time of physical and emotional danger. Help me to be ever aware of your presence today as I travel this journey. Amen.
“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Luke 7:47 NLT
It was a small, intimate gathering. Jesus was invited to a gathering of all the influential people. How do I know that? Pharisees didn’t hang out with low-life, unless of course they could get some personal gain from it. They were educated, spiritual and men of integrity. Men of integrity didn’t associate with people of ill-repute.
Jesus had just raised a young man from the dead and the little town of Nain must have been all abuzz about the event. It’s no wonder then that the Pharisee would take this opportunity to have Jesus over for a meal. Never hurts to draw a little attention to yourself at the expense of a famous person.
Everything was going fine until ‘she’ showed up. We don’t know her name, but no doubt the townsfolk did. She had a ‘reputation’. The men all knew who she was, the ones that would admit it anyway.
We really shouldn’t be too hard on Mr. Pharisee though. We are all guilty of looking down on people who don’t ‘hold to the same standards’ we hold to. Perhaps that’s the problem. Too often we measure other people’s actions, transgressions and evil choices by our standards and not God’s. Oh, don’t get me wrong. We SAY they are God’s standards, but often our vision is skewed. If we measure everyone’s actions by God’s standards we will realize that we all fall shamefully short of his glory.
The woman who bowed at Jesus’ feet didn’t care about how others felt about her. She only cared about how Jesus felt about her. Something in his demeanor, his words, the look in her eyes spoke love, forgiveness and acceptance.
The Pharisee, on the other hand, didn’t see those things in Jesus. Why? He never got a grasp of his own sin. Those who clearly see their own sin are more aware of their forgiveness. Why? It’s not that we are forgiven less but we won’t feel forgiven until we see ourselves for who we really are. When we fail to see our own sin we bear the huge burden of not being able to forgive others.
One writer wrote, “A man’s love to God will be in proportion to the obligation he “feels” to him for forgiveness” The woman felt God’s love much more than the Pharisee because she was well aware of the huge amount of forgiveness she’d been given.
If you struggle with forgiveness of those who have hurt you, I encourage you to take some time to examine your own life. Forgiving others who have hurt you doesn’t mean you trust them, it means you release yourself from their pain.
If you are struggling under the watchful eye of your own personal Pharisees, look beyond them to the loving, forgiving, accepting eyes of Jesus Christ. He didn’t come to judge you. He came to free you.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ. I confess to you that I’m a sinner. I am so aware of the sins of others I’ve not noticed mine, until now. I’m tired of the looks of judgment that come my way. I pray that you would free me from my guilt and empower me to show others the same love you have shown me. Amen.
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split Matthew 27:50-51 (NIV)
Murder: the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.
I used to think that Jesus Christ was murdered by an angry mob until I read Matthew 27 again for the millionth time.
Two things came to my mind about that whole situation. The second one first (in order to confuse you) was how traumatic the death of Jesus was. The curtain in the temple was sixty feet long and thirty feet wide! All woven of one piece and not a seam to be found it must have been a sight to behold.
‘The curtain’ served as the final division between man and God. Behind it was the holiest of all places, where God himself dwelt. The High priest was allowed behind the curtain once a year to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of his people and himself. The only way to God, essentially, was through the priest.
Just outside the temple, perhaps within view, a lonely hillside held three crosses and a small gathering of people who’d come to mourn, to celebrate or just to watch the show and jeer at the criminals hanging there.
When the guy in the middle died, the result was something like noone had ever seen. As he breathed his last there was a tremendous earthquake to add to the ominous dark sky. Rocks split in two from the force of the action.
Meanwhile inside the temple as the priests celebrated their victory over some itinerant preacher fromGalileethe temple shook and the curtain split in two from top to bottom! Can you imagine the reaction of those in the building! No one had ever seen the holiest of all places. Some may have covered their eyes in fear (as if dark skies at midday and earthquakes weren’t enough). Tradition says that he priests hastily tried to patch the curtain (wonder if they had duct tape back then?)
That action was extremely symbolic because now, because of Jesus, direct access to God was completed. The devout Jews continued to worship as though access to God was restricted. They continued to believe that the only way to truly learn from God was through a priest, a tradition that has lasted through the centuries. But Jesus’ death put an end to that. To say a priest or pastor or missionary is closer to God because of position is like saying you are closer to the planet Mars because you are taller than I?
Closeness to God isn’t because of position, it’s because of passion.
Then, there’s the issue of Jesus’ murder. As I read that passage again, I asked myself, is it murder when you willingly let someone kill you? After all, Jesus didn’t need to die that day. The same power that tore the curtain and split the rocks could have saved him at the bat of an eyelash.
So, I looked up the definition of murder. Murder is, according to Webster, a crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.
Was Jesus murdered? According to Webster he was. He meets the qualifications. Jesus was innocent of all charges, yet he died for your sin. Nothing you have done of ever will do could have gotten you through that curtain in theTemple. Nothing you can do will ever separate you from God’s forgiveness through Jesus.
Was his killing an act of planning and malice and cunning? Yes, although the priests thought their plan worked, the plan for Jesus to die was planned years earlier. They were simply pawns in God’s plan to finally bring us home, to tear that curtain in half.
Jesus was murdered by his own will so you can choose. He died so you could live. He conquered death so you could have eternal life.
PRAYER; Lord Jesus, once again I’m reminded of your sacrifice of love for me and the power you have to bring us to the Father. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for removing the curtain so I can find God. Amen.
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. Psalm 19:13 (NIV)
Tucked away in the book of Daniel is a little phrase that to this day haunts me. Daniel is interpreting the handwriting on the wall to King Beltashazzar (Daniel 5). He reminds the King of the lessons his father, Nebuchadnezzar, learned about acknowledging God as being the one true God. He reminded him of the lesson his father learned about worshipping the God of Heaven and not the god of silver and gold. Then comes the statement in Daniel 5:22 (my paraphrase): “But you knew better.”
The lesson? Nebuchadnezzar worshipped false gods because of ignorance. Beltashazzar worshipped false gods because he wanted to. He chose what to worship in full knowledge of the lessons his father learned.
The passage would imply that God’s judgment is harsher on those who sin willfully than it is on those who go astray on their own volition. Nebuchadnezzar was removed temporarily from this throne for his ignorance. Beltashazzar was killed for his rebellion.
Choosing to sin when we know better is nothing new of course. Eve knew better, as did Abraham, Moses, David and, well, those of us who call ourselves Christ followers. We all can identify with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7. The good things we long to do, we fail to do. The bad things we hate doing, we keep doing over and over again. There is small relief for us when the writer that says (1 Corinthians 10:13) there is no temptation that attacks us that we can’t overcome is the same person who writes of his struggle to overcome temptation. But the question is, why? What is it within our human nature that keeps us from doing right?
Willful sin attacks us for several reasons. I list a few here. You may be able to think of others. We sin willfully:
- Because it is fun! We may not want to admit that on the surface, but the reality is we choose intentionally to do things we know we shouldn’t because we’d rather trade momentary pleasure for eternal peace.
- For self-preservation. When our identity is attacked or we perceive it is, we react to protect it. Why do we react to being cut off on the interstate or when someone attacks us verbally or gives us bad service at the coffee shop? Because their actions tell us we aren’t important and we react accordingly.
- Pride: Pride could actually be the summary of all these reasons, but the pride I’m talking about here is the pride that tells us, “I deserve this little ‘vice’ because I work hard; I’m a good parent; I do so many good things for God; etc, etc. So we visit the websites we know we shouldn’t; we tell our friends one little piece of gossip; we allow ourselves the indulgences we know hurt our relationship with Christ because all of us deserve an occasional lapse in judgment.
- Ignorance: When we follow Christ, we acknowledge that he died on the cross for the penalty of my sin; that he rose from the dead to conquer death and that he went back to heaven to intercede for us, prepare a place for us and so he could send his Holy Spirit to guide us. However, on occasion we choose our own way because we forget or fail to realize the pain Christ suffered for us and how our rebellion, small as it may seem, hurts the relationship with Christ.
- Apathy: This one is a tough one, but if we think back to those times we’ve chosen to go our way, we’ve done so because we really just didn’t care. We know we’ll be forgiven. We know we’ll go to heaven. We don’t take time to think of consequences.
The Psalmist isn’t as concerned about the sins he commits in ignorance as he is the sins he commits out of choice. May each of us who bear the name of Jesus echo his prayer.
PRAYER: Father God, I echo the prayer of Psalm 19:13. Much as I love you I confess that many times I choose to go against you out of willful desire. Forgive me for those sins that easily beset me, the sins I know are wrong but I do them anyway. Thank you for Jesus. May I live worthy of the calling that is within me. Thank you for your grace. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 