The Real Jesus

If Jesus had a Facebook page, which picture would he use for his profile?  Would it be gentle Jesus, meek and mild with a baby lamb on his shoulders? Would it be Jesus laughing as the little children bounded into his arms? Would it be Jesus feeding the 5,000?  Would it be the righteously angry Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the temple? Would it be Jesus reclining at the Last Supper with his beloved disciple John resting against him?  I’m guessing, like us, he would change his profile picture from time to time to reflect the status of his life.

Today as we begin the book of Revelation, we see another picture of Jesus.  It’s actually the most detailed, physical description of him in the bible.  It’s a very symbolic picture that’s filled with meaning and designed to reveal him as he is now in his glory.  In this picture, he no longer suffers.  We see none of the lowliness that marked his life on the earth.  And while he is still humble of heart, this picture is of Jesus the strong, majestic, powerful, royal and exalted Lord of all.

The apostle John, while imprisoned on the island of Patmos, received this revelation of Jesus one Sunday while he was worshiping in the Spirit (Rev 1:10-17). John first heard a voice behind him that sounded like a trumpet blaring in power and declaration. As he turned to see who it was that was speaking to him, he saw the “Son of Man.”  This was the title Jesus had always given himself (taken from the prophet Daniel; see Daniel 7:13).  While John clearly saw a man, the man he saw was more than simply human. He was the Son of Man who is also the Son of God. Everything about him symbolized majesty and judgment.  And it is this reality about Jesus; that he is King and Judge, that fills the book of Revelation.  It’s this picture of him, who he is in his eternal glory, that closes out the bible.

As John looked, he saw Jesus dressed in a robe reaching down to  his feet — flowing robes symbolized dignity and honor. Across his chest was a golden sash.  The combination of these two items declares his high priestly duties before God on behalf of people.  His head and hair were white like wool — he is the the Ancient of Days completely pure and wise. His eyes were like blazing fire — he sees and knows all and brings hidden things to light. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace — brass symbolized judgment. His voice was like the sound of rushing waters — power and majesty are his and he speaks creation into being with the song he sings. What a juxtaposition.  Creation birthed through music.

In his right hand were seven stars — he holds the church, its people, and all of creation together and in his care. From his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword — his word pierces, divides and separates all that it contacts. His face was like the sun shining in its brilliance– Oh the wonder of who he really is! He is the all-glorious God, the Living One, who overcame death and is alive forevermore!

When John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” saw Jesus in his majesty, “he fell at his feet as though dead,” (1:17). But the Lord touched him and said, “Don’t be afraid!”  John, who knew Jesus as intimately and closely as anyone on earth, was overwhelmed as if dead when he saw Jesus in his majesty.  And yet, Jesus in his kindness, did not want his beloved John to be afraid of him. The message is clear.  There’s so much more to Jesus than just one scene of his life. He is more than a wise teacher. He is more than a great prophet.  He is not one among many religious leaders.  He is God Almighty himself, the King and Judge, before whom everyone of us will stand in jaw-dropping awe and worship one day. And yet, he is kind and wonderful to all who come to him.  He doesn’t want us destroyed and overwhelmed by who he is. He is absolutely for us.

Have you experienced this Jesus?  Do you know him as he really is?

Rumors of God

Have you ever had someone in your life that you first heard about through friends?  They would tell you all about this person and you would feel like you already knew them based on what you had heard.  You make assumptions, even judgments based on the stories recounted to you. You may decide this person is a hero or that they’re someone to avoid at all costs.  You might even warn other people away from this person.   And you’ve heard it all through “reliable” sources; rumors, really.  But you assume what you’ve heard must be the truth.  Later on, however, you have some real life interaction with this person and discover he or she is not at all what you expected.    You may leave pleasantly surprised or deeply disturbed.

Job worshiped and revered God all of his life.  He lived a good life and followed all the teachings about God, honoring God, and serving him.  But a long  season of challenge, affliction and hardship changed him.  Job is spent.  He has argued, wrestled, defended himself, and reconsidered all he knows about God.  Once God reveals himself to Job, however, Job realizes he has just known God by rumor.   Job is both relieved and disturbed by God’s self-revelation.  He is relieved because the long silence of the One he loves is over.  He is disturbed because he learns that he didn’t really know God at all.

The primary rumor by which Job has known God is perpetuated by his three friends.  That rumor is: If you are blameless and without sin, trouble won’t touch you.  Your behavior directly impacts the way your life goes.  If things are going wrong for you, it’s because you’ve done something wrong.  The prescription for this is: Fix it and everything will turn around.  Many of us know intellectually that this isn’t true, yet our hearts insist otherwise.  When bad thing happen, we immediately do an inventory and wonder if certain actions or sins have caused our trouble.  While poor choices do have their consequences, there is no hard and fast rule that says, “If you’re good, nothing will go wrong for you.”  You can change your behavior and the challenge you’re facing may continue anyway. That’s what Job discovered.

But this changed when God revealed himself to Job.  Job dropped his false understanding of God and admitted, “I babbled about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head,” (Job 42:3 Msg). Ultimately, God’s self-revelation not only righted Job’s misunderstandings, but also led Job to a place of humility and acceptance. “I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand – from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry – forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor,” (Job 42: 4-6 Msg).

Do you really know God or do you rely on “hearsay” and “crumbs of rumor” about him?  The good news is that you can know him intimately and personally.  God has revealed himself in a myriad of ways to us.  We can know him as the Holy Spirit reveals God to us in Scripture, through other believers, through creation, through the events of our lives.  We can know him most clearly through his Son Jesus Christ, who is the very image of the invisible God. It’s important when we face trials like those Job faced that we not rely on misinformation or rumors of God. Like Job, we need to sit with God in the pain and questioning until God clearly reveals himself to us.

Into Promised Hope

 

I awoke this morning to small shadows on the periphery of my mind.  As I focused my thoughts, the shadows grew.  As I journeyed from the place of rest and sleep; I found myself in a valley where the mountains ahead of me multiplied.  As each one arose, I wondered how I would climb and cross it; I am not equipped.  I am a traveler with only the clothes I wear and some bread and water in my pack.  Each mountain I can name, each one is a place in the near future I must navigate.  As the sunlight crept into my bedroom, I wrestled with the feelings overwhelming me here at the start of the day.  My heart is anxious.

I have always wanted to have the personality of someone who sees the cup as half full (like my husband).  I recognize and appreciate that there is water in the cup, but I typically live in concern that the cup is emptying quickly and there are no refills offered.  I have also wished that I had the personality of someone who sees an untraveled road ahead and leaps at the possibilities of adventure and joy.  Instead, I try to look as far down the road as I can and predict worse case scenarios.  Just in case.  Even there, though, I lack good planning skills so instead of being able to envision the worst case scenario; I just have the vague angst in my gut that things could go very wrong.  The challenge with living with these two perspectives is that your focus becomes what you enjoy in life.  And neither of these views is enjoyable.

Isaiah 35 brought me great comfort today.  It beckoned me out of my valley of indecision and impossibility and back to the reality of God’s Kingdom and God’s promise that His Kingdom is coming.  Once evil has been wiped out; life in its fullest will return.

Isaiah writes: “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart,  “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 25:2b-4 ESV)

He will restore sight to those without vision (my indecision) and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped (my difficulty hearing his voice).   Out of the dryness of the wilderness, springs will come forth and refresh me.   And for the journey ahead that I cannot see clearly or plan for adequately: “There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It’s for God’s people exclusively— impossible to get lost on this road.  Not even fools can get lost on it. No lions on this road, no dangerous wild animals— Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening. Only the redeemed will walk on it.”  (35:8-9 MSG)

What an assurance from God himself.  What a perfect place to park my mind today so that the shadows are dispersed by the light of his presence.  What a picture of hope amidst my angst and fears.  His love conquers fear and we will be set free. Be encouraged by these words: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;  they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”  (35:10 ESV).

 

God Questions

God’s silence is deafening.  The struggle is immense.  It has gone on and on.  Back and forth.  We’ve endured the arguments between Job and his friends and Job to God.  We’ve gained insight into the shortcomings of human wisdom.  No one can adequately explain or make sense of the suffering Job has withstood.  And truthfully, none of us can wrap our minds around the mind of God.  Chapters 38 and 39 of Job are awe inspiring and reveal God’s majesty and how his very being is simply beyond our understanding.

Job’s friends have suggested suffering comes only to the evil as punishment from God.  Repent of your sin and the suffering will end.  But Job knows this is a false understanding of God.  We may find it easier to blame God for suffering, but that is to fall short of knowing the truth of his character.  The truth of his character reveals an abundance of righteousness.  God is right.  He is not evil nor does he ordain or cause evil in the world.  Adam and Eve’s choice to move away from God and to seek from understanding beyond what God had for them ushered in evil to the world.  Evil, at its core, is the absence of God.  Suffering is a direct result of evil.  Not God.

Reading Job today allows us to take a breath of ease if we have been suffering.  While God is silent for the major portion of the book he is hardly absent.  When he finally appears, it’s clear he has not been distracted or otherwise engaged.  He is fully aware of all that has transpired in Job’s life and the arguments between Job and his friends.  Rather than defend himself, God chooses to reveal himself.  His is a commanding presence that requires all of us watching and listening to stop in reverent awe.  Taking center stage, he ends the debate by asking some profound and revealing questions.

These questions open the door to consider him in the truth of his being beyond the scope of suffering.  His questions are a welcome relief from the arguments gone round and round trying to solve the dilemma of suffering with the human mind.  The truth is we simply cannot.  We cannot resolve God sized issues with the extraordinary limitations of our human minds.  The vastness of who God is and what He knows is only a pin drop in our consciousness.  We can’t know what we simply don’t know.  It is pride to think we can.

Each question God poses to Job and his friends sweeps back the curtain of his majesty and his strength.  There are hardly words to describe how inept and insignificant one feels to follow God’s queries and to recognize how close to simple dust we are.  God’s questions reveal the heart of who He is in the splendor of his glory.  And no one can remotely access it but by God’s permission himself.  In asking Job these questions, he simultaneously challenges Job to understand him while pointing out that there is no way to fully comprehend him.  Even partial comprehension seems an extraordinary leap of our limited minds.

God’s questions are worthy of a second read.  A third, fourth, fifth…well, they are worthy of pondering for the rest of our lives.  They offer us rest in the midst of our trial to let go of our control and slip into a place of yielded trust to Him.  He is so much greater.  He is so much wiser.  He has ideas and purposes we can’t begin to articulate in our minds.  So once you have wearied of the wrestling and struggle, walk into these questions with the space of being simply the created walking hand in hand with the Creator.  And the Creator is good.  In his immense proportion to ourselves, we can rest in the knowledge that out of His great love for us he created us.  He has plans and purposes beyond our skirmishes today.

God’s Love

“If you love me, why are you treating me this way?  Wouldn’t love treat me better than this?”

That was my heart’s cry to God in the middle of the night on a cold basement floor in Ambridge, Pennsylvania in 1997. I was in my first year of seminary and life looked bleak. My father had recently died. We had moved from the South to the North and were experiencing both culture shock and seasonal affective disorder.  We had to relocate 2 more times in a span of four months due to terrible and unsafe housing situations — and that with a 3 year old and a very pregnant wife. Our last move came as the result of a plumbing issue that caused our basement to back up with all the sanitation waste from the houses on the hill above us.  The wretched filth destroyed all of our family pictures and important mementos.   The timing of the last move came just days before Christmas – we could barely celebrate due to boxes and exhaustion.  By January it was utterly bleak.  We had 15 days straight of ice and snow; and not the pretty, serene kind you see on postcards and movies. This was infused with the pollution of steel country and had a greyish black look to it.   At three in the morning I was up and in my study in the dark, cold basement. My heart boiled over at that point.

I wept before the Lord. I was confused and disappointed.  I had left my lucrative and rising career to serve God with my life. I had removed my young family from all that was known and safe to us and jumped on what felt like “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” I was missing my father, whom I had led to faith in Christ not long before his death.  It seemed as though I had just gotten him back and he was taken away from me again. And perhaps the worst part of it, I was spiritually empty.  I had come to a community of faith where people were joyfully loving and serving God, yet to me, the experience was as dry as  dust in my mouth.

I cried out to God, “If you love me, why are you treating me this way?  Wouldn’t love treat me better than this?” As I lay on the floor splayed out before the Lord I had a vision.  It was of the cross of Jesus Christ.  It wasn’t the pretty bronze cross that we process behind as we enter church. It was the bloody, cruel instrument of torturing death.  I saw the body of the Lord in his brokenness and pain. I felt the loneliness of Jesus that came from his friends’ betrayal and abandonment. I sensed the derision and scorn of the religious elite. I saw the anguish on his face as His Father looked away from him as the sin of the world, as my sin, was placed upon him. It nearly broke me.  And then I heard the Lord speak to my heart. He said, “On that day in space and time my love for you was forever demonstrated and sealed.”

And I had the answer.  God’s love is not dependent upon anything but himself.  God’s love for us is not proved nor disproved by the outward circumstances in life.  God’s love is not conditioned by our behavior.  God loves because God loves us. As the Apostle John tells us, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1 John 4:9-10).

No matter what you are experiencing today, whether good times or hardship, know this: God loves you and has demonstrated his love decisively in the cross of Jesus Christ.  He has done absolutely everything necessary to bring you to himself.  Let the cross be your guide today.  Keep it before your eyes and close to your heart. Meditate on its beauty and power and embrace the love of God for you.

Do you run to or from God?

Have you ever been confused by life’s difficulties? Ever wondered why things were happening to you the way they were? Have you ever been angry at God? What do you do in those times?  Do you run away from God or do you run to him?

I suppose your answer will depend on how you understand God.  If you are like Job’s friend Elihu, you probably run away from God. Or perhaps, if you don’t run away,  you smolder away in resentment.  While there are many threads of truth to the things that Elihu tells Job regarding the character and nature of God,  he doesn’t get it all right.  It is true that “God is greater than man,” (Job 33:12) and that “God does speak, now one way, now another,” (14). Elihu points out God’s delight when we pray to him in humility, and God’s desire for mercy in response to our repentance from sin (27,28).  He reminds us that God can do no evil and that justice is required for sin (34:10,11). God also is completely sovereign over all the earth (13-15).

But how does this knowledge help Job in his present crisis?  And where does this knowledge about God take us in our own struggle against injustice and the heartbreak of our lives?  Elihu gets it wrong and advises poorly when he tells Job that he is multiplying his sin by defiantly shaking his fist at God and speaking back to Him (34:37).  God created us to be in relationship with him.  That’s why sin is such a big deal.  Sin turns us away from God.  God created us to live in a loving, strong relationship with Him that glorifies His name.  He loves us!  Love is so much more than a feeling; love is born in relationship.  Relationships require communication.  Not just flowery poetic communication, but real, heart felt communication.   Job shakes his fist and argues with God because he loves God and wants to understand why life is what it is for him.  He is working to maintain relationship when he cannot do anything else.  Job can’t hear God and he can’t fathom why his life has shattered apart, yet he knows God continues to exist and he wants to engage with him.

I John 3 expands upon this relationship with God.  Those of us who are in relationship with God are born in his love.  His love is a part of us.   Evil surrounds us in this world and simply can’t recognize love.  That’s because love turns us away from sin and selfishness.  Sin turns us away from God.  God is love.  And the world simply can’t understand it.  When we’re born of God, we have this love in us.  It looks different from the way the world treats each other.  A clearer picture of God’s love is in 1Corinthians 13:4-8:

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.”

What a contrast to the way the world operates.  The world operates out of a survival mentality.  I must get mine first or I become a victim.  Pride is its foundation; whether through false humility or aggressive self-centeredness.  Even the mantras floating about self discovery and self actualization are perversions of God’s love because they focus on self and not on God.  They look inward and not upward. God is our source.  We are born from him.  We are his idea in the first place; not our own.  Love creates the relationship and God calls us into relationship with him.  Being in relationship requires communication but sometimes God backs off a bit to strengthen and develop our belief and love for him.  He has backed off with Job and Job is desperate for him.  Job’s faith is growing despite his friend’s discouragement.  The fact that Job continues to talk to God and ask for God’s presence is the truth of a relationship born in love and growing in love.  While his friends are encouraging Job to shut down emotionally, confess to something he didn’t do and “get in line,” Job is fighting for the truth of the nature of his relationship and he is strengthening his faith in a God who loves him.  He does something we all need to do; he allows himself to feel and expresses his feelings to God.  Loudly and clearly.  And his friends just don’t know what to do with that!

May I encourage you to be honest in your relationship with God? If you are struggling, talk to him about it.  If you are in pain, let him know.  If you are afraid, weary, downcast, confused, angry, instead of running from him, run to him.  Communicate honestly and fully. Be real with God today whether you are experiencing good times or bad.

Who Do You Love the Most?

When I was in elementary school I had many notes passed to me by my fellow students.  These notes sought out crucial relational information. They said things like, “Do you like me? Check the box yes or no.”  “Who are the three cutest girls in the class. List in order below.”  Then there was the most serious kind of note — the love note questionnaire.  It invariably inquired: “Who do you love the most?”  There would either be a list of 3 or 4 names from which to select or there would be a blank line on which you could scribble the name of your choice. The greatest thing in the world was discovering (or being shown by an accomplice) that your name was selected at the top of the list. Likewise, there was nothing more crushing, no matter how much you denied it, than finding yourself rejected.

God asks each of us a variation of the same question. He doesn’t ask it in a juvenile or needy way.  But he does ask:  “Among all the options you have in this world for your affection and allegiance, who or what do you love the most?”

God’s great desire is that each one of us would live in an intimate love relationship with him. He longs that you would select him from the list of all the options that exist. He desires that you would write Jesus’ name on the blank line.  As Rick Warren says in his book What On Earth Am I Here For?, “God made you to love you, and he longs for you to love him back.”  But there are many other “lovers” in this world from which we can choose.  The Living God is only one among many options.  The world itself competes with God for your allegiance and alliance.  The apostle John warns, “Don’t love the world’s ways. don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father,” (1 John 2:15 The Message).

Today I pass a note to you in the form of this blog.  I urge you to make your choice. Choose to love the Lord above all other options.  And then make your selection known by living in such a way that your love for God is easy for everyone to see.

“Wise up!”

As life presses in and difficult situations arise, how do you navigate the challenge of making sound decisions?  The person whose mind is set on the world’s ways cannot see the wisdom of God’s ways.  Do you look to God for wisdom or do you rely on the tactics and strategies you’ve learned from the world?  The world’s ways are different from God’s ways.  In fact, they are often called “rebellion” by God.  But to the person focused on the world, rebellion is not rebellion, but simply common sense. The bible insists upon a life guided by God’s revelation as the only truly wise life. Are you learning God’s wisdom or do you still rely upon the world’s common sense?

In Isaiah 30, we see these differences magnified.  The people of Israel are at a time of crisis in their national life.  The mighty Assyrian army is threatening to invade. Disaster seems imminent. So what do the Jewish people do?  Instead of turning to their true King, the Holy One of Israel, who has promised to protect and keep them, they make a political alliance with Egypt.  God is not pleased by this faithless rebellion. He says, “Ah stubborn children, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2).  Not only do they neglect to seek God, but also they run in the opposite direction.  They are looking for the world’s security. They are seeking an old way of protection.  Ultimately, they are seeking to save themselves and the Lord makes clear that what is sought outside of him, though seemingly wise in the world’s sight and simply ‘common sense’, actually becomes their source of defeat and degradation.

How often have I seen this kind of dynamic operating in my life?  When a time of crisis comes, I run about seeking ways to fix the crisis.  I wrack my brains trying to figure out how to make it go away. Too often, I follow the way the world resolves things —  for instance, by looking out for number one rather than living openly and generously; or by believing that the end justifies the means, or that preserving an image is more important than walking with integrity.   I sometimes seek comfort from old habits, behaviors and addictions.  Sadly I have spent far more time than I care to admit seeking out the world’s ways and my ways of fixing my life.  God lovingly, but bluntly names this, “Rebellion.”  He tells me to, “Wise up!”

God counsels His people in a completely different and counter-intuitive way.  He advises us to come back to him and trust in his kindness and strength.  “In returning (repentance) and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength,” (Isaiah 30:15). God calls us to come back to him.  He calls us back to the cross. He calls us to turn away from our sinful independence and to rest in his care.  He advises us not to speed up busily trying to fix things, but instead to be intentional in seeking his counsel.  When we diligently seek him, he promises that we will always find him. This is what it means to trust.  It means to place ourselves in his strong and faithful care, expecting his answers and then obediently following his direction despite how it looks or seems to the world around us.

Are you learning God’s wisdom or do you still rely upon the world’s common sense? Are you learning to, “Wise up?”

Where wisdom is found

Elizabeth Elliot, in her book Let Me Be a Woman, records the story of Gladys Aylward. Gladys grieved deeply over the physical appearance God had given her. As such, she struggled mightily to accept herself. Ms. Aylward told how when she was a child she had two great sorrows. One, that while all her friends had beautiful golden hair, hers was black. The other, that while her friends were still growing, she had stopped. She was about four feet ten inches tall.

Eventually, God called her into the foreign mission field.  When at last she reached the country to which God had called her to be a missionary, she stood on the wharf in Shanghai and looked around at the people to whom He had called her. “Every single one of them” she said, “had black hair. And every one of them had stopped growing when I did.” She was able to look to God and exclaim, “Lord God, You know what You’re doing!”

Without exception, human wisdom always falls short.  We simply cannot see all that God sees. We cannot understand all that God understands. He alone can see the end from the beginning, while we are limited by time and our circumstances. He alone knows the plans and purposes that he has set in place and unless he reveals them to us, we will always come to the wrong conclusions about life.

In Job 28, we encounter a stalemate between Job and his friends.  The friends have applied every bit of human wisdom they can muster to the problem of Job’s suffering.  They have no answers. Job is also dumbfounded. He simply cannot understand why his life is filled with pain and loss. Job finally turns the conversation to the question: “Where can wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12). Job declares that wisdom cannot be found among the most precious elements of this earth (gold, jewels and precious metals). Neither can wisdom be purchased. Ultimately, wisdom is found only in God (vv 20-27). God alone is all knowing, all powerful, and all wise. He is the Creator of all things and from him everything moves and has its being. Job concludes, “The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding,” (Job 28:28).

What each of us needs, in the confusion and finiteness of our lives is the wisdom that comes from God alone.  His wisdom brings understanding to the confusing messages the world continually gives us. His wisdom helps us to see through the darkness of life. His wisdom helps us to discern the difference between the true and false.  His wisdom illuminates our minds to deception and danger.  Ask the Spirit of God to give you the wisdom you need today.