What is the hardest thing God asks us to do and the surest sign that we have been born again by his Spirit? I do not think there is any question that the hardest command God has given is to love him with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40) and obedience to these commands is the surest sign we have been given divine life (1 John 4:7-21). This is especially obvious when we recognize that love is not simply doing good for God and others but love is a true affection in the heart for God, for others which results in doing good (1 Corinthians 13:1-4). Love delights in the beloved and delights in doing good for and for the sake of the one loved.
So how do we become loving people? How does a church "make loving people? Paul tells us how this happens in 1 Timothy 1:5 (ESV), "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith." First notice the logic of Paul in this verse. Paul and Timothy as leaders of the church have a charge and the goal of that charge is to create people who love God and man. However the fulfilling of that charge does not directly cause love but rather creates people who have pure hearts, good consciences and a sincere faith which then produces love for God and men. The big question here is to what does "our charge" refer?
Two verses earlier Paul used the verbal form of this noun when he tells Timothy, "...charge certain persons to not teach any different doctrine..." Later in 4:11 Paul uses this word to tell Timothy to teach the word of God to God's people. Then in 1:18 Paul uses the noun to tell him that he has entrusted "this charge" to Timothy because of God's call on his life to be a pastor/elder in the church. Thus the charge which has as its goal the creation of loving people is the teaching of the word of God in the church and the corresponding work of preventing false teaching to get a foothold in the church. Paul expects that as pastors/elders, parents and other teachers in the church clearly communicate the true gospel, the true word of God and prevent false teaching from prevailing in the church that people will have "pure hearts, good consciences and sincere faith" which will in turn lead to these people loving God and other humans.
To have a pure heart is to have a heart that wants one thing; it is to be person who believes that Christ has done everything to make me right with God and thus he alone is worthy of all my trust and loyalty. It is to be able to say with the apostle Paul, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..." (Philippians 3:8 & 10).
To have a good conscience is to be free from the guilt of sin which plagued me because I know that all my sins are forgiven because of Christ. It is to be free from the demand that I prove myself worthy of God's love by my performance. It is to have a conscience that no longer accuses me of my failures because it is at rest in Christ's finished work.
A sincere faith is trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for being made right with God not so that he will give me a happy life on planet earth. It is to trust in Jesus to do what he came to do, bring me to God, not to trust him to bring me into a life of health and prosperity. I am trusting Jesus to do for me what he wants to do for me not what I want him to do for me. I am not using him to get what I want but trusting him to give me what I need, a relationship to God.
I think we can begin to see how it is that if by the gospel I am made into a person who has this sort of interior life than I become a person who truly does love God for his sake and not for what he can do for me and I am free to love others without concern for myself or my own needs but out of joy in doing good for those I love. I do not need other people to treat me well in order for me to treat them well because I have been given so much which I did not deserve through Christ. I am safe and secure and thus free to take risks in loving God and others.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
A prayer to be happy
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal writes, "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." Do you not find this to be true for yourself? All that you do, if you think carefully about it, you do because you believe it will, in the long run, make you happy. Even things you do not "want" to do, like going to work or having a hard conversation, you do because you are convinced your happiness depends upon it. There is no question, we want to be happy.
But, does God want you to be happy? The Bible answers that question with a resounding Yes! However, God does not want us to be happy in any way we want but to be happy in him. It is his will that we "delight in the Lord", Psalm 37:4. God's will that we find our joy in him is expressed in many ways. Today I want to consider a prayer we are taught to pray by God to be happy. Psalm 90:14 says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
God wants us to be satisfied with his unfailing love because he tells us to ask for it in this psalm. To be satisfied is to be content, to want nothing more. It is to say, I have all I want and need. For people like us who live in a consumerist culture, satisfaction is a rare experience. We have been trained since childhood to be dissatisfied with everything so that we will buy new. There is a way to always be content people and that is to have God himself satisfy you with his unfailing love. This love is the love which God has for us is secured by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; that is why it is a steadfast, unfailing love.
Notice that when God answers our prayer to satisfy us with his love, then we rejoice and are glad all our days. There is no want in our lives any longer, no lack because we have everything when we are satisfied with the love of God in Christ. When we have all we want we cannot help but be glad, to show forth our joy in rejoicing.
Much, not all, of our sorrow is due to the fact that we do not look to God to satisfy us with his steadfast love but we look to our spouses to satisfy us with their kindness or our children to satisfy us with their respect and admiration or our jobs to satisfy us with meaningful work or our retirement accounts to satisfy us with security or our friends to satisfy us with their admiration. However, none of these finite hings can satisfy us and thus make us glad "all our days" because they all are temporary and changeable. However, the love of God in Christ is unfailing, steadfast, unchangeable and eternal and thus can never fail to fill us up.
So today begin asking God to satisfy you with his unfailing love so that you can be glad (happy) all your days. Ask his forgiveness for all the ways you seek to be satisfied in other things and people and thank him that Jesus died so you can be forgiven for you treating his love with contempt as you seek happiness in other things.
But, does God want you to be happy? The Bible answers that question with a resounding Yes! However, God does not want us to be happy in any way we want but to be happy in him. It is his will that we "delight in the Lord", Psalm 37:4. God's will that we find our joy in him is expressed in many ways. Today I want to consider a prayer we are taught to pray by God to be happy. Psalm 90:14 says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
God wants us to be satisfied with his unfailing love because he tells us to ask for it in this psalm. To be satisfied is to be content, to want nothing more. It is to say, I have all I want and need. For people like us who live in a consumerist culture, satisfaction is a rare experience. We have been trained since childhood to be dissatisfied with everything so that we will buy new. There is a way to always be content people and that is to have God himself satisfy you with his unfailing love. This love is the love which God has for us is secured by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; that is why it is a steadfast, unfailing love.
Notice that when God answers our prayer to satisfy us with his love, then we rejoice and are glad all our days. There is no want in our lives any longer, no lack because we have everything when we are satisfied with the love of God in Christ. When we have all we want we cannot help but be glad, to show forth our joy in rejoicing.
Much, not all, of our sorrow is due to the fact that we do not look to God to satisfy us with his steadfast love but we look to our spouses to satisfy us with their kindness or our children to satisfy us with their respect and admiration or our jobs to satisfy us with meaningful work or our retirement accounts to satisfy us with security or our friends to satisfy us with their admiration. However, none of these finite hings can satisfy us and thus make us glad "all our days" because they all are temporary and changeable. However, the love of God in Christ is unfailing, steadfast, unchangeable and eternal and thus can never fail to fill us up.
So today begin asking God to satisfy you with his unfailing love so that you can be glad (happy) all your days. Ask his forgiveness for all the ways you seek to be satisfied in other things and people and thank him that Jesus died so you can be forgiven for you treating his love with contempt as you seek happiness in other things.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A prayer for sufferers
I remain cancer free at this time. I had blood work done on December 18 and a colonoscopy on January 30th, both showed no sign of cancer for which I am grateful. I will have my blood tested every three months. My next one will be March 18. My hands and feet continue to experience a profound neuropathy. I've gotten used to it, though it still does impede my typing somewhat. It is my goal to write one post each week, reflecting on some aspect of the glory of Christ and his saving work from God's word.
I recently was struck by one of Paul's prayers for the Christians in the church located at Thessalonica. In 2 Thess. 3:5 he expresses his prayer: "May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ." Paul often reports his prayers for the people to whom he writes. He does this not simply to encourage his friends with the knowledge that he prays for them and certainly he does not do it to show what a super spiritual person he is. Rather his prayers are meant to teach us what only God can do and thus to teach us what we ought to be asking him to do.
What is Paul asking the Lord to do? First, the verb "direct" is a very strong verb. It means to guide or direct a person or thing to his or its final destination. Paul uses the verb in his first letter tot he Thessalonians when he says, "may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you." Clearly here he means for God to overcome every obstacle and clear the way and impel he and Timothy to travel to Thessalonica. So in our verse Paul is asking God to do all that is necessary to make sure our hearts arrive into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
When he mentions our hearts he is thinking of that part of us which determines all that we think, feel, say and do. It is my affections, what I love, trust in, fear, desire, value. Thus Paul is asking God to bring their hearts into a full knowledge and experience of the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. He aims for these Christians to value and trust and rejoice in and desire these two things.
What is the "love of God" and "the steadfastness of Christ"? The love of God is God's love for us in Christ. Paul wants these believers to be fully aware of and consumed with the wonder and glory of being loved by the great Triune God who shows his love for his people by giving his son to die for us. Second he wants Christians to be overcome with the wonder of Christ's patient endurance of all the sufferings he went through. We are to be amazed by and desire and value the patient endurance of Christ; his settled determination to pay whatever cost in order to save us and glorify his Father.
The Thessalonians were in the midst of profound suffering. Paul knows that what they need are hearts taken up with God's love and Christ's steadfast suffering to accomplish God's will. When we know and trust and love the love of God for us we can endure all things because we know nothing can separate us from this amazing love. When we see Christ's joyful endurance of suffering beyond our comprehension it strengthens us to also remain steadfast in the midst of our troubles. In my own experience it is as my heart has rested and rejoiced in these two things that I have found strength to press on, to not give up. Especially as I sat by my son's bed in the early days after his accident I was helped by considering the steadfastness of Christ in his sufferings.
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
I recently was struck by one of Paul's prayers for the Christians in the church located at Thessalonica. In 2 Thess. 3:5 he expresses his prayer: "May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ." Paul often reports his prayers for the people to whom he writes. He does this not simply to encourage his friends with the knowledge that he prays for them and certainly he does not do it to show what a super spiritual person he is. Rather his prayers are meant to teach us what only God can do and thus to teach us what we ought to be asking him to do.
What is Paul asking the Lord to do? First, the verb "direct" is a very strong verb. It means to guide or direct a person or thing to his or its final destination. Paul uses the verb in his first letter tot he Thessalonians when he says, "may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you." Clearly here he means for God to overcome every obstacle and clear the way and impel he and Timothy to travel to Thessalonica. So in our verse Paul is asking God to do all that is necessary to make sure our hearts arrive into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
When he mentions our hearts he is thinking of that part of us which determines all that we think, feel, say and do. It is my affections, what I love, trust in, fear, desire, value. Thus Paul is asking God to bring their hearts into a full knowledge and experience of the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. He aims for these Christians to value and trust and rejoice in and desire these two things.
What is the "love of God" and "the steadfastness of Christ"? The love of God is God's love for us in Christ. Paul wants these believers to be fully aware of and consumed with the wonder and glory of being loved by the great Triune God who shows his love for his people by giving his son to die for us. Second he wants Christians to be overcome with the wonder of Christ's patient endurance of all the sufferings he went through. We are to be amazed by and desire and value the patient endurance of Christ; his settled determination to pay whatever cost in order to save us and glorify his Father.
The Thessalonians were in the midst of profound suffering. Paul knows that what they need are hearts taken up with God's love and Christ's steadfast suffering to accomplish God's will. When we know and trust and love the love of God for us we can endure all things because we know nothing can separate us from this amazing love. When we see Christ's joyful endurance of suffering beyond our comprehension it strengthens us to also remain steadfast in the midst of our troubles. In my own experience it is as my heart has rested and rejoiced in these two things that I have found strength to press on, to not give up. Especially as I sat by my son's bed in the early days after his accident I was helped by considering the steadfastness of Christ in his sufferings.
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
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