Jesus suffered for you

     God has been blessing me with more work than I can handle.  I am praying that He will help me with my priorities, so that I do not replace Him with His blessings.  Since this blog is part of a calling God gave me last year, I have to figure out how to make it a priority while still getting all the work done for my photography business.
     Yesterday I was listening to the radio and a song by Todd Agnew, called "My Jesus" came on. Click here for a youtube video for that song.  My Jesus by Todd Agnew   The song reminded me that Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we could have intimacy with Him.  Do we only think of His sacrifice at Easter time?  As you read the description of His suffering below, consider what sacrifice you are willing to make for your precious Bridegroom.

Isaiah 53:1-12 (from The Message)
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?

     Who would have thought God’s

     saving power would look like this?
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

     a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

     nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,

     a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

     We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

     our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

     that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,

     that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

     Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

     We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins,

     everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,

     but he didn’t say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

     and like a sheep being sheared,

     he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—

     and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare,

     beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,

     threw him in a grave with a rich man,

Even though he’d never hurt a soul

     or said one word that wasn’t true.
Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,

     to crush him with pain.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin

     so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.

And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
     Out of that terrible travail of soul,

     he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.

Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,

     will make many “righteous ones,”

     as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—

     the best of everything, the highest honors—

Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,

     because he embraced the company of the lowest.

He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,

     he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Romance -- rerun

             Romance.  We are consumed with it.  From our childhood we love the stories of a handsome prince coming to save a maiden from some sort of evil.  Cinderella is rescued from a life of menial labor for her step-mother and step-sisters, and marries the Prince.  Sleeping Beauty is set free from her sleep of death by Prince Charming. Little girls dream of their wedding day.  Little boys probably don’t think too much about their wedding day, but by the time that little boy grows up and is waiting for his bride to come down the aisle, he has been converted to romance.

            As we get older, stories that are not specifically love stories, such as the Lord of the Rings, would be flat and empty without the romance.  Something within us is captivated by the love between Arwen and Aragorn.  The story is wrought with danger, sacrifice, and pure love. And it ends with a “happily ever after.”  We crave romance.

            According to Michael Norris in Business Consumer Book Publishing 2011, romance fiction dominates the consumer market at 13.4% (in terms of revenue of market categories), beating out mystery, science fiction/fantasy, and religion/inspirational titles.  In 2010, consumers spent $1.358 billion on romance fiction. These statistics show that we are drawn to Romance.

            Why?  Because God made us for romance.  Although romance between a couple is wonderful, fulfilling, special, and very intimate. That human romance is only an image, a pale reflection of the True Romance for which we were created.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.  (Eph 5:31)

Did you catch that?  Marriage is a description of the relationship between Christ and His church!  Not the other way around.  Marriage is the best description that Paul could find to describe the intense emotion and dare I say the romance, between Jesus and His Church (that is you and me)!  In Revelation 19:7-9 all of Heaven celebrates the wedding of Christ with His Bride.  In Isaiah 62 below, the language of marriage and romance is again used to describe how God feels about us.

Because God delights in you, your land will be like a wedding celebration.
For as a young man marries his virgin bride, so your builder marries you,

And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride, so your God is happy with you.

(Isaiah 62:4b-5 The Message)

            God is romantically pursuing you!  Think of that with every sunrise or sunset, with the fresh blooming flowers of springtime, with the sound of beautiful music, with the tastes of the most succulent dessert, with the joy of laughter.  God made all of that and so much more, to show us that He loves us with a passion bigger than the universe.  How does that make you feel?  It gives me shivers of joy down my spine!

Please share with me and others your thoughts about this

incredible love our Maker has for each one of us.

A prayer -- rerun

Oh Jesus,

I want Your perfect love

            Yet I try to fill up elsewhere

I’ve seen Your face.

I’ve tasted Your blessings.

Yet those blessings fade quickly from my thoughts

            And I return to my false lovers.

You have revealed to me Your truth,

            Yet I still pursue the lies.

I hate this about myself.

On my own, I cannot change.

Oh Jesus, change me!

            Change me from the inside!

I want the freedom You offer!

I want to know You

            To love you

                To seek You

                     To desire You above all else!

I don’t want to follow the lies,

I want to follow You –

            wherever You lead me.

Crucify my pride,

     My laziness

           My addictions

                  My selfishness.

Oh Jesus,

     Forgive me!

           Heal me!

                 Change me!

I cannot do anything without You!

I want  You , Jesus!

            I want Your presence within me!

            I want Your holiness to transform me!

            I want Your will to consume me!

            I want Your glory to radiate from me!

            I want Your love to motivate me!

Jesus, I want You to define Me.

I want my life to matter,

            But I want You to matter more to me

                Than anything about my life.

You have given everything to me.

            May I withhold nothing from You.

You have been outlandish in Your love for me,

            Show me something outlandish I can do for You.

Let me love You with

            All my heart

                 All my soul

                        All my mind

                             All my strength!

I love you, Jesus!

 

Command those who are rich...

I want to continue along the same theme as my last post, but let’s look in the New Testament this time. I want to remind you of an earlier post.  These messages are to me as well as to you.  God did not choose me to be His messenger because I have everything in my life in perfect allignment with His Word.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.  (1Ti 6:17-19)

First off, notice that this is a command, not an option. We need to get rid of the arrogance that often comes with wealth.  It is God who provides, and God can take it away at any time.

God provides us everything for our enjoyment.  Many would like to stop reading at this point.  Yes, it is true that wealth itself is not wrong, and that God delights when we are delighted with what He has given us.  We are certainly allowed to enjoy the blessings God has provided – with thanksgiving to the Provider.

The Scripture does not stop at enjoying our blessings.  We are commanded to do good, lots of good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  So what constitutes generous?  I think the best way to address that question is to examine the gap between the luxury we enjoy and what most of the rest of the world experiences.  One who is “generous” makes a sacrificial effort to close that gap. 

PLease follow the link to see what far too many people in our world are facing every day.  Make a decision TODAY to make some change that will close the gap in a generous way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcRSCynTsWc

Are you guilty of the sin of Sodom?

I was reading in Ezekiel while away at a family reunion.  I have read this before, but it stood out to me this time more than ever before – I think because of the commission God has placed on my heart.

When you think of Sodom, what comes to your mind? 

Let’s take a look at what God thinks of when He thinks of Sodom.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:  She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned: they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me.  Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.  (Eze 16:49-50)

Please read that again.  Do you see yourself in that indictment?  God destroyed Sodom, not for the homosexuality that we normally associate with it, but because the people of Sodom were selfishly living for themselves.

Are you overfed?  Most of North America suffers from weight problems and the increase of obesity is staggering.  I am 30 to 40 pounds overweight and very convicted at this moment.

Are you unconcerned?  This is shown by how much you help the poor and needy.  Do you spend more on pet food than on feeding the poor?  Do you enjoy your television system and all the cable or satellite channels, but quickly switch the channel when you see images of the poverty that most of the people in this world face every day?  Do you spend more on entertainment than on helping those who have lost their homes to storms or fire?  Again I ask: are you unconcerned?

There is a small team of teenagers from our church on a missions trip in Nicaragua.  This is an excerpt from their blog.

After lunch, we set to delivering six of the ten widow baskets that we prepared yesterday. We divided into three groups.
Group One:
Ours went to a woman who was very thankful to it. We talked with the help of a translator and communicated to her. We shared the grace of God and she said over and over how blessed she was to receive this. Though the first widow was amazing to deliver this to, it was the second that got to everyone. She suffers a sort of disability. We brought to her, along with the widow basket, a new mattress for her. When we brought the mattress in, she started crying with happiness. Before, she had been sleeping on a simple cloth-like thing stretched like a hammock. She described to us the pain that she feels each day and that she was so thankful for this mattress. She had been praying for a long time for a new mattress and the fact that we were the ones to answer her prayers is amazing. Her grandchildren hugged us all as we left.

This poor woman, suffering from a painful disability, had been praying for a long time for a mattress!  When you get up in the morning feeling achy and perhaps sore, do you ever wonder how sore you would be after sleeping on a dirt floor instead of your comfortable mattresses?

Are you arrogant and haughty?  Do you think you deserve the wealth you have?  Do you think it is your right as a Canadian or American (or wherever you live) to enjoy all the wealth of these countries?

God destroyed Sodom because they enjoyed their wealth without caring about those who were poor and needy.  That sounds so much like the North America I live in today.

Do you ever wonder why God allows so many people to live in such horrible poverty?  I believe God has a perfect plan to provide for the poor: he has blessed the Christians of the “West” with incredible wealth, so they can use that wealth to help the poor, and share the light of Christ.  There is more than enough wealth to provide for the needs of everyone.

Are you going to step up and use your wealth as God intended, or are you destined for destruction like Sodom, and like Jerusalem to whom the above Scripture was addressed?  There has been a huge increase in the number of natural disasters of devastating proportions in North America.  God is bringing the poverty closer to home – perhaps to wake us up.  Let’s open our eyes and live as God would have us live – humble and actively concerned for those who are less fortunate by sharing the wealth God has blessed us with.

Psalm 27:14

Breastplateof Righteousness, part 3 - Dealing with Guilt

Although this final segment from my chapter on the Breastplate of righteousness frequently refers to those who struggle with depression, it refers to anyone who faces guilt – that should include everyone.

            Openness, confession, and repentance are crucial to dealing with the depression.  Sin surrounds depression, but the depression itself is not sin. Depression can be triggered by sin, and the depression creates great temptations that we often give in to, resulting in sin. The sin needs to be dealt with, but the depressed person has great difficulty separating the sin from the sinner, and the sin from the depression.  Here are some things that have helped me.

            Make a list of all the things you feel guilty about.  Get some help distinguishing the accusations from Satan (false guilt) from legitimate Spirit prodded guilt (conviction).  What is the difference?  False guilt can be for things that you have no control over. 

            I often feel guilty for being physically ill and lacking in energy.  I have medical conditions that prevent me from doing as much as I want (or think I should).  Since I have no control, I have not sinned and the guilt comes from  Satan’s hate-filled accusations.  I also may feel guilty about something someone else has done, for “making” someone angry or upset[1],  or about circumstances that legitimately prevented me from following through on a promise or responsibility.  Again, if there is no sin on my part, there is no need for guilt. 

            Where there is sin (behaviours that take you further from God), then there must be confession and repentance!

ñ lashing out in anger -- In your anger do not sin. (Eph 4:26)

ñ shutting down and going to bed because you don’t want to face the world –  Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. (Pr 29:25)

ñ avoiding the phone and the doorbell –An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. (Pr 12:25)

ñ not going to church because “it is too hard” -- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. (Heb 10:25)

ñ not reading or praying because you feel like God isn’t there, etc. -- Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb 4:16)

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. (Acts 3:19)

“Times of refreshing.”  Doesn't that sound like what we all need?  Repentance is not meant to be a chore, a punishment, or a drudgery-- it is meant to bring healing and refreshing!           

If we deal with the sin surrounding the depression, much of the cloud of darkness will be lifted.  Part of the spiral that sends us deeper and deeper into depression is guilt.  If we can eliminate the false guilt and tell Satan to take his accusations back to Hell, that will help disperse some of the despair. 

Deal with the real guilt (conviction) through confession, repentance, and owning the responsibility, and experience times of refreshing from the Lord!  We must realize that we have hurt people, often those who are trying their hardest to help us.  We must apologize to the people we hurt.  We must take responsibility for the sin and not blameshift to another person, to God or to the depression.  If you blame your sin on the depression, you will never fully recover because you have welcomed one of Satan’s demons into your heart -- the demon of excuses.

            The false guilt needs to be surrendered to God, as well.  If you have not sinned, then there is nothing to repent of.  You must acknowledge that the guilt is just an accusation from hell.  Jesus defends us from Satan's accusations!

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Whho will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Heb 8:31-34)

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[1]   This is an area of pyschology called boundaries.  This is one area that I have found professional help has really made a difference in my thinking.  Also, I recommend a book by Dr. Henry Clound entitled Changes that Heal., published by Zondervan.  The book addresses boundaries and other problems that cripple us emotionally.