On This Day: The Case Where Everyone Was on Trial

 

    He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up. (Isaiah 50:8-9)

 

   This prophecy helps me picture Jesus in his trial leading to his crucifixion. And it added a new dimension I hadn’t thought of before, that everyone in attendance as an accuser was on trial with him.

   It is fascinating to picture Jesus thinking these thoughts as he was silent before his accusers. And what a gift to have the Scriptures telling us the whole story, that his silence was a declaration of his challenge to them. He did not need to defend himself. He needed to fulfill he divine plan and let them bear their own guilt for what they did to him.

   When I consider how this is an example to me, I picture the Savior discipling me in how to trust in God while being falsely accused or unfairly treated.

   First, I am to trust in the Triune God who will vindicate me as their child, and who will help me through everything I face. I have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and there is no one who can declare me guilty before God, not even the devil himself (although he tries every day!).

   Second, I can call any accuser to stand with me before God because God is perfect in his judgment. Anyone who accuses me of anything is just as much on trial with God as me. This is why I love to keep short accounts with God about my sins. Whenever I confess my sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive me, and to purify me from the unrighteousness of my sin, so I can always come before his throne of grace with confidence knowing that my God will always help me in my time of need (I John 1:9; Hebrews 4:16).

   The two New Testament Scriptures that come to mind with this prophecy are these, and I will let them speak for themselves:

What then shall we say to these things? 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 with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And,

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: God’s Reminders of God’s Reminders

"But the Lord GOD helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame." (Isaiah 50:7)

“But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 3:7-9)

 

   No, I did not get my title from the Department of Redundancy Department! It comes from needing to know how God feels about reminding me of things he already taught me.

   Every day there are lessons from God’s word that come from whatever Scripture passage I am reading. But other lessons come by being reminded of things I have already learned. So often these reminders weave together truths of Scripture in ways I had never noticed before.

   Today’s time with God in his word and prayer began like a narrow spotlight on the central figure of Christ fulfilling prophecy. It then panned to another prophecy God had already encouraged me with in times past that clearly applied to Jesus’ example. Then the spotlight expanded to show God’s history of reminding his people of things he had already done to encourage them to trust him with whatever they were facing.

   And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit was reminding me that all God’s reminders to his people were good. They were done in love. They were the grace and mercy of God. They were the patience of a holy and loving Father. Even when discipline was imminent because the children would not listen, God’s reminders of what he had done for them were aimed at saving them in a present conflict by retelling how a previous generation had already learned from such an experience. There was always time to repent and return to God!

   On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, he told his disciples some things about the Holy Spirit because it would only be 50 days after his death that the Spirit would be poured out on the church. One of the things about the Spirit’s ministry was described like this, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). This was telling the apostles how the Holy Spirit would continue helping them as Jesus had already done, but it was also telling the church how the Spirit would help us all, by constantly teaching and reminding us however we need both.

   In God’s kingdom, being reminded of “truth in love” is a good thing. Always. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always in full agreement when they teach us anything new from the Scriptures or remind us of things we were taught in the past that connect with what we are learning each day. We must let ourselves be like little children who delight to learn new things all the time, while constantly being reminded of how everything works together to make us more like our Savior.

   I am a bit curious about how the “face like flint” in Jesus and the “harder than flint” forehead of his servant will apply to anything that comes up this week. However, this lesson has already comforted me about things that have recently taken place.

   The bottom line is that we must constantly remind ourselves of how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. He went through Gethsemane in such sorrow at what he would soon feel of the wrath of God against our sin by praying, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Then he set his “face like flint” to go to the cross, “despising its shame”, but knowing that this is how he would redeem people like us out of our sin so we could become the righteousness of God in him.

   Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would do this seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth. God’s word is telling us to live this way no matter what we face today. And I share this by way of reminder.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Treated Shamefully, But Not Ashamed

I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.
But the Lord GOD helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:6-7)

   I don’t know how early in my walk with God I first heard that people who followed Jesus Christ would be hated by the world, but I do recall “getting it” that this was a fact of life. And it made sense to me that this would mean being treated unfairly by worldlings.

   What made it difficult for me to relate to this was that my first exposure to “unjust suffering” was in my home and so I had trouble calling it what it was. It always felt like I was doing something wrong, or that I wasn’t good enough. It took me a long time to realize that it was actually about Jesus Christ in me. He was hated, so I would face hatred whenever anger was on the rampage.

   A couple of days ago I made the connection between Jesus teaching with authority as pictured in Mark 1 and the prophecy about him in Isaiah 50, “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary” (vs 4). I could relate to this as something Jesus has done for me through his word (the Bible). In fact, that very morning, Jesus was speaking through that Scripture to sustain me “with a word” while I was feeling so weary of the grief of losing people.

   The way this chapter spoke to me today was by showing me Jesus’ example of doing his Father’s will as we see it unfold in his suffering and death. I was blessed to feel the wonder of how Jesus did not turn back from his Father’s will. I could see him in Gethsemane agonizing over what he would do when “For our sake he (the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). I could see him in his farcical trial enduring all the injustices of false accusations, mockings, and a flogging that tore his back to shreds. That was prophesied in Isaiah 50!

   But what was ministering to me was that God had been leading me to endure unjust suffering much earlier than I had ever admitted. And the way he would “sustain with a word him who is weary” this morning was by showing me that all the disgrace and shame that had been heaped on me by others was not mine! It was theirs!

   My encouragement to anyone reading this is to “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3). And this means considering everything Jesus experienced unjustly, sinners expressing their shameful hostility against “the Word” who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and accepting whatever suffering comes our way as we seek to know and do the will of God in everything.

   Jesus is both our example and our encouragement, so let us “not grow weary in doing good” (II Thessalonians 3:13). Instead, “if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name” (I Peter 4:16).

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Be ‘Those Who Are Taught’

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:21-22)

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. (Isaiah 50:4)

   I am fascinated by the connections between Jesus teaching with authority in his ministry and the prophecy that refers to him as one of “those who are taught”. We must come to this with fear and trembling so we take great care and caution not to go “beyond what is written”![1]

   However, this prophecy shows us our Savior coming into the world as “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” so we see him in his humanity attaching to “those who are taught” and standing out as what the Scriptures call “the firstborn” of these people.[2]

   Another connection that is often missed is that when we say “for those who love God all things work together for good,” many people seem to not know what the next sentence says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:28-29).

   In other words, the way God works everything in our lives “for good” means he uses everything to make us more like Jesus. Paul stated it this way in II Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” That is the Christian life, to daily experience becoming more like our Savior.

   As we see and hear of how Jesus continues to build his church throughout the world, every true believer in Jesus Christ is one of these “many brothers” and Jesus alone is the “firstborn” among us no matter where we are, how many are with us, or how many differences threaten our unity. Jesus is head of his church, and if we are members of his body, we are all one in him, one with him, but never him!

   Today (which happens to be Thanksgiving Monday in Canada), I am thankful for the way God is helping me attach to Jesus in this area. He became a human being who is firstborn among “those who are taught” so that I could both learn from him myself and teach others as one who is “taught by God”.

   And, since this now happens for anyone who hears God’s word, it is open to everyone who will spend time both hearing and doing what we are taught. We never know when someone learns from us what Jesus intended to teach us both!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.) 

---

[1] This is something so few Christians seem to know about, that we are exhorted by Paul, “I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another” (1 Corinthians 4:6). Preachers and teachers become “puffed up” when they go beyond what is written with their own distinct teachings, and the church starts to “favor… one against another” by thinking we need to choose which of these distinct teachings we should follow. Paul warned us to stick with what is written, which would make every pastor and teacher the same in their teaching, which would give no reason to treat one better or worse than another (understanding that some of these men simply were never called to be pastors and teachers!).

[2] If you ever hear anyone (like the JWs) promote the idea that if Jesus is called “firstborn” it means he was born, or created, that is bogus. The term “firstborn” refers to the pattern among God’s people where the firstborn son had distinct privileges and responsibilities to care for the family. Each firstborn son was responsible for ensuring that the family line continued seeking God and was given the inheritance to enable them to do so. Once the Jewish people had that picture firmly in their minds of what a firstborn son did, the New Testament uses that imagery to help us picture Jesus as one of us, but the supreme one of us. He was not “born” in the sense that he was created, but he fulfills the imagery of the firstborn son who cares for all his brothers in the greatest way possible, giving them eternal life.

On This Day: How Personal God Gets

   And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:21-22)

   The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. (Isaiah 50:4)

 

   Because I was up so early, I’ve already had my first nap! I’ll get my second right after church time.

   When I was reading the next paragraph on Mark 1, it was really standing out how people were impacted by Jesus’ teaching as having authority. When this was affirmed by Jesus delivering a man from demonization, it was all the more heightened, that Jesus’ ministry and teaching had authority.

   So, I began imagining myself hearing Jesus teach. What would he have sounded like? What would it look like to see “the Word” teaching us in the flesh? What would that spontaneous feeling of awe and wonder feel like to know that a work of God had come to our town?

   And into my head popped a reference that spoke about someone who was taught. I had to look it up! It is in the box above, Isaiah 50:4. It is fascinating enough to think of being “those who are taught”. It has a sense that we have received training that has equipped us for our assignment. We have been taught, trained, prepared.

   But then it is equally amazing to think of Isaiah saying, “The Lord GOD has given me the TONGUE of those who are taught”, meaning that when we are the ones who are taught by God, we know what to teach others. Our tongues can’t keep quiet in making known what we are taught.

   And that’s when I knew God was assuring me that we have this same ministry in the Scriptures as anyone had it in person, whether Isaiah receiving prophecies from Yahweh, or the Jews hearing their Messiah in person. We have the Scriptures as “the word of God”. Paul told us those Scripture are “breathed out by God” (II Timothy 3:16-17). Hebrews said that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The point is that we have God’s word, and it speaks to us today as clearly as Jesus spoke to the crowds in his ministry.

   So, when Jesus quoted Isaiah 50:4, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—‘” (John 6:45), he was showing that God is always teaching his people so we will be taught, or “fully equipped for every good work”, as Paul said.

   I am sure I will be spending a day or two at this viewpoint of Isaiah 50. When I read through it, I discovered it was addressing my life very personally. And since “Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” I am eager to see what these next few mornings do to get me more “taught” than ever.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Discipleship in the Beatitudinal Valley

   And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men”… And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes… And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. (Mark 1:17-28 condensed)

   Somewhere close to two decades ago, I found myself in my first conscious journey through the Beatitudinal Valley. I am sure I had travelled this route before, but I never recognized it for what it was.

   The “Beatitudinal Valley” is the way I picture Jesus’ introduction to his Sermon on the Mount. He presents a list of eight blessings that we now call “the beatitudes”.

   In the journey where this all first stood out to me, I began to see how one beatitude led to the next. Then I saw how the first four beatitudes seemed like making progress down one side of a valley while the second set of four looked like the climb up the other side.

   I also noticed that none of these Beatitudes were “works based”, meaning, it is not, “if I do the first part, God will do the second”.

   Rather, it is a picture of what it looks like for people to be blessed. In other words, all eight blessings are a gift of God’s grace, not a good work God will reward.

   So, this morning, when I first saw how Jesus called the two pairs of brothers to follow him, and how this following him would result in them knowing how to fish for men, and I could see how this turned into the early church at and after the Day of Pentecost being filled with the Spirit and catching net-loads of new coverts, I realized that the grief I was feeling about this was a blessing. It wasn’t something I was doing to earn a badge. It was something I could feel God doing in me.

   For several years, I have been practicing being utterly honest with God about what I think and feel because he can’t transform me if I don’t admit where he is working. In a practical way, I discovered that we cannot mature when we are pretending to be someone we are not. What I found when I focused on this (to be utterly honest with God no matter how it feels) was that God was showing me things inside me I had never brought to him. As I admitted these things, and attached to him about how his word applied to them, I could see God changing me rather than me tweaking my “role”.

   My point is that I needed to see God’s leading in the Beatitudinal Valley far more than focusing on the words and meanings of Jesus’ early training of his disciples. I had to let myself see my poverty of spirit as a soul-winner. I had to mourn how horrible it feels to not see people coming to Christ every day. I had to meekly admit that I could not change this myself but had to surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ to do his will in me. And I had to let myself hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being “fishers of men” with the rest of the church in my community (including the community of cyberspace!).

   And part of the blessing of seeing God work in one’s life this way is to know where it leads. I am on my way to becoming one of “the merciful” who are becoming “pure in heart” as they seek to be “peacemakers” who want everyone in their lives to experience peace with God. And I can see how even persecution is a blessing of God because it shows we are becoming increasingly more like Jesus.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Proclaiming the Good News of God

   Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

   For whatever reason God has in mind, it is really standing out how quickly Mark is leading us through the details of Jesus’ ministry. I love when this happens. The simple reading of Scripture every day makes things so real in one’s mind that patterns stand out like props on God’s stage. And the props are in perfectly composed scenes that drive our attention to the central figure of God’s redemptive work, Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Yesterday, I completed my 102-day journey through a book of false teachings about God’s word.[1] God has used this contrast to increase my own sense of urgency that “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” is “the gospel of God” and must be proclaimed throughout the world so all have the opportunity to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

   It is noteworthy that John the Baptist was in prison at the time Jesus began his ministry. That sets the stage for us to see that there is a cost and a reward to repenting and trusting in Jesus. The cost is that the world will hate us; the reward is that “he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

   In a sense, we are always choosing between immediate gratification in sin with eternal loss in the judgment, or delayed gratification in waiting for Jesus’ return with eternal life when he comes. Yes, we who have received Christ have eternal life from the moment of our conversion, but it is while we live in the foreign land of this world longing for our Forever Home.

   I have seen both the evils of church folk who are nothing like what a disciple of Jesus Christ looks like, and the evils of the world that is intent on continuing Satan’s work of destroying human beings so they never know the joy of being restored to the image and likeness of God’s Son. Both have made me want to know Jesus Christ for real so I can be with him one day forever.

   Jesus himself showed this contrast between his friends and his enemies when he said,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

   He then concluded,

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

   If anyone needs help turning to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please ask someone who has already done this in genuine repentance and faith, or send me a note and I would be happy to tell you more about the one and only Savior of the world!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.) 

---

[1] About 5 ½ months ago I was asked to read the book, “A More Christlike Word”, by Brad Jersak to understand where someone was coming from in their beliefs. The title appalled me that someone could make such an arrogant claim until I discovered he had THREE books in a trilogy dissing God’s word, God, and even the Way of Christ. After my 100+ posts rebutting his claims, it has stood out all the more how glorious “the gospel of God” is. It also makes sense why Satan is working so hard to “steal, kill, and destroy” people’s faith in this gospel.