In2Freedom: May 2015

Friday, May 29, 2015

Considerations ~ The Double-Sided Coin that Cannot Lose Heart

"Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart" (II Corinthians 4:1).

Two things kept Paul from losing heart. One, that he had "this ministry." The other, that he had this ministry, "by the mercy of God." Together, as two sides of the same coin, these blessings of God kept Paul going through every conceivable attack, opposition, and dire circumstance.

"This ministry" was the ministry of reconciliation. God had given us his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to reconcile to himself the people who had preferred sin. People became enemies of God. God loved them. He sent his Son to completely defeat their sin, the curse of sin, the death that followed sin everywhere it went, and the red dragon who promoted sin from the very beginning of time. God's work was so thoroughly successful that Paul had a ministry that reconciled people to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

"By the mercy of God" summarizes Paul's experience of meeting Jesus Christ one day, right in the middle of him taking some of his biggest steps to wipe the Christian faith off the face of the globe. His eyes were opened, he came to faith in Jesus Christ, and he was reconciled to God.

However, not only did Paul experience the mercy of God granting him eternal life in Jesus Christ, but the mercy of God took hold of one of the most angry, violent, opponents of the cross of Jesus Christ, and so transformed him from death to life, that Paul became one of the most unstoppable, joyful, life-filled, gospel-speaking messengers of God's glorious grace in God’s Son.

How would this help us to never lose heart? By receiving the ministry of reconciliation by the mercy of God. God is showing the world mercy as he continues to hold off the coming judgement against all our sin. He continues to testify throughout the world of the mercy of God expressed to us in his Son. When we receive the fullness of this gift of reconciliation with God, thoroughly depending on the mercies of God as our only hope of salvation, we are given a new life in Jesus Christ that defies losing heart.

Yes, heart-losing experiences will seek to crush us. Satan continues to steal, kill, and destroy now as he did in the Garden of Eden. However, the ministry and the mercy of God in reconciliation give us all we need to keep going in life, and keep growing in Jesus.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Home Church Video ~ Working With God Who Works for Our Joy

Have you ever considered that, when God tells his people to, "Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4), he is telling us what he is already working into our lives for his good pleasure? As we continue to apply Paul's exhortation of, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13), to other teachings of the book of Philippians, we find an amazing source of encouragement in God's purposes for our joy.

Join our Home Church in considering what God could be doing right now to bring you into his joy. You should also get some good ideas about how to join him in his work.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ The Need to Be Known is Met in Knowing Christ

During my time with God this morning, a particular “Aha!-Moment” blessed me deep into my heart. As I considered things God was dealing with in my life, broken things that needed the attention of the Great Physician of the soul, I discovered one more thing God was teaching me for my comfort and joy.

The lesson was simple, even though a long time in coming. It was the realization that our felt-need to be “known” is a good thing; in fact, a God-thing. It was as though a fog dissipated in my mind and I could suddenly see that the dysfunctional, sarky, self-saturated, way of trying to be known did not rule out the genuine, God-given, being-like-Jesus, need to be known.

This is typical of so many things in life. It has been coined as throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is when we think we must throw out the whole package because we know something is wrong with it. It is the self-protective way of handling things in our own strength, from our very limited understanding of who we are and what is wrong with us, where we just want to get rid of anything in our lives that is messed-up, and hurts too much.

So, when a great many people know what it is like to be rejected because we were not good enough, and to discover that so few people want to really know us, and to live with that fear of, “if people really knew me they wouldn’t like me,” it is easy to believe that our need to be known must be bad. Needing attention is treated as if it is inherently sinful.

What suddenly fell into place this morning was that all the sarky, self-serving, dysfunctional, desperate ways of trying to get people to know us, and accept us, are clearly in such conflict with the work of God through his Spirit, that something does have to go.

However, it is not our need to be known that must go, but only the survival-skills way of handling our need to be known. It is only the sarky, fleshly, self-dependent way of looking at this need that must change; not because our need to be known is wrong, but because our ways of meeting that need are wrong.

Instead of trying to hide our need, or beat our need to be known into submission (which is really a sarky form of dissociation), or pseudo-crucifying our need to be known, we must crucify the sark’s efforts to meet this need. We must put to death our own strategies for satisfaction. We must come out from under all our self-centered ways of handling our need to be known and stand empty and poor in spirit before the throne of grace where God himself will meet our need with the glorious revelation of knowing us before the beginning of time.

Suddenly it all comes together, past, present, and future, in a glorious message of hope. God “foreknew” his children in eternity;[1] he gives us eternal life, which is to know him now and forever;[2]and he promises us an eternal future in the fullness of his joy where “I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[3]

All this tells me that the felt-need to be known is his idea (hence why babies seek this out from infancy). There is something in the way that the Triune God knows each other, the intimate, constant, fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that is replicated into us so that we have the same need to be in fellowship where we are known.[4]

Again, this is not the dysfunctional, counterfeit, pendulum-extreme, ways of handling this need. It is the admission that, underneath all the self-protective, and self-dependent, ways of handling the longing to be known, and underneath all the hurts, and rejections, and failures, that have made so many people feel their need to be known was sinful, shameful, disgusting, and reprehensible, is something that GOD MADE!

It is God who says, “But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”[5]It is in God’s book that it is written, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God…”[6]It is God who “has made known his salvation.”[7]It is God who made himself known to Israel “in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”[8]God promised, “So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”[9]

While I can see that God has been working in my life about this for a long time, this morning’s, “What’s Under That?” experience brought me to see that any sarky strategies for trying to be known, and trying to hide from the hurt of people not wanting to know me, will always fail because they are of the flesh.

Instead, I accept that I must acknowledge to God my poverty of spirit in this area of feeling known. I must submit to the Holy Spirit in whatever ways he brings me to mourn things that have happened to me to stir up sarky dysfunctional strategies of handling my need to be known, and to mourn my sarky-dependence that has kept me from having this need met first in Christ, and also among his brothers. I acknowledge that I cannot fix the deep wounds that have surrounded this God-designed need to be known, nor the painful experience of my own failures at meeting this need. Instead, I welcome this gracious gift of God that stirs up a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of knowing God in God’s knowing me.

In eternity, I will know as fully as I have been known. Today, I put aside sarky strategies, and polish up the brass mirror through which I seem to see so dimly,[10] accepting that even today’s little bit I come to know, and feel known, is described by God as, “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”[11]

And, since this transforming into the image of Jesus Christ from one degree of glory to another can only happen in the Spirit, denying the sark the right to meet this need is one side of a very good thing.[12] The other side is to follow Jesus under the cross of salvation, through which I have come to know God who has always known me.[13]

So, do you feel an irresistible need to be known? That is a good thing. Are you ready for Jesus Christ to handle that for you? That’s right, another good thing.

[1] Romans 8:28-30

[2] John 17:3

[3] I Corinthians 13:12; Psalm 16:11

[4] I am not writing this to the exclusion of knowing others, or seeking their best interests as Scripture teaches. This is only a matter of being able to focus on one thing at a time, in this case, God ministering to me about my need to be known.

[5] 1 Corinthians 8:3

[6] Galatians 4:9

[7] Psalm 98:2

[8] Ezekiel 20:9

[9] Ezekiel 38:23

[10] I Corinthians 13:12

[11] II Corinthians 3:18

[12] Just a reminder that my use of the word “sark” is a preferred way of speaking of “the flesh.” “Sark” is a transliteration of the Greek word translated “flesh” in the English Scriptures.

[13] When Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), he introduced the life that would later be described so thoroughly by Paul in the book of Romans. Denying ourselves means giving up life in the flesh, and taking up Jesus’ cross means to live in the Spirit through the redemptive work Jesus’ accomplished at Calvary. We are called to a life that no longer depends on self, or sark, to do the right things, but depends on the life of the Spirit that is ours through the cross. It is in this life of the Spirit that we follow Christ into an ever-deepening experience of knowing God in his knowing of us.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Pastoral Ponderings ~ The This/And Fellowship That Replaces Either/Or Exclusion

There is one “either/or” scenario that never sits right with me. It is characterized by statements like, “It’s all about me,” vs, “It’s not about you.” It is the belief that the highest experience of knowing God involves the deepest experience of losing ourselves. Obviously, if we are only able to be about one person at a time, we will either be about Christ, or we will be about ourselves.

At times, this Either/Or exclusivity is validated with John the Baptist’s expression that, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”[1] The sense is that we must choose between whether it is about us, or whether it is about Jesus (whatever “it” is).

When we take a step back from misapplied quotes like the words of John the Baptist, we discover that the Bible is not written in Either/Or terms. It is written in a mindset of fellowship that can only be understood as This/And. Scripture tells us that there is a “this” we can focus on at the same time as there is an “and” that goes along with it every single time.

John 15:11 gives us a wonderful demonstration of this. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” When a disciple is conscious that Jesus is speaking, he is also conscious that his own ears, and heart, are hearing. When people are conscious that Jesus is speaking, but with no consciousness that they are hearing, we call them deaf.

In this relationship where we are conscious of Jesus speaking, and conscious of ourselves hearing, there is a wonderful thing that happens. Through receiving Jesus’ words in the conscious-of-each-other way of fellowship, Jesus’ joy may be in us, and our own joy may be full.

It is impossible for us to have Jesus’ joy in us and not be conscious we have Jesus’ joy in us. In Jesus’ own words, we are able to be conscious that his joy is in us, and that our own joy is filled to the full. Knowing the joy of Jesus means knowing our own joy in Jesus at the same time. We cannot “rejoice in the Lord always,”[2] without knowing we are rejoicing, and that it is in our Lord and Savior that our joy is filling up.

Jesus was not introducing a distinctive characteristic that would sometimes happen, but one that is universal, all the time, for every Christian, in every situation. We would always be able to have an experience of Jesus Christ where his joy and our joy were fully conscious of each other at the same time.

This This/And focus begins in the very first chapter of the Bible. Genesis 1 begins with, “In the beginning God…”[3] and leads to the final work of creation in which, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”[4] From that point on, everything God’s book reveals to us is a relationship between God and man in which both are always fully aware of each other.

Of course, sin came into the picture very quickly and ruined the fellowship.[5] However, God’s work of redemption continues to tell us how much God is focused on us in order that we can know him in his knowing of us. We cannot dissociate from how we feel when we set our minds and hearts on him, since focusing on his glory causes all kinds of good and wonderful feelings to take place inside us. We cannot delight ourselves in the LORD without also feeling that he is satisfying us on the inside with the real desires of our hearts.[6]

Why is this so important to me? Because the Either/Or mindset robs us of the personal experience of our joy filling up as we focus on Jesus’ words that fill us with his joy. If we think we must deny our joy while focusing on his joy, we lose the gift of God so graciously given to us. How can we so focus on God’s work that we are unaware of ourselves when God’s work is for our joy?

Think of it this way: God the Father and God the Son are always fully aware of each other. They always know each other. They know and are known all the time, in a level of perfection that we cannot comprehend.

The Triune God made us in their image (note the plural “OUR image and likeness” of Genesis 1:26-27). Their image includes relationship in the very essence of who God is. None of the members of the Godhead, Holy Spirit included, are ever unaware of themselves in their being aware of the other two. They share a God-consciousness that is supposed to be in us as well. God so loved the world that he gave us his Son in order that we would not perish but have eternal life,[7] and Jesus said that eternal life is to know God the Father and God the Son.[8]

Which means that, Jesus wants us to know that his joy is in us, and he wants us to feel our joy rising to the full. It isn’t just about his joy, and it isn’t just about our joy. It is a fellowship in which, when his sheep hear his voice, his words cause his joy to enter us, and permeate us through and through, resulting in us being fully aware that our own joy is coming to life, and growing, and maturing.

In the same way as a branch abides in the vine, and the vine sends life into the branch, the believer in Jesus Christ is always aware of himself and God at the same time. We are conscious of how we work out our salvation with fear and trembling as we are also conscious of how God is working in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure.[9]

Whether we think of Isaiah knowing how he felt as he witnessed the glorious holiness of God,[10] or Peter being fully conscious of what he felt inside himself the moment he saw Jesus looking at him after the rooster crowed,[11]or Job regretting that he had ever spoken a word questioning God the moment that God began speaking to him,[12] or the “sinful” woman knowing the salty release of her tears as she came into the house overwhelmed with her love for Jesus,[13] or how Jacob felt while wrestling with the angel of the LORD and his hip suddenly went out of joint,[14] or the way David felt in himself as he poured out his heart to God in songs of worship,[15] the consistent picture in Scripture is that, ever since Jesus breathed life into the corpse he had made out of the dust of the earth,[16] man’s consciousness of God has always made us conscious of ourselves at the same time.[17]

Some time ago, while completing a series on the first chapter of Genesis, I suddenly realized that there was a distinct message in the creation account that began with, “in the beginning God,”[18] and ended with God creating man in his own image and likeness.[19] The message about God was that he is the center of everything, and the message about man was that we are the center of his attention.

Ever since that time, I have been growing in my understanding and appreciation of the fellowship that God wants with his people. John describes it as, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”[20] The apostles wrote the churches so that everyone could share in a fellowship with each other, and with the Father and Son, at the same time. John continued writing this letter with many assurances of how we could know we were part of this wonderful fellowship. He wanted us to experience the feeling, the certainty, of knowing we had fellowship with God.

And then John tells us what he was aiming for in his letter. He said, “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”[21]As we saw earlier, Jesus had told John, along with the other apostles, that the things he had spoken to them on this night of his arrest were for his joy to be in them, and their joy to be full. John fulfilled his apostolic ministry by writing those things that would complete the joy of Jesus’ brothers.

The reason we cannot separate our joy from Jesus’ joy is because God created us to be in his image, and in fellowship with him. The more conscious we become of him, the more conscious we become of our own joy in him.

This also explains why so many people talk about facing deep, inner troubles as soon as they begin opening up their hearts to God. The explanation? That Jesus, in order to bring us to have wonderful fellowship in his joy, must bless us with the consciousness of our poverty of spirit, and bring us to mourn anything that is empty of knowing him, and lead us to that meekness that agrees with him that we can do nothing to fix what is wrong within our souls, and to awaken within us a hunger and a thirst for the righteousness we see in him, joyful as it is, only experienced by faith in him and his salvation.

When we have felt this transformational work, what I refer to as the Beatitudinal Valley, we understand why we must feel the weight of our distance from God if we ever want to know what closeness feels like. We must feel the weight of our emptiness if we will ever know the satisfaction of fullness. We must know what poverty of spirit feels like on our way to experiencing the richness of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

I will leave it at that for now. I hope that you can see that knowing God is not a matter of being conscious of him and unconscious of ourselves. To know God in the eternal life he has given us means that the more we truly know him, the more we know that we know him. He wants us to be fully aware that we are his beloved children so that we are able to imitate the wonderful gift of love he has given us in his Son.[22]

So, seek to enjoy God with all your heart. Listen to Jesus’ words so that his joy can be in you, and your joy can be full. Read I John (along with all the apostolic letters, of course) and see what fellowship you can have with the apostles in their writing that brings us into deeper and better fellowship with the Father and the Son, and an ever increasing awareness of how wonderfully good this fellowship is.

One day, any experiences of this fellowship of joy will be superseded by the perfections of heaven where, as Paul put it, “then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[23]The best thing to do while waiting for that grand crescendo eternity of knowing God is seek to know him so fully now that we cannot separate how much we are feeling Jesus’ joy, and how much we are feeling our own. God’s will is that both happen at the same time, so let’s enjoy them both rather than trying to decide which one to focus on.

[1] John 3:30

[2] Philippians 4:4

[3] Genesis 1:1

[4] Genesis 1:26-27

[5] Genesis 3

[6] Psalm 37:4

[7] John 3:16

[8] John 17:3

[9] Philippians 2:12-13

[10] Isaiah 6:1-5

[11] Luke 22:60-62

[12] Job 40:3-5

[13] Luke 7:36-50

[14] Genesis 32:22-32

[15] I’m quite sure that any of David’s psalms would do.

[16] Genesis 2:7; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17

[17] Who can enter into the beauty of Psalm 8:1-9 without feeling wonderful things at the same time as consciously recognizing wonderful things in God?

[18] Genesis 1:1

[19] Genesis 1:26-27

[20] I John 1:3

[21] I John 1:4

[22] Ephesians 5:1-2

[23] I Corinthians 13:12

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Considerations ~ The Good Work God Began, Continues, and Completes

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Here is a beautiful expression of the three glorious doctrines of our salvation: justification, sanctification, and glorification.

“BEGAN A GOOD WORK”: God began his work in us by justification by faith, bringing us into the salvation that delivers us from our sin, removes us from all the judgment of God against our sin, and into the fellowship with God we were created for in the beginning.

“WILL BRING IT”: God continues his work of restoring us to his image and likeness through our sanctification by faith. Our becoming like Jesus is not our work to do for God, but God’s work to make us like his Son.

“TO COMPLETION”: God will complete all the work he planned and purposed from before the beginning of time in the final step of our transformation known as glorification. On that day when we see Jesus as he is, we shall become just like him (I John 3:2).

Paul says this another way when he writes this wonderful encouragement of truth:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).

While the believer in Jesus Christ is called to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10), it is always meant in relation to all the work God is doing. God began the work, he brings it along, and he completes it, all in fulfillment of his glorious blueprint to make us like himself in true righteousness and holiness.

Our place is to, “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), “live by the Spirit,” and “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), because God is doing his work through his Spirit.

Considerations ~ The Gospel Fellowship Between God’s Work and Ours

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

LEGALISM: sees only, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” The work is all ours. Once God gives us our salvation, it is up to us to work it out.

CHEAP GRACE: sees only, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” The work is all God’s; nothing is required of us.

GOSPEL LIVING: sees that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,” and responds with the obedient faith of the “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” variety.

This is at least part of the reason that Paul would say, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5).

Paul had given up his life of legalistic good works, and he had no room for the cheap grace that uses the gospel to justify sin. Instead, he rejoiced that these people shared a partnership in the gospel, the one thing that transforms us into the same image as Jesus Christ “from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18).

Friday, May 22, 2015

Pastoral Pings ~ A Forgiving Father Who Returns us to Joy

This morning, as I was continuing to ponder the wonders of rejoicing in the Lord always,[1] another verse on joy popped into my head with the words, “restore to me the joy of your salvation.” When I looked up the verse, I realized that the context was David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. The whole verse reads, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”^{^[2]}

David had lost his joy because he had fallen into sin.[3] Along with his repentance, he acknowledged that there was only one way that he could return to joy, and that was if God restored his joy. Except, that it wasn’t just returning David to any kind of joy whatsoever. David wanted to feel the “joy of your salvation” once again.

Many of us know what it is like to feel satisfied in something we have accomplished. Even just making a good choice to do a good thing that results in a good effect for someone else, can leave us feeling happy with the outcome.

But, what about when we have sinned so grievously that we have no defense even attempting to justify our actions? What about when we have done something so grievous that the whole world knows we have sinned, that we have violated the relationship with God in which we have publicly boasted for a long time?

David’s boast was that there was still the possibility of joy in God’s salvation. He did not expect God to overlook his sin, but he did expect God to save him from his sin. He did not come to God with all the sacrifices he was willing to do to make up for what he had done wrong. He honored God by expressing that there was only one thing that could return him to joy, and that was if God exercised everything to do with divine salvation from sin.

I urge you to read the whole of Psalm 51 for your benefit.[4] You will see an overwhelming picture of David’s trust, and faith, and hope in God cleansing him, forgiving him, and restoring him to joy. It is the same hope as the believer in Jesus Christ today, except that now we understand God’s gift of salvation comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

David clearly knew God was gracious and merciful to sinners like himself. The Psalm-writer declared in Psalm 130: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”[5]All the leaders of Israel’s worship knew that “you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”[6]

What really stood out to me today is that, when we are called to “rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice,”[7]the emphasis is to rejoice “in the Lord.” The world, the flesh, and the devil, are intent to “steal and kill and destroy”[8] not only our joy, but our whole salvation! However, our constant focus in the Lord Jesus Christ constantly restores us to joy, and gives us cause for rejoicing in him always.

If our concept of returning to joy does not center on God’s gift of salvation, even a whole lifetime of worldly happiness will be like dew that disappears in the morning sun. Only when we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and his salvation for his brothers, can we know what it is like for God to return us to joy.

After all, it is still completely true of the One True God that, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”[9]Of course, such a Father as this is able to return us to joy, both now, and forevermore. Even from sin.

[1] Philippians 4:4

[2] Psalm 51:12

[3] II Samuel 11:1-12:23

[4] Psalm 51:1-19 (see a Bible study sheet on this Psalm here: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/05/bible-study-forgiving-god-who-restores.html)

[5] Psalm 130:3-4

[6] Psalm 86:5

[7] Philippians 4:4

[8] John 10:10

[9] Psalm 16:11

Bible Study ~ A Forgiving God Who Restores our Joy (Psalm 51)

A Forgiving God Who Restores our Joy

(Psalm 51)

Psalm 51 contains such a heart-wrenching, hope-building, joy-restoring, expression of prayer to God, that everyone would benefit from taking a journey through these words of life (no matter how many days it takes to do so). Here is a way to get your thoughts focused on what David wrote regarding his own brokenhearted situation many years ago, and how God continues to use these very words to help the brokenhearted approach him today.

I encourage you to begin with the two thoughts that follow each section. Watch for other questions and answers that come up, and consider starting a journal to follow prayerfully where God leads. If you would like a word-processor (.rtf) copy of this study to give room to expand each verse with your own considerations, click on the link below.[1]

¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.