Pastoral Pings ~ The Word and Testimony of Pleasing God

          Two Scriptures came together in an illuminating way this morning. 

“and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”[1] “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”[2]

          No matter which part of God’s book we consider, there is both a universal and unique aspect to how we receive it. On one side, the only way anyone can relate to God’s word and his will is “by the blood of the Lamb.” Only through faith in Jesus Christ, believing in our hearts that Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead, and confessing with our mouths that Jesus Christ is most certainly King of kings and Lord of lords,[3] can we receive all that God has spoken.[4]

          On the other side, each of us receives God’s word in the uniqueness of who we are as persons, and how God has chosen to place us into the body of Christ. For that reason, each child of God has “their testimony,” the unique story of how the universally true words of God, and the universally the same redemptive work of Jesus Christ, work in each person’s life to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.

          All that to say that, when it comes to discerning “what is pleasing to the Lord,” there is both the universal reality of what is pleasing to the Lord, and the unique way in which God leads each of his children to learn these things, and grow up in them.[5]

          In my personal place in the body of Christ, joining with believers around the world to discern what is pleasing to our God and Savior, God constantly confronts things that have not yet arrived at the “pleasing to the Lord” status. We must clarify that this does not mean our God is upset and disappointed with us until we get it right,[6] but that we must constantly learn and discern what pleases God in our own personal journeys with him,[7] and in the distinctive situations and circumstances we face in our present world.

          For me, that means facing how a lifetime of trying to please people in order to keep them from getting angry simply doesn’t fit my relationship with God. Trying to make people happy so they won’t hurt me with their anger is an expression of the flesh (the sark), that way of operating independent of God and his Spirit.[8] The call to discern what pleases the Lord does not call to our fleshly, self-protective strategies to find ways to make God happy so he won’t get angry at us.

          Instead, for the church to discern what pleases the Lord, we are talking about the poor in spirit who have mourned their sinful condition, meekly acknowledged that they cannot fix what is wrong with them, and felt the hunger and thirst for a righteousness they do not have.[9] Once people enter the kingdom of heaven, feel the comfort of God healing their sinful hearts, experience what Jesus does to fix what we have messed up with sin, and feel the righteousness of faith that satisfies their hunger and thirst, seeking to know and understand what is pleasing to our Father, our Brother, and our Helper, is all about sharing in their joy.

          My life speaks of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that saves people like me. It also speaks of the unique things God must do for us fear-based people-pleasers who need to learn that discerning what is pleasing to the Lord is not about making God happy. It is about learning the things that are pleasing in God’s sight so that we can enjoy the same pleasures.

          After all, what is true of our God is 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.”[10]

If fullness of joy resides in his presence, and he is surrounded by unending and unlimited pleasures, wouldn’t we want him to make this path of life known to us so that we can share in his joy? I know that makes perfect sense to people like me.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Ephesians 5:10

[2] Revelation 12:11

[3] John 1:10-13; Romans 10:9-13; I Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16

[4] Hebrews 9:22 (the context of Hebrews 9:11-28 shows how Jesus’ blood does what no animal sacrifice could ever accomplish)

[5] In a similar way as arithmetic is universally true, but each student must learn it for themselves, and in the uniqueness of their personhood, skills, and limitations, so our relationship with God brings together what is universally and absolutely true about God for every human being, and the unique testimony of how we have come to Christ, and the things God is doing in our lives to cause us to grow up in Christ.

[6] I deal with this in my home church video: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/07/home-church-videos-god-who-returns-us.html

[7] Personal in the sense that we are each members of the body of Christ learning things for ourselves, and yet in intimate and personal fellowship with the whole body of Christ.

[8] While I am very sensitive, gentle, and patient when it comes to addressing the self-protective strategies we developed as children, it is still true that we learned and developed those things while living in the flesh, and are now able to learn new ways of thinking and living in the Holy Spirit.

[9] Based on Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-6

[10] Psalm 16:11