On This Day: To Glory in Seeing Jesus’ Glory

   The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:22-24)

   I was in grade 8 when my dad came home from work with a box of ice skates for all us kids. I quickly fell in love with skating (after the embarrassment of knocking some cute girls over while learning to skate!). The next year I joined hockey and was hooked.

   At the same time (coincidentally) my uncle had opened a sports’ shop with a special focus on hockey. I was able to take my full $114.00 from strawberry picking and buy all my hockey equipment, skates included! I never did learn what kind of “family deal” my dad got, or whether he paid anything extra behind the scenes. All I knew is that hockey was now my favorite activity.

   As a promotional opportunity for his store, my uncle bought 4 season tickets to Vancouver Canucks’ games, and I had a couple of opportunities to attend games in the early 70’s while the Canucks were in their infancy. I know what it felt like to be absolutely fascinated with the on-ice play, the feeling of glory whenever the Canucks put the puck in the net, and particularly when they won a game.

   All that to say that Jesus talking about glory is not a foreign concept. People have no problem feeling glory, expressing glory, delighting in the glory of their favorite people or teams. The ONLY problem they have with glory is attaching to Jesus’ glory even though he is our Creator, and the only Savior of the world.

   What gripped my heart this morning is that Jesus had a “desire”. It isn’t that this brings him down to my level, since desires have been the wreck of me on one side, and a driving force on the other. So, to think of Jesus having pure desire, holy desire, righteous desire, good desire, is fascinating.

   QUESTION: Do I have a right to put myself in the picture? When Jesus expresses to the Father his desire “that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,” do I really have the right to include myself in this?

   ANSWER: Absolutely! We are still in the paragraph Jesus introduced with, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word”. I am one of the people who have come to believe in Jesus through “their word”. Their word is the New Testament. The four gospel accounts. The history of the book of Acts. The instructional leadership of the letters to the churches. The apostles’ writings have been guiding and directing me for six decades.

   This means that Jesus’ “desire” is for me “also”. I have been given to Jesus by the Father. And Jesus’ desire, even before going to the cross, was that I would be included in that great numberless multitude that will be with him in glory glorying in his glory!

   Over my decades, I have watched so many people either fall away from the church, or slink back to the safety of institutional religion, because they believe they were failed by other “Christians”. 

   At the same time, even as I have been failed by so many church-folk (including the first pastor I worked under who got so angry at me for asking questions that he wouldn’t talk to me and was later caught in adultery!), it has all fallen into the “for those who love God all things work together for good” reality that brings me to today’s viewpoint of Jesus wanting me to be with him enjoying the overflowing joy of his glory.

   My primary reason for sharing this is to encourage anyone who has been hurt by the church, discouraged by people who don’t want to be with you, heartbroken by sinful actions from people you thought were loved ones, however any of us would describe anything that entices us to stop following Jesus, to keep before you what Jesus himself said:

   “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

   How do we know if we are one of the people Jesus’ is speaking of? By examining whether we have responded to the command of the gospel to repent and believe in Jesus. If we have confessed with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord”, and believed in our hearts that God raised him from the dead (meaning all that these things mean in the New Testament), we are saved. We have eternal life. We will be with Jesus forever in the new heavens and the new earth.

   If you are one of those people, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the GLORY THAT IS TO BE REVEALED TO US” (Romans 8:18). 

   So, instead of turning from Jesus because of hurts or disappointments, turn to Jesus WITH those hurts and disappointments, admit and confess how inglorious they are, and tell Jesus how much it fills your heart with wonder that he “desires” to have you with him in his eternal home to rejoice in the constant glory of his glory.

 

© 2026 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.)

 

A Poem of Hope When the Sorrows are Strong

    I just came across this poem I had written four years ago. As I reminisced my way through it, I realized that the feelings I was expressing then are just as familiar now. I thought I might as well share it online in the hope it would encourage someone else to walk in hope when the sorrows are most overwhelming.

The following introduction and the poem were written on August 6, 2021.

    “Over the years I have heard many people resist bringing their childhood traumas to God because they fear that if they ever started opening their hearts they would be stuck in a flood of overwhelming emotions for months or years. What I have witnessed is God bringing us into relationship with himself where he will prepare us for looking at things, bring them up when it is time, and quickly comfort us and give us peace about each thing we need to face. And today I just had to try writing a poem about it.”

 

A Poem of Hope When the Sorrows are Strong
 
In a moment of grief between laughter and tears
(the quiet that comes before morning appears),
An old wave of sorrow came over the rise,
And poured down the valley where the secret heart cries.
 
The sun would soon come with the duties of life,
Calling for realness in comforts and strife,
And the fresh wave of sorrow that threatened the soul,
Had only this moment to wield its control.
 
The shadows of night gave their nod to the grief,
While the Morning Star shone with its promised relief,
But the flooding of sorrow felt too much to bear
For the heart that was sure it would always be there.
 
While dragons breathed fire and demons screamed, “Fear!”
The soul in the darkness felt no friend was near.
And so, what was known of the all-present past,
Boasted to love, “I will surely outlast!”
 
But the first beam of sunshine to hit the far hills,
Welcomed the Father who does as he wills.
And the secret heart crying in shadows of night,
Had hope that its Savior would make all things right.
 
So, the brightening hues of the promised relief,
Broke the grip of the night that had flooded with grief.
And the child who had thought that the darkness would stay
Walked into the light of the Father’s new day.
 
“But what of the monsters that come in the night?”
The little child asked while enjoying the light.
“They are but a dream that is gone when you wake,
And I love to slay monsters for my own great name’s sake!”
 
“So walk in the light of this gracious new day,
And listen so well to the words that I say.
As they are the truth that will set your soul free,
For even in sorrow, you will still be with me!”
 
Poem © 2021 Monte Vigh (August 6, 2021)

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

 

On This Day: When Today’s Nicodemus Meets Jesus

   Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:9-12)

   For a long time, I have pondered how different modern “apologetics” is from what I read in Scripture. The whole idea of apologetics comes from the Greek word “apologia”, which means to make a defense. Peter spoke of this when he wrote about “always being prepared to make a defense (apologia) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

   As I have considered that Peter was writing to persecuted Christians, not contemporary Bible students, and that the New Testament is full of examples of what it means to give a defense for the reason we have hope, it has stood out that the biblical focus is not proofs for creation, proofs for the worldwide flood, proofs for the divine authorship of any particular book of the Bible (all good things), but on explaining what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and then watching how it divides the “few” from the “many”.

   Quite recently, when I went through the book of Acts, I was drawn to the way Paul shared the good news in Athens where the people had no knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures or what Jesus of Nazareth had done to secure our redemption. It was very instructive to see what Paul did and did not emphasize. I could see that he stated the truth of what we all must deal with in relation to God, and then met with those who believed.

   Now I am in John 3 where Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus is showing me how the Messiah addressed what this “teacher of Israel” needed to hear. And what I conclude today is that Jesus wasn’t doing left-brain apologetics. He wasn’t matching proofs to challenges.

   Instead, he was seeing the soul-condition of a man who was not alive. This teacher of Israel was still dead in his trespasses and sins.

   And THAT attracts my attention. How did Jesus speak to a man who saw nothing more than signs that proved Jesus must be from God in some way he couldn’t figure out?

   Answer: Nicodemus, “You must be born again”!

   How does that explain the hope that is within me?

   The reason for the hope within me is that I have been born again!

   How have I been born again?

   Well, let me tell you a story…

   And on we go into the “good news of great joy” that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

   Let me tell you what Jesus Christ did for us through his sinless life, his horrifying death, and his liberating resurrection. 

    Let me tell you about how “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and how the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 came “to seek and to save the lost”.

   Let me tell you how “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21), and how “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

   And let me share the wonder that “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) so that my hope is perfectly defensible. It makes perfect sense that I would have hope in Jesus’ return, in my resurrection, in me becoming like him when I see him as he is, when you list all the things that God did for us through Jesus Christ so that the faith I have in the present time is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

   Which brings me back to this whole soul-condition stuff. Jesus came to give “rest to our souls”. That rest includes the justification by grace through faith I have already experienced upon being born again by the Spirit. It rests on the sanctification by grace through faith whereby I am presently being “transformed into the same image (as Jesus) from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). And it rests on the promised glorification by grace through faith by which I will finally be “glorified with him” who secured our so great salvation.

   How do I see Jesus doing this with Nicodemus?

   The central thing is that Jesus spoke exactly what Nicodemus needed to hear to be born again. We can’t improve on that.

   What do our present-day Nicodemuses need to hear? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

   And when they complain that this doesn’t make sense, what do we say? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

   And how do we explain why we aren’t going to argue in earthly ways? Because “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Which means, arguing in the flesh only produces fleshliness. Earthly thinking. It goes nowhere. That’s why Paul warned Timothy not to waste time in such things.

   And when the Nicodemuses still defend their right to unbelief, we echo Jesus’ words, “You must be born again.”

   This continues into Nicodemus asking, “How can these things be?” Isn’t that a perfect time to go into contemporary apologetics and explain all the reasons we know the Bible is true? There may be some room for this, considering most people we will talk with don’t know their Bibles like Nicodemus did.

   However, while contemporary apologetics seems to aim at helping people understand, Jesus’ focus was on helping Nicodemus see that in his soul-condition he did not understand. Jesus made a point of it. He made Nicodemus admit, at least in his mind, that he was a teacher of Israel and did “not understand these things”. He pointed out that his problem was, “you do not receive our testimony”.

   And today, I have been meditating on this: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12).

   What stands out is that Jesus did not try telling Nicodemus earthly things to help him accept heavenly things. Rather, he exposed the sinner’s soul, that his inability to understand the earthly things made the heavenly things impossible.

   This wasn’t to show him it was impossible, but that it was impossible for HIM, for Nicodemus, for the man who was not born again!

   And just in case anyone is wondering if I would turn this into a system whereby I develop my own brand of apologetics, no, I’m not interested in that. Neither am I suggesting that the apologetics that can explain all the background information to other religions, to atheists, agnostics, and skeptics is without value.

   All I am sharing is that, when we look at how Jesus did things, his work was to address people’s soul-condition in a Beatitudinal way that would cause them to feel poverty of spirit, to mourn their sin and ignorance, and to meekly resign to their own helplessness and the authority of Jesus Christ. Why? So they would hunger and thirst for righteousness that is satisfied while every man-centered quest for righteousness is constantly denied.

   Ever since I began factoring in the Beatitudes into everything God is doing with me and others, it is apparent that Jesus was doing this all the time. He wanted Nicodemus to feel his poverty of spirit. This would not come from earthly arguments about how we know the Bible is true, but from the admission in a sinner’s heart that he or she does not have eternal life.

   I am eager to see how John 3:16 will sound to me a few verses from now when I get to it. But right now, do any of us need to admit that we are not born again and that is why we are always looking for signs instead of attaching to Jesus’ words?

   Do we need to agree with Jesus’ assessment that, for all our searching, our problem is that we do not understand (because we are not born again)?

   Do we need a reminder that we have already repeatedly NOT received the testimony of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the apostles in what they have written of the kingdom of God?

   And do we need to admit that we have struggled to understand the earthly things (like evidence for the Bible’s divine authorship), and that is why we are having so much trouble accepting the heavenly things?

   I know I have a propensity to say far too much. But I hope this little bit explains how Jesus seems to focus on exposing people’s soul-condition rather than giving left-brain evidences that prove the Bible can be trusted. If people aren’t born again, they cannot see beyond the “signs”, the external evidences of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

   As I’m watching Jesus’ ministry to Nicodemus, I have in mind that there is good reason to believe he did become a disciple in the end. He was one of the men who took Jesus’ body down from the cross and placed it in the tomb. But I’m also watching how Jesus shared the good news with him in a Beatitudinal way so that, instead of left-brain arguments, he gave right-brain attachment to show that Nicodemus did not have attachment to God. And Jesus’ signs weren’t enough to give him that. He needed to be born again.

   Centuries ago, Augustine described how he had to believe to understand rather than understand to believe. He was expressing the new birth. He had to be born again to “get it” about everything else, and that is what we see Jesus doing for Nicodemus back in the day, and us in our time.

   If none of this is clear to you, take the time to read the first two chapters of John to see how they lead to Jesus’ visit with Nicodemus in chapter 3. Perhaps you need the same journey he took to come to know Jesus for real.

 

 

© 2025 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: Making No Apologies for an Apologetic Defense

 

   “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

   And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said… (Acts 22:1-2)

   As my post to the left states, I had spent considerable time yesterday addressing for myself and anyone listening that there is a way Jesus wants us to rejoice when we are slandered instead of defending ourselves. So, when I turned the chapter to Paul’s message to the angry audience, I had to chuckle at his use of the word “defense” in reference to what he had to say.

   When I looked up the meaning of the word in Greek, I discovered it was the familiar word “apologia” from which we get the idea of “apologetics”. This is not the making of an apology, as though we are sorry for offending anyone with our sharing of the gospel.

   Rather, it means, “defense (legal) n. — the speech act of attempting to prove some act or belief to be reasonable, necessary, or right; especially occurring in a court of law” (Bible Sense Lexicon). With this one word, everyone listening understood that Paul wanted to make a legal defense of his ministry to the Gentiles, showing that he did nothing to disparage the law of Moses as the slanderers claimed.

   One of the threads in my journey of growing up in Christ has included the discovery that I had learned a self-protective way of making a defense. It was conditioned into me because I was constantly being traumatized by accusations of failing, doing wrong, not measuring up, when I knew that I had done none of the above. I knew the accusations were unjust, so I would have arguments in my mind about why I was not guilty of the charges angrily levelled against me. Sometimes I would take a chance and argue my case, but, as I think of it, it wasn’t when I was being attacked personally, but when someone else in the family was the target. Then I could be quite defensive!

   It has been around 50 years since I developed those self-protective strategies. Since then, I have had to learn that anything to do with self-protection, self-justification, self-indulgence, or self-centeredness is contrary to Christ. What, then, is Paul’s example in making a defense that uses the specific word “apologia” as a legal defense of his teaching?

   I know this will become clear in what I explore next (in Paul’s speech), but my first thought was what Peter said in I Peter 3. I will share the longer section here because it explains what it looks like for all us everyday disciples to follow Paul’s example.

   But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. (I Peter 3:14-17)

  In this paragraph, Peter affirms Jesus’ words that we are to consider ourselves blessed when we suffer unjustly (see the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12). However, he calls us to “make a defense” using the same word as the apostle Paul. The key is in the focus of our defense: “a reason for the hope that is in you”.

   I have not done much studying of the early history of the church outside of what is written in Scripture. I am not sure how making a defense of our hope as the apostles meant it developed into what we now call “apologetics”. Today’s apologetics seems like a calling for gifted men, while Peter spoke as though every believer could make a defense (apologia) of the hope we have been given in Jesus Christ.

   Whatever I will learn in examining Paul’s defense in Acts 22 will include a mix of Paul’s unique calling. But what I learn about how every believer can give to others a defense of our faith comes down to the “reason for the hope that is in you” as is clearly taught in Scripture.

   In other words, if we have opportunity to share with others why we have hope in Jesus Christ, we do not need an apologetics degree in how to prove the Bible is the word of God, or how we know the Bible has not been corrupted over the years, or how to answer every claim of contradictions presented by skeptics. Some people are gifted in that, but it is not the way every believer is to give the reason for their hope in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Instead, when I picture the everyday Christians of the first century being asked why they had hope in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah/Christ, the reasons they gave would be the biblical ones. It would be sharing what Jesus did for us on the cross that gave us our hope of eternal life. It would include sharing whichever of the prophecies we could remember that were clearly fulfilled in his coming. And it would most certainly revolve around how the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives us the absolute assurance that everyone who believes in him will also be raised up to be with the Lord forever.

   I do listen to the apologists of our day who can show how the Bible stands up to the evolutionary religion, to the Bart Ehrman kind of skeptics, to antagonists who try to hide their sins behind problems with the Bible, and to Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I respect the truly biblical ones who are gifted to share the good news with people in all these different backgrounds and cultures.

   However, I do not believe that’s what Peter had in mind when he called us to always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us. I believe he was talking about how every Christian can state the reasons that we have hope in Christ according to the Scriptures.

   And, with that in mind, I am quite sure that Paul’s defense in Jerusalem will help us everyday Christians in today’s world share the reasons for our hope even while Paul did at such a foundational level. Every believer has the same reasons for why we have hope. Those reasons are all in the Scriptures. So share what you know from the Scriptures that Jesus did to give “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, and thank God for the gifted men who are doing the same thing in each of their gifted areas.

 

 

© 2025 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: A Baptism of Repentance and a Psalm of Forgiveness

   And he (John the Baptist) went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:3)

   O Israel, hope in the LORD!
    For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
    and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
    from all his iniquities. (Psalm 130:7-8)

   One of the most important tools for interpreting the New Testament is the Old Testament. This is particularly applicable to the gospels where we see Jesus expressing his ministry to the Jewish people of Israel. Much of what he did and taught is understood from what was already prophesied, what words already meant, and what God promised to do through his Son.

   Part of the blessing of my time with God in his word this morning was to remind myself of the message of Psalm 130. In 1989 when I went through a season of unemployment, I began the new year with the “resolution” to try to write music to at least a portion of each of the Psalms using the 1984 version of the NIV translation. When I came to this psalm, the first four verses seemed to flow quite naturally into a tune that I have since sung to myself countless times. 

   So, when I found myself singing these words in my head while making my morning coffee, I had to look up the psalm they were coming from and spend some time talking with Father about his thoughts on this scripture. 

   Reading, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!” tells us how deeply sin affects us. And there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile when it comes to sin! 

   The cry of, “O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” speaks of the longing we have when we are overwhelmed by the guilt, shame, and fear of sin but desperately want our God to hear us anyway.

   I marvel at this admission, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” No one, Jew nor Gentile, could ever stand before God if he refused to forgive us when we repented. But when we do repent, God forgives, and a sense of fear, reverence, awe, and wonder come over us that such a thing can happen to people like us.

   What this does to our souls is described so beautifully, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” John’s baptism was a message of repentance and forgiveness to people who were waiting for Yahweh to come to their rescue. 

   And when we know how forgiving and good Yahweh is, we call out to our people, “O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” We cannot escape this, that God’s “steadfast love” and his “plentiful redemption” would have been on the minds of the people of Israel when John the Baptist began preaching to them. 

   Those who heard this “good news” came to John for his baptism of repentance, and in so doing, they not only were forgiven of their sins, but their hearts were prepared for the one who would make this redemption possible, Jesus Christ our Lord.

   I encourage you to pray through Psalm 130 for yourself. So few people repent of their sins these days. But those who do, and who do so from their hearts, find in Jesus Christ the “good news of great joy” that was announced at his birth. He alone is the Savior, Christ the Lord, who redeems all who trust in him. 

© 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.)

The Most Loving Standard of “Bringing”

This morning, I was going to focus my time in the word on these two phrases that stood out in my journey through Nehemiah. They were, “We obligate ourselves to…” and “We will not neglect the house of our God.”[1] The scene is that, when the people began returning to the land after their exile, Ezra had led the people in rebuilding the temple, Nehemiah had led them in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, and it was now time to return to their covenant-relationship with God. 

The first expression included a whole list of positive statements from the Law that the people were going to carry out as required. The second was the negative conclusion that they would not neglect God’s house, the temple that had now been restored to full use. The point was that, in returning to their homeland, the people were 100% ready to return to 100% of their covenant responsibilities. 

However, as I was meditating on this section, I couldn’t help noticing that one word applied to everything they were promising to do. It was the word “bring”. There were so many things under the old covenant the people were to bring to the temple as their worship (tithes, offerings, sacrifices, etc.), and the people were recommitting themselves to bringing everything their side of the covenant required. The leaders had been exemplary in shepherding the people with knowledge and understanding,[2] and the people were exemplary in fully joining God in his work. 

When I looked at what the counterpart is for us under the new covenant, it basically came down to what Paul summarized in I Corinthians, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts”.[3] I even looked up the word “bring” and there wasn’t one reference in the New Testament to us bringing something as our part of the new covenant the way the Israelites had to do under the old covenant. 

This was not a surprise since, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[4] The new covenant in Jesus’ blood has nothing we can bring as our contribution, and the good works we now do to express our new life in Christ amount to continually joining God in the work we see him doing rather than listing behaviors that are commanded. 

So, understanding that we don’t “bring” good works to the table as if that is our requirement for keeping the covenant, I was drawn to consider how Paul summarized the “love chapter” of I Corinthians 13 with the expression, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[5] And I could see how these were the things we must “bring” to our participation in the new covenant. 

We bring “faith” to church with us because “the righteous shall live by faith”,[6] and, “without faith it is impossible to please” God.[7] We bring “hope” to all our activities and relationships in the kingdom because, “in this hope we were saved.”[8] And we bring “love” to all our interactions in the household of God because, if I “have not love (agapè), I am nothing.”[9] 

As I considered this, I couldn’t help replaying some negative experiences where church-folk rejected these qualities and then abandoned us because they did not have them (I saw this happen in both institutional and home church settings). I also remembered the positive experiences of those seasons where we did witness people bringing these qualities with them to church and how joyful we were to see the genuine experience of “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.[10] Both the negative and the positive encounters encourage me to tune my heart to this life of “faith, hope, and love” as an absolutely inherent reality of the new covenant, not a suggestion for extra credits. 

What happens to us when we combine the earnestness we see in Nehemiah as the people return to their covenant-relationship with God, with all we know of the realities of living in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ under the new covenant where “the righteous shall live by faith”? 

For me, I want to see any church assembly I am part of the way Paul described. Before we gather for anything as a church, I want to see God’s people fill our hearts with “faith, hope, and love”, and bring those characteristics with us so we are ready to build up one another in every way that is needed. I know that not everyone will have the capacity to do this at the start. I know we can’t necessarily maintain this every week if we are the ones who just got hit with something traumatic and need of ministry. 

However, if this were to become a way of life where people came to church bringing their faith, hope, and love to contribute rather than coming only to see what the church was going to give us, there would be an over-all quality of kingdom-and-covenant focus so that those who were running on empty that week would be built up by all the others who were maintaining the covenant-life of the church. It would be as Peter described, “Above all, keep loving (agapèing) one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”[11] The more people who live like “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”, the more those who struggle with these will be built up in the Lord Jesus Christ with us and the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples by our love.[12] 

In conclusion, I return to Paul’s summary challenge of, “pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts”. When we treat that like it is our side of covenant-relationship with God and his people, we will always bring our “faith, hope, and love” to church gatherings, and then express those very thing as we use our spiritual gifts to glorify God and love his people. 

And I am now very eager to see what happens to me and our home church gathering when I devote myself to this the next time we meet.

 

© 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.)

 

 

 

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[1] Nehemiah 10:35,39

[2] What God had prophesied in Jeremiah 3:15

[3] I Corinthians 14:1

[4] Ephesians 2:8-10

[5] I Corinthians 13:13

[6] Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11

[7] Hebrews 11:6

[8] Romans 8:24

[9] I Corinthians 13:2 (we must keep in mind that this is the Greek word “agapè” which means the love of God in us, not family, marriage, or friendship kinds of love)

[10] Ephesians 4:3

[11] I Peter 4:8

[12] John 13:35

When Longing for More is Enough

ONE OF the most difficult things in life is living with unfulfilled longings. To be hungry but there is no food, or thirsty and there is no water, or in love and there is no reciprocation, or holding hopes and dreams in our hearts that are constantly denied, is simply a horrid feeling of dissatisfaction. 

THE REASON for the God-centered hope we have in Christ is twofold. Part of it is that what is promised to anyone who trusts in Jesus is secure in God and his kingdom and will not fail to be fulfilled. But the other part of it is that we are living as strangers in a foreign land that can never satisfy us in the present the way our Forever Home will satisfy us in the future. 

WHICH MEANS that we must become okay with longings. We must be okay with having longings that are not immediately met, and we must be okay with God changing our hearts so that we know which longings to live with and which to discard. 

WHY IS this front and center for me this morning? Because when I consider what it would have been like for the prophet Jeremiah to hear God speaking to him with such precision that Jeremiah would know how to experience, “for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak,” is simply awesome, and amazing, and… well… IT FILLS ME WITH LONGING!!! 

THERE IS something I’ve learned about since doing daycare that is called referencing. It is when a child will look up from their play to see if their big people are noticing them. And when we do, when us big people acknowledge their referencing, even just the simple fact that we noticed them communicates volumes to those little hearts, but when we respond with a smile you can almost see the peace settle upon them that all is well with their little world. 

SO WHEN I hear that God appeared to someone, and that person got to experience actual referencing with him where all their senses were involved in feeling what God was doing, and their whole body, soul, and spirit was engaged with God so that the person’s heart, mind, and brain were overwhelmed by the realness of an encounter with God… well… IT FILLS ME WITH LONGING!!! 

I KNOW I’m setting myself up for that who-knows-what criticism of something here. But I can genuinely say that I cannot help having this longing to experience the same referencing with my soul/spirit as if my soul/body experienced God showing up right now so my eyes could see his countenance, and my ears could hear the sound of his voice singing over me, and my nose could breathe in the fragrance of life that is all about him, and my mouth could taste the freshness of the living water and the texture of the bread of life, and my whole body could feel the touch of God healing the wounds of my soul, filling my being with the comfort and satisfaction of a hug from heaven, and leaving me resting in the peacefulness of complete attachment to the Almighty. 

AND NO MATTER how much God may gift a person with moments of satisfaction in this lifetime, it is like a video chat with a loved one who is too far away to visit in person and, although we are ever so thankful for the technology that gives us such interaction, IT ISN’T LIKE THEM BEING HERE!!! 

MEDITATING on God’s word is delightful, but it leaves me with the longing of what it will sound like in paradise with God when the Word speaks to me in the glorification that unites every body-soul-spirit sense to feel full and complete attachment to the Triune God that satisfies longings to the fullness of God’s joy. 

AND PRAYER is a wonderful gift, but it leaves me with the longing of what it will be like in the new heavens and the new earth to speak to Jesus… (I tremble with the wonder of such a thought!) and… actually… feel the exhilaration of seeing what it looks like for him to see me in person, and hearing what it sounds like for him to reply to me in my wondering, and smelling the fragrances and aromas of my Forever Home, not only in the newness of its creation, but in the substance of every aspect of eternity that can only now be imagined, and tasting the fruit of the Tree of Life and the waters of the River of Life. 

I MUST LIVE with the longing of what it will one day feel like for Jesus to touch me in person as he wipes away every tear from my eyes when my experience of this earthly life has brought me to know Jesus so well as the “man of sorrows” who is “acquainted with grief”. I must live with the longing to be free of heartache, and sorrow, and death, and… ATTACHMENT-PAIN(!!!) as an inescapable reality in the here-and-now. 

AND SO it is that we live in HOPE. Hope means we live with unfulfilled longings now, but in the comfort of the certainty that they WILL be fulfilled in due time. We not only wait in expectation, and we not only let ourselves imagine the realities to come, but we feel a certain restfulness and peace that what is promised is as certain as if it was already ours right now. 

AND THEN we dress for the day in our Ambassador-for-Christ suit and continue living for his glory as strangers to this foreign land of the world. After all, there are still lost souls to save, and there are still outcasts to invite into the citizenship of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there are still the wounded who need their hearts bound up in the comforts of God’s love, and… well… there’s just so many people who don’t even know the satisfaction of hungering and thirsting for righteousness because Jesus has died to set us free! 

I WOULD RATHER be the child of God traveling the narrow road with all its longings for my heavenly home, and longings for the realities of full and unrestricted attachment to God in the completeness of my whole being, than to be the worldling that feels satisfied by the lies, deceptions, mirages, fairy tales, and fabrications of a world that does not even know it is on the wide road to destruction. 

SO, we go into this day willing to feel the longing for others to be saved out of their sin and condemnation while they do not care one little bit that they are lost from our Savior. We go willing to feel these longings for people to be saved today from the hopelessness of this “present darkness” because we want them to be so satisfied with new life in Jesus Christ that they will join us in rejoicing in our Lord and Savior every day of our lives, while smiling in hope as we help and encourage one another that Jesus will soon return. 

AND, as Paul said, we admit that “now we see in a mirror dimly,” but we long with certainty for when we will see “face to face.” We acknowledge that “now I know in part” but with the confident hope that “then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 

SO WE CONCLUDE with Paul that our focus is on abiding in “faith, hope, and love” because in this present world “the righteous shall live by faith”, we “set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ”, and we “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” 

I WILL LET the apostle Paul have the last word on living with unfulfilled longings. He certainly let himself feel such things beyond the norm. So let us heed his example as we shine our light into this dark world today: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

 

© 2023 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: "Forever"

 

© 2023 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.)

To Hear, to See, and to Hope

After a rough night, I came to Psalm 48 again planning to continue in this verse: 

“We have thought on your steadfast love (hesed), O God,
    in the midst of your temple.” 

I believe this is to be the way of the church, to constantly think about, and talk about, and praise God for, his agapè-hesed-love. I have so often seen church-folk argue against God’s love for them when it is so clearly revealed in the gospel. But I am so mindful of both the Enemy Mode experiences of the past, along with the Relational Mode opportunities before us.

 

However, as I read through Psalm 48 again, wondering what new things God had in mind for me, he stopped me on this verse: 

“As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of Yahweh of hosts,
in the city of our God,
    which God will establish forever.” 

First, I gravitated to the expression, “as we have heard, so we have seen”. It pictures people who had not only heard of God’s glorious works on behalf of his people in the past, but in their lifetime had also seen these works for themselves. That is what I want for us. I want to see the freedom in Christ I have heard about, and the Experiencing God stories I have heard about, and the promises of God, and the kind of revivals others have experienced. This verse is telling me to seek this reality. 

Second, I was drawn into the past, present, future, aspects of this while considering that the Hebrew mind thought in terms of things being complete or incomplete. For us westerners, the past is what they heard, the present is what they had personally witnessed in their time, and the future was the eternal establishment of Mount Zion. For the Jews, the writers had experienced a sense of completeness in that the things they had heard of Yahweh’s blessings on his people had been fulfilled/completed in their lifetime, and there was a sense that it was not yet complete that Mount Zion would be established forever. 

I think today is about marveling. We are to marvel at the testimonies of Mount Zion in the Scriptures, especially the psalms, as they show our Gentile minds what is now our heritage in Christ. We combine this with our awe and wonder at the imagery of Hebrews 12 where we presently come to Mount Zion in the kingdom of God as we let our hearts embrace what is ours in Christ even while we cannot fully fathom it at all. And we give deep and rich and meaningful thought and pondering of the hope-filled pictures of Revelation showing us the New Jerusalem in its perfection, giving us a symbolic representation of the glories of the new heavens and the new earth as our eternal Jerusalem, the Mount Zion that is established forever. 

And this morning I simply know in a fresh way (Higher-and-Deeper) that I can come to Mount Zion as I am, no pretending, dealing with whatever is in my heart, and I can think about the agapè-hesed-love of God that is mine as our God reigns from the throne of Mount Zion.

 

© 2023 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.)

The Now and Then of the Children of God

One of the things I have really appreciated about meeting with my heavenly Father in the mornings is his determination to show me that his side of the relationship is constant and unwavering no matter how much my feelings are like a rollercoaster of never-ending ups-and-downs. In fact, it often seems that the more honest I am about the Deeper of how poorly I am doing when I awake, the more glorious the Higher is when God makes his word known to me in the most real and personal of ways. 

This morning was no exception to this. I was thoroughly honest with God (without belaboring how I was feeling) and came to him with the boldness that honors him even when I am struggling. I approached him with an expression of dependence that it is up to him how my time with him turned out, and he opened the eyes of my heart to come to know him by experience in a wonderfully new facet of what it means to come to Mount Zion.[1] 

It began here: 

Within her citadels God

    has made himself known as a fortress.[2] 

This is the way I have known God for the past three decades, that my coming to him every day is coming into the fortress of God himself, the one place and the one person who is always happy to see me, always forgiving of my sins, always wanting the absolute best for me. 

Then I continued on with the next verse: 

For behold, the kings assembled;

    they came on together.[3] 

I spent some time considering how things look under the new covenant when there are really no physical protections in place as there were under the old covenant, and there are no promised earthly blessings as there were under God’s covenant with Israel.[4] 

This led to a deep appreciation for how Jesus’ first coming contrasts with his second coming, and the parallel between what the church looks like now in the world with what it will look like at and after Jesus’ return. 

In summary, Jesus’ first coming was quiet, humble, and unnoticed, leaving only 120 disciples with whom he would build his church.[5] The second coming will be so brilliant, glorious, and visible, that the whole world know it is him and will mourn what they did to him. As it is written, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”[6] 

In a parallel way, the church during the church-age (between Jesus’ two comings) is unnoticed. It is persecuted because the world is blind to who we are. The media does not speak of the wonderful things Jesus does in his church. The nations do not speak of how Jesus transforms people out of their earthly religions into genuine relationship with God. But Jesus is quietly building his church without any fanfare. For now. 

But at his return, the trumpet will blast, the dead in Christ will be raised first, and Jesus’ angels will gather those believers who are alive at his return so that all God’s children will be taken up to be with Jesus as he comes down to judge the earth.[7] 

Which brought me to this expression that sums up what it is like to presently come to the Mount Zion of God’s throne-room while the world does not know we are doing so: 

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.[8] 

In the present time, believers coming to Mount Zion is invisible to the world. We suffer in this world because the world has no concept that they are defying the living God. Even those who do so blatantly do not really know with whom they have to do, and what a horror it will be to them when Jesus appears.[9] 

But what is coming is an experience of “the glory that is to be revealed to us,” and that glory includes “the revealing of the sons of God.” And we will be revealed to the enemies of God as every eye is on Jesus and his return, and the world in its terror and anguish and mourning sees who is gathered to join Jesus’ angels and come to be with him in judging the nations. And when all believers are standing there with Jesus, everyone will know who are the sons of God. 

I hope that gives a glimpse into what it felt like to come to Yahweh as my fortress this morning and be thoroughly and delightfully surprised to receive such treasures of wisdom and knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else or in anyone else. And all this was such a wonderful (and wonder-filled) gift to a child whose heart came to God unable to imagine how he would help me. But help me he did, and for that I give him praise!

 

© 2023 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.)

 

 

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[1] My ongoing theme as of late based on Hebrews 12:18-25.

[2] Psalm 48:3

[3] Psalm 48:4

[4] Yes, there are promises to believers that apply to our earthly life, but the new covenant is not based on the same material blessings and curses that were clearly stipulated in the old covenant for the nation of Israel.

[5] Acts 1:15

[6] Revelation 1:7

[7] This is a mixture of the glorious thoughts revealed in Matthew 24:29-31, along with Paul’s teachings about the return of Christ in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. Together, they picture Jesus appearing in the clouds, the dead in Christ being raised, the angels gathering all the believers to be with the Lord as he continues to descend to the earth, believers being with our Savior as he judges all people, and then watching Jesus invoke the horrible and wonderful realities of the purging of the present heavens and earth and the making of the new heavens and earth  (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; II Peter 3:11-13; Revelation 21:1).

[8] Romans 8:18-19

[9] Revelation 6:12-17 describes this horrible reality.