Branches that Shine the Light of the Vine

This morning, I began with Jesus’ next declaration in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world.”[1] This is an identity-statement about all believers in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because he is the light of the world, we are the light of the world in him, and so we must shine the life of Christ everywhere we go. 

However, we aren’t to picture this as the moon reflecting the light of the sun. That’s too impersonal. It makes us a passive reflector of light when Jesus said we ARE the light of the world. 

A much better image is the one Jesus gave us when he said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[2] In the same way as we are extensions of Christ as branches of his vine, we are the light of the world shining the light of Christ. 

One of the places where Jesus referred to himself as the light of the world was this one in John 8:12 where Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Jesus as the vine IS the light of the world, and Jesus’ disciples “have the light of life” in them as the branches, which also makes us the light of the world in Christ. 

However, what God had in mind for me this morning was in the context of this passage in John 9:3-5. 

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 

This is jam-packed with things to talk about! It begins with the disciples asking Jesus whether a blind man had his ailment because of his sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus’ reply answers their specific question, but then elaborates on the work of God in this very situation. 

One thing that stood out was that Jesus’ light would be useless to a blind man who couldn’t see it, so he used the miracle of healing to show that his light not only illuminates the darkness, but it gives sight to the blind so they can see it! This is true of the church as we are the ambassadors of the good news of great joy. The gospel gives sight to the blind so they can see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[3] 

But the bigger thing that stood out for me personally was that I am not to define God’s work in my life by my sins, or by my parents’ sins. It doesn’t matter what we have done, and it doesn’t matter what anyone has done to us, all the effects of living in a sinful world merely set the stage for God’s work. The man’s situation was not about sin, but about the stage that was set that “the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

Suddenly it was so clear. My life is what it is so God can show his works to the world through me in the very story that is mine and no one else’s. And that tied right in with how Jesus elaborated on us being the light of the world back in the Sermon on the Mount: 

 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5) 

Part of us shining as the light of the world is that people “may see your good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.” Jesus as the vine showed how he was doing the works of the Father, and we as the branches show how we are doing the works that give glory to the Father. 

And today, God’s encouragement turns me from feeling down on myself because of my sins, or from depressing myself with things that have been done to me, to looking at the way my weaknesses in life are the stage on which he can show himself strong and faithful. And so, I eagerly look for what God is doing in me that I can shine into the lives of others around me so that people would be blessed with my good works, and God would be glorified in the bearing of much fruit.

 

© 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] Matthew 4:14

[2] John 15:5

[3] II Corinthians 4:6

The Big Picture of the Savior

This morning, I was more drawn to a summary of the next few paragraphs that end Matthew 4 than to focus on any one of them. It is like watching God set the scene for the next three years of Jesus’ life and ministry, along with his training of the Twelve. 

First, I love the way Matthew regularly refers to prophecy. In this case, “that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled”, meaning that Jesus was the light of the world the prophets had spoken about. He is still the light of the world today, and we who believe in him are the light of the world in him, branches of light shining from the vine of Christ. 

Second, this has really been settling in for me, that Jesus’ message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Some people downplay repentance in the mistaken idea that it is a “good work” that can’t be added to faith. However, when the proclamation of the gospel is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” our faith says, “I believe I need to repent and trust in Jesus in order to enter the kingdom”, and so “the obedience of faith” does so! 

Third, Matthew doesn’t speak of Jesus’ first encounter with Peter and Andrew, and James and John, so we are picking up after they had already spend some time with him in what is sometimes called the “Come and See” phase of discipleship. After some weeks or months of getting to know Jesus, they had returned to their careers as fishermen, and now Jesus finds them and calls them to “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Peter and Andrew “Immediately they left their nets and followed him,” and James and John, “Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” They left their possessions, they left their livelihood, and they left their family to follow Christ. And they did so… IMMEDIATELY! 

One of the biggest conflicts in church life for me has been dealing with professing Christians who are not willing to leave their “nets” (possessions) to follow Jesus, they are not willing to leave their “boats” (livelihood plans) to follow Christ, and they are not willing to leave their “father” (parents, family, friends) to follow the Savior. What is particularly sad about watching people forsake Jesus (while maintaining good church appearances) is that the family members and friends they follow instead never see someone truly living by faith so they can hear the “good news of the kingdom” and know what it looks like to have eternal life. 

Fourth, Matthew then adds a note that we must factor in to every scene that follows throughout the rest of the gospels, that everywhere Jesus went, and in every town or place he did ministry, he was “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom”. As I have seen a few times recently, “the gospel” of North American Christianity is not “the gospel of the kingdom” as Jesus taught it. It is the individualistic invite-Jesus-into-your-heart message that makes it sound like Jesus comes to us instead of us being “delivered out of the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” Because this view of the gospel is so me-centered, people find it easy to make a profession of “accepting Christ” into their lives without actually leaving their lives of sin and entering Jesus’ kingdom! They also find it easy to walk away when it is no longer helping the me-centered person feel satisfied in their flesh. 

Fifth, we can’t get past this reality that everywhere Jesus went he was “healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Peter would say in his Day of Pentecost sermon that Jesus was “a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know”. That was the purpose of the signs then, to attest to Israel that Jesus was the Messiah God had promised. I believe that God can and will do this whenever he pleases, but I do not believe it is an on-demand thing. And it definitely does not belong in money-making religious ventures that give Christianity a bad name. 

At the end of Matthew 4, I find it interesting that we go from this brief description (3 paragraphs) of Jesus starting his ministry, and then we move into the 3 chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. Since the Beatitudes Jesus uses to introduce that message are so familiar to me, I am curious how God will lead me through this section so I am called to put it into practice in Higher-and-Deeper ways. I trust he still has some surprises for how he will apply this to my life! 

For today, I know that I truly want to be a disciple who follows Christ in everything, who keeps learning to fish for men by faith even when sight is a bit discouraging, who proclaims the “good news of the kingdom” no matter what hateful laws governments make to stop us, and who lives as the light of the world and the salt of the earth that Jesus is just about to talk about. And all while knowing that the days are growing dark and short until the return of our Savior, and I want people to hear about my Savior by whatever means we have at our disposal to share the good news.

 

© 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 People Who Are God’s Sons

As I meditate my way through the gospel of Matthew, I am now looking at how Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” As this is quite familiar territory, I have been eager to discover what new things God wants me to see. Sometimes this means discovering something I haven’t noticed before, and other times it comes in the way of understanding how something applies to my life further than I have ever taken it. So far, I can say that I am not being disappointed with my journey! 

I am now at the second temptation of Jesus that revolved around Satan’s challenge, “If you are the Son of God…” In other words, the devil was telling Jesus what he would have to do to prove he was the Son of God. Jesus had nothing to prove so it was a short conversation![1] 

However, although Jesus would not prove he was the Son of God on Satan’s terms, God’s plan of salvation would make it abundantly clear who Jesus of Nazareth really was. When Jesus completed his work of redemption on the cross, he “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead”. 

The only reason worldlings can’t see this is, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 

And the reason it is crystal clear to Jesus’ disciples is, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Now, while it is abundantly settled that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I began wondering what proof there is that someone like me is a son of God. So, I looked up the verse that popped into my mind right away. In the 7^th Beatitude, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 

The term “sons of…” isn’t specifically male or female. It indicates those who are like God, the children who are known by the fact that they look like their Father. This is why Paul could say, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” And “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” His point is that being a “son” means a child who looks like his/her Father, not specifically being a male. 

I have often complained about the way some of the new translations put “sons and daughters” in place of “sons” and “brothers and sisters” in place of “brothers”. Aside from the fact that God didn’t breathe out those words, I hate the way it steals the point God himself is making, that his people are “one”. We are all sons of God. The male-and-female and son-and-daughter is still there in the sense of our earthly design. Everything the apostles taught about men and women, and husbands and wives, still applies. But the point in the kingdom is that there is only one people who are all sons of God, meaning all the offspring who look like our Father. 

So, being a peacemaker makes us look like our Father because everything about God is aimed at bringing his lost sheep to have peace with him through faith in Christ, and, if we are like our Father, we will want others to have peace with God along with us. 

We can’t escape that we honor God as a people when we are busy trying to lead others to have peace with God through the gospel. While that easily can turn into “blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness”, that, too, is like our God who knew that his own Son would be hated by the world, disowned by his own people, and deserted even by his own disciples. 

But we have our so great salvation that gives us “peace with God” because Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” who “is our peace”. Jesus has created in himself “one new man in place of the two, so making peace,” and that’s why “he came and preached peace to you who were far off (us Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (the Jews).” 

Therefore, as the body of Christ is made up of members who are all sons of God, Paul tells us about the “full armor of God” we are to wear to maintain our victory in Christ. This includes “as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” 

And in that readiness, we make the gospel of peace known to everyone so we keep growing up in Christ as peacemakers who are just like our Savior, the “sons of God” who are looking and acting like the “Son of God”. Or, as Paul put it, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” That is what the sons of God look like.

 

© 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] “‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:6-7)

When Jesus was Tempted to Save Me

My time with God this morning only got one verse into Matthew 4: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” 

One of the things that is exciting about retraveling through familiar territory is the expectation of finding new treasures in old places. This morning was no exception! 

When Matthew writes that Jesus was “tempted by the devil”, “tempted” means: “to be tested v. — to be put to the test in order to ascertain the nature of someone, including imperfections, faults, or other qualities.”[1] 

So, the primary focus was not that Jesus needed to be tempted to show that he could resist anything the devil could dish out. It is more than that. 

Giving the supreme tempter the opportunity to go at Jesus when Jesus was at an incredible point of weakness (40 days of fasting), was to reveal to us what Jesus was made of. 

As this began to sink in, I found myself traveling back in time to my early teen years. When I knew for certain I believed in Jesus and needed to confess him as my Lord and Savior in baptism, I also faced a testing. However, what it showed me about myself was nothing to be proud of. There was such an angry backlash against me getting baptized that I caved to the fear-based pressure and didn’t do what I knew was God’s will. I know God was merciful and forgave me, but I live with the regret of knowing I missed whatever God would have done if I had confessed Christ as Lord through baptism four years earlier than I finally did. How many people in the church I was attending would have been blessed to see me experiencing “the obedience of faith” from a young age.[2] 

On the other hand, right after Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”, the Holy Spirit immediately led him out to the wilderness to show what he was made of. And what he was made of was truth, and holiness, and righteousness, and faithfulness, and purity, and love that Satan could not change no matter what tactics he tried. 

In fact, me failing my testing as a young teen (and many others since) makes Jesus’ perfection in his temptations stand out all the more clearly as something of personal concern to me. I needed a Savior who wasn’t… SINFUL!!! And God has been showing believers for centuries that Jesus absolutely passed that test! This meditation on God’s word also took me to what it will be like in the new heavens and the new earth when we will be like Jesus. I was thinking of how horribly easy it is to sin. Even when no one else sees us doing anything at all we can be sinning with resentment, jealousy, envy, coveting, pride, lust, hatred, and the like. 

But eternity will be us feeling like Jesus. Feeling pure. Feeling holy and righteous. Feeling good in the most real of ways. We will have no sarky flesh wanting to do what is wrong and disobey what is right. We won’t battle temptation. We will love love, and we will love goodness, and we will love holiness and righteousness. We will so love being like God as originally designed that we will not ever want to be our old selves. 

Seeing Jesus today in this new light (how he was shown through his testing to be the Son of God of whom the Father was well pleased, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) makes me realize that his temptations by the devil weren’t primarily an example of how to resist temptation by using the word of God. That is there, and it is invaluable to see that. 

But Jesus’ testing was meant to show us who he was. He was “the Word who became flesh to dwell among us”. And it was that identity that proved through his temptations that he would never do anything sinful, and that he would never fail to save completely all those who would believe in him. 

I have shared in other posts about how I often see God working in the Higher-and-Deeper way I first noticed in Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.[3] As I interact with him in his word, he will show me something Higher and more glorious about himself than I have ever realized before, and something Deeper about myself that needs to know the glorious thing revealed to me about God. 

Today’s Higher was seeing how Jesus went from his baptism to be tested and proven to be my Savior. The Deeper was being reminded of how I failed the test at my baptism and denied my Savior’s worthiness to be loved and obeyed no matter how scary the opposition. 

And, because of seeing Jesus the way he is, I know without a doubt that my sins and failures are all covered by the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. Not because I never fail him, but because he cannot fail to be himself. 

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.[4]

 

© 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] Bible Sense Lexicon, Logos Bible Systems

[2] Paul introduced and concluded his letter to the Romans with this expression (Romans 1:5; 16:26)

[3] John 4

[4] Hebrews 4:14-16

To Live My Scene Well

As I continue looking at John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ, one thing that really stood out today is that our blip of life on earth is really miniscule compared to what God has prepared for us in eternity. We know how God gave Zechariah and Elizabeth the gift of a son in their old age. But next thing we know John is preparing the way for the Christ. And not long after that he is beheaded and ushered into glory. 

While we must always be careful we don’t turn historical events into doctrinal teachings, I had so many examples come to mind where the primary thing we are shown about people is their place in the work of God. A few people are given a longer scene on God’s stage (Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Paul), but most of God’s children that are mentioned in history are only described in terms of their specific place in one particular scene. 

I think of Stephen in Acts who was one of the men chosen as the first deacons. He was clearly known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. He would have served for a while in helping distribute food to the widows. But the spotlight quickly shifts to a day in which he is preaching to the religious elite, and they get so angry at him that they stone him to death. Scene ended. Job done. Death is exit-stage-right. 

So with John. And what it tells me is that I don’t get to tell God how my life turns out. I don’t need to live long to live well. I don’t need to have long-term friendships to have long-term faithfulness. I don’t need to be seen to have substance. I am a branch of Christ’s vine, a member of the body of Christ, and John the Baptist mentors me in living to the full wherever God has put me, to agapè-love to the full everyone he puts in my life, and to trust him to accomplish in me and through me whatever he has uniquely prepared for me to do. 

I now head into this day knowing I have heard what God was speaking to me through his word, seeing what he is doing in me to show me what he is doing around me, and I am ready to join God in his work just like my Savior did before me. I hope to see God glorified as I take my place on the divine stage and play my role with thanksgiving that he has called me into his-story. 

© 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.)

 

 

God’s “But as For Me” Clause

This is the verse I am praying through:

7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD;

    I will wait for the God of my salvation;

    my God will hear me. (Micah 7)

This is a summary of how I meditate on God’s word (give deep, serious, wondering, explorative, and prayerful thought), and how meditating on this testimony from God’s word has helped me this morning. 

“But as for me”

This tells me that, even in nations and churches that has so much corruption in them, and that are so deserving of judgment for the one and discipline for the other, God has provided a “but as for me” clause that allows us to be and live differently no matter how lonely (and scary) it may feel to do so. 

“I will look to the LORD”

While the world and the worldly church look to their idols, we are just as free to look to Yahweh in the name of Jesus Christ as were all the prophets who saw God’s judgment on the way, in the midst of its application, or in its aftermath. We cannot be stopped from setting our minds on the Spirit and fixing our eyes on Jesus except by our own willingness to look elsewhere. God’s invites us to be mentored by Micah and the other prophets to look to Jesus no matter what anyone else is doing and no matter what it costs us to do so.

“I will wait for the God of my salvation”

While we are mocked for this, Jesus’ servants are the ones who will not be ashamed in the end. And it is the end that matters. We all see how quickly time passes. Our lives truly are but a dream. The end of the wicked is so horrible that it doesn’t matter how much success they appear to have in their evil and idolatrous pursuits, we must not be them. At the same time, the end of the righteous is so gloriously wonderful and joyful that we can and must wait for our God to fulfil the completeness of our salvation.

“my God will hear me.”

Sometimes this is where we must put our hearts to rest. We cannot stop the judgment coming on the world, and we obviously cannot guarantee what any other church-folk choose to do, but we can rest in the confidence that our God does hear us and he will continue to do so even if we must bear the consequences of the judgment coming to others (like Joshua and Caleb, along with all the prophets, had to endure what others had brought on their people).

There are lots of thoughts of the personal application of this to our situations, but the testimony of Micah resonates for all God’s children. No matter what anyone does to dishonor our Lord Jesus Christ, the “but as for me” clause gives us an out. We have a way to walk in the obedience of faith to the glory of God, and even to the good of those people who are too afraid to follow him, by BEING who we are in Christ so that others will want to know how we walk in hope when the world around us is so utterly hopeless.

 

© 2022 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.)

 

My Prayer Journal: The Mutual Blessing of God and his Child

I am going to edit my prayer-journaling into a shareable version in the hope that it will encourage someone with how to be utterly open and honest with God so he can surprise you with the blessing of hearing him speak through his word, watching him show you his work, and joining him in whatever he is doing. This morning was such an extreme contrast in how I began and ended my time with God that I am even more eager to find out who would benefit from the benefit I received. 

The context for me is waking up each day with a very painful experience of grief. I have lost some people who have been family to me. It has triggered that old fear-based propensity to figure out what to do to avoid (or reverse) such rejection. God has been training me how to replace that planning and strategizing with listening and prayer. And the way he has helped me has magnified the blessing of how God speaks through his word, shows us what he is doing, and draws us to join him in his work. 

One of the biggest lessons of late was in Jesus’ words to Peter, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”[1] That turned into an application of, “If it is my will that (anything to do with anyone about anything at all), what is that to you? You follow me!” The point being, even my plans and strategies for how to win back the people who have disowned me are none of my business. Whatever his will is for them is just that, HIS will, and of no immediate concern to me until he tells me otherwise. However, he does have something he is doing with me, and he wants me to follow him without any limitations because I am busy imagining what he should do with someone else. 

With all this as my morning intro, Father had a surprise for me as I came back to the passage I have been meditating on for a while now. 

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”[2] 

My focus was on the unified declaration of all the angels: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” The sevenfold declaration resonates with the glorious symbolism of the book of Revelation. The “Amens” are as two witnesses giving parenthesis to the truthfulness of the sevenfold expression of praise to the Almighty. 

And so, my focus followed the spotlight to: “Blessing… be to our God forever and ever!” The definition of the Greek word translated “blessing” is: 

Blessing: blessing n. — the speech act of praying for divine favor or protection; especially with the idea that even the audience (as well as the recipient) receives a benefit from the utterance.[3] 

What began to capture my mind, heart, and soul, was this reality that the things I do in the material realm somehow affect what God experiences in the spiritual realm even though I am bound by time and he is exalted in eternity. If he hears our cries, pleas, and petitions, and answers us according to his good, acceptable and perfect will, the hearing and answering are somehow mirrored in eternity as they unfold in time. And, yes, it felt good to my brain to let my mind meditate on this! 

But what began to form in my mind was an amazing realization that my heavenly Father is “blessed” in blessing me. The “blessing” that is his forever and ever, that his children are constantly attaching to him in prayer for divine favor and protection, means that he is delighted in my confession of need for him. 

Here is how I expressed this in my prayer-journaling: 

“Father, let me rest in this, that if blessing is to be to you forever, then it is to be to you now. I am to rise up into this gracious and glorious gift of blessing your name, and trusting in you, and delighting in expressing myself to you. You do not tire of me asking you for divine favor. You do not tire of me asking you for divine protection.

“How is it that you would receive a benefit from this child asking you for your favor and protection over me and my family and my church and your kingdom throughout the world during this time of grief and sorrow? How is it that you would find something personal in me reaching up to you for help? Is it trustworthy for me to think of what it is like to be a caregiver to children?

“Father, this is my mind change today, that the act of your children blessing you, expressing your worth in seeking divine favor and protection, is of MUTUAL benefit. How wonderful is that, O God!

“Father, I am letting this sink in today. You are blessed in a way that benefits you. It is good for you. I do not know how it is that you are in eternity, unbound by time, with this moment being known to you forever, and yet you are relating to me with genuine responsiveness. It is such a wonder, O God, that this timebound child with his timebound and childish expressions to you is coming with mutual benefit to me and the Almighty because that is the way the Almighty is. I have not made you this way. I have not shaped you being the way you are. You cannot change into someone else at all or ever.

“And so, Father, I enter the benefit of this thought to me. To pray to you now for your divine favor and protection is so beneficial. To pray this in relation to the people who have disowned, rejected, and falsely accused me, and consider that it is to my benefit to pray to you like this, and it is to your benefit to receive prayers like this… it is so mindbogglingly wonderful that I am going to revel in it to the glory and praise of God! Praise be to the name of God Most High for me to be taught by the Spirit in words of ultimate and perfect wisdom and knowledge and truth and love.

“O God, right now, I could suddenly picture that the Holy Spirit is smiling on me to teach me this very truth today. “Abba! Father!” he cries, and smiles! He draws me into this ultimate good of something that is of mutual benefit.

“Father, the picture that is fleetingly shown to me of the Spirit makes me want to know you like that. I have never considered the Holy Spirit with a smile on his face, and yet it is the thing I must know. The kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or what we drink, or any kind of rules about anything at all. Rather it is about “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”[4] What wonders these are! 

These thoughts of praise led me back to the personal and practical issues of life where I had to consider how the church of the Nicola Valley is doing, and what kind of letter Jesus would write us after the fashion of the ones he wrote to the seven churches of Revelation. What would he teach us, rebuke and reprove us, correct us, and train us in righteousness,[5] if only we would repent of losing our first love, and of allowing division and idolatry to poison the oneness of the body of Christ[6]? 

However, as my mind was brought back to the angels that surround the throne of God, with the reminder that they are, “all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation,”[7] I realized that these ministering spirits would be delighting in what I know today. With fear and trepidation and reverence I allowed myself to wonder if they were reading my prayer journaling over my shoulder since they can’t read my mind? 

“Is it their joy to know that I am learning something so wonderful about you, that you draw me into the blessing that is to you forever? And the Holy Spirit is smiling at me, and towards me, and with me, at the mutuality of this blessing, that the prayer for divine favor is of mutual benefit to him and to me." 

This led into a prayer that expressed my desire for God give me divine favor with the very people who have wronged me. I genuinely wanted the mutual benefit with God and me to extend into a mutual benefit to and with them. I wanted God to take the things Satan had intended for harm and division to be multiplied back to us in unity and oneness in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

“O God, you are pleased to have me pleased in asking you for this. It is your good pleasure to tell me today that it delights you to be blessed with prayers for your divine favor. And it is your timing today, while grief takes its hold on me so painfully, to not only tell me this in words, but to show it to me in pictures, and mutual mindstate about your goodness and grace.

“Father, this is just the beginning. Having these thoughts this morning is just the invitation. And yet, they are the invitation into what is happening right now, while showing me that you are inviting me into a lifetime of this, of knowing that you are delighted in me being delighted in you.

“Father, what a delight to me! And this must be a delight to you! And all because a word of Scripture has pierced my heart and mind so that I KNOW you are somehow experiencing something in relation to me that is right now. It is this moment. I do not know how that is in eternity. I do not know what the mind of God experiences when you know you are going to teach me this today, and you are already delighted to do so, and delighted with the outcome, and so pleased with me as your son even though it is all your work to do this, and yet it is so pure and real and personal and sincere and genuine on my part because of the wonders of how you have made us in your image and likeness!

“O God in heaven, I give my ‘Amen!’ with the angels’ ‘Amen!’ ‘Blessing… be to our God forever and ever! Amen!’ The mutual blessing of me asking for your divine favor and protection today, with your delight in your child asking for this, and my delight in you receiving my request and answering according to your will, is not only of mutual benefit to you and me, to you as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together, and to me as your born-again son, but you have shown me that the angels are delighted to look into these things with pleasure that what they know about you is being received and granted to me as they minister to my spirit in the spiritual realm, O God.

“What joy you give me this morning, and I want to bless others with it, and to bless you in my sharing it with others, and to bless and honor you as I leave it in your hands how you choose to show me your favor and protection.

“I ask for this blessing now for the whole body of Christ in the Nicola Valley, that you would show us divine favor in experiencing the fullest possible measure of revival and restoration. Make us one, Father, no matter how much reviving-or-removing you must do to anyone. You are God, and you have a will, and all I want is for you to do whatever it takes today to pour out your blessing on your church in the Nicola Valley and turn every heart of every child of God back to first love in Jesus’ glorious and wonderful name!”         

And now that God and I are delighted with this mutual interchange of blessing, I head into today with anticipation that God will show me what else he has in mind by turning me from the grief and strategizing that joined me as I met with him, to blessing others with the blessing I enjoy with God simply because I attached to him in his word and prayer. 

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

 

© 2022 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] John 21:22 (context: John 21:20-25)

[2] Revelation 7:11-12

[3] Bible Sense Lexicon

[4] Romans 14:17

[5] As per II Timothy 3:16-17

[6] Summarizing some of the issues Jesus presented in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. It also includes a reference to Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17 where it is so clear that being “one” is a non-negotiable, and anyone who deliberately causes division in the church is guilty of direct defiance of Jesus’ own prayer. Yes, it is that serious.

[7] Hebrews 1:14

When the Blind Behold and Know

Last night, I had one of those bad dreams about having been called into a situation of responsibility, being there long enough to get to that familiar place of people not wanting me any longer, feeling hopeless about figuring out what to do, and being so thankful to wake up!

Lots of real life came into the picture, and so my morning began with plenty of interacting with God about how to have a face-to-face encounter with him when we cannot see his face with our material eyes.

I am a novice when it comes to understanding brain-science. However, the snippets that get through to me leave me fascinated with the way God created us for attachment. This week I have been trying to understand how God designed our brains to respond to face-to-face interactions. As we look at someone when we are chatting, our sub-conscious thoughts are assessing and reacting to them faster than our conscious thoughts can process what we think we see.

With this design of our physical bodies aimed at helping us attach to God and one another, it has me considering how this works with the soul/spirit part of who we are. If our brains are designed to build attachment by looking into someone’s face, how do we build attachment to Jesus Christ with our minds, particularly considering God giving life to our spirits so we can attach to him in the spiritual realm as much or more as we could have attached to Jesus in the material world when he was here?[1]

I will share some things I am pondering in prayer and meditation on the word. My hope is that I can encourage you to come into God’s presence with questions, and wondering, and curiosity, the way children love to attach to us about the things they are learning.

·  My starting place is whether prayer and meditation on God’s word is a sufficient counterpart to looking into someone’s eyes so that it has the same effect on our minds as eye-to-eye interaction has on our brains. Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father…’”[2] Can we lift up our eyes to heaven in our minds so that what we “see” of God’s face is just as, or almost as, real as if we saw him with our eyes?

·  I think that Paul’s expression, “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed”,[3] is true for everyone who believes in Jesus since Paul adds, “And we all, with unveiled face…”[4] This seems to mean that the veils of dissociation and self-protection believers wear are deliberate acts of our own, at least so far as personally allowing our WoLVeS to keep us from Jesus.[5] As a shepherd (pastor), it grieves me to watch professing believers permit their WoLVeS to hinder the church when Jesus has given us everything we need to be done with them.[6]

·  The connection between, “beholding the glory of the Lord,” and, “being transformed into the same image”, has me fascinated with how the synchronizing of our brains makes us like or dislike each other, and how we relate to Jesus spiritually so our minds synchronize with him in the light of his love for us. It also scares the heebie-jeebies out of me that self-protective adults are synchronizing the brains of our children to be like us in the things that are most influential inside us (often a deep-seated belief that we are worthless and have no hope of fixing that problem). The fact that it happens faster than our conscious thinking makes me desperate to get us adults living out of our new identity in Christ so all our children are synchronizing with our new hearts and minds.

·  Satan’s success as, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,”[7] has me deeply concerned for the unbelievers in our lives and the necessity of spiritual warfare praying for their salvation.

·  Paul talked like God already “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[8] God clearly wants us to attach to this “knowledge”, and Satan clearly wants to stop that attachment. It only takes a faith-response to Jesus for us to have “the victory that has overcome the world”.[9]

·  This attachment between, “beholding the glory of the Lord,” and, “in the face of Jesus Christ,” along with the, “looking to Jesus,” and, “Consider him,” of Hebrews 12,[10] has me asking God to reveal to me how this works in real life so that looking into the face of Jesus Christ spiritually has the same effect on my mind as looking into his face physically would have on my brain.  

·  When we combine an understanding of God’s desire for us to behold the glory of God that is in the face of Jesus Christ, with the brain-science that demonstrates how God’s creation of Man’s physical being is designed to facilitate the greatest attachment ever, it begins to stand out how often God addresses us with some reference to seeing his face. This is particularly notable in the blessing God commanded Aaron and his sons to pronounce over Israel, “Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”[11] And it is crowned with the promise that, “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”[12]

Although I have had a growing faith in Jesus Christ from childhood, I have also had to deal with the real-life damage of living in a sinful world. I grew up fitting the description of a fear-based identity. I was the Attachment-Light-Always-On kid who had to come to God with all my attachment-failures, trusting him with what people have done to me, and confessing to him what I have done to others.

I am quite sure that my nightmares about failure in life and ministry have enough truth in them that I am asking God to show me what it means in real life. Whatever ails me in that regard, whatever veil of self-protection may be hiding anything from my consciousness, the thought of synchronizing my mind to the mind of Christ has me longing for the fullest experience of this as is possible this side of heaven no matter what painful realities I still must face about myself or anything that has happened to me.

Since it is true of every child of God that, “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”, I want to grow in my beholding so I can grow up in Christ. I  hope this sharing helps all of us attach to Jesus more and better than we have ever known him before.

© 2021 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] I mean this in reference to those who have been made alive in Jesus Christ by faith in his name (see Ephesians 2:1-10).

[2] John 17:1

[3] II Corinthians 3:16

[4] II Corinthians 3:18

[5] WoLVeS stands for the Wounds, Lies, Vows and Strongholds that, if left unresolved in our hearts, become like a pack of wolves constantly hindering God’s work of shepherding us in Christ. Thanks to Marcus Warner of Deeper Walk International for introducing this acronym.

[6] II Corinthians 10:4 (context is II Corinthians 10:1-6)

[7] II Corinthians 4:4

[8] II Corinthians 4:6

[9] I John 5:4

[10] Hebrews 12:1-3

[11] Numbers 6:22-27

[12] I John 3:1-3

Knowing the Fullness of God’s Love

Look at this wonderful prayer request: “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”.[1]  

“to know” means by personal experience.

“love” means the most self-giving heart that can only seek out what is ultimately best for the beloved.

“of Christ” calls us to Jesus as the image of God who makes this love known to us, the Word of God who reveals this love as fully as we could ever know it because the same love is in the Son as we find in the Father.

“that surpasses knowledge” means that the love we can know by personal experience is beyond our capacity to ever fully explain or understand even while we enjoy it in its radiant glory.

“that you may be filled” speaks of what will happen to God’s children as the result of knowing the love of Christ.

“with all the fullness of God” means that, when we know the love of God, we know what makes God who he is, hence knowing God as love would fill us with his fullness.

How could mere creatures and churches be “filled with all the fullness of God”?

The way a child’s little bucket at the seashore can contain the fullness of what sea water is, even while never containing all the sea water there is.

We can never contain God in a speck-of-dust receptacle like a human life, or even in the dust-pile of the whole of humanity. However, God’s children as individuals and in family gatherings (churches) can be filled with the fullness of who and what God is, which is love!

Which would fulfill Jesus’ prophecy that the world would know we are his disciples by… (drum roll please…) OUR LOVE![2]

 

© 2020 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] Ephesians 3:19

[2] John 13:35