Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Majesty of God

Hi, this week our study group finished reading Pastor Francis Chan's book entitled 'Forgotten God'. However, at the end of the book, he provides the first chapter of another book he has written entitled 'Crazy Love', and I thought this first chapter was great. See if you agree with me. Here is a small portion from the first chapter of Pastor Chan's 'Crazy Love':

Let's begin this book by gazing at God in silence (the chapter's name is 'Stop Praying'). What I want you to do right now is to go online and look at the Awe Factor video (video here: How big are you?) to get a taste of the awe factor of our God. Seriously – go do it.

Speechless? Amazed? Humbled?

When I first saw those images, I had to worship. I didn't want to speak or share it with anyone. I just want to sit quietly and admire the Creator.

It's wild to think that most of these galaxies have been discovered only in the past few years, thanks to the Hubble telescope. They've been in the universe for thousands of years without humans even knowing about them.

Why would God create more than 350,000,000,000 galaxies (and this is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed? Do you think maybe it was to make us say, "Wow, God is unfathomably big"? Or perhaps God wanted us to see these pictures so that our response would be, "Who do I think I am?"… (Pastor Francis Chan, portion of chapter 1 – Stop Praying, from his book "Crazy Love').

If you want more here is his Youtube video Chapter 1 of 'Crazy Love', video – Stop Praying.

When I think of the majesty of God, I think of what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 6:1-7. It's a great scene, Isaiah sees God, and the Seraphim praising Him: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And the temple shakes at the mere words He speaks. And what is Isaiah's response? He trembles at his own unworthiness, as he knows his sinfulness will cause him to die on the spot at seeing God. It's a great visual picture for me that I sometimes use when praying. I like the way Pastor Chan draws me back to humbly think of the majesty of God, and His greatness, and His glory when I think of Him. This first chapter has more, and perhaps next week I will share more from this chapter.

May the Majestic Lord, the Creator, the Lord of hosts, bless you this week. /s/Tom

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Where is the Holy Spirit?

Our Thursday Morning Men's Group is reading Francis Chan's book on the Holy Spirit entitled 'Forgotten God'. Pastor Chan raises several serious challenges about Christians and the Holy Spirit. I thought I would share from the book a few of these challenges, and then provide one response that might help us all out. To begin with here are three of those challenges:

  • Our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, then shouldn't there be a huge difference in the lives of a person who has the Holy Spirit living inside of them, compared to the one who does not? (p.32);
  • By the power of the Holy Spirit, we put to death the misdeeds of the body. Over our lifetimes, the Spirit sets us free from sins we cannot get rid of on our own (Romans 8:2). Is this really happening? (p. 75);
  • The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). Who out there can see that they have all of the fruit to a "supernatural" degree? (p. 147.)

So these are a few of the challenges that we have dealt with in going through the 'Forgotten God' book. Although dealing with challenges is sometimes fun to do, I was really looking for an answer to these challenges as I went through the book. And here is one answer that Pastor Chan brings up that struck me as particularly helpful. He looks at the Old Testament Prophet Elijah. This is the same Elijah who raised the dead, and called down fire from heaven in taking down the priests of Baal. So was Elijah just a super-spiritual, super-holy miracle worker? That's not what was written about Elijah in the Bible:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently… (James 5:17 - ESV)

So Pastor Chan brings out the fact that Elijah did great miracles by God's power, despite his being a normal man with a nature just like ours. The key appears to be Elijah's fervent use of prayer. This is a great take-away application from the 'Forgotten God' book – if we want to see and do miracles for God's glory, perhaps a good starting point is to pray fervently, like Elijah did. Let's focus our energies and time asking for help from the One who has the power to change us, to give us more fruit of the Spirit, and to do mighty miracles. It seems like a great place to start.

May God through Jesus Christ our Lord give you His peace and blessings this week, Amen. /s/Tom

Saturday, April 7, 2012

God on Easter

The 4th Commandment-tells us to honor God's name and that we shall not take it in vain. What exactly is the name of God that we are Commanded not to profane? The name being referred to here is 'YHWH'. In this post, one thing I am suggesting for us is that it is not all of the other names for God that are prohibited by this Commandment. For example God, Lord, Adonai, Abba Father, etc. are names of God that are used in the Bible. Instead, there is something special about the name 'YHWH' that deserves our reverence and respect, along with our special attention.

But Who is this YHWH Who revealed Himself to Moses by speaking to him from a burning bush in Exodus chapter 3? When Moses met God for the first time on the mountain, it was a special place. There was a burning bush, and God told Moses to remove his sandals because it was Holy ground. In this setting, Moses asked God what His name was, but more, He was looking how to describe God. God revealed His descriptive name to Moses. God said "I am who I am", which in the Greek Septuagint for Exodus 3:14 is 'Ego Eimi'. The descriptive name He revealed to Moses shows that He always was, is now, and always will be. God is self-derived. He is eternal. He was, He is, and He will be. (Rev. 4:8).

What about Jesus? I had a friend ask me recently if it mattered whether or not Jesus actually lived or not. Yes, of course it matters whether or not Jesus actually lived. Jesus lived the sin-free life that we cannot. He is our Savior, saving us from the penalty owed from our sin. His guilt free life sacrificed on the Cross was the sin-offering to God, which was made for the world's sins. Through repentance and faith, Jesus' sacrifice allows His sinless righteousness to be transferred to us. This transfer is made to our account before God. Having a fictional Jesus provides us no benefit.

But if God the Father is YHWH, the great 'I AM', then Who is Jesus? John 8:58 reveals Jesus' oneness with God the Father. The scene in John chapter 8 is a group of Jews having one of the most contentious confrontations with Jesus contained in the Scriptures. The Jews argued that their lineage through Abraham provided them with a special relationship with God. Jesus spoke bluntly to them, saying that their father was actually Satan and that their sin-filled lives had prevented them from seeing and accepting the reality of Who Jesus was. They called Jesus a bastard (John 8:41). They called Jesus a horrible insulting name, he was a Samaritan (John 8:48, I guess this is worse than being a Packer fan). They called him a demon-spawn (John 8:48). This is action packed stuff, better than the fights taking place on Jersey Shore. And how did Jesus respond to this barrage of blasphemies and insults? He revealed His true name to them:

Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58.)

Yes, Jesus revealed to this bunch of slugs what His real name and nature is – He is also the great 'I AM', the same name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exod. 3:14). It is the same words in the Greek, 'Ego Eimi' as is used in the Septuagint in Exodus 3:14. So Jesus faced with attacks, blasphemies, and vicious lies, responds to them with Truth – He is part of the eternal God, God the Son.

The Jewish children of Satan responded in typical fashion to this claim of Divinity by Jesus - they picked up stones to stone Him (John 8:59). The Jews knew how to treat someone who claims to be God. You stone them!

So getting back to the original question asking whether it is important that Jesus actually lived or not, my response is to ask, does it matter to you in knowing that God Himself came to Earth to live as a human, to help us with the biggest problem humanity faces? God the Father revealed His name and identity to Moses, and this name is 'I AM' (Exod. 3:14). Jesus revealed His name to the Jewish attackers, and this name is 'I AM' (John 8:58). I hope this helps to see Jesus' death on the Cross, and His glorious resurrection on Easter with some additional clarity. He is risen, He is risen indeed! Happy Easter.