The Cross - Part Two
Now one could very well say that if what we believe is what we want, aren’t I guilty of the same thing? I doubt it – not because of my being superior in any sense – but think about it: if I believed because I wanted there to be a God, why wouldn’t I choose a God who is not all-knowing and all-powerful? That would remove many questions that are often brought to bear against believers, and leave me free to pretty much do as I want and still go to Heaven. Indeed, that is the kind of God that the Old Testament prophets continually remind the Israelites that God is not that kind of God. Why? We look at the Bible, and we see God described in the following terms: God is sovereign, God is omniscient, God is holy, God is immutable (unchanging).
This is a true story, carried by a European newspaper. There was a truck driver who, one his long travels, would visit various houses of prostitution. And as he was getting ready to leave for one such trip a friend raved about a particular brothel just outside of Rome, where he lived, and of a particular prostitute to ask for. He got all excited with anticipation and stopped at this brothel. He asked for this particular prostitute his friend recommended and continued to wait, as she was busy with someone else. Finally, as he was ready to sate all his desires, he goes to see this woman and discovers that the woman is his wife.
As the paper carried the story, he was so livid with rage he nearly strangled her to death on the spot.
Interesting that it is alright for him to live such a lifestyle, but when his wife provides that kind of lifestyle, suddenly there is something wrong. Holiness is all well and good for someone else; but when we apply it to our own lives, we don’t like it very much.
Once upon a time there was a businessman at a company baseball game. He hit the ball, rounded the bases and ran home. As he did so he lowered his head, connected with the catcher who was moving to tag him out. This businessman suffered a critical injury, and was left paralyzed from the neck down. He phoned Ravi Zacharias to ask where God was in his predicament.
Holiness can be troubling, omnipotence can be terrifying, and immutability can be paralyzing unless we look at the face of God. And what do we see from that face? Someone being spat on. Someone who spread love and truth at the expense of his own life, a life that he gave up willingly. Someone unrecognizable after the soundness of the torture visited upon him. Someone people turned away from. Someone who did not complain about what he was suffering. So often when things go wrong we immediately blame God. George Carlin does a brief comedy sketch on Christian athletes who thank Jesus when they win but never mention him when they lose. But there are those, I would say more people, who when everything is going good they thank themselves, but when things go wrong they blame God.
Jesus asked God the Father if there was any other way let it be done that way. He says also “not my will but yours be done.” And three times as he prays in the garden before he is to be arrested and slaughtered, he cries out to God, calling him “holy father.”
My dear reader, when God is your father, then holiness is not troubling, omnipotence is not terrifying, and immutability is not paralyzing because those characteristics are bounded by love. Studies show that fatherless homes have a bearing in creating violent children; how about a world that has rejected its spiritual father? Indeed, that world has produced the bloodiest century yet due to atheistic regimes and empires. But one of the most important messages of the gospel is that we are not cosmically orphaned and estranged from God. Rather he would have us call out to him as Abba, your daddy and mine.
And when your daddy is God, the suffering you face and the pain you endure are seen in a vastly different light because he does not leave us in the midst of it. I do not know who wrote this but it beautifully illustrates this point.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
This is a true story, carried by a European newspaper. There was a truck driver who, one his long travels, would visit various houses of prostitution. And as he was getting ready to leave for one such trip a friend raved about a particular brothel just outside of Rome, where he lived, and of a particular prostitute to ask for. He got all excited with anticipation and stopped at this brothel. He asked for this particular prostitute his friend recommended and continued to wait, as she was busy with someone else. Finally, as he was ready to sate all his desires, he goes to see this woman and discovers that the woman is his wife.
As the paper carried the story, he was so livid with rage he nearly strangled her to death on the spot.
Interesting that it is alright for him to live such a lifestyle, but when his wife provides that kind of lifestyle, suddenly there is something wrong. Holiness is all well and good for someone else; but when we apply it to our own lives, we don’t like it very much.
Once upon a time there was a businessman at a company baseball game. He hit the ball, rounded the bases and ran home. As he did so he lowered his head, connected with the catcher who was moving to tag him out. This businessman suffered a critical injury, and was left paralyzed from the neck down. He phoned Ravi Zacharias to ask where God was in his predicament.
Holiness can be troubling, omnipotence can be terrifying, and immutability can be paralyzing unless we look at the face of God. And what do we see from that face? Someone being spat on. Someone who spread love and truth at the expense of his own life, a life that he gave up willingly. Someone unrecognizable after the soundness of the torture visited upon him. Someone people turned away from. Someone who did not complain about what he was suffering. So often when things go wrong we immediately blame God. George Carlin does a brief comedy sketch on Christian athletes who thank Jesus when they win but never mention him when they lose. But there are those, I would say more people, who when everything is going good they thank themselves, but when things go wrong they blame God.
Jesus asked God the Father if there was any other way let it be done that way. He says also “not my will but yours be done.” And three times as he prays in the garden before he is to be arrested and slaughtered, he cries out to God, calling him “holy father.”
My dear reader, when God is your father, then holiness is not troubling, omnipotence is not terrifying, and immutability is not paralyzing because those characteristics are bounded by love. Studies show that fatherless homes have a bearing in creating violent children; how about a world that has rejected its spiritual father? Indeed, that world has produced the bloodiest century yet due to atheistic regimes and empires. But one of the most important messages of the gospel is that we are not cosmically orphaned and estranged from God. Rather he would have us call out to him as Abba, your daddy and mine.
And when your daddy is God, the suffering you face and the pain you endure are seen in a vastly different light because he does not leave us in the midst of it. I do not know who wrote this but it beautifully illustrates this point.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
posted by Brian at 9:51 AM
1 Comments:
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