Acquire Christ!

After I walked my sons to the bus stop today, I kept on walking.  I took the long way home for additional exercise, and passed through a residential area of Kellyville and back to my home in Beaumont Hills.  It was a great time of reflection and drinking in the beauty of the birds, trees, and clouds. For the first time this year, I noticed an autumn bite in the morning weather.  It was also a great opportunity to speak with the LORD, casting cares upon Him.  Towards the end of the walk I happened to pass by an open garage door.  It was organised and stocked with nice things.  Funny, I thought to myself as I looked away:  I have no desire for anything in there.  In that moment I experience unnatural peace and contentment.  I thanked God I did not feel the slightest twinge of covetousness or envy when I saw expensive, great things that were not mine.  I'm so happy God has freed and kept me from sin!

Jesus said in Luke 12:15, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."  We live in a world that does not believe Jesus.  The world completely believes quality of your life is dictated by your possessions!  A Christian is someone who has discovered that true life is found only in Jesus Christ by faith.  Take away all my stuff and I still have Christ.  Take away my health and my life and I still have eternal life!  Yet many people - even Christians - can have their lives wrapped up in their possessions.  Our thoughts can be consumed with what we have, don't have, or what we really want to have.  Lately I have watched a couple of "hoarding" shows on TV which illustrate the struggle some people have with hoarding things.  A pattern which can be immediately observed between the various personalities is that holding onto things pushes people away.  What is true in the natural is often true in the spiritual.  When we fall into the trap of covetousness, we push God away.  We can covet whether we have things or not.

Covetousness, like all other sins, is wretched.  It springs from a lack of contentment with what God has graciously provided.  When we covet we are telling God what He has given us is not good enough.  It reveals we are selfish, we do not trust God to know what we need, and stands in firm denial He is able to satisfy our needs.  We internally slander God for not acquiescing to our desires and judgments.  Bitterness, envy, discontent, and selfishness are the brood of covetousness.  God keep me from this sin!  Though we may not covet for a whole day, we must be mindful we can slip into this grave error in a moment.  God is wise to keep us from having things.  Our perceived lack brings covetousness to the birth and should reveal our sin to us.  Then we can repent, refocus our eyes upon Christ, and remember that God shall supply all our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.  When things become more important than God or others, we have slipped into idolatry.  Only God can deliver from this slough.

We can heap up riches to ourselves, but without relationships it is little more than rubbish.  They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure, but to isolate yourself from people or God because of stuff is foolishness.  Spurgeon tells a story of a dying miser in his bed, with full bags of money under his arms. He said to each one, "Must I leave you?  Have I lived all these years for you, and now must I leave you?"  He writes, "There is a tale told of another, who had many pains in his death, and especially the great pain of a disturbed conscience.  He also had his money bags brought, one by one, with his mortgages, and bonds, and deeds, and putting them near his heart, he sighed, and said, 'These won't do; these won't do; these won't do; take them away!  What poor things they all are when I most need comfort in my dying moments.'" (Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, pg. 381)  Acquiring more is not the means to satisfaction, comfort, and peace.  Real joy and comfort for eternity is discovered when we give ourselves away to God.  It is in that place of surrender that we receive greater riches from God than money can buy.

Appealing Love

Because "love" these days has become a generic term, God's love can seem vague and nondescript.  Love often is a product of perspective formed according to our judgments.  While some of these judgments may spring from scripture, many assumptions of what love must be come from the wisdom of the flesh.  The flesh cannot know or understand the love of God except God reveal it because it is a spiritually discerned truth.  Hollywood has tried to paint a picture of love through film, but it is woefully lacking.  The message Hollywood is peddling about love is basically this:  love is a feeling of desire consummated in a sexual relationship.  Love has been divorced from God or morality.  Sex has been removed from the context and sanctity of marriage God ordained.  The world's idea of love sticks close to the satanic principle of "Do what thou wilt" instead of the biblical "Do God's will."

We see a description of God's love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:  "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  Can you imagine God's love being the model for government, business, and family?  That day will someday come when Christ ushers in His kingdom.  Christ's love is to be the defining attribute of the church:  people will know we are Christians by our love.  Unfortunately, the church in general is not often commended for great love.  This brings me great sadness and is a poor representation of God.  But let me add, the love of Christ does not look like what the world calls love.  The world thinks love is permissive, soft, careless, evolving, and immoral - by biblical standards.  God's love is sacrificial, gracious, unconditional, and active towards all.  God's love is holy and righteous.  Man's love springs from love of self and depends upon selfish parameters.  Whether to love is based upon what he wants and what he receives from the deal.  True love is only discovered when we receive the love of God and abide therein.

Last night I read a passage which holds forth a practical aspect of God's love.  All of God's love is practical and meant to be lived out, by the way!  Paul writes in Philemon 1:8-9:  "Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, ⁹ yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you--being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ..."  The law contained many commands and demands for God's people to obey.  Paul had every right because of his role, age, and status in the Christian community to make demands.  He could have commanded that Philemon do what was right.  Instead of being heavy-handed, love compelled him to appeal to Philemon.  There is a big difference between "commanding" and "appealing."  Man's love is all about fairness.  God's love is all about grace.  It does not force or demand.  God's love entreats and invites.  These verses helped me to better grasp what God's love looks like.  It does not say, "Do this or else!"  It says, "Because God loves you, please do this."

In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul also writes, "For the love of Christ constrains us..."  I used to think this only meant, "Because I love God I will do something."  That is a lower meaning of the passage.  The feelings of love I muster up ebbs and flows according to my circumstances.  My mood or physical health affects my desire to demonstrate love for God and others.  But the love of Christ - His love demonstrated towards me when He died in my place on the cross - that love never changes.  It is still as pure, holy, righteous, and wonderful as it ever was.  It is love that appears even more brilliant in my worst circumstances.  Indeed, my appreciation of the love of God for sinners like me actually grows over time as I begin to better grasp it!  The more we recognise how much God loves us the more we will love Him.  As our maturity continues in faith, God's love will find more practical release through our lives to the people all around us.

Let us walk in God's love.  Instead of commanding or demanding, let us appeal and entreat.  Let us reach out to all without partiality, for God's love has been thus revealed to us through Christ.

Times of Refreshment

"Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."

Exodus 31:16-17

This is a remarkable passage.  From the beginning of creation, God established a seven-day week.  He created the heavens, sea, earth, and all that is in them in six actual days.  God is an eternal being and chose to operate within the confines of time, establishing the orbits of the planets according to a 24-hour day consisting of morning and night.  God created time, seasons, months, and years.  In the Mosaic law, God told His people that the Sabbath day was a sign between them, affirming that God in six days made the heavens and earth and rested on the seventh.  I see no reason to debate and argue about the actual age of the universe.  There is no consensus view, and the most "accurate" views based upon new discoveries continue to drastically evolve.  The world most certainly had a beginning, and according to God's divine plan it will have an end.  It was not man that decided on 24-hour days or 365-day years:  it was dictated by the heavenly design God created and implements, for in Him all things consist. 

Isaiah 40:28 says, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable."  Now isn't it interesting that God never faints, is weary, or sleeps, and yet He chose to rest on the seventh day?  Even more thought provoking than the fact God rested for a day is that He was refreshed.  He chose to remain under the confines of time for a day, enjoying the beauty and wonder of what He had made.  The crown jewel of God's creation is man, the only creature made in the image of the invisible God.  God made made distinct from all other animals, having breathed into him a living soul.  Ecclesiastes 3:21 affirms the difference:  "Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?"  The thought that God can be refreshed is an amazing truth.  It was like He sat back to rest and a delicious, cool breeze washed over Him.

The Sabbath was a shadow of Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would come to earth and fulfill the Law.  Colossians 2:16-17 tells us, "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." Christians today are freed from the strict limits of the Law concerning the Sabbath because Jesus has fulfilled it.  God chose to reveal Himself to man as a man, placing Himself in the person of Jesus under the restrictions of time, years, hours, minutes, and seconds.  We no longer need to heed the shadow when the substance indwells us and leads us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus taught that the Sabbath was created for man, not man for the Sabbath.  Instead of seeking to find rest only for our bodies, it is through Jesus we find rest for our souls.  He called out in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Rest and refreshment do not come from taking time off work or laying around the house on a Saturday or Sunday:  true lasting refreshment comes from fellowship with Jesus Christ.  Acts 3:19 says, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."  When we spend time in the presence of the LORD, both He and us are refreshed.  How delightful is the refreshment that comes from the presence of God!  Let us return the favour!

God With Us

Since Christ has ushered in a New Covenant through His shed blood, the rites and ordinances of temple worship have been fulfilled.  Even if the Temple was rebuilt and the Ark of the Covenant found, it would be an empty exercise.  Instead of the Spirit of God dwelling in the Holy of Holies above the Ark of the Covenant, through the Gospel Christians are made the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Unfathomable access to God and His throne room of grace have been made possible through the indwelling Spirit of God within us through the Gospel.  I am always amazed and grateful we no longer have to follow the letter of the Mosaic law concerning the temple.  God laid down very specific commands and a process of worship that had to be obeyed.  The consequences for disobedience were very severe:  death to the priests who transgressed!

Though God is worth all effort and sacrifice, the demands of the law seemed to create an incredible inconvenience to come before the presence of God with the shedding of blood of sacrifices and offerings made by fire on the sanctified altar.  The lamp was to be kept perpetually burning, and bread was to be kept on the Table of Showbread always.  Every day lambs needed to be sacrificed.  Priests needed to be washed, anointed, and sanctified to perform their duties.  Worship of God was literally a full-time, 24 hours a day job.  It was labour the Jews were joyful to relish, for they worshiped the One True God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth who revealed Himself especially to them.  He committed His laws and statutes to them as a people:  He would be their God, and they would be His people.  They shared a special relationship with God because God chose them.

God spoke to me today as I read a scripture in Exodus 29:44-45:  "So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me as priests. ⁴⁵ I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God."  It makes sense that man should want to know God and draw near to Him.  The phenomenal thing is not the specifics of the pattern of the temple, the articles, or vestments, but that God desired to dwell among His people!  Here is the point:  God did not implement these laws because He wanted to make it difficult to approach Him.  God made a way so man could approach Him.  God fervently desired to dwell among His people.  But if He dwelt among them as a holy, righteous God without the appropriate sanctifying safeguards, they would be utterly consumed in a moment.  God wanted to be among His people with a fervent desire His people could never know.  The laws governing temple worship were there for the protection of the people - not to create a cross to bear.  Temple worship did not even provide the closeness God desired, so He sent His only Son Jesus.  Jesus would bear a cross for us on Calvary, when He bore the sins for all mankind as the perfect Lamb of God.

From the beginning it was never what a man could do for God, but what God has done for man!  Let all people rejoice, for God desires to dwell with you forever!  Jesus came to redeem men to Himself.  Jesus says in John 14:3, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."  Again, the Old Testament rules and regulations pointed to the person of Jesus Christ who would fulfill them.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Jesus is called Immanuel, translated "God with us."  He will never leave or forsake those who have been purchased by His blood through the Gospel.