The Road is Long, But God is Faithful

Let’s be honest, life is hard. Sometimes it feels like we’re buried under burdens that threaten to crush us. Sorrow, responsibilities, anxiety, family, pain, injustice, sickness, and more. It wears on you. I understand. Paul did too. He said, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9).

But what if you just can’t keep going? What if it’s just too much? I understand that too. So did Jesus’ brother, James who said, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (Jas 1:12). James led the Christian church in Jerusalem – a church under severe persecution. He saw their troubles as a means to an end and called for perseverance.

Another brother, Jude, added some advice and encouragement for persevering: “But you, dear friends, built yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Chris to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21).

Build up your faith by remembering God’s history of faithfulness, power, wisdom, and victory.  “Pray and don’t give up” (Luke 18:1) – that pretty well explains itself. Stand firm in the love of God – one of my favorite ways to do this is to consider 1 Corinthians 13 and how the Lord has manifested each expression of love.  And then wait. Augh! That’s the hardest part. How long? Until He says, “It is done” (Rev 21:6). And it will be done because God leaves nothing unfinished – “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

The choice to persevere or give up is one we all face. Friend, I don’t know your burdens, just the weight of my own. And friend, they are very heavy. Every time I think I can’t keep going God sends me a reminder of what – and who – is at stake. I can’t give up. I won’t give up. And neither should you. Let’s commit today to persevere with God’s help. And each other’s. The Lord says, “As for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded” (2 Chron 15:7). Hang on Beloved, there’s Joy ahead for us.

God = Love = God

I am a follower of rules. I think it came from growing up as a military kid. There were rules living on base and everyone knew what was expected of them – even us kids. Even now I want to know my role and not have to wonder what I’m supposed to be doing. But even more, I want a way to know if I am measuring up. I want to be able to look at the list and say, I have done everything that is expected of me, therefore I am acceptable. I guess it goes back to my childhood. “Have you made your bed? Have you brushed your teeth? Have you done your homework? Have you finished your chores? Yes? Good job! No? Why are you so lazy? Why don’t you do what you’re supposed to do?” The unspoken words still ring loudly in my head: “You’re only good if you check off all the boxes.”

It’s taken me my whole life to realize that lists are great for work, but they are not the measure of my relationship with God.  Nor are they yours.  God doesn’t love you and me because we follow all the rules and check off all the boxes.  He loves us because He loves us.  Because that is His nature.  John made it very clear in his first letter: “Love comes from God” (1 John 4:7), “God is love” (v. 8, 16), “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us . . .” (v. 10), “We know and rely on the love God has for us” (v. 16), “We love because He first loved us” (v. 19).

 Love originates from God. We would have no love within us if not for God’s love lavished on us (3:1). John added, “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, [our]love is made complete . . .” (vs. 16-17). God’s love is perfect (4:18). It is steadfast (Psalm 118). It is eternal (Psalm 136). It is selfless (John 3:16).

And here’s what is so comforting: you can’t be good enough to make Him love you more and you can’t mess up enough to make Him love you less. He loves you because of who He is. Beloved (see what I called you), the next time you look at your life and wonder if you measure up remember this:  you don’t – but God loves you anyway.

Advent 2022: Christmas Love

“We’re getting married on December 24^th because Christmas is such a romantic time of year – it’s all about love.” The young woman was giddy with the excitement of their engagement and the Christmas wedding she envisioned. Still, I wondered if she really understood the love of Christmas, because Christmas love is God’s love.

Paul best expressed the love of God when he said, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19.

How high is the love of God? Psalm 103:11 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.” Man may have climbed to great heights through space exploration, but we have yet to pierce the highest heavens. God’s love exceeds heights man can never reach.

How long is the love of God? Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” God loved us before time began, and He will continue to love us throughout all eternity. His love for you and me will never end.

How deep is the love of God? “Jesus Christ, being in very nature God…made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…humbled Himself…to death” (Philippians 2:6-8.) Jesus Christ stepped from the glory of heaven and humbled Himself all the way to the depths of the grave for you and me.

How wide is the love of God? “Carrying His own cross, [Jesus] went to the place of the Skull. Here they crucified Him” (John 19:17-18) Jesus willingly stretched His arms out to their full span, so His hands could be cruelly nailed to the cross. Jesus is the embodiment of Christmas love. He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Christmas love is far more than romantic love. It is saving love. It is eternal love.

Beloved, you will never be able to measure the love of God, but you can trust it. It’s a firm foundation on which to build your life and it’s a sweet, soft pillow on which to rest your head at night. It is the heart of Christmas.

Jesus is [not] my Homeboy

When I took an Apologetics course in my undergrad, I had to interview five non-Christians and ask them specific worldview questions. I also did a little experiment. I asked each one to repeat one simple, three-word phrase: “Jesus is Lord.” None of them would. In fact, one of them said, “I can’t. Those words just won’t come.”  

When we take a very nonchalant approach to Jesus, it shows in how we identify Him. Evangelist Greg Laurie said, “Sometimes I think people in the church are far too casual with God. They have a relationship with God, but they’ve forgotten the holiness of God. They say Jesus is their “homeboy,” but their so-called homeboy created the universe. Let’s show some respect. This is God Almighty we’re talking about.” I understand that we want to present Jesus as approachable and relevant. But if we fail to see and acknowledge Him as Lord, we have missed the point of who He is.

The writer of Hebrews got it. He said, “Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28b-29). That’s very different from the soft-hearted God that is preached from many pulpits today. Don’t get me wrong – our God is a God of love and mercy – two of His most enduring traits. God’s love is evident in His mercy. His mercy is driven by His love. But both His love and His mercy must acknowledge His holiness – and His wrath. Without it, His love is as mushy – and useless – as a Hallmark movie.  You and I need a love that is powerful enough to snatch us from the edge of hell.

While the culture today wants to worship only the God of love, love, love they have no real context. His love is His mercy. His love is the cross. They don’t understand that because they fail to see the danger they are in because of their sinfulness. And they fail to see the consuming fire of His holiness. Remember what the angels proclaimed in Isaiah’s vision: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty (Isa 6:3). His holiness is His glory – a brilliant radiance that consumes everything that is not as holy as He. Unless you have the protective covering of the blood of Jesus.

God’s mercy against the backdrop of man’s sin is like threads of gold and silver on black velvet. They just show up better. You were meant to carry the light of God to a dark world that longs for love but doesn’t understand it. Beloved, let Him set you ablaze with His glory.

Beloved of God

I have learned more about the love of God as a grandmother than almost anything else in my life. Last night Joy leaned her head against my shoulder and said, “I love you, Nana.” And Nana melted into a puddle. Oh, how my heart sang with – well – Joy. But she loved me because I loved her first. I fell in love with her the day she was born. I told her so the first time I held her in my arms. I’ve told her multiple times a day for the last three years and 52 days. I will tell her I love her every day for the rest of my life.

When I told her “I love you” on that first day of her life, she had no love to offer me. She was a helpless, tiny baby. I didn’t love her because of what she could do. I loved her because it welled up in me like a tidal wave. She was about a year old when she first started saying “I love you.” But she wasn’t expressing her own affection – she was just parroting me. She didn’t really understand what “love” meant. She just knew it made Nana happy when she said it back to me. But in time, through showing her my love, she understood, and when she says “I love you” now she is speaking from her heart.  

Paul said that God loved us when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). When we had nothing to offer Him in return for His love. John said that is because “God is love” (1 John 4:16). He wrote, “We love because He first loved us” (v. 19). John knew a thing or two about God’s love through Jesus. He called himself, “The disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7, 20). Of course, Jesus loved all of His disciples (John 13:1), but John took that personally. He made it his identity. It fueled his ministry and his life. Whatever befell him, whatever the world did to break him – like exiling him to the Isle of Patmos – John took that assurance with him.

So can you. I hope you’ve noticed that I always refer to you as “Beloved”. That’s because you are. I want you to hear that and believe it with all your heart. I want you to take it personally and make it your identity. I want you to write it on your heart forever. You are the Beloved of God.

Hebrews: Noah and (more than) the Ark

I grew up on Bible stories: Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Joshua and the Battle of Jericho (if you’re my age you just sang that one), and Noah and the Ark. Bible stories are great – when you’re a kid, but at some point, we have to grow up. We have to dig deeper into the familiar stories of our childhood and find the treasures under the surface. Noah and the Ark is a good place to start.

The writer of Hebrews placed Noah in this chapter of heroes – not for the ark that he built, but for the reason he built it.  “By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family” (Heb 11:7). What was the “thing not yet seen?” Rain. Since creation “streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground” (Gen 2:6). So when God comes to Noah and says, “I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights” (Gen 7:4), Noah had no idea what “rain” was. He had to believe in something he had never seen. Noah obeyed because he was sure that God was going to do what He said He would do.

But there’s another phrase in the verse that gets overlooked: “in holy fear.” Wait – Why was he afraid of God? He is all love, love, love. “Holy fear” means Noah reverenced God. He was in awe of His greatness and power. He respected God. That has been lost and it shows. Noah believed when the Lord said, “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens . . .” (Gen 6:17). He also believed in God’s promise to save him and his family (Gen 6:18). He did what God told him to do because he believed in God’s power and authority to destroy all living creatures and in God’s salvation.

That’s the foundation of the gospel. I know we’re not supposed to re-write the Bible, but I want to tweak John 3:16 just a little: “For God so loved the (sinful, disobedient, condemned) world that He gave His one and only (perfect, holy) Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish (as he deserves to) but have eternal life.” The gospel of love is incomplete without the truth of man’s sin and condemnation. We have to tell people why they need to be saved. Noah believed in both the judgment and the mercy of God. Do you, Beloved?

Say It Again, God

“When God repeats something, He’s making a point and we need to pay attention.” My seminary professor’s words stuck with me as I sat before my Bible the next morning reading the day’s Scripture. I had been working through the Psalms for several months and was sitting in Psalm 136. You need to read this for yourself, so go grab your Bible (or look the verses up here) and read through this chapter. I’ll wait for you. What did you notice? Every verse ends with the refrain: “His love endures forever.” Twenty-six times. Do you think God is trying to make a point? Do you think you and I need to pay attention?

If there is one persistent theme in all of the Bible it is the love of God. God’s love often comes in different ways and the Psalmist points many of them out to us – His great wonders (v 4), His creation (vs. 5-9), salvation (v. 10-12), miracles (vs. 13-15), guidance (v. 16), protection (vs. 17-20), goodness (vs.  1, 21-22), faithfulness (v. 23), redemption (v. 24), and provision (v. 25).  God’s people in every generation could add to that list. God’s love is extraordinary and indescribable, through writers of books and songs and scripture (and blogs) have attempted to put it into human words. And they’ve all fallen short. There is a great old hymn, “The Love of God,” written in 1917 by Frederick. Lehman and Claudia Mays, that I think comes as close as anyone ever could. The third stanza is my favorite:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.[1]

This psalm is full of beauty and majesty and wonder. But the point God was making over and over and over  – the thing that He wants you to grasp with all your heart, Beloved, is that He loves you and His love will endure forever. And that is something to repeatedly thank God for (vs. 1-3,26).

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[1] The Love of God  (1917) by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917, har. by Claudia L. Mays, 1917, v. 3 by Anonymous/Unknown, copyright status is Public Domain.

The More You Know . . .

To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him

Just to see him smile make my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him

And I do.

Written by Phil Spector and first recorded by “The Teddy Bears,” this song hit the number one spot in 1958. Through the years it was covered by many other artists and I bet as you read those lyrics, you were singing the melody. I know I did as I typed them. One of my daily prayers for my granddaughter is that she will grow in the knowledge of God and love for God every day of her life.  Because the more she knows God, the more she will love Him. How can she not?

When she knows that God is holy, when she knows that He is righteous, when she knows that He is high and lifted up and that He not only sees her but cares about her (Gen 16:13)  . . . when she knows that He is mighty, when she knows that He uses His power on her behalf (Eph 3:20) . . . when she knows that God is faithful and will “never leave [her] nor forsake [her] (Jos 1:5), when she grasps “how wide and long and high and deep” is His love for her (Eph 3:18) and understands that “nothing can separate [her] from the love of God (Rom 8:38-39) . . . when she knows that He loves her so much that “He sent His one and only Son” to die to save her (John 3:16) . . .

How can you not? Perhaps it never occurred to you that you can know God, but over and over His Word invites us to do just that. Paul prayed that believers will “know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19). I have discovered that the more I come to know Him, the more I love Him and the more I love Him the more I want to know Him. Beloved, can there be any better pursuit for your life than to seek to know God? “My heart says of You, “Seek His face!” Your face Lord, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8).

Hebrews: Love and Obedience

Why did Jesus come to earth? Why did He willingly go to the cross? Why did He leave the glory of heaven to suffer and die? In our modern theology, the answer is because of love – and that is not a wrong answer, but it’s also not entirely the right answer according to the Scriptures.

First, let’s consider the love of God. I’m sure you know John 3:16, which perfectly defines God’s love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That verse says volumes about God’s love for mankind. Likewise 1 John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.” (Isn’t that a wonderful parallel!) Plain and simple: God sent His Son to die for man’s sin because of His great love.  Paul tried to express this amazing love in dimensions that we could understand talking about “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18). Indeed love was what nailed Christ to the cross.

But there is another element to consider and the writer of Hebrews borrows from David to highlight another important aspect of Christ’s sacrifice:

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said:

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for me;

With burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased.

Then I said, “Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll

– I have come to do your will, O God.”

Hebrews 10:5-7

Christ came to earth and surrendered to the cross in obedience to the will of His Father. He came because this was God’s plan from before the foundations of the world. Jesus was “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world’ (Rev 13:8), and He said that the Father arranged our inheritance, a “kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt 25:34). God provided for your salvation before ever committed the first sin, in fact before you were born; even before He called forth the light (Gen 1:3). Jesus coming to earth, living a perfect life, dying a selfless death was an act of perfect obedience to the will of the Father. So was saving you, Beloved. Because He loves you.

Beloved

If there is one consistent theme throughout the Bible it is that God loves people. From every tribe, nation, and tongue God loves human beings – the pinnacle of His creation. He doesn’t love one gender more than the other. He doesn’t love one race more than the other – in truth, there is only one race – the human race – and He loves them all. I love Psalm 107 because it is all about the love of God for mankind. The first verse says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.” The last verse says, “Consider the great love of the Lord” (v. 43) and in between the Scriptures speak of ”His unfailing love” four times (vs. 8,15,21, 31).

The Psalmist describes people who are poor and desperate, people who were imprisoned by their sin, people who have foolishly rebelled against God, and people who are “at their wits’ end” because of life’s storms. I think that pretty much covers all of us. I know I fit in at least a couple of those. The point is, God’s love is for everyone. No one is exempt or excluded. No one is cast aside or rejected.

In each scene, when they “cried to the Lord in their trouble,” He “saved them from their distress” (vs. 6, 13, 19, 28). He led the poor to “by a straight way to a city where they could settle” (v. 4). He brought [the prisoner] out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains” (v. 14). He “sent forth His word and healed [the rebel] and rescued them from the grave” (v. 20). He “stilled the storm to a whisper and hushed the waves of the sea and guided [the distressed] to their desired haven” (vs. 29-30). They all “gave thanks for . . . His wonderful deeds for men” (vs. 8, 13, 19, 28).

Where do you fit in these scenes? Are you desperate, bound by sin, rebelling against God, or distressed and anxious because of a storm in your life? God loves you. He who makes springs in the desert, who feeds the hungry, who lifts up the humble and desperate,  loves you. Yes you.  And now you understand why I call you “Beloved.”