god

Seeing The Invisible 

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Colossians 1:15
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

The heart of man cries out for God. From the small child, to the individual who has faced a devastating loss, or grueling pain, their hearts cry out to know God. In an attempt to answer the heart’s cry, men create God in their own image. Some have invented a vast, complicated religious system, while others have checked out. They have decided, with all the different religions, no one can know for sure. To this Paul has a simple answer,

“He is the image of the invisible God, . . .”

While we cannot see God with the natural eye, we do not have to live our lives as though He is hidden from us. In order to answer the cry of the heart, God sent His Son, so we would forever know who God is, and what He is like. There is no need to use our imaginations or experiences in an attempt to create a God who fits our liking. We just need to open the pages of the Bible and see for ourselves who God is. As we watch Jesus walk the streets of Israel, encountering people in their real life situations, we learn how God feels about us, and what He desires to do in our lives. We see Him reaching out to the hurting, with a hand of compassion, and we learn that He cares about our needs, concerns and pain. We watch as He interacts with sinners, and we find, in all our sin, He still loves us. He desires to forgive our sins and bring us to Himself. We know He spent time, daily, with those who chose to follow Him, revealing the secrets of eternity to them. We learn, as we walk with Him daily, He will speak to us. He even takes common men, whose lives would have gone unnoticed by the world, and uses them to make a mark on the world. Their service will outlast their lives, and they will store up treasures in heaven that will last forever.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We no longer have to guess who God is, or what He is like. We just need to know Jesus. Instead of listening to all the voices screaming out of confusion, attempting to explain a God they have never seen, let’s go to the pages of the Bible and meet Jesus face-to-face. What an amazing God we have, that He would take on the form of man to reveal Himself to us.

Why not pray right now and ask God to reveal Himself to you?

Pastor Jim

 

Wrong Number 

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Isaiah 15:2
“He has gone up to the temple and Dibon, to the high places to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba; On all their heads will be baldness, And every beard cut off.”

Isaiah describes the fall of Moab. He explains that it will be devastating and it will take place very soon. While this is clearly a divine prophecy which will include specific details, including the time in which this fall will take place, it did not come without warning. The Assyria troops were marching throughout the region and conquering all who opposed them. Since Moab was no match for Assyria, it was inevitable,  they would soon be overthrown. I am struck by their reaction to these warning signs.

“He has gone up to the temple and Dibon, to the high places to weep…”

Knowing things were falling apart, the people became religious. They inundated the temples, made offerings, and cried out in prayer. The problem is, they were crying out to a god who could not help them, for he was the creation of their own hearts, minds and culture.

It is common today, on a personal and even a national scale, for people to cry out to God when things begin to go wrong. Whenever someone is hit by tragedy or personal difficulty, their prayer life begins to soar, and in some cases, they even make their way into a church. We see this happen on a large scale whenever a community, state, or nation is struck with calamity. The problem is, people often cry out to the god of their imagination, instead of bowing to the true and living God. A god we fashion after our own design, is not a god who is able to assist us when our world falls apart. There was help available for Moab.  Had they turned to YHWH, they would have been delivered just as Judah was. There is help for you and me if we will turn to Christ.

Pastor Jim

 

Then He Said Go

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Isaiah 6:7-9
“Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.’
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’
And He said, ‘Go…’”

Isaiah 6 is perhaps most well known for what Isaiah saw. He records, in the year of King Uzziah’s death, he had a vision of the throne of God. He describes how he saw the Lord enthroned and surrounded by angelic beings, who ever live to give Him praise. What perhaps, is sometimes missed, is what Isaiah heard. He records hearing the voice of God in two distinct ways.

First, an angel took a coal from the altar, touched Isaiah’s lips, and declared God had taken away his sin. In order for Isaiah to receive pardon from God, he had to first recognize he was a sinner, and then allow God to touch him with the coal from the altar. Those coals would have been stained with the blood of the sacrifices. The most important words you will ever hear are, your sin has been taken away. That happens the moment you realize you are a sinner, Christ is the Savior, and you choose to trust in Him. At that moment, all your sins are washed from you. No longer do you have to carry the burden of the guilt from sin, because He carried it for you when He hung on the cross. No words could ever be sweeter than when heaven declares “your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.”

Second, once cleansed, Isaiah heard God speak again. This time he was commissioned by God to go into the world with a message. The remaining chapters of Isaiah have to do with that message. Essentially, God is using Isaiah to call others to the Lord. It is important to realize God wants to commission each of us. Something happens to a person who has truly met God, they begin to be filled with a desire for others to know Him as well.

Have you come to Christ and heard Him say “Your sin is taken away”? If not, take this moment to confess you are a sinner, and trust Him as the Savior.

Have you responded to the great commission, where you realize He not only saved you, but is sending you? Before you head out the door, pray God would give you opportunity to invite someone to come hear about Christ, or perhaps He would grant you the chance to tell them yourself.

Pastor Jim

 

Unbreakable 

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Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Solomon’s search for life has led him to the conclusion that life is better when we do not have to walk it alone. He gives four examples to illustrate his conclusion. These examples are more practical than they are poetic. First, he suggests that having a companion is better because we can get more work done. Second, if we fall down, we have someone to help us get back up. Third, we can warm one another, and finally, if attacked, we have a better chance of survival.

This passage has application for all relationships, but especially in marriage. We will find success when we view our spouse as a helpmate, and we seek to assist, support, comfort and protect each other. However, the real beauty of this passage,  and what makes it so very practical, is the final line.

“And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

The true strength of any relationship is when it is built around a relationship with Christ. If you are married, and want to have a healthy, blessed and growing relationship with your spouse, the key is to place Christ at the center of your marriage. This can be done by seeking to please Him in the way you treat your spouse. Often, marriages collapse because we fail to treat our spouse with the same dignity that we treat a stranger or co-worker. Peter encouraged wives to seek to win their husbands. I think that advice can be applied to husband and wife.

If you are not married, but are seeking to be, it is important to keep Christ at the center of your current relationships. Too often, we make compromises and concessions before marriage, because we have not sought to live pleasing to the Lord. Christ will be a stabilizing element in those relationships, where He is allowed to influence the way we behave. Too often, we want Jesus to bless us, but we are unwilling to live the kind of life He can bless.

Whatever your current state, it is not too late to put Christ at the center. If you are misbehaving in your relationship, stop, turn to Jesus, ask for forgiveness and help to change. When He becomes the center, you will experience the blessings He intends.

Pastor Jim

 

He Is A Big God 

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Job 41:1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?

Job 40:15 “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox.”

Job 40:9 “Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

There is an interesting story in the life of Elijah where he fled in fear from a wicked queen who vowed to take his life. His fleeing led him deep into the desert, where he hid in a cave. There in hiding, he heard the sound of a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but he heard the voice of God only in a whisper. Job is having the exact opposite experience. He is hearing from God and His voice is like a whirlwind thundering in his ears. The truths being revealed are so profound they shouted loudly to Job. Those truths proclaim that God is unlike Job and Job is unlike God.

To make this point, God reminds Job, there are creatures in the animal kingdom that are beyond man’s ability to tame. He describes two creatures, one a land animal and the other a sea creature, that are so strong that a man with all his abilities would be incapable of containing. The purpose is to teach us,  since we cannot understand the ways of nature, how can we expect to fully understand the ways of the one who brought nature into being.

When Job finally grasps the fact that God is beyond his understanding, he is freed from the accusations he had brought against Him. As long as Job had a small view of God, he grew resentful of his circumstances. I think it is time for us to allow the Scriptures to expand our view of God. We need to see that there is an enormous, even eternal gap, between God and His creation. It is not that we cannot know Him, but that we need to know Him as God, and walk with Him accordingly.

Instead of shrinking God into a little image you can understand, allow the Bible to reveal the vastness of who He is, and shine into your life and circumstances.

Pastor Jim

 

Bad Things. Good people 

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Job 40:8
“Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”

When Job’s counselors accused him of wrong, he began to justify himself before them. They claimed he was a sinner, so he declared his righteousness. As this argument continued to develop, Job’s justification began to cast blame upon God. If Job was innocent, then God must be wrong for allowing these things to happen to him. Perhaps this was the earliest development of the accusation we offer hear today, “how could God allow bad things to happen to good people.”

God responds to this by pointing out that Job’s defense is really a form of accusation against the nature of God. This is not uncommon. The children of Israel did it in the wilderness when they accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to die in the wild. The apostles did it when they accused Jesus of not caring about them when the waves began to crash over the boat, and we do it whenever we complain that the circumstances we are facing are unfair.

This is not just the behavior of the new, weak or carnal Christian. This is something we all struggle with. It is often difficult to accept that an uncomfortable or even painful experience could be allowed by a God who loves us. However, when we look at the heroes of faith, we come to realize that many of them faced extremely difficult experiences, and those experiences are often what forged them into the people they became. I think immediately of Paul and Silas, who upon being arrested, beaten, shackled and placed in prison, began to sing songs of worship. It was their attitude of trust, rather than accusation, that led to others coming to faith in Christ.

Pastor Jim

 

How To 

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Job 25:4
“How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?”

Righteousness is a biblical word that speaks of standing before God. A person who is righteous is one who has met God’s standards, is living pleasing to Him now, and will be accepted into heaven when this life comes to an end. When it comes to views of righteousness there seems to be contrasting positions. Some people, like the Pharisees of old, consider themselves to be righteous because of their heritage or accomplishments. They believe they will be accepted because they are inherently good. They neglect to fully understand the far reaching effects of sin or the holiness of God. Paul wrote,

Romans 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

Right standing with God will never be met by our own accomplishments, no matter how good we think we are. God is holier than that.

The second view is the exact opposite. There are those who think they are so bad they could never come to God, or if they do, they are destined to live as second class citizens in His kingdom. This person is usually haunted by a grievous failure in their past or by an addiction they are unable to shake. Again, it is important to realize that righteousness is not based upon our own accomplishments, but by the work Christ performed upon the cross. When we choose to trust Jesus for salvation, His righteousness is granted to us. We are clothed in the perfection of Christ, and the power of the Spirit of God is now at work in us to bring about the changes we were never able to produce on our own.

To answer Bildad’s question, a man can be made righteous when he trusts in Christ.

Pastor Jim

 

The Edge 

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Job 26:14
“Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”

After describing the power of God in His acts of creation, Job concludes, everything he has ever known about God is but a glimpse of what He is truly like.

Psalms 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”

The Palmist declared, God revealed Himself to man in creation. When we take the time to look at the marvels of the universe, we learn much of the nature of God. We are reminded of His power, majesty and even His creativity. Creation, however, is much too limited, it can only give us a glimpse into the character of God.

Psalms 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

Because of the limits of creation, God chose to reveal Himself through His written Word. The more time we invest in getting to know our Bible, the more we will learn of the ways of God. Page after page reveals who He is and how He acts. However, even the Word is limited. The apostle John declared, all the books in the world would not be sufficient to tell the story of who Jesus is and what He has done (John 21:25).

Because of the limits of the written word, the Bible tells us God took on human form so we could see Him as He truly is. Jesus declared, to see Him was to see the Father (John 14:9). It is only by looking at Jesus that we can actually understand the way God feels about man. Story after story, and with each encounter, Jesus shows us something of the nature of God. When He drove men from the Temple, we realize He has a passion against any who would stand in the way of people coming to Christ. When He touched the leper, we learn He loves the unlovable. When He arrived at the funeral for His friend, we learn He has compassion in our times of need. When He multiplied bread and fish, we see He will do whatever is necessary to meet our needs. Each turn of the page, teaches us something else of who God is. Once again, this is but a glimpse into the Eternal One; a shadow of His glory, or the edge of His garment.

Paul declared, by taking on human form, Jesus was in fact setting aside much of His glory. That is one of the reasons behind the writing of the Book of Revelation. It is there, where Jesus clothes Himself again in the garments of glory, and reveals what His human flesh had obscured. Much of His majesty and power had been cloaked in human skin, only to be shed at the resurrection and revealed in Revelation. However, even the Revelation is somewhat limited. It is not until we step out of time and into eternity, that we will see Him as He truly is. At that time, the filter of this life will be removed, and we will know Him as we have been known.

What a glorious day awaits the child of God! A day when we no longer look at God as if looking at an image through a dirty window pane. At that time, all our questions will be answered and we will begin a whole new relationship with Him; where for all of eternity, He expresses the riches of His grace in His acts of kindness.

Until that day, let’s be sure we get to know the edges of His ways.

Pastor Jim

 

Where Are You? 

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Job 23:8-9
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.”

I am sure each of us has felt this way at one time or another. We might be going through a particularly difficult season of life, and it seems God is hiding in the shadows. We may look in all the obvious places and not seem to be able to find His purposes in what we are facing. I think it is valuable to notice that righteous Job, not only experienced this same dilemma, but gives us the steps he took along the way. There are four important steps he took when it seemed God was hiding.

Job 23:10 “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

First, Job realized part of what he was experiencing was designed to test him. Tests, or trials, as they are often called, are designed by God with a purpose. While it is not always easy to uncover what God is desiring to show us, it is important to recognize what we are going through is not random; God has a plan. Trials might be defined as difficulties we are facing over which we have no control. When the economy crashes, our place of employment goes bankrupt, a storm knocks a tree onto our roof, or any number of other things; these events are beyond our control. Trials are different than consequences. If we disobey God and suffer something as a result, that is not a trial, and the proper response is to turn back to God and walk with Him. If we are, in fact, in the midst of a trial, we must remember God has a purpose in it.

Job 23:11 “My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.”

Second, Job determined, in the midst of his trial, he would not turn from the Lord. In the Parable of the Soils, Jesus explained that many turn from Him because of the difficulties of life (Matthew 13:5-7). Like the sun scorching a small plant, the difficulties of life become an excuse for many to turn from the Lord. Too often, the first thing we do when times get tough is to blame God. We question His love and His right to allow us to go through anything difficult. The seeds of this way of thinking will often sprout into disobedience. Job determined, in his difficulty, he would not turn from the Lord.

Job 23:12 “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

Third, and perhaps most important of all, Job realized the only way to endure was by clinging to the precious promises found in the pages of God’s Word. It is all too common, in the midst of difficulty, to neglect the promises that have been designed to keep us going. In the midst of difficulty, we need to cling to the promises of God and see Him carry us through. Whatever the trial might be, we should go to the promises as often as we go to the fridge.

Job 23:13 “But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does.”

Finally, Job understood the ways of God were much bigger than he could ever understand. This should not be an excuse to neglect getting to know Him through His Word, but should serve as a guide in times of trouble. Since we are finite, and cannot see around the corner, we often fail to realize that much of what we face has been designed with the long term in mind. God is in the business of ministering to us, and reaching the next generation for the kingdom. I think we spend too much time blaming God for the difficulties we are facing, instead of looking to Him for comfort and direction.

Pastor Jim

 

He Loves Me…

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Job 16:9
“He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.”

When we find ourselves in times of great trial, it is often difficult to discern the voice of God. In Job’s case, the voices of pain, sorrow, suffering, and loss were screaming so loud, the voice of God was drowned out. He could no longer hear God’s Word reminding Him of the great love with which he had been loved. He could no longer hear the voice of compassion, mercy or providence, explaining He would make all things right. All Job could hear was the voice of his anguish, and it was screaming, “God must hate me.”

While we may never face trials as grievous as Job endured, we will no doubt, encounter difficulty that will call into question the character of God. We will all experience times when looking at our circumstances will make it difficult to perceive the love and mercy of God. It is in those times, I lean upon the advice I received from my pastor. He told me when I do not know, I should always fall back on what I do know. In other words, there are foundational truths about God we can cling to in difficult times. Having a grip on those truths will take us through our darkest hours.

First, we must remember, God is good and everything that flows from Him is good. The psalmist put it this way,

“Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.” Psalm 73:1-2

He declared the circumstances he faced brought him to the brink of falling, but the cure was to remember the goodness of God. Not only is He good, but He also promises to work all things out for our good. That means He has a plan to work with the circumstances we are facing, in order to accomplish His best for our lives. Often, we fail to see any value in the trials we endure, because we are by nature shortsighted, we cannot see into the future, or understand the big things of God.

Another important, even foundational truth, to rely upon in times of confusion is, God is in all this for the long haul. He is making decisions that will effect, not just the moment we are in, but the generations that will follow. Abraham was promised descendants as the stars, but at his death only Isaac had been born. It was not that the promise failed, but that the vantage point of God was much more far-reaching than Abraham could see. Keep in mind, the way we choose to react to the difficulties we face, will have an affect upon those who come after us.

Finally, no matter how loud your trials may scream that God hates you, the cross cries out emphatically, God is love. The very fact that God initiated the steps to redeem man back to Himself, knowing those steps would lead to the brutal death of His only begotten Son, are proof enough of the magnificence of His love.

In your sorrow, pain or confusion, take the time right now to focus upon the majesty of the cross and allow God to bathe you in His infinite love.

Pastor Jim