Jesus is Enough!

Some speak of God and Jesus Christ as if knowing Him is related to a human decision to believe. With that comes all sorts of encouragements to hang in there, to keep trusting Him, to remember who Jesus is and the proof of it. They speak of God in tentative terms and eternal life as a future reward. They also stress human effort and the will to believe, as if all of this is up to us.

While my experience sometimes belie what God says, my experience concerning faith in Christ and becoming a Christian is nothing like the above examples. My salvation experience was not about what I did. Not only that, it lines up with the Word of God.

That said, everything related to my Christian life is about what God is doing through the power of His Holy Spirit, both before and after. In searching for Him, I didn’t even realize that was what I was doing. I didn’t find Him — He found me. I was sitting in my living room reading a book on reincarnation (which I now know is not true) and suddenly became aware of Jesus. He came as light in my darkness and revealed to me what I did not know nor had been told; He is God incarnate, God in human flesh, and He came to die for my sin. This truth has never been doubted.

In that encounter, my mind and heart were changed. I knew instantly who He is. I knew why He came. Again, that has never changed. I’ve not had to fight to keep believing it. Revealed truth is unforgettable, not the same as ‘taught’ truth.

Soon after that happened, my sister told me to read John five times and Romans twice, reading until a revelation from God stopped me. Then write it down, and how it applies to me. Repeat. More than fifty years. And God has, every day of those years given me something new, or reviewed something already revealed — faithfully. To my amazement. To my joy. And Jesus said this:

… The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:10)

If Jesus did that, what right do I have to speak as if I have any authority? Or claim that I do what He tells me? Even Jesus said that it is the One who lives in Him that does the work of God. I’ve no right nor any reason to claim any of it. Again, this is illustrated by a hand in a glove. The glove is inert and useless without the hand to animate it.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Galatians also explains the fact that the old nature, called the flesh, still tries to rule my life. God says:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16–17)

This applies only as God reveals to me what is fleshy and interfering with His Spirit. This applies this morning as we have two days before the moving van arrives and my flesh wants to quit packing and be done with it. Even run away and hide. The Spirit tells me to trust in Him to give me the strength and the attitude I need to do this as Jesus would — by listening to and relying on my Father.

PRAY: The day ahead seems too hard, yet You are the God of ‘too hard’ and tell me I can do Your will in Your strength, and with joy. Fill me with Your Spirit and enable obedience, even in this ordinary challenge. I need You all the time, and I know that You are enough!

Good In, Good Out?

 

An app gives me access to library e-books. I started to read one but it began with descriptions of horrible attacks and murders. Within three chapters, I returned it without reading the rest. I’m not sure my mind is like a computer, but I’m not willing to risk that “Garbage In, Garbage Out” maxim.

Aside from the book, we went for an early breakfast because we check-out today. Normally I don’t eat early but we will be a long time in the air. Anyway, on the way for a small bite to eat, we talked to a very friendly young hotel liaison person about how to grow old in a good way. I told him that the main thing we focused on was listening to God and doing what He says. He received that well. Had I read any of that book, thoughts like that may not have entered my head.

Being like Jesus is a daily challenge. Jesus would not have read explicit books, nor would He focus on exercise, health food, or any of the other usual recommendations for a long life. He may have quoted the OT commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12) yet I doubt it. He knew that a long life is not guaranteed by what we do. He may also have quoted Psalm 90 that includes the words: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

Why listen to Jesus? Some say He was merely a Jewish teacher. Others say He was an idea, like a myth. However, the Bible and His own words declare a most marvelous truth:

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:10)
I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. (John 12:45)

Jesus is not a mere teacher, a mere wise man with good advice. He is the Creator God, the Word made flesh who came here so we could know what God is like, but so we could also have a relationship with Him through faith, experience forgiveness of sin, and be certain of eternal life as the result.

For all of that and more, I want to do His will, not the will of the world, my old nature, or the devil. 1 John 3 begins with the statement that those who hope in Him purify themselves as He is pure. God’s goal for me is to be like Jesus. I cannot claim the same identity but because of His saving power, I can claim to know God and to advance in purity. Reading a crappy book does nothing toward those realities.

PRAY: Jesus, thanks for giving this book-lover the gumption to toss a book – even one that is part of a series that seems otherwise okay – to instead prefer to read about You and Your incredible goodness. You reveal the Father, holiness, purity and grace so I can occupy my mind with  “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable” and if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, I can think about those things (Philippians 4:8) and share them with others.

God is at work?

 At church we sometimes sing a hymn that has a line saying God is WORKING even when we cannot see Him working. For instance, in the weeks leading up to my husband’s salvation, I had no idea that God was at work changing his attitude and granting him faith. On a larger scale, the fact that God is sovereign and involved in the events of this world is no little comfort as I read the morning news. The world seems in total chaos, yet God declares:

Isaiah 45:7. “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

My faith in God’s holy goodness alongside the realization of human sinfulness stirs the idea that if we got what we deserve, things would be far worse; none of us would draw another breath. If it were not for His saving work, we would perish.

That said, the word ‘work’ and its variations occurs hundreds of times in Scripture. One OT word means both work and trouble, referring to the effect of sin and death to make our ordinary work meaningless in the long term. Another OT word is about ‘skilled labor’ generally gifted by God to do temple construction and various other worship and ministry tasks.

This word is related to the Sabbath commandment which teaches us that there is always more work to be done and we are never finished, yet we can rest knowing that God has finished his work of redemption accomplished by Jesus. We can rest in what he has finished, not what we have completed. (See Hebrews 4)

Resting on the Sabbath is not about our ‘regular work’ being unholy and must be suspended, but a reminder that all of our needs are supplied by the Lord, including the physical ability to return to our regular work.

But what about the ongoing work of God? What is He doing since that first day of rest? In the NT, the root word translated work is about supernatural powers, godly or demonic. It points to God’s work of resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead, working in people for salvation and spiritual growth, working in the church through spiritual gifts, and empowering His people to pray and evangelize. Consider this:

John 14:10. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

The work of God included empowering His Son to do His work. If Jesus Christ relied on the work of God to do what He did, how much more do we need Him to empower us!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I am a bit startled at the NT absence of any description of what God is doing other than what He does through His people and how He worked through His Son. We truly are His hands and feet, His mouth and His message. I cannot always see what He is doing to change me, never mind those around me, but need to get this through my head and heart: the work of God in today’s messy world may be unseen in the realm of conviction, granting faith, giving direction etc. to His people, yet it is mostly seen as we do the work He tells us to do . . . as I do what He tells me to do. In my desire that this world be a better place, my prayers should include asking God to work in us and through us so that myself and God’s people will be better listeners and far more obedient than we are to do His work.