Love words?

Some of us have this zany love of words to the point that using it’s when it should be its and your when it should be you’re can make us want to crack heads. In our minds, good communication depends on the right word in the right place.

I wonder if God is like that? Of course He isn’t speaking English, or French, or Greek for that matter, but He does use whatever language we understand to speak to us. I’m glad He uses full words too. As fun and helpful as they might be, I cannot imagine a Bible with LOL or IMO.

John wrote this:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30–31)

This is a precise statement, yet John knew that ‘believe’ could cause problems with some of his readers. He probably didn’t have a thesaurus (one of my favorite books), but he knew the language and used a few synonyms that would convey truth. Here are a few examples from the rest of this book (fourth in the New Testament).

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

RECEIVE from the idea of accepting another person and giving them access to yourself. It is also the word for receiving a gift that someone offers to you. That is, believing in Jesus is about letting Him into my life, receiving Him as a gift. This is illustrated by a dignitary who opens the door of his office to a visitor, welcoming him or receiving him into his presence, also by taking a gift from someone who holds it out to me.

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

DRINK connotates thirst and refreshing water. It means to participate or partake in something, in this case the water of life. Ponce de Leon never did find it, but John knew where it was!

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)

COME uses the same idea of being thirsty or hungry but adds the idea of moving toward as well as consuming something. However, the word EAT is a bit more challenging. Jesus uses this word metaphorically. He was talking about a deep participation in His life, something that genuine faith includes. The context confused those who heard Him because they interpreted it literally . . .

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51)

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53–58)

ENTER is another figure of speech, this time related to the care of sheep. They grazed in a pasture, but if fearful or at night, they had a special enclosure or sheepfold where they went through a door to find safety. Jesus said to them:

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

When these words are viewed together, the idea of believing becomes more than just agreeing something is true. Faith in Jesus is about a relationship with Him, personal, voluntary, dependence, drawing sustenance from Him, trusting and depending on Him for everything. Believing might begin with, “Yes, I know He exists and He died for me” but if having the kind of faith that God gives and wants from us, believing will go beyond that. It will include letting Him into my life, finding all that I need in Him no matter what that need might be.

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Lord Jesus, when I sing “You are my all in all” I am expressing what You have shown me. Believing is far more than knowing You are and that You are who You claim to be. It is also opening my life to You, and allowing You in — to take charge, to care for, and to the source of all my thoughts, words, and actions.

God can handle it

A friend was upset with another person and told me about it with great angst. I suggested that she tell God what she told me, seeking His face and His comfort. She replied, “I could never talk to God like that. It would be disrespectful.”

I gently reminded her of the psalms and how some of them expressed burdens to God in much stronger language than hers. I don’t know if she realized that her attitude demeaned the Lord. Does He not know our hearts? Isn’t He able to deal with our deepest woes and worries?

Tozer’s words today are worth repeating. He warns his readers to beware of reducing God to theory and intellect. He says when God appears to us as awesome, vast and incomprehensible, then the mind sinks into silence and the heart cries out “O Lord God!” This signifies the difference between theological knowledge and spiritual experience. He tells us to “watch lest we lose the ‘Oh’” from our hearts.”

Another Christian lady keeps telling me I’ve a super-sensitive heart when I pray or speak my burdens with the emotions that I feel. Maybe that sensitivity is the reason her words bother me, but doesn’t God have a burden for the lost, a broken heart for those struggling through life? Isn’t Jesus Christ sensitive and compassionate?

At times, I think I have a hard heart but then read Tozer’s words, “There is real danger that we fall victim to the prophets of poise and the purveyors of tranquility, and our Christianity be reduced to a mere evangelical humanism that is never disturbed about anything nor overcome . . .”

If nothing bothers me, if I cannot pray “Oh God” or express concern for the events in our world, then I am not like this psalmist:

“O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!’  . . . . Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalm 83:1-4; 16–18)

Who else can I share those concerns with? Who can do something about the hard stuff, the tragedies, the burdens that bother me?

I’ve noticed that whenever my interest in world affairs lags, or my concern for the well-being of others is turned off because I caring is hard on me, then my prayers become rote repetition, requests without any passion. Tozer puts it this way: When the calm listing of requests and the courteous giving of proper thanks take the place of the burdened prayer that finds utterance difficult we should beware the next step, for our direction is surely down whether we know it or not.

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Lord Jesus, faith in You means a relationship in which Your Spirit lives in me and affects how I think and live. It seems fitting that I should feel what You feel and converse with You as expressed by Your people, both in the OT and the New. May I never reduce You to a CEO where I bring my list of requests as if You are the boss. May I never think You are unapproachable if my words become a strong outpouring of my heart. May I never stop praying, “Oh God.”

What to do about Jesus?

This week, I watched Dr. Billy Graham’s funeral. Several things touched me. One was the reading of a poem wife wrote at age 14. It was her prayer to God for the kind of man she wanted to marry. She wasn’t interested in appearance or money or much else except that she wanted him to be a godly man. Years later, she met Graham, the exact answer to her prayers.

His family and many others paid tribute to this evangelist’s life and message. His son Franklin spoke the main message. He sounded much like his father as he preached the plain gospel to thousands in attendance. Many were Christian leaders. Others were friends, family and government officials, including the president and vice president of the United States and their wives.

As I listened, I wondered how those hearing this strong and clear message about Jesus would respond. Would they say YES to faith in Jesus Christ, or would they have the same attitude of the crowd more than 2000 years ago when challenged by the same question:

Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” (Matthew 27:22)

Tozer says, “The gospel is the official proclamation that Christ died for us and is risen again, with the added announcement that everyone who will believe . . . will cast in his lot with Christ in full and final committal, shall be saved eternally.”

Those who do so might gain favor for a time, but like Jesus, will not be popular. The pattern will follow what happened to our Savior. We will be “admired by many, loved by a few and rejected at last by the majority of men.” As Franklin said, if anyone is not willing to pay this price, Christ has nothing more to say to that person now, but He will speak again in judgment.

The question for every person is the same: what will you do with Jesus? Some do not know His name. Some know it only as a curse word. Some were raised with it but turned away. Some, like me, knew about Him but sat on the fence for a long time, not fully aware of who He really is or what He had done for me.

Jesus said, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

A few will hear and respond with YES and become new creations by grace through faith. This is as Tozer called it; the Christ question. Our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ is the turning point of every life.

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Lord Jesus, I am 100% for You, and deeply joyful that when You called, You did it in such a way that there was no other answer in my mind but YES. Thank You. It is the desire of my heart, and in the hearts of every one of Your people that the world will hear the Gospel and that all who hear will respond and receive forgiveness and eternal life — available to all because of You.