Grace and Truth

Jesus warns us in the gospels to build our house upon the rock, and not upon the sand, because when the storms came the house built upon the sand was utterly destroyed, while the house upon the rock stood firm.

I wonder if our “house”, that is our live, our integrity, our relationships, our beliefs (I mean the things in which we put out trust: if we’re Christian, we “say” God… but is that where our trust really is?), really are built upon the rock.

Fortunately for us, God sends us building inspectors from time to time to probe us (with the help of supernatural tools that God provides).  Its not always who we think it should be.  Its not always in the way we think it should be done.  But no matter, God in his mercy probes away.

Like the dentist, he probes, pokes, grinds away the calcified buildup… and like the dentist, occassionally “YEOOCH” he hits something.  A crack.  Like a cracked tooth, God will send his building inspectors to find cracks in our foundation.

Sometimes it’s not who we would like (the wife or husband we like to blame for everything, since it’s never us). Sometimes its not in the way we would like (“Well… I just can’t believe that they would say that… well I never, well I’m just so offended…”)

But guess what, it is right and it is God.

Jesus says He is the way, the Truth and the life.

The way is to come to him.  The life only comes via the truth, and guess what, the truth is often painful.

God is so gracious, he comes to give us truth before its too late.  What to do when the truth comes crashing down?

Run to him.  Run to the throne of grace, to find mercy in our time of need.  And believe me, when we’ve had a dose of the truth it is definitely a time of need.

The Beginning and The End

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is the Beginning and the End.  But as well as this, there is a beginning of His work in us and through us, and there is an end to His work in and through us.

In fact, there are many beginnings and there are many ends to our walk with Jesus, but they all start with Him and they all finish with Him.  The first is when we become Christians, the first time we call on His name, the first time we are saved.  But there are other beginnings.  Every time Jesus calls us to “Come up higher” is a new beginning in Him.

Let me share a picture that I had of one such beginning and one such end.

The beginning I’m envisioning is when Jesus calls us to step up higher in faith.  The picture, is the disciples, in a boat (picture that you and I are the disciples).  The waves are getting bigger.  The wind is getting squallier.  There’s an eerie chill in the air, and dark clouds brooding ferociously beyond the hills.  Soon there is a full blown storm.  Two things are immediately apparent.  This storm is a massive one.  In fact this storm is building in such a way that it looks as if it’s going to kill us.  The second thing is: where is Jesus? He’s not in the boat.

Immediately, panic and fear rise up.  “We’re gonna die,” and Jesus has abandoned us.  Great.

Except… what is that up in the distance, on one of the waves.  A branch? A twig? Some debris? Another abandoned ship, capsized, crew already drowned?  A face? No… it’s gone again.

There it is again, only closer.  What the…?  It’s a man? It’s a ghost?

“Take courage, it is I”

There it is. There’s the moment, the chance to come up higher.  The new beginning.  Jesus is with one breath commanding us to take courage, and in the same breath empowering us with courage. It is him!

“If it is you, Lord, then command me to step out onto the waves.”

Then the supernatural strength comes, the empowerment, the grace, and we’re walking on the water with Jesus.

That’s the beginning.  Thats the new level.   That’s when the faith comes.

Jesus is asking us “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth?”.  The answer is definitely “yes”, if we respond to his glorious command and impartation: “Take courage, it is I”

So what of the end? The end is in heaven.  The end is when we get to stand before God, before the angels, and before the saints, and we get to receive the reward of our faith.  I see a row of saints, battle-weary but full of the joy of the Lord, standing before the King, like at a medal ceremony, about to receive the Congressional medal of honor.  Jesus stops at each and every one of us, and at that moment all of heaven stops and savours the moment:  Well done, good and faithful servant.  Jesus looks at each one of us, individually in the eye, and for that moment His joy is complete.  At that moment we understand the infinite, eternal, value of all our trials and the opportunities that Jesus has given us, and we get to complete His joy.

Not just our joy, His joy.

The beginning, and the end.  The beginning is Jesus, the end is Jesus.  Every step of the way, but it requires faith.

But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

And God is pleased with us, as we turn to Him in the midst of the storm, as we call upon the Name of the Lord, and as we are saved.

Overcoming Disappointment

  

“Sing, O barren woman, 
       you who never bore a child; 
       burst into song, shout for joy, 
       you who were never in labor; 
       because more are the children of the desolate woman 
       than of her who has a husband,” 
       says the LORD.

When dreams are shattered, its not just hard to pick up the pieces.  It’s impossible.  We know what happened to Humpty Dumpty.

What does God say to us when life gives us lemons?   Make lemonade??  No.

God knows that the lemons of life are often too bitter to be of any use for anything, other than to be tossed back into the pit from whence they came.  So what does He give us instead.  He gives us hope.   Not the pitiful “I hope so” of the plaintively desperate.   Not the “hopefully” of the hopeless.  No.  

Paul writes to the Romans:

…since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

“Hope does not disappoint us”

Hope, in the Glory of God, does not disappoint us.  And we also have hope from the word of God in Isaiah.  A promise, that he will give us “children” in our barrenness.  Joyce Meyer says “If you’ve been disappointed, get reappointed”.

And when I first heard that—well, I was seething—but then God gave me a picture.  God reappoints us with a new appointment—not the same appointment—a new one, tailor-made for where we’re at

Because within the black hole of disappointment, the crucible of broken dreams… the-thing-that-you’d-hoped-for-that-just-ain’t-gonna-happen…ever!  The nothingness of defeat.   God says “I will turn the specter of failure in to a sceptre of righteousness”

How?

By giving us a new dream, a new vision, a new hope.   Maybe yesterday we dreamed of a perfect marriage.  Until that was decimated in the ashes of an acrimonious divorce.   Maybe we’ve been crippled… physically or emotionally.  Maybe we got struck down by depression.  Maybe we lost our confidence. Maybe our best friend betrayed us.  It doesn’t matter.

The new hope is a vision of Gods glory, it’s engaging Gods plan for redemption that meets us head on right where we’re at.   Its focusing on the cross,  Jesus Christ, the True King, himself utterly broken and bereft for our sakes.  But not without hope.  As we gaze upon the cross, a remarkable transformation begins to take place.  He who knew no sin, no brokenness, was made sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  There it is—the specter of failure turned into a sceptre of righteousness.  Its praying through the depression.  Its loving our enemies.  Its learning to be gracious in defeat.  Its the gospel… the good news.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Hope has come.  Jesus Christ is that hope,  he alone can fulfill that longing and complete the picture right in the midst of our incompleteness.   And in the midst of that, the new plan for our future begins to unfold, right where we’re at.

For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future an a hope.