Could you do it? If you knew it was God’s will, could you pay the hit man to kill you? Tie yourself to the railroad tracks? Buy the poison that someone would put in your next meal?
Seems a bit ridiculous to even ask these questions because thinking that God would require something like this of us is quite outlandish. But this is exactly what Jesus did.
As Jesus announces that He will be betrayed by one of His disciples, He is asked by His disciples to identify the traitor.
“Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” John 13:26-27.
With these words the final sequence of events that would lead to His crucifixion is set in motion. And as Judas walks out the door on his malevolent mission, the next words of Jesus are – “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” John 13:31
NOW! Not only at the resurrection, not only at the cross, not only at the ascension, but now – in this moment of surrender and yieldedness to the will of the Father.
How beautiful our life becomes and how radiantly the glory of God shines through our lives in the act of laying our own plans, goals and agenda on the altar and bringing down the knife, preferring rather to have God’s will than the things by which we have sought to gratify ourselves.
May we daily lay all things down at His feet as an offering of surrender that He may be exceedingly glorified in us.
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John 1:35-37
John the Baptist was a unique man in history. When I think of him, I get images of Michael York in “Jesus of Nazareth” – a wild eyed, wild-haired man, on fire with a message of repentance. But when I read about him in the gospel of John, I get a picture of a man entirely unconcerned with his own status or “ministry”. Each time John opens his mouth, he is pointing people to Jesus. Whether it is those in authority that have come to discover who he is, or whether it is his own followers, John consistently points to Jesus.
And who can forget this verse – “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Not only does he speak these words, he lives them by pointing people away from himself and toward Jesus.
In this age of self-promotion and ministry-itis, it seems discouragingly rare to encounter a believer whose SOLE concern is pointing people to Jesus. We point people to our church, our pastor, the latest Christian book or song, and all too often to ourselves. But what about the Lamb of God??
Make no mistake – our words and actions are pointing. Where are yours pointing?
Are You God only on our mountaintops? Are You not also God in our valleys? Have You not chosen, O God, to draw us into a deeper place of love and dependence in these very desolate times of our lives, when all other means of support and comfort have been withdrawn? How quickly we look to other people and other things for our help. But Your love for us is too great, Your desire for a people too strong, to allow us to continue to place our trust in any other. And so we come to the valley of the shadow of death and you will not allow us to run through quickly to the other side, but You insist that we walk through. And there in the valley, as our hearts are stripped of independence and pride, we see that when all else is gone, You remain. Oh the wisdom of God! We would never willingly choose the valley, but You have set times that You have ordained it for us. How we murmur and complain as we begin to traverse it. How we pity ourselves and our miserable condition. Until that moment when You still our hearts and reveal to us the blessing of the wilderness.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
“And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the LORD,
“That you will call Me “My Husband,’
And no longer call Me “My Master,’
For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.
“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the LORD. Hosea 2:14-20
In the dry desert places of our lives, may we find You Oh God. And let our hearts sing in that wilderness place as we discover that in You we have a love that is sufficient for all things.
Last week I read a tragic news story of a teenaged boy who trespassed into a restricted area of an amusement park to retrieve his hat and was struck by a roller coaster and died. The story was so terribly sad to me and as I pondered it, this spiritual parallel unfolded…..
There is unforeseen danger in the restricted areas. God has clearly – by His Word and His Spirit – marked certain things off limits. Why? Not to deny me any pleasure, but to protect me and preserve my life. Although I may not see the approaching danger, or be aware of any threat to my safety, I need to understand that these areas have been restricted to me because there is indeed danger lurking there. And when it comes, it may come so speedily that I am unable to escape.
Why do we feel the need to trespass into the restricted areas? Isn’t it true that sometimes the very presence of a sign warning us to keep out only increases the desire to go in? The apostle Paul said in Romans 7:7 “I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet”.
Just a glance at the forbidden thing is all we want. But Achan only took a few small items from the forbidden things of Jericho and it cost him his life and the lives of his family. (Joshua 7).
And who can forget the trespass of Adam and Eve that has affected us all?
Had this dear boy known it would cost him his life to retrieve the hat, I am convinced he would not have considered it that valuable.
And may we, as the people of God, not be guilty of disregarding the commands of God to possess trifles and worthless things.
Today I celebrate not only Independence Day, but being in dependence…..
Dependence on a Saviour who has done for me what I could never do for myself:
Saved me from eternal separation from God in hell
Cleansed me from my many, many sins by His own precious blood
Empowered me to live for Him by His Spirit
Oh, the list would be endless……..
I must realize daily that I have no resources in myself to live this life, to walk this walk. So I must lean hard on Christ.
and cling to Him in dependence for every word I speak that it might impart grace to the hearers.
and look to Him when I have need as my only resource.
and trust in Him for wisdom in all things, great and small
and lean on Him for the strength to live a life pleasing to Him.
I cannot depend on myself. I can only fall at His feet and confess “I have no help, no strength but You. But You are everything. You are enough.”
Does this make me appear weak? Then I will celebrate this as well. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
May Christ be magnified in my life, not because I am strong, but because His strength is demonstrated through my life. This is my prayer Lord Jesus – that I would truly learn to live in dependence on You.
As I read the Word of God, I become increasingly aware of the many deficiencies in my walk with Christ, so many things to be changed in me.My type A personality, combined with a sincere desire to be conformed to the image of Christ, sets me immediately to work devising a plan, mapping out a strategy to accomplish this lofty goal.As if it was in my ability to actually do such a thing.So I labor and strain……..and fail.And falling to the depths of despair over my inadequacy as a child of God, I determine that I need to try harder, be more disciplined and more committed.It is a vicious cycle.And a needless one.
Certainly there is a place for discipline and commitment in the life of a believer.Even self examination is called for by the Scriptures.But isn’t it possible that there is a place of rest in Christ that we can live from, where the heart is so enraptured, so utterly delighted with Him, above and to the exclusion of all else (even ourselves) that the strivings and labors of our own soul are no longer necessary?
The work that Jesus has required is that we believe.The life that He has commanded is one of rest, and love and abiding.Oh what sweet and pleasant words these are to the weary soul.They are the language of delight and they are words that draw us to the Savior.This stands in stark contrast to the infamous “should”, which is the language of obligation, perpetually driving us to ever more frenzied levels of self improvement.
The work of the Spirit of God in the life of a believer is exactly that – the work of the Spirit of God.And whereas our own labors will drive us to despair, His workings will lead us ever so sweetly into the green pastures of an obedient and Christ-like life.
He is my Delight 