How To Know God

John 14: 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
No man can see God face to face and live. For God is holy and in His holiness what ever is of sin cannot be in His presence. The corrupted nature of a human being must be spiritually transformed into something incorruptible. Man could never accomplish this on his own so God in His grace made a plan of salvation. That His eternal Son would become a human being and take man's place on a cross. Since man is corrupt the sacrifice would have to be incorruptible. There could only be one way for this to happen. It would have to have been the sinless Son of God.
God became a human embryo in the womb of a teenage Israelite. She would have to be a virgin in order that the offspring would not be tainted by the human bloodline of Adam. There could be no other way than for it to have been via an immaculate conception.
So Jesus Christ was born into the world to save sinners. The Bible had been refuted before it was ever published. Mankind has furiously tried to disprove the word of God as being truth but mankind has yet to accomplish this. And for good reason. Only God could come up with such a story. Only God could come up with such a plan. When you see it for what it is it is impossible not to see that this plan had to be exactly the way it happened. This is one of the reasons that the many who refute God's word end up failing in their refute. The plan is too perfect and has no holes in it at all. Of course it doesn't, it's God's plan.
No man has seen the face of God and lived but thousands saw the face of Jesus Christ during His earthly lifetime. Not only did they see His face, they heard His words and witnessed His acts. Some actually touched His body. Some touched His resurrected body. And you can count on it that many were touched by Him as deep down as a person could be touched.
How many of them were able to put two and two together that this man was more than a man. That this man was actually Emmanuel; God with us. That when they looked into His face or heard His words or touched His hands that they were actually seeing, hearing and touching God Himself. Jesus said that He and His father were one. That there was nothing that He said or did that didn't originate from His Father. Jesus was completely dependent on the Father for everything (that's a lesson in itself for us believers). And He perfectly represented His Father to the world.
The beliefs around the world about who God is are as varied as we can imagine. He can only be who He is. There is only one way to the Father. There is no other approach to His throne but through the bloody mangled body of Jesus Christ. And He began His mission here as an infant.
Consider who this infant really is. Consider what it would mean if you would allow yourself to be touched by Him. Consider the possibility that this babe in the manger is actually God wrapped in human skin. If you know Him you know His Dad too. Wow.

If you don't know Christ you can't know God.

No Christ, No God.
Know Christ, Know God.

The Real Reason For The Season

1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Why was this infant born into this world? Why did God single out a teenage virgin and have her conceive by way of the Holy Spirit a child who would be human and yet God at the same time? Why did this infant grow up to develop a fairly sizable following through the performing of miracles and the greatest teachings ever uttered in all of human history? Why did He say the things He said? Why did He do the things He did? Why would He endure physical, emotional and probably spiritual suffering that is beyond all comprehension? Why would he voluntarily take upon Himself the penalty of death for the sins of all mankind? Why in one fell swoop would He defeat the power of sin, death and Satan all in one weekend? Why? Why? Why?

I enjoy all the "stuff" of Christmas. My wife does a real nice job decorating the house making it look nice and festive. Who doesn't enjoy Christmas lights? There is a different feeling in the air. Is it from childhood Christmases that were magical and highly enjoyable? And who wouldn't like the food! From Thanksgiving to the New Year there is a feastivus for the rest of us. And then the depression and guilt of January when droves find their way to their local gyms. Is the feeling of this time of year from the hope that life could somehow be better than it usually is? Is it the hope that family members would get their acts together and that we would actually one day become a family in it's best sense? Is it the hope that someday, one day, the problems, the trials, the hurts will all end?

I've been reading a book by Martyn Lloyd Jones on John 14 lately. I was reading last night about how many people see the Gospel message as a means to make our world a better place to live in. And how people become disappointed when life doesn't get better and then question the authenticity of the Gospel because somehow God hasn't made all that is wrong right. Mr. Jones wrote about how the social gospel; the one that people use to think they can have more riches, more stuff, a better life here on this earth and peaceful societies where wars never occur and everyone gets along is not the message of the Gospel but is a perversion of that message. Think about it. Where is there any Scripture that states that if we believe in Christ and become great Christians that our lives in the here and now and the world around us will be repaired of all the damages that sin has brought into our world? We still dwell in flesh that wants to and does sin. We still dwell in a fallen corrupted world where it's inhabitants largely deny the existence of God and most certainly reject the Christ of the Gospels. How could we become so deluded as to think it's all going to get better when Satan has a stronger grip of this world and it's people than God does?

I've been criticized for some of my sermons being too "heavy". That people would rather hear about the love of God and how God can make them feel better about themselves and that you should leave out the more unsavory aspects of the Gospel message such as judgment, repentance, sin and especially hell.

Why? Why? Why?

Christmas is about a bit more than the tinsel, Santa Claus, cookies, presents, family gathering together, the hopes and dreams yet realized; it is about Jesus Christ coming into this world as that infant in order to do one thing and one thing alone. To save sinners.

Not to make the world a better place. Sorry if that ruins your holiday spirit but search the Scriptures and see if it's not true. Jesus' teachings, miracles, prayers, sweating drops of blood in anguish, giving up His spirit on that cross when it was all finished is all about one thing only. All of us are sinners. All of us have defied God. All of us are deserving of the penalty of death. But He came into the world to save us from this penalty and from all that sin does to us. And in doing so He also stated that He was going to return to take us out of here and with Him for eternity (John 14:3).

The better place won't be here. It will be there with Him and His Father in eternity. It is on the other side of the veil. He promised He will return to take us with Him.

That day will be the Christmas of all Christmases. These other ones are but a glimpse of what will come. We all long for something better because we all know this can't be it. The feeling of the season I believe is really the hopeful expectation of His return where all will be fulfilled. Where Christmas and it's hope will be a non-stop, never-ending reality.

It will literally be the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving and...

This is why.

Devotional 12-12-11

John 14 I go to prepare a place for you.

Theres a place for us. Not just somewhere but a specific location and destiny. The night of His arrest Jesus provides these words to His disciples to put their hearts and fears at rest. He begins by telling them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me also". These men were about to face a weekend of hell. Although Jesus had told these men repeatedly about the need for His death there is no evidence that these men really believed it or were prepared for it. You can bet that when the thing came down, for these men it seemed like the end of the world. Jesus knew that these disciples were going to struggle mightily with troubled hearts and that the only thing that would provide them any sense of peace would be the surety of His word. Until that glorious Sunday morning, the surety of God's word would be all they would have. So Jesus gives them the solution to the troubled heart. Believe. In God. And in Christ. They would need nothing else to get them through. He even reassures them by saying "If it were not so I would have told you". The preparing of the eternal place is not limited to a construction site in heaven. It is taking place right now on earth as it is in heaven. The holy site on earth where this preparation is taking place is not in a building made by human hands but in a temple nonetheless. The preparing of the place is also taking place in the believer. The continued sanctification of the washing of the water of the word takes place within the believer every time the Bible is read, spoken and listened to. This living word is slicing and dicing away all the dross that needs removing in order for the believer to believe in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation and a life of difficulties, trials and tribulations. God has given us exactly what He gave to those disciples that weekend. Living words of love, grace and hope. And He has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is at work within you cleaning out all that is unholy and providing comfort in the midst of the storm. Just as it was that weekend for those disciples, a stone will be rolled away and the promise of the word will be as real as the breath in your body. The place will be looking you right in your eyes. The place will take His hands and lovingly wipe away the tears that will be no more. The place isn't just a room in mansion. The place is the person who spoke the words of promise and hope. Anything less would be no place for me.

What Is Truth Part 2

What Is Truth Part 2

It’s the summer of 1993. I go to God in prayer and ask Him exactly what a friend recommended to me; “God, reveal Yourself to me”. I hear no voice from heaven nor do I receive a visit from a celestial angel. But what I did get was as crystal clear as anything I have ever “heard”.

 “You must believe in Me through My Son”.

There was no audible voice or a sign in the sky but a crystal clear, distinct impression that I sensed within me. I can’t explain it other than my prayer being answered. I’ve had others wonder if it was just my own mind talking back to me. I can’t say that there haven’t been times when I wondered that myself. But far too much happened that drastically changed my life from that first prayer that I screamed out to God three years earlier when I was dying from more emotional pain than I can describe and had developed a 21 year dependence on drugs and alcohol. Way too many “coincidences” and major changes had taken place since then (like getting clean and being able to actually stay clean) and I could not come up with any other answer than the God who I had rejected my entire life literally saved my life when I sincerely asked Him to. I try to be a rational and logical thinker and I honestly could not come up with any other answer. And please try to understand that I am as skeptical on these matters as they come. When this all went down in ’93, I initially wanted nothing to do with the God of any religion, particularly the religion I was somewhat raised in which was Catholicism. I wanted nothing to do with any religion. But I had developed a belief in a God who hears and answers prayer because I had experienced far too much to believe otherwise. I did not come into this belief shouting halleluiah but instead came into it kicking and screaming. Most of the people I had associated with were as left wing as they get and I knew that most of them would think I had lost my mind. I initially worried what they and many others would think. But no matter where I went all I could hear was that “impression” resounding through my mind.

“You must believe in Me through My Son”.

It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command. I asked God for Him to reveal Himself to me and this is the answer I get back. It was not the answer I thought I was looking for. But in hindsight it was the answer I had been seeking my entire life.

Because the answer pointed me not to a church or to a religion, but to His Son. It was a direct command to go to Jesus Christ. And what I have found out was that it was He that I had been looking for all these years. Not that He was lost of course; that was my position. I just found what my heart, mind and soul had desired above everything and everyone else. It was (and still is) all about Him.

I am also the first to admit that my experience with becoming a Christian was a relative and subjective experience. It didn’t begin with much, if any of a coming to a truth through absolute and objective means. It was all based on my thoughts and feelings, even though much of my thinking and emotions were contrary to wanting to believe in Him. But as I stated in Part 1, my thinking process had begun to change and I was looking at the idea of God as I did when I described the reality and truth of the chair. It had stopped making any sense to me that there could be a God who embodied all the differing attributes that many religions and people had placed on the idea of God. There were far too many contradictions in all of these differing beliefs. I have heard many say that all religions are essentially the same; that they all teach love, kindness, do unto others as they would do unto you and so on. Well upon further examination, nothing could be further from the truth. There are many similarities in religious beliefs but the differences are far too different for them all to be able to “coexist” alongside of one another and have all of them equally be true.

The one similarity is that they all state that they are the truth. How can that be when one religion states that the messiah hasn’t appeared on this earth yet (Judaism) while another says the messiah has appeared? How could one say that there really is no God (Buddhism) while most others say there most certainly is a God? How could one say that there is one God in three persons while another says there are at least 330 million deities (Hinduism)? How can one religion claim that unbelievers must be converted or face death (Islam) and another religion claim that a person must pick up their cross daily and love one another sacrificially in order to follow their God?

How can Jesus Christ make such an exclusive statement that “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. How could this be if all of these other religious beliefs are equally valid? How can they “coexist” alongside one another? How could they all be the truth?

They can’t. It’s just not possible. In order to believe that they can one must suspend all logic and reason. You either have to completely reject the Gospel message and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and believe something else or you must believe that His claims are true. You can’t have it both ways. Remember that one of the signs of stable mental health is the ability to perceive, understand and operate in reality. No matter how sincerely you believe something if it doesn’t hold up to critical analysis and rationalism then it can’t be true. I may believe with every fiber of my being that I am the President of the United States but upon the first layer of examination anyone could see that it’s just not true.

When someone says that “I am the truth, the way and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” then that person is either a lunatic, a liar (as C.S. Lewis and Josh McDowell have pointed out) or that person is stating a fact.

In 1993 I sincerely ask God for Him to reveal Himself to me. Against my own beliefs and wishes I get the clear distinct impression that “You must believe in Me through My Son”.

The only way to the Father is through the Son. You must believe in Me through My Son.

I had never read John 14:3 before in my entire life.

Imagine my surprise when I finally did. And then when I read the rest and found that all of it held up against my logic and reason.

What is truth? Looks like it’s that guy called Jesus, the Christ.

More to come…

Devotional 12-6-11

^{Philippians 3:13
12} Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

What is it that Paul hopes to lay hold of? It is the very thing Christ laid hold of when He laid hold of Paul.
What Christ laid hold of for all of us is no less a miracle than all the others he performed. I believe it is the greatest miracle of all. Healing blindness, feeding multitudes and raising the dead is pretty impressive stuff. But to lay hold of the penalty of all sin of all time, to perform the righteous transaction that resulted in salvation to be offered to all who would receive it in order for a promise of eternity with God is as impressive as it can possibly get. That none of us has to be concerned or in fear of having to be good enough, to have to perform enough good works in order to maybe be granted entrance into His kingdom is an incredible, awe-provoking gift.
Christ dies in order to lay hold of us. We are the end result of His receiving glory. Paul understands that it isn't about attaining perfection in this life in order to be right with God. He understood it will be about laying hold of a robe in which the wearer of that robe will be the embodiment of all we've ever wished for, dreamt about, longed for and hoped for. He will be the Alpha and the Omega and in His presence in eternity nothing within us will yearn for anything else ever again. We will know fulfillment like we never had before. For we will share in His never ending glory and presence.

Holy Father we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ and we thank You for making a way for us, that You laid hold of us in order that one day we will completely in Your eternal presence lay hold of You. May this be our mind set as we go through this life with its difficulties and struggles; knowing that You have completed the work; that we are already laid hold of by You and that nothing can change that. Thank you Lord for this most precious of gifts. May we walk in a manner that is worthy of this gift. In Your holy name,
Amen.

What Is Truth Part 1

What Is Truth?

John 18; ³⁷ Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
³⁸ Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”…

truth

1. the true  or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.

2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.

3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.

4. the state or character of being true.

5. actuality or actual existence.

Pontius Pilate asked the most important question ever asked. More important than even, “will you marry me?” And he asked it of the only person in all of human history who could’ve given the most accurate answer possible. For the person he asked this question of was none other than Jesus Christ.

Never mind that Pilate wasn’t earnestly seeking the truth as he was just throwing out a response to Jesus’ statement that Jesus was here to bear witness of the truth and that whoever is of the truth hears His voice. Pilate wasn’t a man interested in truth as much as he was interested in political correctness and people pleasing in order to keep his position and his head. Pilate was nothing more than a puppet in this whole passion play but a puppet nonetheless who was given a minor role of supposed “authority” over these proceedings. God had put this particular man in this role in order to carry out His plan of salvation. So the fact that Pilate’s most important question wasn’t asked with sincere and noble purposes means nothing to the fact that this question really is the question of all questions.

What is truth?

Today the truth is up for grabs. And is a sense it always has been. Man has been the sole definer of all that he surveys since man could survey. Throughout the ages man has looked around and within him and has come up with a vast multitude of answers to this most important of questions. According to definition truth is basically what is real; what is actual; what is reality. A verifiable or indisputable fact, proposition or principle.

Why is this question the most important of all questions? Well ask someone who has been accused of murder but who is actually innocent. Their very life depends upon the findings of truth. If in fact it is true that the accused is innocent than most people would agree that a horrible injustice and crime was committed if the accused was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison or even death. Most human beings would agree that this is not only wrong but would be a tragedy. And that’s because we value life and we value truth. Even those who reject The Truth throw themselves into dramatic spasms when they are accused of a wrongdoing that they actually didn’t commit. No one likes or accepts being falsely accused. It is a horrible offense to the person and to those who know the truth.

If someone in your own home stole something from someone else in that home wouldn’t it be a major problem? Wouldn’t the victim demand the truth about who took whatever it was they took? Why would this be important? Well we also value justice. Particularly when we have been victimized. And without truth justice is impossible because there would be no way to right the wrong unless the truth about the event was made known.

Truth is inherently important to all of our affairs in this life. A standard barometer of good mental health is whether or not a person has a good understanding of reality. If I were to tell you that I was in actuality the Queen of England and if I were actually convinced of that then you would accurately assess that I have lost my mind. If I were to tell you that I was typing these words while riding a magic carpet across the Ganges River in Iowa while eating raw pigeon then you would certainly doubt the veracity of this information. This in turn would jeopardize my reputation in being an honest person. If I talked badly about you behind your back and then played nice nice with you in person then my integrity would be badly compromised. You wouldn’t be able to trust me. Without trust a good relationship is pretty much impossible. When there is no trust it is because truth was somehow compromised in the relationship.

In this day and age, truth is most certainly up for grabs. Truth is considered by many, if not by most people anymore to be relative and subjective instead of absolute and objective. In other words, you and I get to make up our own separate interpretations of what we see as being the truth. Coming to a definition of truth via relative and subjective methods means that a personal bias forms the definition. In some situations in life this is understandable and one of the only methods available in order to determine truth. This happens frequently in relationship interactions. We all see and interpret events in life differently. That’s been one of the greatest problems I have seen in marriage counseling because both parties see things very differently from one another and both think that they are right. When allowance isn’t made for the other person’s perspective then you run into a dead end. I find it important to at least consider that my perspective on a given situation could be flawed because upon further examination it frequently is. This is a way of coming to the truth through relative/subjective means and it has its place and can be very useful.

But when trying to come to a proper and fitting definition of truth in many other areas of life the relative/subjective method is greatly flawed. For instance, the chair I am sitting in is made primarily of wood. As far as I can tell it is also made of glue, stain and varnish. Although these components can be used to make a multitude of other items in this case they were specifically designed and manufactured to be a chair. I don’t need someone else’s perspective on what they think the chair is. The vast majority of human beings would correctly agree that it is indeed a chair. But If I were in the minority and sincerely and genuinely believe it was something else, let’s say an aardvark then once again the integrity of my mental stability would be in question. No matter how sincere and genuine my belief would be, this chair would remain a chair. It could be altered to become something else but at this moment in time, it is a chair. This is absolute/objective reasoning about the truth of an object. It is what it is no matter what anyone thinks, feels or believes.

There are probably as many views about whom and what God is as there are people in the world. We are certainly living in a time when the number of the world’s religions has increased dramatically. Combined with the vast array of spiritual belief systems you have a cornucopia of differing beliefs about God and about spirituality to choose from. And then there is of course spiritual and even religious belief systems where God is not part of the equation.

So let’s at least consider the possibility that there is a God. If I approach this idea from a relative/subjective deduction then this idea of God would be fully based on my thoughts, feelings and bias. And with those I agree with. In other words I can make God out to be whatever I want to make God out to be. If I don’t like the idea of God found in religion I can choose other attributes to this God. I can view God as a warm, fuzzy friend who doesn’t care one iota about how I treat others or about my morality. In this view, God is never judgmental or punishing. Or I can view God as some distant, impersonal force that guides the universe in some either random or karma type of way.

 In 1990 I began to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings because I needed help to stop using drugs. It was in N.A. that I first encountered the idea that you could create a God of your own understanding. This had tremendous appeal to me at first because I did believe in the idea of a higher power but I wanted nothing to do with the God of any religious belief. I was told by recovering addicts that it was important to believe in something, pretty much anything greater than myself or else I was going to fail at staying clean. Some even told me I could make a higher power out of anything I wished, like a doorknob or a light bulb. Praying to doorknobs and light bulbs made no sense to me even then but I did believe in a God who was kind, loving and non-judgmental. Eventually I was confronted by the 3^rd step of the 12 step program which states, “made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand him.”

I guess the fog of the many years of drug use had begun to lift as I was able to begin to think rationally about things. I didn’t know it at the time but I was beginning to move from thinking about God in relative/subjective terms to absolute/objective terms. I really began thinking about this God of our understanding business and how there are so many differing beliefs and views on who and what this God is and that I really had no clue whatsoever. This was the starting point. I had to admit to the truth that I didn’t know. I began to look and think about this God as I did when I described the chair I am sitting in. The chair is what it is no matter what personal bias I bring to it. I thought about people in the same way. We all have different opinions of a person but none of us can absolutely define a person because our personal bias comes into play. A person is who a person is regardless of what any of us think about that person. I began to apply this same logic to the idea of God. No matter how many different beliefs and views there are of God at some point God must simply be who God is. It made no sense to me that God could be this multi-faceted being that everyone was making God out to be. It made no sense. It still makes no sense.

The chair is a chair. It was designed and its function was for a human to sit upon.

God is who God is. And just as we can’t define another person based on our perspectives, prejudices, bias, thoughts and emotions we are incapable of defining God based on those same methods. If there is a God, then He is the only one capable of describing Himself to us.

I believed there was a God. At times I felt that I could sense His presence and His care for me. And for some reason knowing who and what I could about Him became more important than anything else.  I desperately wanted to know the truth about who this God is.

So I did what a good friend told me to do.

Ask God in prayer to reveal Himself to me.

I had no idea what I was in for.