Last night, Zach and I attended our church's Good Friday service. It was a great time to reflect on the most important aspect of our faith in Jesus Christ. If Jesus had not died for our sins, he would have been just a moral teacher ( and, honestly, a nut job since he claimed to be God!) We could not have the joy of Easter faith without the sorrow of Good Friday. We all together read the prophesy reading in Isaiah 53:2-12 written hundreds of years before Jesus' birth. It is pretty remarkable. God had this planned all along. Since the fall of man, God began His work to redeem us! This reading is quite beautiful.
Isaiah 53:2-12
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied, by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
One part in there especially struck me, v. 10 says, "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" How have you suffered this year? Reason tells us, "Isn't God loving??" so why would He want us to suffer? We all have it in us, a yearning for an Eden-like world. I know, I have family members who I see especially have a desire for the ideal world. Truth is, God made us that way, and we DID have Eden, but we sinned. We believed the lie that we can be "good without God" we gave into pride, and so suffering and death is the penalty. But God, being all loving, has mercy, He came here to earth Himself through Jesus and suffered and died so that we might be saved.
Ok, so I have accepted Jesus as the "intercession" for my sins. So, why do I still suffer? Paul says in Romans to rejoice in suffering. For suffering produces perseverance, character and hope. While we are here we remember that God never wastes our suffering experiences, but uses it, if we allow Him. We also need to remember that God cares deeply, and has compassion for us (Matthew 14:14). The story doesn't end here. In verse 11, it says "after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life." It was true for Jesus, and it is true for all of us who believe in Him!
Revelation 21:1,4 says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
I better check myself before I wreck myself
Zach here-I want to thank Haley for giving me the honor of being a guest blogger! I have been so encouraged by her blog posts and impressed with her insights. Having never posted on a blog, I have been a little unsure as to what I should write about but here goes...
I want to share some of the things I think God has been working to fix in my thinking. Perhaps you can identify and perhaps not. I am an intellectual property attorney and I spend most of my time working for people who are fairly wealthy and relatively well educated. Likewise, my work colleagues are all attorneys who have both technical and law degrees. Almost all of my friends are college educated and for the most part are doing fairly well financially now that we are in our thirties. The church Haley and I are members of has a congregation that, with some exceptions, is mostly white and upper middle class. In short, there is a real danger that I can live my life in a bubble, which is what I have been doing lately. However, this kind of life is completely contrary to what I think (per scripture) God would have his followers doing.
I started thinking about this a few weeks ago after I spent a half-day as a potential juror in the Dallas County criminal court system. Yes, we attorneys are not exempt from jury duty, even though we are not usually picked as jurors (I didn't get picked). As a potential juror, I was privy to hearing the opinions of my fellow Dallas County citizens. Although many of my fellow jurors seemed like very fine people, a number of other individuals seemed like, how can I say this, pure white trash. During breaks, I heard a couple of them discussing their own future court dates for various charges and just how drunk they had gotten the night before.
I have lived and worked with all types of criminals and addicts previously in my life. You might be surprised to hear that not all of them were lawyers. ;) When I worked on a dock at a fish processing plant in Alaska one summer when I was 19, almost all of my friends/co-workers were felons of some kind or likely on their way to becoming felons if they didn't change paths. Many of them were also hooked on something or another. However, that seems like a long time ago now and I found myself at jury duty beginning to harbor all kinds of negative thoughts about many of my fellow potential jurors. I was annoyed with them and quite frankly, looked down on them. I wanted to get as far away from them as fast as possible. This is when I think God started to work in my heart and I began to question my thinking.
Basically, I think God is revealing just how prideful I am and how wrongheaded my thoughts are. I think my internal thinking was along these lines: my education, perceived morality and upbringing makes me better than the people I was annoyed with and more valuable in God's sight. What a joke. This is undeniably false according to God's word. Not only that, this kind of self-righteous thinking is sinful and will render me much less likely to be used by God.
First, I need to check myself and realize that God isn't at all impressed with how much I think I've accomplished apart from Him:
Isaiah 64:6:
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
In fact, I would say that I have done nothing in my life of any truly lasting value apart from God's active involvement. Jesus's teachings as written in the Gospel of John support this conclusion:
John 15:1-5:
1 “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Second, I need to remember that God loved the entire world of screwed up people (like me) and sent Jesus to deliver us from the condemnation that we deserve as a result of our rebellion against Him:
John 3:16:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
I note from the foregoing famous scripture verses that there is nothing in there about God only loving and using the educated, well-off, non-annoying and the superficially righteous. In contrast, from what I can tell, God has instead made it a habit to pick out the non-educated (many of Jesus's disciples-see Acts 4:13), annoying (Zacchaeus the tax collector) and initially blatantly sinful (Saul/Paul) for his most important work.
The truth is that we are all sick and in the same boat. We all need a savior to heal us:
Luke 5:16-17:
16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
I pray that God would help me see when pride enters into my thinking and that He will help me root it out so that I can be effective in sharing His love for the world.
I want to share some of the things I think God has been working to fix in my thinking. Perhaps you can identify and perhaps not. I am an intellectual property attorney and I spend most of my time working for people who are fairly wealthy and relatively well educated. Likewise, my work colleagues are all attorneys who have both technical and law degrees. Almost all of my friends are college educated and for the most part are doing fairly well financially now that we are in our thirties. The church Haley and I are members of has a congregation that, with some exceptions, is mostly white and upper middle class. In short, there is a real danger that I can live my life in a bubble, which is what I have been doing lately. However, this kind of life is completely contrary to what I think (per scripture) God would have his followers doing.
I started thinking about this a few weeks ago after I spent a half-day as a potential juror in the Dallas County criminal court system. Yes, we attorneys are not exempt from jury duty, even though we are not usually picked as jurors (I didn't get picked). As a potential juror, I was privy to hearing the opinions of my fellow Dallas County citizens. Although many of my fellow jurors seemed like very fine people, a number of other individuals seemed like, how can I say this, pure white trash. During breaks, I heard a couple of them discussing their own future court dates for various charges and just how drunk they had gotten the night before.
I have lived and worked with all types of criminals and addicts previously in my life. You might be surprised to hear that not all of them were lawyers. ;) When I worked on a dock at a fish processing plant in Alaska one summer when I was 19, almost all of my friends/co-workers were felons of some kind or likely on their way to becoming felons if they didn't change paths. Many of them were also hooked on something or another. However, that seems like a long time ago now and I found myself at jury duty beginning to harbor all kinds of negative thoughts about many of my fellow potential jurors. I was annoyed with them and quite frankly, looked down on them. I wanted to get as far away from them as fast as possible. This is when I think God started to work in my heart and I began to question my thinking.
Basically, I think God is revealing just how prideful I am and how wrongheaded my thoughts are. I think my internal thinking was along these lines: my education, perceived morality and upbringing makes me better than the people I was annoyed with and more valuable in God's sight. What a joke. This is undeniably false according to God's word. Not only that, this kind of self-righteous thinking is sinful and will render me much less likely to be used by God.
First, I need to check myself and realize that God isn't at all impressed with how much I think I've accomplished apart from Him:
Isaiah 64:6:
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
In fact, I would say that I have done nothing in my life of any truly lasting value apart from God's active involvement. Jesus's teachings as written in the Gospel of John support this conclusion:
John 15:1-5:
1 “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Second, I need to remember that God loved the entire world of screwed up people (like me) and sent Jesus to deliver us from the condemnation that we deserve as a result of our rebellion against Him:
John 3:16:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
I note from the foregoing famous scripture verses that there is nothing in there about God only loving and using the educated, well-off, non-annoying and the superficially righteous. In contrast, from what I can tell, God has instead made it a habit to pick out the non-educated (many of Jesus's disciples-see Acts 4:13), annoying (Zacchaeus the tax collector) and initially blatantly sinful (Saul/Paul) for his most important work.
The truth is that we are all sick and in the same boat. We all need a savior to heal us:
Luke 5:16-17:
16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
I pray that God would help me see when pride enters into my thinking and that He will help me root it out so that I can be effective in sharing His love for the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)