Colin S. Smith's Blog, page 22

God’s Redeeming Purpose for Your Troubled Life

The story of Ishmael is full of hope for anyone who struggles with conflicts that are rooted in your family of origin. Ishmael was caught in an emotional, family triangle, and his life imploded during his teenage years. But God met him and blessed him, and He can do the same for you in your troubling situation today.

Ishmael’s Trouble

Ishmael had a difficult temperament. He was “a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him” (Gen. 16:12). He was wild at heart, unlike his brother, Isaac, who seemed to have a calmer temperament.  Matthew Henry says that those who have turbulent spirits often have troublesome lives.

Ishmael grew up in a home where there was constant tension. His father, Abraham, loved him but did not love Ishmael’s mother, Hagar. As he grew up in this unhappy world of resentments, Ishmael learned about the God of the Bible who had promised that all nations would be blessed through the offspring of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). Ishmael was Abraham’s only offspring until the news came that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was pregnant with Isaac.

From that moment, all the attention was on Isaac. But Ishmael despised and mocked him. Sarah saw what was happening and told Abraham, “Cast out [Hagar] with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac” (Gen. 21:10). The idea of sending Ishmael away “was very displeasing to Abraham”, but he did so because God had said, “Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you” (Gen. 21:11).

The family was torn apart, and this must have raised huge questions for Ishmael about his existence. How can God love me if he blesses my brother and takes me away from my father? The God my father believes in certainly doesn’t seem to care about me! I was a mistake. I seem to be trouble for everyone. It would be better if I had never been born. 

It seemed that God himself was against Ishmael. It looked like the end of the road for Ishmael. His father couldn’t keep him. His mother couldn’t support him. His own strength was gone. But here’s the amazing thing: God’s hand was in all of this trouble. We read these remarkable words in Genesis 21:17: “God heard the voice of the boy.”

God’s Redeeming Purpose  

Genesis 21 does not only tell the story of Ishmael’s trouble. Scripture also reveals God’s purpose in it. Here are three aspects of God’s plan for Ishmael’s troubled life.

1. Promise

Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation (Gen. 21:1).

This promise must have sounded remote to Hagar. She must have thought, Lord, we don’t have time to think about future generations right now. The problem is that we don’t have what we need to get through the day!

The promises of God may sound remote when you feel desperate, but the starting point of hope is always to believe God’s promises. The promise is that every blessing from God is yours in Jesus Christ. God is for you in Jesus Christ!

Right now, you may not be able to see how God is going to get you through the troubling situation you’re in, but hope begins by believing that He will—and trusting Him to do so.

With His redeeming power, God can take the mess created by our sin and folly, and bring blessing out of it. In eternity, there will be many people descended from Ishmael and redeemed by Jesus Christ, gathered in the presence of God.

2. Provision

The angel of the Lord called to Hagar from heaven… Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. (Gen. 21:17, 19).

Both of Abraham’s sons were saved by a miraculous provision of God—by His intervention alone. In one story, God provides a ram that is sacrificed so that Isaac may live. In the other story, God provides a well of water so that Ishmael may live.

This is of huge importance because Jews, Muslims and Christians all trace their roots back to Abraham. Muslims trace their heritage to Abraham through Ishmael. Jews trace their heritage to Abraham through Isaac. Christians trace their heritage to Abraham though faith (Gal. 3:7, 9).

The stories of both Isaac and Ishmael point to Jesus. Isaac points to Christ, the sacrifice, whose life was laid down in our place. Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The story of Ishmael points to Christ, who is the well of living water, springing up to everlasting life (Jn. 4:14).

Christ is the provision of God for all the children of Abraham. To all people who identify themselves as Jewish, this story points to Jesus Christ as God’s provision for you. To all people who identify themselves as Muslim, this story points to Jesus Christ as God’s provision for you. To all people who identify themselves as Christian, this story points to Jesus Christ as God’s provision for you.

In Christ, God comes into our broken world, takes our sins upon Himself, and becomes the sacrifice, paying the price so that we may be saved. In Christ, God brings new life—life that begins now and will go on springing up forever. God offers this life to troubled people, in Jesus Christ.

3. Presence

And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow (Gen. 21:20).

To Ishmael, the troubled son, God said, “I am for you. I am with you. I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.” God cuts his brightest gems from the darkest places.

He is the God of the difficult temperament. Think about Saul of Tarsus: angry, impulsive, and violent. Christ takes hold of him, and the wild impulses of his heart are directed into one of the greatest lives ever lived. The Apostle Paul later says, “By the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).

Think about Ishmael: with all the struggles of his temperament and all the tensions in his family, he is wild at heart, but God lays hold of him! God provides for him, and God blesses him.

For the most troubled person today, there is a promise and a provision for you in Jesus Christ. He is the sacrifice for you. He is the spring of living water for you. He intervenes in your life to be present with you today, and there is hope for you in Him.

 

This article is an adaption of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “The Troubled Son”, from his series, Faith for Fractured Families.

Photo: Pixabay

Your Sacrifice Will Not Go Unrewarded

For years, I had painstakingly prepared to get into New York University. Now that I had finished my first year of general requirements, my academic advisor called me into her office to discuss the schedule for my second year of classes. Finally, I was free to focus on courses for my major. And here it was: the wide-open door to my childhood dreams of becoming a great filmmaker!

As my advisor described all the amazing film-making classes I could sign up for, I already knew I would not sit in a single one of them. After prayerful consideration, I had already decided to leave NYU and transfer to a Bible school. Meeting Jesus Christ in a living and personal way had changed me; I was a “new creation” in every way. And so I was yielding to the Lord’s leading: to set my film-making ambitions aside, pursue Bible training, and devote my life to serving Him and ministering to others.

For Christians, the idea of giving up something up for the sake of following Jesus is not a foreign one. The Bible is filled with stories of people who sacrificed great things in order to obey God or to follow Christ. From their stories, we see a theme of two different types of sacrifices and one overarching promise that we may experience as we follow Christ today.

A Sacrifice Returned

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me (Gen. 22:11-12).

Abraham was willing to do the unthinkable: to sacrifice his only son. Not only was this child undoubtedly precious to Abraham, but he was also a miracle—the fulfillment of a promise given by God himself. But what a story! Immediately after Abraham’s willingness to obey is revealed, God showed himself willing to return his son to him.

Most of us know someone who has had an ‘Abraham and Isaac’ experience at some point in his or her Christian journey. My own dad loves to tell of the time when, after years of singleness, he decided to let go of his ambition to find a spouse and choose to be content with serving God in singleness for the rest of his life. As the story goes, less than two weeks later he met my mom at church, and they were married within a few months.

Maybe you also have experienced something similar in your walk with Christ. Stories like that of Abraham and Isaac remind us of God’s goodness and His desire to reward and bless those who fear Him. Receiving back what we have sacrificed to the Lord should cause us to rejoice! It is a foretaste of how the Lord will one day fully reward all acts of sacrifice.

A Sacrifice Lost

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named… So Abraham…gave [Hagar] the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba (Gen. 21:11-12, 14).

While Genesis 22 is an inspiring reminder of God’s goodness and the joy of obedience, the previous chapter tells quite a different tale. As Christians, we may love the story of Abraham and Isaac, but we sometimes forget the story of Abraham and Ishmael. When asked to send away his son, Abraham was distressed. Though Ishmael was the fruit of Abraham’s sinful scheme with Hagar, Abraham loved him and did not want to let him go. Again, God asked Abraham to “sacrifice” one of his sons, but this time he did not get Ishmael back.

Sometimes the Lord instructs us to give up things for His sake that we will not directly receive again in this life. This is sobering. We should not expect God to always return our sacrifices as he returned Isaac to Abraham. However, the Lord may bless us in other ways. For example, Hannah vowed to give her first and only son Samuel for the service of the Lord (1 Sam. 1). While God did not send him back to her, He did bless her with five additional children.

Ultimately, no sacrifice goes unrewarded. The words of our Lord Jesus give us the best encouragement on this matter.

The Promise of Reward

Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life (Mk. 10:28-30).

Whether or not the Lord chooses to return exactly what we have given up for His sake, Jesus promises to reward us “a hundred times”—an unimaginable profit.

What have you given up in order to obey the Lord? Don’t grow bitter if you have yet to see its pay-off. Trust and take God at His Word; the reward will be far greater than anything you can imagine. Though you may not recognize the reward on this side of heaven, you will fully realize it with eternity’s perspective.

Is God asking you to let go of something or someone important in your life? Whether it is a career, living close to family, an important relationship, a means of income, a hobby, or a place of security, there is no need or desire sacrificed for which the Lord is not able to provide, perhaps in ways you have never thought of before.

Since the day I walked out the door of my dream college, following the Lord has required many more sacrifices. I have said goodbye to my home country that I love and to my wonderful family, cherished friends, and beloved church. But every step of the way, God has blessed me beyond measure. I have never regretted my decision to walk away from my filmmaking ambitions in order to follow Jesus. I joyfully resonate with these words from the old hymn, “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken”:

Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought, or hoped, or known. But how rich is my condition! God and Heaven are still my own.

In the end, no matter what we have sacrificed for Jesus, the cost cannot surpass the benefits of what He has promised “in the age to come” (Mk. 10:30): eternity in His presence, where all of our needs and desires will be fully met in Christ.

 

Photo: Pixabay

 

What Happens When a Christian Dies?

We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).

 

A Christian is a person who owns two homes. The home you are living in now is a temporary one, a “tent.” But you have another home that is more enduring, more substantial. The date for your moving to your new home has not yet been given, but it is already known to God.

You have an enduring home.

What exactly is this new home? Nobody I have read deals with this question better than Charles Hodge, the great teacher of an earlier century, from Princeton. In his commentary on 2 Corinthians1, Hodge asks, “What is the building into which the soul enters when the present body is taken down?” He lists three possibilities:

Heaven itself
The resurrection body
Some kind of temporary, intermediate body

Hodge quickly dismisses option number 3; the idea an interim body is taught nowhere in Scripture. Besides, Paul says that the new “house” is eternal (2 Cor. 5:1), so it could hardly be temporary.

With regard to number 2, Hodge points out that a resurrection body is the gift of God to all believers when Christ returns in glory. Christians who die still have to wait for that gift, even though they are already in the Lord’s presence. No Christian has the resurrection body at this time. Paul does not have it, nor Peter, nor John. The only person who has the resurrection body right now is Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:8 tells us the Christian who has died is now “at home.” Paul writes, “To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord!” So, I am convinced, with Hodge and many others, that the home referred to here is heaven itself.  Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms… I go and prepare a place for you” (Jn. 14:2-3). And Abraham, who lived in tents, was “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).

The Christian is a person with two houses. The contrast between them could hardly be greater. The first house for your soul is your body, which is like a tent – a fragile structure that will be destroyed. When this house is pulled down, you will move into your other house, which is heaven – an enduring building to live in forever. Heaven is the eternal home into which your soul will enter when its present house is destroyed. In the earthly tent there is groaning, but in the “house not made with hands” what is mortal is swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4)!

But what actually happens immediately after Christian closes his or her eyes in death?

Your soul is separated from your body.  

Death is referred to as an enemy, the last enemy. Death is the undoing of our nature, the tearing apart of what God has joined together. God created your life by knitting your body and soul together. This interconnection is so complex that we can hardly imagine life without the body.

Try to imagine shutting down all the functions of the body, one by one – you can no longer see, or hear, or speak, or eat, or walk, or move. Eventually, you would be conscious but unable to function. That’s why Paul says, “we long to put on our heavenly dwelling, that we may not be found naked” (2 Cor. 5:3). Nobody in their right mind wants their soul to be separated from their body.

If the only thing to say about death was this eviction of the soul from the body, it would be terrifying indeed. Who wants to be a shivering ghost, lost in space without a home? Nobody wants that. Thank God, that’s not what happens.

Your soul moves into its new home.  

Christian, when God takes down your tent, your soul will not be lost in space without a resting place. The moment you leave the tent, your soul will be at home in the building. To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.

My wife, Karen, and I have moved only once in all of our married lives. We moved from a home owned by the church we served in London to a home that we bought when we came to the United States. That four-thousand-mile journey took some time.

But the moment you leave the tent, you will arrive in the building – an instant move! Away from the body – at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). You will not be out there and homeless. For the Christian, death is an immediate translation into the presence of the Lord. You exchange the tent for the building, earth for heaven. You exchange the temporary for the eternal, the pain of groaning for the joy of glory.

You’re prepared for this!

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God (2 Cor. 5:5).

How has God prepared you to move from the tent to the building? He sent His Son into the world to prepare a place in heaven for you. He sent His Spirit into your heart to prepare you for your place there. God has given us His Spirit as a guarantee.

The Old Testament describes the tabernacle, which was a tent. It tells us that the cloud of God’s presence came into the tent. Now Paul says that your body is a “tent”, and the Holy Spirit of God comes down to dwell in this tent with you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ lives in you. He is with you in the tent! God makes his home with you in the tent until the day when you make your home with him in the house that is eternal in the heavens.

This revelation about the Christian’s life in heaven is a marvelous gift! God did not need to tell us anything about life beyond the tent. He could have said, “Trust me, and wait and see.” But God did not do that.

God pulls back the curtain so that believers can say, “We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And when you find yourself groaning in the tent, that knowledge will keep you from losing heart.

 

This article is adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Prepared for Something Better”, from his series Don’t Lose Heart.
1. Charles Hodge, ed. Alister McGrath and J.I. Packer, The Crossway Classic Commentaries: 2 Corinthians (Wheaton: Crossway, 1995), 90-92.
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The Benefits of Opening Your [Physical] Bible

When my wife and I moved to the Chicagoland area, we were committed to finding a church that clearly treasured Scripture. One Sunday, we visited a church farther away from where we lived and larger than what we felt would be comfortable. But when we were asked to stand for the reading of God’s Word, we were surrounded by a chorus of rustling Bible pages. Immediately, my wife and I knew we were home.

In a digital age where more information is created every year than all the rest of history combined, what is the value reading a physical book? While there are many good and helpful reasons to use a Bible on your phone or tablet, why should you read a printed and bound copy of Scripture? Here are three compelling reasons to open your personal Bible.

1. Sign of Authority

Some people live as if the Bible is beneath them, believing that God’s Word has no authority over their lives. Others believe tradition and science stand beside Scripture with equal authority. But Christians live under the authority of God’s Word. When Ezra read the book of the Law before Israel, the people stood reverently beneath the Word and received it as it was preached from the platform (Ezra 8:1-8). We live under the authority of the Bible, for it is from God, and in it God reveals himself to us.

After God spoke to Israel at Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments were put in the Ark of the Covenant, and God’s presence hovered above the lid. The Ark became a symbol of God’s authority and presence in the midst of his people, for “from it God met with his people and spoke to them” (Exod. 25:16, 21). Just as the Ark carried God’s Word and presence with Israel wherever they went, carrying around a physical Bible communicates allegiance and obedience to Christ more than a phone or tablet ever could.

Whenever I do pastoral visits, I carry my Bible with me because it demonstrates that I am there to bring God’s Word to others. In various jobs, I have taken my Bible with me to work. Back in high school, I occasionally brought my Bible to read during lunch. There is something special about a child seeing his parent reading the Bible every morning. While we should not seek to parade our piety before others, bowing in reflection and prayer before God’s Word will make an impact those who are watching.

2. Personal Book

An old adage says: “A Bible that is falling apart often signifies a soul that is not.” God commanded kings in Israel to make their very own copy of Scripture to keep with them and “read in it all the days” of their lives (Deut. 17:18-19). A frequently opened Bible becomes a familiar and personal book.

Some people say you should never write in a Bible because God’s Word needs to be treated with respect. However, I write in my Bibles because doing so helps me process what I am learning, and it gives a record of my spiritual growth. If you were to open my Bible, you would find many underlined words, bracketed verses, comments in margins, coffee stains, and bookmarks. My Bible is the translation I use to memorize Scripture, and I know where to turn to find certain books.

There are many ways you can intentionally write in your Bible. If your Bible has blank pages in the front or back, use that space to record significant moments or seasons in your spiritual life, or to write down impactful truths that have become dear to you. Also, Christian publishers often sell Bibles with different kinds of readers in mind. You can use a journaling Bible or a Bible with large margins to take notes at church or during your devotions. When it comes to note-taking, using a pencil allows you to correct or clean up your notes, and certain pens or markers will bleed less through pages. Having a system of markings can enhance your Bible study. For example, color-code your pens and highlighters. Mark with straight, jagged, or wavy lines. Use symbols on the sides of your pages to identify paragraphs. Writing in your Bible is a special way to treasure God’s Word.

3. Freedom from Distraction

Amidst the digital revolution, the Bible remains the most popular book in the world. Yet, a barrage of unrelated digital notifications competes for your attention when you are reading the Bible on your phone. Having a digital Bible can be a great tool, but with it comes the temptation to look at other things. The end of Psalm 19 speaks to modern Bible readers well:

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Ps. 19:13-14).

My phone has killed more hours set aside for devotions in my life than I would like to admit, but physical books don’t send notifications, alerts, or texts. Opening a physical copy of the Bible gives you the freedom to set aside social media and emails, and focus on what God has said.

Before your devotional time, put away your phone. Then pick up your Bible and coffee, and pray. Ask God to help you engage with His Word as you read it, that he may “open [your] eyes to behold wondrous things out of [his] law’ (Ps. 119:18). Keeping your Bible open in church, at small group, and during your devotional time will help you focus on the text rather than on tomorrow’s emails. Interacting with an open Bible best prepares the soul to encounter God.

When you read your personal Bible, you are submitting to Christ’s authority and treasuring his grace. This is why an open Bible is the strongest sign of a person’s love for the Lord. Opening your Bible nourishes your soul in more ways than your phone ever can, and it shows how the Word carries weight in our lives for all who are watching.

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God Hears Tears as Well as Prayers

Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her” (Gen. 16:2).

The outline of Hagar’s story is simple: Sarah wanted to have a child, and so she gives her servant, Hagar, to Abraham. Abraham agrees with the plan. Hagar conceives, and this already fractured family is plunged into a web of conflicting loyalties and hidden resentments.

Hagar’s story comes right out of the Scriptures and speaks straight into the life of the person who has never felt deeply loved. Hagar was never first in anyone’s life. No one was close enough to Hagar to know who she really was and what she really felt. There was no one she could count on—not even the father of the child she was carrying.

Emotionally Abandoned

Abraham was the father of this child, and he had responsibility for Hagar. But Abraham did not stand up for her. He gave her up, just as Pharaoh and Sarah had done before. Hagar ended up alone, pregnant, and in the desert, which is like being alone, pregnant, and in the city today.

Who cared about this woman? Her whole life seemed to be a story of what other people wanted. She was pushed from pillar to post, according to what was most convenient for others.

This is a story for the person who feels that she has been like a pawn, moved around on the board of other people’s lives.

Spiritually Wounded

In the kindness of God, Hagar found herself in the family God had chosen to bless. Hagar would have learned about God from Abraham and Sarah. But they turned out to be desperately flawed believers. Try to imagine the impact on Hagar when the only believers she knew used her in the way that they did! How could this woman ever come to believe?

It’s not surprising that she ran from the family of faith. She ran from Sarah and from Abraham, and she ran from the God that they had failed so badly.

This is a story for the person who has learned about God, but now struggles with faith because of what he or she has seen in the lives of some believers.

Deeply Loved

The last part of Hagar’s story is full of hope for every person who feels emotionally abandoned or spiritually wounded. Hagar discovered that she was deeply loved by God.

Here are three glimpses of His love.

1. God finds lost people.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur (Gen. 16:7).

God appeared to Hagar in visible form, as he had to Abraham and Sarah. We know this because Sarah “called the name of the LORD who spoke to her…” (Gen. 16:13). It was Yahweh who spoke to her directly and personally. Hagar would never have found her way to God, but God in his mercy, found His way to her.

If God waited for us to find Him, none of us would get there. Lost sheep don’t have the capacity to find the Good Shepherd. It is the Good Shepherd who has the capacity to find lost sheep.

Hagar was running away from believers, and she was running away from God. She was angry and resentful; she felt a sense of injustice. This hardly seemed like a time when she could hear the voice of God. And yet it proved to be the great turning point of Hagar’s life!

2. God hears suffering people.

The angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction” (Gen. 16:11).

This verse does not say “the Lord has listened to your prayer.” Up to this point, there is no suggestion that Hagar prayed. Why would you pray to God when running from Him? But God listens to your affliction. God hears tears as well as prayers (Ps. 56:8).

God told Hagar to give her son the name “Ishmael.” Ishmael means, “God has heard.” Since he turned out to be a difficult boy, this must have been a blessing to his mother. Every time she called out his name, she would be reminded that God hears.

There must have been times when Hagar said to herself: “Pharaoh didn’t look after me. Abraham didn’t look after me. Sarah didn’t look after me. Now I have found the One who looks after me!”

3. God sees all people.

She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Gen. 16:13).

It is fascinating that Hagar said this immediately after the prophecy made about Ishmael: “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him” (Gen. 16:12).

Parents know what it is to see a reflection of themselves in the struggles of their children. I suspect Hagar saw a reflection of herself in the description of Ishmael. And Hagar said, “Truly you are the God who sees me!” You know me as no one ever has!

God sees not with the eyes of condemnation but with the eyes of love—this for a woman who was running from Him, in order to lay hold of her and bring her back.

Happy Ending?

Hagar did what the Lord commanded. She went back to Abraham and Sarah, back to the fractured household of faith. Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael (Gen. 16:15).

But Hagar’s obedience to God meant living with continued difficulty. This is not a story that ends with “And they all lived happily ever after.” They didn’t! The “happily ever after” stuff belongs to fairy tales and Hollywood movies from the 1930s! Even Hollywood doesn’t make movies like that today, because the world doesn’t work like that.

The Bible speaks to the real world—to the ongoing difficulties faced by single mothers, perplexed wives, flawed fathers, and troubled sons. The message is not “Come to Jesus and you will live happily ever after.” The Bible’s message is “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9).

If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ today, you will find that His grace is sufficient for you, too.

As you live in the tension of a home where there is little peace, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient for you. As you live with the emotional abandonment and the spiritual wounding you have experienced, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient for you. Living with and mastering the wild impulses that sometimes rage in your heart and your soul won’t be easy. But you will find that His grace is sufficient for you.

Learn from the Scriptures that you are deeply loved by God, just as Hagar was. He sees you, knows you, and hears your tears. He sent his Son to seek and to save you.

By God’s grace and through his Word, He draws near to you today with the command to repent, and also with a promise of blessing. And His grace is sufficient for you.

 

This article is an adaptation of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “The Single Mother”, from his series Faith for Fractured Families.

 

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Our Greatest Need: Restoration

In a world where so much has been lost, destroyed, forsaken, and forgotten, the human heart naturally longs for restoration. In today’s world, there is a longing for the restoration of truth, because truth has been obscured, hidden, and dismissed. There is a longing for restoration of civility, because we are being driven apart by violent, malevolent hordes, self-serving politicians, and vitriolic commentators. There is a longing for justice, because so many have been falsely accused while the guilty walk free. There is a longing for the restoration of marriage, because it has been redefined and abandoned. There is a longing for the restoration of peace, integrity, honesty, equity, and every institution that is good, because the world is governed by evil forces.

There are no stronger longings for restoration than those expressed in God’s Word. For forty years in the desert, Moses presided over a people who longed to be restored to their land. In the time of the Judges, the people longed to be restored to nationhood under a king. David longed to be restored to the fullness of worship where God dwells. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, among other prophets, wrote about the longing of God’s people for the restoration of Israel from the Babylonian captivity. A land, a king, worship, and rescue – all of these are given when God restores our fellowship with Him in Christ.

The Ultimate Restoration: Fellowship with God

The more that is lost, the stronger the longing for restoration. Never was so much lost as when the human race was given over to sin. The fall of mankind (Gen. 3) resulted in our being alienated from God. The removal of that fellowship was the biggest loss in history. It is the loss behind every other loss.

So, we long for restoration of fellowship with God. There is even a whole season, Advent, devoted to our hearts’ longing to be restored to that fellowship. God gave us this longing, because it was in His heart from before the earth was formed to deliver it. He loves to restore. He is a restoring God who knows our needs.

God’s Means: Redemption

When we think of our greatest need, we usually think of redemption, because if we are not redeemed, we will die in our sins and be cast into hell. Sin brings death and judgment, so we must be purchased out of that judgment. We must be redeemed from the penalty that our sins deserve in order to avoid eternal judgment. In God’s beloved Son, and only in Him, “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14, cf v. 20). If Jesus does not take our evil deeds upon Himself and die on a cross, we cannot be reconciled to God (Col. 1:21-22).

But God’s program for the world is far greater than individual redemption: it is the total restoration of all that was lost in the fall of mankind.

In other words, we are not only redeemed from something (judgment). We are also redeemed to something. Colossians 1 reminds us that we were ransomed out of the pit of darkness and destruction. But it goes beyond that. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13, italics mine). We had to be redeemed from sin so that we can be restored to fellowship with God. Restoration is the essence of redemption!

The limitless reach of God’s restoring work is breathtaking.

It is easy to think of redemption as the ultimate end, but restoration means that there is more to redemption than the promise of eternal life. The lives of the redeemed are restored to good purpose on earth. God’s restored people “bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9-12). We are empowered to walk in obedience and live in harmony with others.

Restoration also makes it possible for us to train our affections – to love God and love others in this life (Matt. 22:37-39). After all, the believer is headed for a place where those affections have been perfected. So, we must see Jesus as glorious and desirable, and we must love the Church. Jesus is the one who redeems and restores us to fellowship with God and with the saints in light.

Far-reaching Effects

God loves to restore. He restored Job’s fortunes (Job 42), Naaman’s flesh from leprosy (2 Kings 5), Hezekiah’s life (Is. 38), David’s soul (Ps. 23) and the joy of his salvation (Ps. 51), and Nebuchadnezzar after he had become like a beast in the field (Dan. 4). He restores lands, borders, inheritances, temples, health, life, repentance, and the priesthood. Whatever He decides to restore, He restores. He even restores youth (Ps. 103)!

At the pinnacle of redemptive history, when God restores all things, He will gather us together (see Deut. 30:3) from every tribe and tongue and nation (Rev. 7:9-10). It is hard to believe there is something better than redemption. But there is, and it means a lot in these troubled times. God is going to restore society as it was meant to be – people living in unity of purpose, gladly submitting to the perfect will of God, who binds us together.

Behold, I am making all things new (Rev. 21:5).

 

Photo: Pixabay

Five Ways God’s Anger Is Not Like Ours

The theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and toward sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible. And this truth is so interwoven with the hope of our peace with one another and with God that, if we lose our grasp on the one, we lose our hope of the other.

The anger of God is not like human anger.

When we speak about the wrath of God, remember that it is the wrath of God. Everything that we know about Him—that He is just, that He is love, and that He is good—needs to be poured into our understanding of His wrath.

The words ‘anger’ and ‘wrath’ make us think about our own experience of these things. You may have suffered because of someone who is habitually angry. Human anger can often be unpredictable, petty, and disproportionate. These things are not true of the anger of God. God’s wrath is the just and measured response of His holiness towards evil.

Here are five ways God’s anger is different from ours.

1. God’s wrath is provoked.

Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness (Deut. 9:7).

This kind of language is used repeatedly in the Bible. The anger of God is not something that resides in Him by nature. It is a response to evil. It is provoked.

There is a very important difference between God’s anger and his love. The Bible says, “God is love.” That is His nature. God’s love is not provoked. God does not love us because He sees some wisdom, beauty, or goodness in us. The reason that God loves us lies in His nature, not in ours.

But God’s wrath is different. It is His holy response to the intrusion of evil into His world. If there was no sin in the world, there would be no wrath in God.

It has often been pointed out that the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. What hope would we have in a world stalked by terror if God merely looked on with a weak smile or even a disapproving frown? Hope for a world whose history is strewn with violence lies in a God who is relentlessly opposed to all evil, and who has the power, the capacity, and the will to destroy it.

2. God is slow to anger.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ps. 103:8).

These qualities are repeated over and over in the Old Testament, as if they were the most important things you needed to know about God.

Why does God allow evil to continue in the world? Why does He not come back now and wipe it out? 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God offers grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. People are coming to Him in faith and repentance every day, and God patiently holds the door of grace open. The day of God’s wrath will come, but He is not in a hurry to bring it—because then the door of grace will be closed.

3. God’s wrath is revealed now.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18).

When you read on in Romans 1, you find that sinners go in one of three directions. They suppress the truth about God, they exchange the truth for a lie, and they worship created things rather than the Creator. How does God reveal His wrath when sinners do these things? God gives them up.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (Rom. 1:24).

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (Rom. 1:26).

When we see the moral fabric of our culture being torn, Christian believers should cry to God for mercy on the basis of Romans 1: “Lord, what we see around us is a sign of your wrath and judgment. Be merciful, O Lord, and please do not give us up completely.”

4. God’s wrath is stored up.

Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom. 2:5).

The whole Bible story leads up to a day when God will deal with all evil finally and forever. On that day, God’s judgment will be fully revealed. This will be the day of wrath when God will recompense every evil.

God will do this in perfect justice. No one will be indicted on a single sin that they did not commit, and the punishment for every sin will match the crime. Every mouth will be stopped, because everyone will know that He judged in righteousness. Then God will usher in a new heaven and earth which will be the home of righteousness.

5. God’s wrath is on sinners. 

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (Jn. 3:36).

John does not say, “The wrath of God will come on the disobedient.” He says, “The wrath of God remains on him.” It is already there. Why? By nature we are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). It is the state in which we were born.

Here we stand face to face with the human problem at its core. What is it? It is not that we are lost and need to find our way on a spiritual journey. It is not that we are wounded and need to be healed. The core of the human problem is that we are sinners under the judgment of God, and His divine wrath hangs over us, unless it is taken away.

God’s wrath was poured out. 

This takes us to the heart of what happened at the cross. The divine wrath toward sin was poured out, or spent, on Jesus. He became the ‘propitiation’ for our sins (Rom. 3:25) as He became the sacrifice for us. This big word ‘propitiation’ means that the recompense or the payment for our sins was poured out on Jesus at Calvary.

The outpouring of God’s wrath on Jesus Christ was the greatest act of love this world has ever seen. And Jesus stands before us today, a living Savior. He offers to us the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and to fill you with His Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and to reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and He is able to bring you in. Are you ready to find peace with God through Him?

 

 

This article is an adaptation of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Overcoming Evil with Peace”, from his series, Overcoming Evil.

Photo: Pixabay

Five Ways God’s Anger is Not Like Ours

The theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and toward sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible. And this truth is so interwoven with the hope of our peace with one another and with God that, if we lose our grasp on the one, we lose our hope of the other.

The anger of God is not like human anger.

When we speak about the wrath of God, remember that it is the wrath of God. Everything that we know about Him—that He is just, that He is love, and that He is good—needs to be poured into our understanding of His wrath.

The words ‘anger’ and ‘wrath’ make us think about our own experience of these things. You may have suffered because of someone who is habitually angry. Human anger can often be unpredictable, petty, and disproportionate. These things are not true of the anger of God. God’s wrath is the just and measured response of His holiness towards evil.

Here are five ways God’s anger is different from ours.

1. God’s wrath is provoked.

Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness (Deut. 9:7).

This kind of language is used repeatedly in the Bible. The anger of God is not something that resides in Him by nature. It is a response to evil. It is provoked.

There is a very important difference between God’s anger and his love. The Bible says, “God is love.” That is His nature. God’s love is not provoked. God does not love us because He sees some wisdom, beauty, or goodness in us. The reason that God loves us lies in His nature, not in ours.

But God’s wrath is different. It is His holy response to the intrusion of evil into His world. If there was no sin in the world, there would be no wrath in God.

It has often been pointed out that the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. What hope would we have in a world stalked by terror if God merely looked on with a weak smile or even a disapproving frown? Hope for a world whose history is strewn with violence lies in a God who is relentlessly opposed to all evil, and who has the power, the capacity, and the will to destroy it.

2. God is slow to anger.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ps. 103:8).

These qualities are repeated over and over in the Old Testament, as if they were the most important things you needed to know about God.

Why does God allow evil to continue in the world? Why does He not come back now and wipe it out? 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God offers grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. People are coming to Him in faith and repentance every day, and God patiently holds the door of grace open. The day of God’s wrath will come, but He is not in a hurry to bring it—because then the door of grace will be closed.

3. God’s wrath is revealed now.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18).

When you read on in Romans 1, you find that sinners go in one of three directions. They suppress the truth about God, they exchange the truth for a lie, and they worship created things rather than the Creator. How does God reveal His wrath when sinners do these things? God gives them up.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (Rom. 1:24).

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (Rom. 1:26).

When we see the moral fabric of our culture being torn, Christian believers should cry to God for mercy on the basis of Romans 1: “Lord, what we see around us is a sign of your wrath and judgment. Be merciful, O Lord, and please do not give us up completely.”

4. God’s wrath is stored up.

Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom. 2:5).

The whole Bible story leads up to a day when God will deal with all evil finally and forever. On that day, God’s judgment will be fully revealed. This will be the day of wrath when God will recompense every evil.

God will do this in perfect justice. No one will be indicted on a single sin that they did not commit, and the punishment for every sin will match the crime. Every mouth will be stopped, because everyone will know that He judged in righteousness. Then God will usher in a new heaven and earth which will be the home of righteousness.

5. God’s wrath is on sinners. 

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (Jn. 3:36).

John does not say, “The wrath of God will come on the disobedient.” He says, “The wrath of God remains on him.” It is already there. Why? By nature we are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). It is the state in which we were born.

Here we stand face to face with the human problem at its core. What is it? It is not that we are lost and need to find our way on a spiritual journey. It is not that we are wounded and need to be healed. The core of the human problem is that we are sinners under the judgment of God, and His divine wrath hangs over us, unless it is taken away.

God’s wrath was poured out. 

This takes us to the heart of what happened at the cross. The divine wrath toward sin was poured out, or spent, on Jesus. He became the ‘propitiation’ for our sins (Rom. 3:25) as He became the sacrifice for us. This big word ‘propitiation’ means that the recompense or the payment for our sins was poured out on Jesus at Calvary.

The outpouring of God’s wrath on Jesus Christ was the greatest act of love this world has ever seen. And Jesus stands before us today, a living Savior. He offers to us the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and to fill you with His Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and to reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and He is able to bring you in. Are you ready to find peace with God through Him?

 

 

This article is an adaptation of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Overcoming Evil with Peace”, from his series, Overcoming Evil.

Photo: Pixabay

The Definition of a Good Person

I once had a conversation with a friend who was confident that she would spend eternity in heaven. She justified this by saying that she had spent her life “trying to be a good person.”

That got me thinking. What defines a good person? And who decides whether or not each of us is good enough to get into heaven? There are three ways to go about answering these questions, but only one of them will actually result in eternity spent with God.

1. You be the judge (but it won’t be accurate).

A person may try to define for himself whether or not he is a good person. I’ve encountered many people who, after reflecting on their lives, would say, essentially, “I think I did enough good things to warrant the label of a good person and thus deserve to go to heaven.”

The problem with this line of thinking is that Scripture tells us that we are deceived about ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We simply cannot be honest with ourselves when it comes to how good or bad we are.  It is natural for us to justify our lives in a positive light. Admitting the wrong things we’ve done does not come easily. Therefore, self-assessment is a faulty way to determine our goodness.

2. Let others be the judge (but it won’t be fair).                                                                 

Most people are quick to decide whether or not they think someone else is a good person, but people do not judge by the same standard. A person’s apparent goodness depends on whom you ask.

My closest friends would say that I am a good person. I’m sure they would acknowledge that I have had some bad moments, but overall, the good times we have had and the connections we’ve made would prevent them from looking at me in a negative light. Conversely, I have hurt many people throughout my life, and if you asked them if I deserve to get into heaven, they might not give a favorable answer. What if you asked the guy I cut off in traffic, or the one who cut me off and I showed him how I felt about it? I doubt either of them would call me a good person. Only God knows what is in a person’s heart (1 Sam. 16:7), and people evaluate each others’ goodness from the outside. The judgment of other people will never be unbiased.

3. Believe God will be the Judge (but rest in Jesus’ perfection).

When we ask questions about heaven (and who deserves to be there), it’s important to look for answers from the one who sits on heaven’s throne. The Bible tells us who God thinks is good enough to enter heaven.

There is none who does good, not even one (Ps. 14:3).

There is none who does good, not even one (Ps. 53:3).

None is righteous, no, not one (Rom. 3:10).

If most people assess themselves as “good enough”, why does God say no one is righteous? If people can observe outward goodness in others, then why does the Bible tell us that there is not even one righteous person? And if no one is righteous, then how can anyone be accepted into heaven when God is the judge?

God’s law is absolute, and he requires perfection before anyone can enter heaven. Allowing anything less would compromise his holiness and purity. However, here is the beautiful part. Here is the part that makes him merciful. Here is the part that brings tears to my eyes. God knows we can’t achieve perfection, and he has made a way for us to be with him. He offers us eternity through a sacrifice that no human parent would ever want to make. He sacrificed his own son, Jesus, to save us from our sin.

Jesus Christ: Perfectly Good

Most people—even those who consider themselves to be “good people”—usually agree that nobody is perfect. This is biblical, as Romans 3:23 reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” While that is true for us, it does not apply to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says: “for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” Think about this: Jesus knew no sin. Jesus never slipped up. He never had a sinful thought pass through his mind. He was tempted numerous times and never once gave in to sin. Conversely, I know sin every day. Without exception. Even when I think I’m doing pretty well, and when other people tell me I’m a good person, I am still a sinner by nature.

A holy and pure God allows only perfect people in his presence. He provided Jesus as the perfect substitute for sinners who cannot achieve perfection on their own. For our sake, God took the only person in history who never sinned and allowed him to take on the sin of the entire world. He was brutally punished in our place.

By God’s grace, Jesus’ perfection can be credited to us. All we must do to receive this gift is confess our sin and put our faith in Jesus as our Savior. John 1:12 says that all who receive Jesus and believe in his name will be given “the right to become children of God.” Those who belong to God live with him forever.

If you want to know what it looks like to be a good person with a right to heaven, study the life of Jesus in Scripture. When you read the Bible, you will discover God’s perfect Son, the only one who can make us “good enough” to be accepted by God. You will see Jesus do for others what they could never do for themselves. You will see Jesus lead others to give up their pursuit of “earning” their way into heaven. You will find that Jesus calls sinful people to follow him, and he lovingly invites them to rest in his perfection. This kind of rest can be yours today, too.

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Photo: Pixabay

God Restored Sarah’s Faith. He Can Do the Same for You

The first thing to say about Sarah is that she was a godly woman. Twice in the New Testament she is commended. First, she is praised as a woman of faith (Heb. 11:11), and then Peter holds her up as a model for all Christian women (1 Pet. 3:5-6).

In Sarah, we have womanhood at its very best. But even this godly woman struggled with doubt and engaged in manipulation that brought pain into the lives of the people God had placed around her.

Sarah—wife to Abraham, mother to Isaac, beautiful model of faith to us—needed the grace of God in her fractured life, just as you and I need it in our lives, too.

Sarah’s Unbelief

The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him… Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.  The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah… So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (Gen. 18:10-12).

Sarah believed in God, but she did not exercise faith, at this point, in regard to His promise of a son. It is possible to trust God in regard to eternal salvation, but not to trust Him in regard to the particular trial that is going on in your life.

Sarah struggled with unbelief, and more than that, she tried to cover it up before the Lord, saying, “‘I did not laugh,’ for she was afraid” (Gen. 18:15).  Afraid of what?  Afraid, perhaps, of what was going on in her heart. She talked to God, but she knew that her prayer was just a pretense.

And God knew her cover-up—He sees all things.

Behind Sarah’s unbelief lay an extraordinary story of manipulation. Sarah wanted a child and was prepared to go to any lengths to get what she wanted. Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah: “Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children from her” (Gen. 16:2). Abraham’s union with Hagar led to the birth of Ishmael, and this already fractured family was now plunged into a web of conflicting loyalties and hidden resentments.

There are multiple ways a woman can use her power to get what she wants in ways that dishonor God and bring pain to everyone around her. That’s what Sarah was doing, and the result was that unbelief crept up on this godly woman.

But God knew her unbelief—nothing is ever hidden from Him.

Sarah struggled with unbelief because her eyes were fixed on Abraham and on herself. Abraham was nearly 100 years old, and Sarah was just ten years behind him. So the promise of God seemed impossible.

As long as you look at the weakness of your own faith, the difficulties and pressures of your own life, the problems with your spouse and your children, you will find yourself sliding into unbelief because there isn’t an answer there.

When God spoke to Sarah, He lifted her gaze up from the discouraging horizons of her own life and said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14). And she bore a son in her old age.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised (Heb. 11:11).

Sarah received the power to conceive because she “considered him faithful who had promised.” Sarah’s faith was restored through an encounter with God.

How is faith restored? Look to who God is, and listen to what He says.

Faith grows as you get your eyes off yourself and your problems, your limitations and your failures, and onto the living God, the LORD, for whom nothing is impossible.

Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished. There will be twistings and turnings, disappointments and failures, but God’s purposes for you will be fulfilled.

Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished.

Here you are single and longing to be married.

Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished.

Here you are married and longing to have children.

Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished.

Here you are married and wishing that your marriage was more than it is.

Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished.

Here you are anxious for your children, wondering what their path will be. Everything God has planned for your life will be accomplished.

I’m not saying that everything you have planned for your life will be accomplished. God does not say that every purpose will be accomplished if your husband shapes up. God does not say every purpose will be accomplished if a child is born to you, or if your children turn out as you hoped, or if you finally meet that person of your dreams, or if you get out of that dead-end job.

No! God says,

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

God will accomplish all of His purposes for your life. Period! Look to who God is. Listen to what God says. And your faith will be restored.

God was very gentle with Sarah. He’ll be gentle with you. He knows all about you already, so don’t be afraid to draw near to him today.

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This article is an adaptation of Pastor Colin’s sermon, “The Perplexed Wife”, from his series, Faith for Fractured Families.

Photo: Pixabay