The depth of God’s love (Matthew 27:46)

Today’s Readings: Matthew 27:46

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

How can I know God listens to my prayers? How can I know God meets me where I am? How can I have the assurance God can reach the depths of my sins when I know the things I’ve committed against Him and others? How can He ever forgive the things I’ve done?

We can look back at this verse in Matthew and understand the depths of God’s love for us. Jesus hung on the cross for about six hours on that day before the Sabbath. Usually it took longer for men to die under the cruel execution methods of crucifixion, but Jesus didn’t die at men’s hands. He gave up His life voluntarily. Remember He was God. He was eternal. Yes, Jesus was fully man, but He is also fully God.

This verse tells us, though, that the God-Man, Jesus, separated Himself from the triune Godhead long enough to become sin for us. He felt the full weight of the world’s sins upon His shoulders and felt the complete and utter aloneness that comes from the sin that separates us from a holy God. Jesus, by taking all the sin of all the world descended to the very deepest, darkest, depths of hell to pay the price for our sins. He knows the penalty, because He paid it. He went there for us.

How deep is His love? He plunged Himself deeper than anyone can go into the pit of hell so we don’t have to. He did that to liberate us. Three days later, He burst forth from the tomb that held Him proving that sin and hell and the grave had no hold on Him. He tasted death and overcame it. He overcame death for all of us. He overcame sin for all of us. He overcame hell for all of us.

God loved us enough to become man and separate Himself not only from His triune relationship, but to take on the sin of the world and enter the depths of hell for us. He cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, as He assumed the sins of the world for us. He took them with Him to the place of eternal separation from God and endured that place of eternal punishment for three of our earthly days, thousands of years for an eternal timeless God. For the psalmist tells us a thousand years is as a day and a day as a thousand years to God, to whom time has no meaning in eternity.

So when we pray, we have the assurance God knows the depths of our depravity. He went there during those three days after the cross. He descended into the very depths of hell and knows how dark and deep sin can go. But it wasn’t too deep for Him to get Himself or us out of it. He overcame. We have the assurance nothing we do is so bad He can’t help us recover from it. He can bring us through it, if we accept His gift of love and follow Him through the paths He sets before us. Just follow Him.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Experiencing the joy of God (Matthew 28:19)

Today’s Readings: Matthew 28:19

”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,…”

I read an interesting observation by Tim Keller today that got me thinking. He noted that God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, know perfect joy because they are in constant communication with each other.

I went back to this verse in Matthew as one of the pillars of our belief in a triune God, one God, manifest in three personalities, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus, Himself, spoke to those gathered on the mountain at His ascension with what we now call the “great commission.” In it He says, “…baptize them in the name of the Father….”

Notice that Jesus did not use the plural when He said name. He used the singular. One God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus often talked about joy and abundant life and the peace of God. As I thought about the three personalities of God separate, but one, it’s hard for me to understand. Theologians have tried to explain it in a lot of different ways, but none really come close to explaining how the triune Godhead really exists.

If we consider the Son of God, Jesus, communing with His Father, sharing all the activities and decisions of His earthly life. And sharing with His disciples all the things the Holy Spirit will do at His coming to dwell in us, not just with us, we can surmise the three personalities communed with each other throughout eternity. Each shared in perfect harmony as God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit before the first Christmas. Before the creation story. Even before time began.

So if God is the creator of joy and love and peace and harmony, if He is the perfecter of all things, then it stands to reason the Godhead enjoyed perfect happiness both before creation and after because of the intimate communion between the three personalities of the Godhead. He needs nothing else. He created all there is, but needs none of it. We need Him, but He does not need us. He knew perfect joy without us before creation. He knows perfect joy now. And shares His joy with us as we come to know Him.

So what does this have to do with prayer? Just that when we pray, we commune with God who knows and shares perfect peace. Perfect joy. Perfect comfort. God is perfect. There is nothing He cannot do. He cannot fail. When we tap into God, we tap into a power source beyond our imagination. We tap into everything good. We tap into the one entity beyond the bounds of time that truly understands real joy. He lives it and shares it. When He talks about the abundant life, He knows what He’s talking about. When He talks about joy, He understands the emotion better than we ever will.

Tap into God and know real joy!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Where do you pray? (Matthew 6:5-6)

Today’s Readings: Matthew 6:5-6

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

How well do you think it would go with your spouse if you shared your most intimate secrets in public? Or maybe you don’t share intimate secrets, but while courting her you make sure everyone around you hears every sweet nothing you shout into her ear. Sound like a good idea? Have you every watched those uncomfortable conversations in restaurants? The ones where you know something not so good is being shared and the recipient is looking around to see if anyone can hear? Wishing they could pull a cone of silence around them to make sure?

Loving relationships aren’t built through public conversations. If the only time I told my wife I told her I loved her was when we were sitting at a restaurant for all to hear or when I’m standing at a pulpit sharing with a congregation or shouting it from a street corner, she might begin to wonder if I really do.

That’s about the way God feels about our prayer life. If the only time we talk to Him is when others can hear us, what does that say about our relationship with Him? Are we talking to Him or trying to impress others? Just as my relationship is built by quiet conversations alone with my wife, so my relationship with God is built by quiet conversations alone with Him. He’s not interested in how we talk with Him when others are around, He’s interested in how we talk with Him alone.

What do you share when there is no one else around? Do you laugh with Him? Do you share the joys and excitement of life? Do you thank Him for the good things that happen each day? Do you give Him credit when He intervenes for you? Or do you only go to Him with your problems? Do you only go to Him to complain and ask for favors? God wants to hear it all, but as in all relationships, if all He hears is our complaints and requests, don’t you think He gets a one-sided view? Don’t you think He gets a little tired of hearing nothing but bad stuff from us?

Relationships take time to build and they take mutual admiration from both parties. We know God admires us because He made us in His image and loves us enough to give His Son for our salvation. The question is how will He know we love and admire Him if we only complain or ask Him for His miracles? Don’t we need to share our love in conversation with Him in prayer?

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Centurion’s Faith (Matthew 8:8)

Today’s Readings: Matthew 8:5-13

Officer: Lord, I don’t deserve to have You in my house. And, in truth, I know You don’t need to be with my servant to heal him. Just say the word, and he will be healed.

What is it about the Centurion officer that Jesus healed his servant, but often we can pray for someone’s healing and it doesn’t happen? Why would God answer His prayer and not ours? Look at what he did to the Jews. The Centurion led Roman soldiers who abused the Jews at every turn. They occupied the country and kept them under Caesar’s tight rule. The soldiers ensured the Jews paid those heavy taxes levied against them. Just look at the types of punishment they came up with to entice others to follow the rules.

The word crucifixion didn’t exist before the Romans. It came about to describe the horror of a new form of torturous execution. This new crucifixion in which victims eventually died of asphyxiation on a cross, sometimes days after hanging there. It was by far the cruelest of punishments known to man. The Centurion Officer led men skilled in its execution. We don’t know how he gained his position. He could have bought it or been the son of a senator or other key political figure. But he kept it through his military skill. And Jerusalem was one of the toughest places to keep your position of power.

So why would Jesus grant this Centurion’s request and not ours? What is it about his faith that might give us a clue about why he so impressed Jesus?

First, there is no evidence that he heard Jesus personally up to this point. All of his information came from secondary sources. Still, he put together the information he received from his sources and knew Jesus to have powers only God could have. As Centurion, he unnamed officer would understand how to use sources of information and weed out truth from fantasy and put together the facts of what happened around him. He heard enough from those sources to understand Jesus did what he said, had the power to heal, aided those in need, and with what he knew, could help his servant.

Second, the Centurion had nothing to lose. His physicians already tried everything else. His servant still lay in bed with a fever without hope from anyone or anything he or anyone he knew could do for him. The Centurion considered Jesus the last hope for his servant. Jesus could heal him or not, but if he didn’t ask, this unusual man would not know his desperate situation.

Third, he understood authority. If Jesus was who his intelligence gatherers said He was, God has power over everything. He could act on people from a distance. God controls all, so Jesus’ presence at his home would not change His authority over the disease that racked the Centurion’s body. He gave orders and his subordinates carried them out. Jesus, as God’s Son, could do the same with nature. He could tell a disease to go away and it would. Authority isn’t limited by geography.

Finally, the Centurion understood faith isn’t some magical, mystical thing that some people possess and others don’t. It is available to all. In fact, everyone has faith, it’s just a question of what or rather who we put our faith in. I put my faith in my car every time I turn the key in the ignition. I put my faith in the power company every time I flip the light switch in the house. I put my faith in the bank every time I give my debit card to a cashier.

Why is it so hard to put our faith in Jesus? Isn’t He more secure and more reliable than any of those things? The Centurion thought so, and so do I. How about you.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

It’s Not About Rules (Matthew 15:18)

Today’s Readings: Job 9-11; Matthew 15:1-20

It’s so easy to mix up rules and traditions with the real reason God accepts us into His family. Adoption into His family has nothing to do with how well we keep rules…because we’ll never meet His perfect standard. All of us fail to even come close to God’s holy standard. That’s what makes the rules such a farce.

Having said that, I’m a big proponent of rules. I’m very left brain. I like structure. I like to know where the boundaries are in life. I like having fences in life and knowing where the limits of behavior stand so I can stay away from them. Rules are useful to all of us to teach us how to live comfortably in society. They have nothing to do with whether we’re accepted by God, but they do help us know the boundaries within which we should live.

My newly arrived rescued dog, Gilley can help explain my thought process here. We couldn’t adopt Gilley until we had a fence because he was a runner. But it could be any fence that would keep him confined. I bought a wireless fence that sends out a radio signal and put a received collar on him to keep him within a 100 foot radius of the transmitter. That keeps him within the boundaries of our yard.

As he approaches the outer boundary of the transmitted signal, his collar begins to beep slowly. If he continues to push the edges of the boundary, the collar beeps faster and louder. If he gets past the signal, the collar gives him a mild shock. Gilley isn’t necessarily a brilliant dog, but it didn’t take him very long to figure out that when his collar beeps, he needs to turn around and come back toward the house. The fence keeps him becoming another of the 150,000 dogs on San Antonio’s streets again.

Gilley can play anywhere in the house or the yard with complete freedom as long as he doesn’t approach the 100 foot limit of the transmitter. When he hears the beep, he knows he’s gone too far. It’s a simple rule, but the rule didn’t create the relationship he and I have developed. He doesn’t come to me to get his ears or belly scratched because he hears the beep of his collar. In fact, he’s so accustomed to the distance now, that he rarely approaches even the edge of the beep area, much less the area where he will get shocked. He stays well away from the boundaries and plays happily inside or around the interior of the yard. All Gilley wants is a relationship with me.

Unfortunately, people tend to test the edges. We think there might be something better on the other side or God wouldn’t have made the rules. We ignore the beeps (the signals God sends us) and try to find our way through the boundary. In fact, we even ignore the shocks (the consequences of our actions) as we hit the edge of the boundaries in defiance of God’s attempt to protect us. We forget He created the world as a place for us to enjoy. Like Gilley, we have plenty of things to do and places to play well away from the fence if we would look. We just choose not to believe Him.

When Gilley stays inside the circumference of the fence, he gets great food, a soft bed, toys, healthcare, lots of affection, … If he leaves the safety of the fence, he could end up just like when they found him. Standing beside two friends, one severely injured, one dead. Both hit by cars. Matted. Unrecognizable. Sick. Hungry. Nowhere to go. Lost and alone.

When we stay inside the fence (God’s rules) it is for our safety. He gives us everything we need and longs to enjoy an incredible relationship with us. When we push our way outside the safety of the fence…

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard