Too Small A Thing

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob
      and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.  -  Isa 49:6

Update 9/24

A few weeks ago I heard a sermon by Kevin DeYoung that caused me to look at Isa 49:6 and thus spur the blog post below. This weekend, DeYoung published an excerpt from that sermon on his blog. By the grace of God, it was the very portion that dealt that referenced Isa 49:6. So, if the implications of the words below or more likely the verse above cause your heart to stir, I would encourage you to reflect on DeYoung's thoughts here.

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Honestly, I had to let the implications of this verse sink into my soul.

I am growing more and more enthralled with the book of Isaiah each time I read a portion of it. So, when I heard a reference to Isa 49:6 in a sermon I listened to this weekend, I had to look it up. But as I prayerfully read it this morning, I was struck some uncomfortable realities.

Reality 1:  God (Father, Son & Spirit) is really beyond me.

This was the point in the sermon I heard as well, but reading Isa 49 just served to solidify that thought in my mind. We probably all give lip service to the verse that says God's ways are not our ways, but that is often the reality. But consider this: our service to our neighbor, our kindness to a waitress or barista, our integrity at work or school, our faithfulness to spouse or girl/boy friend or a thousand other things can be used by God to push His glory to the ends of the earth. Do we really believe that the Word of God never returns void, but always accomplishes what God intends for it?

What is so cool about this, at least for me, is that it means God is constrained by me and my conceptions of Him. He really is at work 24x7 and not just in America. Not just in middle class white people. Not just in people how had a reasonably "good" upbringing. Any of these categories is too small for God.

Reality #2:  My prayers are not too much for God.

I'm not saying stop praying for a Honda and start praying for a BMW. I'm saying why just pray for the salvation of one neighbor? Why not the neighborhood? Seriously! Why are my prayers so timid and iffy? Isn't this the God who delights to bless His children? Isn't this the Christ who said you will receive everything you ask in my name? What else could be more in the name of Christ than the salvation of lost souls? Remember Lk 19 or Mt 9? This Jesus wept and had compassion on the lost. All of the lost.

Maybe we should try pushing the boundaries of prayer. Not for more stuff to waste on ourselves (see Jm 4). Instead asking God to demonstrate in our day the reality of Isa 49:6. I, for one, am willing (the flesh may be weak) to give it a try.

Reality #3: Our God is glorious, really glorious.

Read through the remainder of Isa 49. It is like wave after wave of God declaring His expansive saving plan. I may not know how to craft my next sermon or blog post, but God knows how He is going to engrave his people on the palms of His hand and how He will put us on like an ornament. I may be worried about speaking to a friend about the gospel while God knows how He will cause the heavens to sing and the mountains exult. Some, actually most, of this causes me to simply want to stand back and say wow!

I will wrap it up here but I think there is more. The allusions to Jesus in Isa 49 are the biggest. God's non-dependence on us is another. Maybe I'll touch on those another day. For now let's just rejoice that verses like Isa 49:6 have been given to us to set our hearts on fire and call us out of our own spiritual lethargy and into glorious service of the One whose salvation will reach the ends of the earth.

To God Alone be the Glory

Have mercy on me, O God.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
    then will you delight in right sacrifices,
  in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Psalm 51

To God Alone be the Glory

In The Valley

Posted from For the Love of God vol 2 -- 9/7

Why do we choose what can last but an hour
Before we must leave it behind?
Why do possessions exert brutal power
To render us harsh and unkind?
Why do mere things have the lure of a flower
Whose scent makes us selfish and blind?
The cisterns run dry, and sour is our breath;
We dwell in the valley of death.

Why is betrayal attractive to us
Who often are hurt and betrayed?
Why barter faithful devotion for lust,
Integrity cast far away?
Why do our dreams, then our deeds, beggar trust,
Our guilt far too heavy to pay?
The cisterns run dry, and sour is our breath;
We dwell in the valley of death.

Why do we stubbornly act out a role,
Convincing the world that we’ve won?
Why for mere winning will we sell our soul,
In order to be number one?
Why sear our conscience so we’re in control—
Despairing of what we’ve become?
The cisterns run dry, and sour is our breath;
We dwell in the valley of death.

O Jesus—

Why do you promise to quench all our thirst,
When we have despised all your ways?
Why do you rescue the damned and the cursed,
By dying our death in our place?
Why do you transform our hearts till they burst
With vibrant expressions of praise?
The well flows with life—and we’re satisfied—
The fountain that flows from your side.

To God Alone be the Glory

Have We Become Functional Atheists?

Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’ (Ezk 9:9)

Here's a personal note: It is always risky to pray before opening God's word something to the effect of "Open my eyes to see You in your word, even in obscure passages like Ezekiel." The Holy Spirit may just honor such a request.

It is interesting to peel back some of the layers in Ezekiel 8 & 9. These chapters contain a great expression of God's displeasure with his people and help us understand why he dealt so severely with them at the end of  run the of kings. It is also helpful to remember that God's expectations haven't changed. Do we have a better understanding of grace than Israel did? Sure. Do we have the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. But if our lives are not marked by a trajectory that is leading toward God and toward Christlikeness, one has to wonder whether we are revealing the heart attitudes found in Ezk 8-9.

For me, the telling phrase found in each chapter is when God repeats what he hears the people saying "The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see." It is easy to read this in the sense of "The cat's away so the mice can play." I'm confident that is a large part of what was happening in Israel and what is happening in our day. Throw away any conception of God, abandon any moral code that He might impose and what your left with is an ever decreasing cycle of sinfulness and depravity. I imagine taking 10 year snapshots of our culture even for the past 100 years would show not just a decline but one that is accelerating.

And yet, I think there is another layer in these chapters. When God repeats what he's heard "The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see." he is quoting in one instance the elders and in another instance the houses of Israel and Judah. In effect, He's addressing the church. And why this is pressing so hard on me today is not from the morality perspective (as real and profound as that is), but rather from the perspective of Christians, both individually and corporately, who have functionally abandoned God.

Consider your own lives or the life of your church. How much is done that totally depends on God? Not just sitting on the banks of the Jordan and waiting for the water to part, but to actively stepping into river expecting something only God can do? Not simply standing in the crowd around Jesus thinking "He could heal me if He wants to", but actively pushing through the throng and grabbing the hem of His robe? I see a lot of methodology in my own life and in the churches I've been a part of. I see much less abandonment to the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the question comes down to this: If the Holy Spirit left you, your family, your church, would you even notice? The leaders of Israel couldn't even see Him while He was still in their midst, so when He did leave there was no change from their perspective. Are we in the same boat? Do we have everything scripted so well that we have functionally removed our need for God?

I don't know that I have all (or any) of the the answers, but one thing I do know that needs to change in my own life is more God dependent, Spirit pleading prayer. I know its not the quantity of prayer that makes a difference, but there is some correlation between how often we come utterly dependent and bankrupt before God and our true vision of our own abilities.

In conclusion, maybe the picture of the church of Laodicea from Rev 3:14-22 is apt. In their self assessment, they needed nothing. In Jesus' assessment, they needed everything, The solution: "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see."

To God Alone be the Glory

Basking in the "Godness" of our Salvation

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Tit 3:4-7)

In preparing for an upcoming message on the power of the Holy Spirit in our salvation, I was drawn to Titus 3:5. However in quickly scanning the surrounding verses I was struck once again by the otherness of our salvation. Or maybe its better to say the "Godness" of our salvation.

I could break down each verse and highlight things like the goodness and kindness mercy of God, the richness of the grace of Jesus, cleansing and renewing (dare I say resurrecting) power of the Holy Spirit. I could highlight that our salvation really occurs in spite of ourselves, like little children who are rescued from dangerous, even life threatening peril without even realizing we were in danger. I could draw out the cooperative effort of the Trinity in saving us or the fact that our salvation doesn't just get us in, but places us in the exalted position of heir, one of God's beloved children.

I could do all of the above in this post, but my heart has a different bent right now. I simply want us to bask in the enormity of what God, in all of his trinitarian fullness, has orchestrated and accomplished for us. In reality Titus 3:4-7 is like a picture of the Grand Canyon. It is awesome to behold and is compelling to consider. But it pales to actually being there. No picture, no movie can replace actually standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and just soaking in its enormity. No description, no topographical map can communicate the depth and scale of being in the inner canyon and actually feeling as small as we really are.

And what is true of one small part of God's incredible creation is true of the apex of His work in the lives of his people. Today, can we take 5 minutes and simply (or profoundly) step into God's salvation? For 5 minutes can we take our eyes off ourselves and put our eyes on the Father of mercy, the Son of grace and the Spirit of power? For 5 minutes can we get lost in the enormity of God and His amazing, incredible, boundless love?

May this be the beginning of a journey that will take us to the very heart of God.

To God Alone be the Glory

The Foolishness of God

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Cor 1:23-25)

This weekend I have been compiling notes to go along with a video series prepared by Francis Chan. And as Chan's comments flow from biblical truth through the TV into my soul, the word that kept rising up in my mind is "paradox". Then, in reading 1 Cor 1 this morning, the paradox symphony hit its crescendo. Of all the biblical, God ordained paradoxes that exist, the cross is the ultimate.

Think about it:

• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Why? Because true fear of God leads us to despair of self salvation and run to the cross.  
• Our righteous acts are but filthy rags. Why?  Because God's economy is fueled by love and grace and mercy and only in the cross do we see that our righteous acts have no value to save. 
• Pray for those who persecute you and if your enemy is hungry feed him. Why because agape love must extend beyond what is lovely and reach to that which is unlovely. This was done triumphantly on the cross.

So what do we do with this? Here are just a couple of personal things that the Holy Spirit is pressing into me.

Do I fully embrace the paradox of the cross? The just dying for the unjust. God's justice being satisfied for all of my sins, past present and future. My worthlessness being remade to something incredibly worthy (a whore becoming a cleansed and beautiful bride) I am able to add nothing, to earn nothing, coerce nothing to repay nothing to a God who has everything and a Savior who gave up everything to rescue me from my rebellion and my spiritual death and despair. And so much more

Do I fully grasp the paradox of the Christian life? Being a Christian is not simply acknowledging some truths. It is not simply accepting a label or checking a box on a form. It is not just being a follower of Jesus, like a duck in a long line of other ducks or a mule in a mule team in the Grand Canyon. It is a call to be an imitator (1 Cor 11:1).  It is a call to be a disciple and make disciples (Mt 28:18-20). It is call to give up what we cannot keep to receive what we cannot earn (Jim Elliot, Lk 9:23-25). It is the call to a narrow gate and a hard way (Mt 7:14). It is a call to give our lives so that the gospel may be proclaimed. (Phil 1:18,20-21). It is a call to know the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19). And so much more.

To God Alone be the Glory

Don't Settle for Mediocre Preaching

"Preaching is more than regurgitating your favorite exegetical commentary, recasting the sermons of your favorite preachers, or reshaping notes from one of your favorite seminary classes. It is bringing the transforming truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ from a passage that has been properly understood, cogently and practically applied, and delivered with the engaging tenderness and passion of a person who has been broken and restored by the very truths he now stands to communicate. You simply cannot do this without proper preparation, meditation, confession, and worship."

The quote above is an excerpt from a blog post by Paul David Tripp. What he said resonated with me since I find myself facing these same challenges in my preaching but also as I encounter and sit under a lot of mediocre preaching. I used to think it was noble to withhold sermon critiques to "honor the pastor". Now I realize that I was simply enabling mediocre preaching and doing a disservice to the Church and the one preaching. 

Here's the challenge. For those of us who sit in the pew, we need to know our Bibles well enough and love our Savior deeply enough to expect and demand good preaching. And,we need have the courage to speak the truth in love to our dear pastor, if his preaching has fallen on a rocky shoal.

And, the for those of us who have the rare privilege of preaching God's Word to God's people, we must, as Tripp says, "not lose sight of the excellent One and the excellent grace we have been called to represent. We cannot let his splendor appear boring and his amazing grace appear ordinary." We must realize that, as inadequate as we may feel, we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God is making his appeal through us. Men, we have a high and holy calling. Let's not waste our lives rearranging deck chairs!

Tripp's entire post can be read here.

To God Alone be the Glory