All of Life

About 15 years ago I heard a sermon by Stuart Briscoe on the 6th commandment, which he entitled Valuing All of Life. His main thrust was on the tragedy and horror of abortion, but he had other, very relevant sub points as well. In general, those sub points could be summed up like this. All of life is precious, whether it is in the womb, in the crisis pregnancy center, in the food shelter, or on skid row.

This weekend in the area where I live, two people were killed as they were closing their shop for the day. I don't know them, but somebody does. There is now a wife without a husband and kids without a dad. There is a mom whose lost a son and siblings without their brother. There are possible grandchildren who will never know grandpa. And there is a possible wife and children that are never to be.

As I considered this, it reminded me of Briscoe's thesis: All of life is precious.

Perhaps what strikes me about this the most is the intentionality of it. Lives are lost in accidents and natural disasters with the same or similar consequences. Yet in those instances, the loss of life was beyond human control. But this weekend, lives were taken deliberately. Clearly, at that point, those lives were not precious and had little value to the one who took them.

I'm sharing all of this ask a very direct question: what value to we place on the lives God has created? Not just the lives that are precious to us, our spouses and kids and relatives and friends. What about the ordinary people we meet? What about the people we don't particularly like? What about the people we would rather not think about? What about the life in the womb, the crisis pregnancy center, the food shelter or on skid row?

One of the hard things about reading the gospels is that Jesus ministered to all of life. He had no racial barriers. He had no gender barriers. He had no religious barriers. He had no social barriers. He had no age barriers. How are we doing in imitating Him?

Personally, my grade is pretty poor.

The great thing about grace, is that if we are surrender our lives to Christ and trust Him alone for our salvation, we are forgiven. Falling short on His call to follow Him, as regrettable as it is, does not separate us from Him any longer. But, it doesn't absolve us either. The call is still there. The call to give a cold cup of water to the least of God's children is still in effect.

Daunted? I am. The need far exceeds the supply. Yet, the other great thing about the gospel is that I am not in this alone. And neither are you. First and foremost, we have the Holy Spirit to encourage and empower and exhort us. But also have each other. We are, after all, the body of Christ. Let us serve Him together.

And, by our service to Jesus, let us show that there is value in All of Life.

To God Alone be the Glory

O the deep, deep love of Jesus

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean full of blessing, ’tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!

To God Alone be the Glory

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