Thursday, November 2, 2023
Modern Christianz Explains the New Covenant
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Look at Jesus, and You Look Away from Yourself
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)
We are not supposed to look at ourselves.
But the problem for so many of us is that we focus on "not looking" at ourselves.
We need to look at Jesus!
The word "looking" is ἀφοράω aphoraó in the original Greek, which means "to look away from all else."
We want to look at Himself, not at ourselves.
It's not about us. It's never been about us, our feelings, our thoughts, our trials, our troubles.
Jesus, who holds the Universe and everything in it altogether (Colossians 1:15)
There are lots of noises, fears, premonitions, concerns, regrets, bitter feelings, bad memories, worries, outrages that can well up insde of us.
For me, there was often drama in the back of my head. That's the locus for those distractions. For other people, they may sense something in front of their minds, on the side, etc.
All of these fiery darts can distract people in such terrible ways.
But again, the solution to these distraction has to be more than a mere negation. We need to look at something, or better yet SOMEONE better!
That Someone is Jesus!
He is the Author and Finisher of Faith! He is the one who inspires our trust, and causes us to rest from all our painful toil and self-serving slavery.
It's all about seeing Him at work in and around us. He is our life. He is our health, He is our new identity before God the Father:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
We have a new identity in Christ. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It's all about him.
We no longer look at ourselves, as though we have to compensate for God missing something or overlooking a need in our lives:
"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)
Too many Christians are not looking to Jesus. They look to Jesus and something or someone else. They look to Jesus and their problems. They look to Jesus and other people in their lives. They look to Jesus and the church, their traditions, their past, the opinions of others, their memories.
All of this is doomed to fail. Jesus is our success, our life, our new Gospel hope. There is no reason, no right for us to look to anyone or anything else to see us through.
For this post, and I hope for all future posts, there will be less focus on myself, but more on Himself.
I will add this part, though: for a long time, I was quite confused about what the thoughts, drama, issues, hurts, worries that would emerge in the back of my mind. For too long, I was convinced that I had to do something about them.
Today, I realize how all of this is just focus on self. That is precisely what Daddy God frees us from when we look at Jesus!
We look to Him, and we look away from everything else, including ourselves!
All of the negative thoughts and feelings, all of the pains and the hurts, all of this mess just falls away as I look to Jesus!
He is indeed the End of all our Struggles! YES!
Sunday, August 12, 2018
How to Follow God Fully: Believe on Him and His Promises
Many Christians wonder what it takes to follow God fully.
It's not about what we do.
It's about believing on Him and receiving His promises.
Consider Caleb.
How did this man of God follow Him fully?
He believed God that He had given the Israelites the Promised Land:
"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." (Numbers 13:30)
And then
"6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not." (Numbers 14: 6-9)
Notice that Caleb pointed out how the Lord delighted in them. God was not angry with the Israelites, His chosen people. He did not hate them.
He wanted them receive this wonderful Promised Land, and had laid out this guarantee early on.
God had said to Moses:
"And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." (Exodus 3:17)
Caleb believed that God not only had given them the land, but that He would make them victorious over their enemies.
God recognized Caleb's faith:
"23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it." (Numbers 14: 23-24)
He had "another spirit", a spirit of faith which took God at His Word!
"8Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. 10And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old." (Joshua 14: 8-10)
Do you want to be recognized by God as someone who follows Him wholly?
Believe Him! Believe on Him and take Him at His Word when it comes to His promises:
"6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Faith: Not About Believing Him for Something, But Believing He Did Everything
For us today under the New Covenant, faith is not about agitating in our minds or speaking words at great length about the future.
It is not a supposition that good things will come to pass.
Faith is about Jesus, and believing that He accomplished all thing for us at the Cross.
Faith is trusting that Jesus accomplished has provided all thing for us.
"1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
The whole context of Hebrews 11 and the Hall of Faith is not about people getting stuff. It's not about hoping for better personal outcomes in their lives.
It's about the coming Messiah and the promise of deliverance from sin, and the enactment of the New Covenant.
We are blessed because of JESUS!
"6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 7Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." (Galatians 3:6-9)
And who is the object of our faith?
JESUS!
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)
Faith is about believing in Jesus, and that through His death and resurrection, He has justified us, and has granted us His life!
When we believe on Him, we can the truth that He will take care of everything in our lives!
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 31-34)