Everywhere We Go-oh, People Want to Know-ow

How can I think things in my head, even agree that they're good (during the sermon!), but have such a hard time doing it?  Sigh.  The human condition.   I can easily share on paper what I read today, but if you see me in person, you have permission to hold me accountable for this one because it's going to take a lot of practice!

John 11:1-54

v. 41-42:  So they removed the stone.  Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Impression:  It was important for people to know that Jesus wasn’t empowered by Himself, because of who He is—even though He is God.  He wanted others to know, unquestionably, that His power and ability came from the Father.  He stated it over and over.

Application:  If it was that important for Jesus to rely on God and communicate that reliance to others, how obvious is it that I should do the same?  As a simple, finite, fickle person I have a need, a desperate emptiness, that can only be met by God.  To act and live and speak as if I do what I do in my own strength and wisdom is foolish.  There is no way any of us lives, or breathes, or plans, apart from the grace of God.  But to live in reliance—to be aware of our reliance and to speak it--is very different.  My pride fights it.  My arrogance and desire for self-reliance fight it.  That is one of the ways Jesus and I are so different.  He was God, but in humility, He transferred all honor and power to its true source, His Father.  With His help, and by His Spirit, may I learn to do the same…

My Shepherd

As I looked out from the kitchen window yesterday, I watched a lamb, half-grown by now, wander up the hill, it's coat smeared with mud and filth diluted by rain.  Our sheep trail through the pasture keeping their own schedule of grazing, masticating, and resting--accompanied by a lone Holstein, his black and white contrast visible above the fresh green grass.  Years of working with and enjoying them make passages like this both personal and meaningful:

John 10:1-21
v. 14-15:  I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

Impression:  My relationship with Jesus and the Father is based on His care for me and the giving of His life for me, the sheep.  The dumb, unworthy, filthy, wretched little sheep.  Why would a shepherd die for a sheep?  Sheep are many.  They can easily be replaced.  They  are quite useless to the shepherd—they do not protect him or serve him or do things to make his job easier.  They are simply His charge, they are at His mercy.  They are cared for because of the affection of the shepherd or a charge given.  Nor more, no less.

Application:  What a great God!  To love and care and bless and lead us apart from benefit to Himself; in spite of our tendency to wander, to get lost, and hurt, and dirty, and into trouble.  There is no justification for His saving grace apart from Himself—His love and mercy.  The Lord is  my shepherd, I shall not want….

Learning Humility I

"From the moment I awake, I've learned to make statements to God about my dependence upon God, and in this way I'm humbling myself before God."  So writes C.J. Mahaney in his book, Humility: True Greatness (p. 69).  The focus, the constant focus, is the cross of Christ.  The death of Christ on my behalf.  "Far from offering us flattery, the cross undermines our self-righteousness, and we can stand before it only with a bowed head and a broken spirit."  (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.12)

So, as I'm exercising practical steps toward humility this morning, I invite you to join me in acknowledging your need of God, and only God.  Are you wholly, humbly in need?  I have a hard time getting to that place in the lap of so many good things, but I must. 

In coming to the book of Leviticus this morning I am asking: God, make me your under-rower today.  Make me the one under the ship who puts his whole back into it, pleasing the Master, unconcerned about the direction, trusting You with the goal.  Give me the heart of one who serves because I am served; one who loves, because I am loved; one who gives freely because I freely receive.  Change me until the only part of me that exists is You."

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14