7 Truths About Hell

J. D. Greear  

Concerning hell, C. S. Lewis once wrote, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.” In many ways, I agree with him. No one, Christians included, should like the idea of hell. Those of us who believe in hell aren’t sadists who enjoy the idea of eternal suffering. In fact, the thought of people I know who are outside of Christ spending eternity in hell is heartbreaking. As a young Christian, when I began to learn about hell and its implications, I almost lost my faith. It was that disturbing.

Hell is a difficult reality, but it is something that the Bible teaches, and we can’t fully understand God and his world unless we grapple with it. These seven truths should frame our discussion of hell.

1. Hell is what hell is because God is who God is. People speak glibly about “seeing God,” as if seeing God face-to-face would be a warm and fuzzy experience. But the Bible explains that God’s holiness and perfections are so complete that if anyone were to see him, he would die (Ex. 33:20). Even the slightest sin in his presence leads to immediate annihilation. When Isaiah, the prophet of God, saw God upon his throne, he fell upon his face, terrified and sure that he was about to die (Is. 6:5).

The doctrine of hell has fallen out of favor among many. But it’s there for a reason. God tells us about hell to demonstrate to us the magnitude of his holiness. Hell is what hell is because the holiness of God is what it is. Hell is not one degree hotter than our sin demands that it be. Hell should make our mouths stand agape at the righteous and just holiness of God. It should make us tremble before his majesty and grandeur.

Ironically, in doing away with hell, you do away with the very resources that show God’s justice. When a person goes through rape or child abuse, she needs to know that there is a God of such holiness and beauty that his reign can tolerate no evil.

2. Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in Scripture. Some people try to avoid the idea of hell by saying, “That was the Old Testament God, back when he was in his junior high years and all cranky. But when God matured in the New Testament with Jesus—meek and mild Jesus—he was all about love and compassion.”

The problem with this view is that when you start reading the Gospels, you find that Jesus speaks about hell more than anyone else. In fact, if you count up the verses, Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. One of the most famous skeptics in history, Bertrand Russell, said in his book Why I’m Not a Christian that Jesus’s teaching on hell is “the one profound defect in Christ’s character.” If we want to avoid the idea of hell, we can’t ignore the problem by just focusing on “meek and mild Jesus.”

3. Hell shows us the extent of God’s love in saving us. Why did Jesus speak about hell more than anyone else in the Bible? Because he wanted us to see what he was going to endure on the cross on our behalf. On the cross, Jesus’s punishment was scarcely describable: this bloodied, disfigured remnant of a man was given a cross that was perhaps recycled, likely covered in the blood, feces, and urine of other men who had used it previously. Hanging there in immense pain, he slowly suffocated to death.

The worst part was the separation from the Father that Jesus felt, a separation that was hell itself. “My God, my God,” he cried out, “Why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). In all of this, Jesus was taking the hell of our sin into his body.

People often feel that hell is some great blemish on God’s love. The Bible presents it as the opposite. Hell magnifies for us the love of God by showing us how far God went, and how much he went through, to save us.

4. People are eternal. C. S. Lewis once noted that hell is a necessary conclusion from the Christian belief that human beings were created to live forever. As he put it:

Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live forever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only 70 years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse—so gradually that the increase in 70 years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be.

Elsewhere, Lewis wrote:

Hell . . . begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. . . . Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, nor even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.

5. In one sense, God doesn’t send anyone to hell; we send ourselves. Hell is the culmination of telling God to “get out.” You keep telling God to leave you alone, and finally God says, “Okay.” That’s why the Bible describes it as darkness: God is light; his absence is darkness. On earth we experience light and things like love, friendship, and the beauty of creation. These are all remnants of the light of God’s presence. But when you tell God you don’t want him as the Lord and center of your life, eventually you get your wish, and with God go all of his gifts.

We have two options: live with God, or live without God. If you say, “I don’t want God’s authority. I would rather live for myself,” that’s hell. In The Great Divorce and The Problem of Pain, Lewis put it this way:

In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: “What are you asking God to do?” . . . To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what he does. . . . In the end, there are only two kinds of people—those who say to God “thy will be done” and those to whom God says in the end “thy will be done.”

6. In another sense, God does send people to hell, and all his ways are true and righteous altogether. We may be tempted to rage at God and to correct him. But how can we find fault with God? As Paul says in Romans 9, who are we—as mere lumps of clay—to answer back to the divine potter?

We are not more merciful than God. Isaiah reminds us that all who are currently “incensed against God” will come before him in the last day and be ashamed, not vindicated (Is. 45:24), because they will then realize just how perfect God’s ways are. Every time God is compared with a human in Scripture, God is the more merciful of the pair.

When we look back on our lives from eternity, we’ll stand amazed not by the severity of his justice, but by the magnanimity of his mercy.

7. It’s not enough for God to take us out of hell; he must take hell out of us. Some people see a problem in using hell as a way of coercing people to submit to Christianity. It’s as if God is saying, “Serve me or else!” And that seems manipulative. It may surprise you, but God agrees.

If people are converted to God simply because they are scared, or because God has done some great, miraculous sign (cf. Luke 16:31), they might submit, but it wouldn’t change their heart attitude toward God. If you accept Jesus just to “get out of hell,” then you’d hate being in heaven, because only those who love and trust God will enjoy heaven. If you don’t love the Father, then living in the Father’s house feels like slavery. It would be like forcing you to marry someone you didn’t want to marry. The only way you’ll enjoy heaven is when you learn to love and trust God.

Only an experience of the love of God can rearrange the fundamental structure of your heart to create a love and trust of God. It’s not enough for God to take us out of hell; he must take hell out of us.

J. D. Greear is the lead pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of Gospel (B&H, 2011), Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart (B&H, 2013), and Jesus, Continued(Zondervan, 2014).

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-truths-about-hell/

Be Who You Are in Christ

by Collin Smith

Timothy was a young man, probably in his thirties, and he had been given the task of leading the church in Ephesus. This is a massive responsibility.

And, we know that by temperament Timothy was timid and shy (2 Timothy 1:7). He was not a forceful person. He was not confident by nature.

I think Timothy must often have felt that he was in over his head, out of his depth, and sometimes at the end of his rope. Maybe you know what that feels like too. 

When You’re in over Your Head 

How do you sustain what God has called you to do year after year? Where do you find the energy to live a godly life when everything is pressing in on you?  

Paul ends this letter with some much-needed encouragement for Timothy. And remember, Paul was writing under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. God knew what Timothy needed back then and he knows what you need right now. 

So, I think Paul’s encouragement to Timothy is something all of us can use today. My prayer is that you will be refreshed and renewed in the hope of the Gospel today. 

Man of God 

“But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue…” (v11) 

Paul has been describing the way of false teachers and of people who set their hearts on money, and then he encourages Timothy to pursue a different path.  

You would expect him to say “But you, Timothy, flee from all this and pursue…” He speaks to Timothy by name in verse 20, but he doesn’t do that here. Instead, he says “man of God.” That would have gotten Timothy’s attention.

The phrase “man of God” was used in the Old Testament to describe some of the great heroes of the faith: 

• Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1)

• Samuel (1 Samuel 9:6) 

• David (Nehemiah 12:24) 

• Elijah (1 Kings 17:18) 

• Elisha (2 Kings 4:7) 

Do you think Timothy felt he belonged in that company? Paul says “Timothy, I want you to remember who you are. You are God’s man. I want you to think and speak and act and live as God’s man because that is who you are!” 

Do you think you belong in this company? 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) 

The Scriptures are not only given to some Christians, but to all Christians.  This is telling us something wonderful. In Old Testament times God called only a few to be his prophets, his priests and his kings.

But now every man who is in Christ is God’s man, and every woman who is in Christ is God’s woman.  

If you are in Christ, you are God’s man as much as Moses, Samuel, David and Elijah. If you are in Christ you are God’s woman as much as Sarah, Deborah, Ruth or Esther.  

Know who you are in Jesus Christ. You are God’s man, God’s woman. You are not your own, but you have been bought with a price. God created you. Christ purchased you. The angels in heaven confess “with your blood you purchased men for God” (Revelation 5:9).

How God Speaks to Believers

When God speaks to believers, He speaks to us, not as we are by nature, but as we are in Christ. William Barclay comments: 

When the charge is given to Timothy, he is not reminded of his own weakness and his own helplessness and his own inadequacy and his own sin… He is rather challenged by the honor which is his, the honor of being God’s man. [i] 

When you read through the New Testament epistles, you don’t find God saying to believers: “You really are a miserable, pathetic failure. You are so weak and helpless and hopeless. When are you going to realize what a miserable failure you are?” 

How could that be true of people who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God? God does not tread us down by branding us according to our nature. He lifts us up by calling us to be who we are in Christ. 

God speaks to us like this: 

Put on the whole armor of God so that when the evil day comes you may be able to stand your ground… (Ephesians 6:13) 

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… (Colossians 3:5) 

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage… (1 Corinthians 16:13) 

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness… (1 Timothy 6:11) 

Without Christ you were a lost and helpless and hopeless sinner. But now in Christ you are a new creation. God’s Spirit lives in you!  

You are God’s man, God’s woman. Be who you are.  

[i] William Barclay, Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, p.155 

Colin Smith is the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near - So Far. Colin is the president and teacher for Unlocking the Bible.

What It Means That We "Died in Christ"

One of the most remarkable assertions of the apostle Paul is that Christians actually die with Christ.

What does this mean?

Paul explains in a letter to the church of Colossae.

“If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things that all perish as they are used)? . . . they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:20-23).

This is a typical Pauline sentence, over-packed with words and jumbled syntax. The apostle is trying to compress a multitude of thoughts into a single breath.

AS THOUGH WE DIED      

He begins with the affirmation: “If with Christ you died . . . ”

At first blush, it is a puzzling affirmation. Surely only one person died on the cross and it was not us. It was Jesus.

How can Paul write, “if with Christ you died”?

There can be only one answer: what happened to Jesus on the first Good Friday happened, in some sense, to us as well. It is as though we died with Jesus.

Paul’s explains the mutual death in the following way: “we know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin . . . for sin will have no dominion over [us]” (Rom. 6:6, 14).

It was "our old self” that died with Christ, specifically the old self in its attachment to sin. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we are “no longer . . . enslaved to sin.” For the first time in our lives, we are no longer dominated by sin. We are able not to sin.

DEAD TO ELEMENTAL FORCES

In Colossians, Paul identifies the sin to which we are no longer bound. We have died “to the elemental spirits of the world” (Col. 2:20).

Scholars have puzzled over the identity of the “elemental spirits of the world.” To what do they refer? Most likely they refer to the selfish desires which prompt us to make a life for ourselves apart from God. It is certainly true that such desires pervade humanity—indeed, nothing in our “world” is more “elemental” than “spirits” of selfishness.

To such “spirits” we have died.

Selfish impulses have not themselves died. They are still very much alive. Rather, it is we who have died to them.

Liberated from the selfish gene, we are no longer enslaved to self.

SET FREE FROM OURSELVES

Too few of us are aware of this liberation. Even many Christians struggle to come to grips with the meaning of co-crucifixion with Christ.

That is why Paul delivers a rebuke to his Colossian converts. “Why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch?’”

“The dogmas of the world won’t take you very far.

That is to say, why do you let yourself be dogmatized by the world? Why do you allow your peers to determine what you handle, taste, and touch? Why do you yield to the social dogmas of the day regarding self-image, personal ambitions, and financial security?

The dogmas of the world won’t take you very far. Indeed as Paul says, they will “perish as they are used.” In other words, they will die in your hands.

SET FREE FROM THE FLESH

My first exposure to death was an encounter with a rotten duck. I stumbled onto its dead body when I was four years old, walking alongside a lake in Los Angeles. Before my mother could whisk me away from the putrid sight, I managed to steal a glimpse at its maggot-infested gut. Instantly, I withdrew, taking two steps backwards. Even though just a young child, I knew instinctively not to touch the gruesome remains. I knew they would contaminate me.

As adults, we should be so discerning. Consider the things we touch every day: money, sex, and power. How we love to fasten our grip on these things. None of them is bad in itself— handled well, money, sex, and power can bring many blessings. But when we look to them for fullness of life, we are invariably disappointed. As inanimate objects, they are powerless to create life. To think otherwise is to watch them rot in our hands.

Hence Paul ventures a bold assertion. Money, sex, and power, and other earthly things like them, “are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Here the word flesh is a synonym for selfish desires. Pursuing money, sex, and power will not assuage selfish desires. It will not stop the indulgence of the flesh. On the contrary, it will excite the flesh. It will exacerbate selfish desires still more.

Evidence for this abounds.

“When we pursue material things as though our lives depended on them, none truly satisfies.

Alexander the Great had immense power, conquering most of the civilized world, but when his troops were too exhausted to push into India, he broke down and wept. Much power was not enough power. He wanted more.

Robert Louis Stevenson won fame as one of history’s most beloved storytellers, writing such classics as Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But his last words, the self-composed epitaph of his tombstone, were doleful. “Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, and failed much.” Much fame was not enough fame. He wanted more.

Claude Monet, impressionist painter par excellence, was downcast at the end. “I always wanted to believe that I would make headway and finally do something worthwhile. But, alas, I must now bury that hope.” Much success was not enough success. He wanted more.

Most of us can identify with these disappointments. When we pursue material things as though our lives depended on them, none truly satisfies. Worse, each perishes in our hands, contaminates our lives, and excites the flesh still more.

LIBERATION IN CHRIST

Happily, there is a better way. It is the liberation offered by Jesus. Through his death, he loosens the shackles of the flesh. He sets us free from selfishness and the self-serving dogmas of the world. He liberates us from the contaminating spirits of our day.

It is imperative to grasp the full significance of this liberation.

On the final night of July in 1834, eight hundred thousand slaves of the British Empire rose to celebrate their liberation. By a decree of Parliament, the night of their cruel bondage was coming to an end. In the words of famed historian George Trevelyan, at the strike of midnight an entire race of people climbed “onto the hilltops to watch the sun rise, bringing them freedom as its first rays struck the waters.”

For emancipated slaves, it was history’s finest hour. To this day we celebrate the victory. Yet abolition did not put an end to the evils associated with slavery. The scourge of racism and social injustice remain with us today.

While the victory was won, it was not fully implemented.

It is the same with our liberation from sin. What was accomplished on the cross of Christ was a full and final victory. Vanquished once and for all was the dominion of sin.

Dying with Christ, we are no longer bound to sin. But the victory has not been fully implemented. Christians—even Christians—still sin.

LINGERING SIN

The apostle John cautions us against thinking otherwise. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Instead, we must acknowledge lingering sin, indeed, confront lingering sin. Doing so, John invites us to a tree outside Jerusalem, the cross of Jesus Christ, where, in repentance, we receive forgiveness of sins.

“Cleansed and forgiven, we are able not to sin.

“If we confess our sins, [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Lapsing into selfish thoughts and self-serving behavior is something we all do. But we are not bound to continue. We are free from the domination of sin. Cleansed and forgiven, we are able not to sin.

Seldom a day passes that I don’t succumb to self-seeking desires. The allure of the elemental spirits is strong. I still pursue the imagined rewards of power, fame, pleasure, influence, and success as though they were the ultimate building blocks of my life.

JOINED TO CHRIST

Yet I am no longer enslaved to that pursuit. I am no longer dogmatized by it. Because of my co-crucifixion with Christ, I have come out from under its grip.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

Joined to Christ, I am no longer yoked to sin.

Praise God—we have died with Christ!

Content taken from Discovering the Good Life by Timothy B. Savage, ©2019. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Tim Savage (PhD, University of Cambridge; ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a pastor, author, international conference speaker, and founding council member of the Gospel Coalition. He has served in churches in Arizona, Great Britain, and Texas. He is married to Lesli and they have two adult sons, Matthew and Jonathan. Tim is the author of No Ordinary Marriage.

Posted at: https://gcdiscipleship.com/article-feed/2019/5/10/what-it-means-that-we-have-died-with-christ

Knowing God Makes All the Difference

By David Mathis

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are simply natural and those who have supernatural life in them. Some were born only once; others have been born again. Many do not trust and treasure Jesus as Lord and Savior. A precious few do.

For now, it can be difficult to distinguish these two types of people. Though false professions abound and unbelievers demonstrate remarkable virtue in society, at the bottom of our shared humanity lies one great difference: whether we truly know God himself, through Jesus, or not. Given enough time, the tree will bear fruit, or not. The truth will become plain as to whether we truly have supernatural life in our soul, or not.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points to “the Gentiles” as those who do not know God. Four separate times they are negative examples of what Christians are not to be. But against our natural instincts, and through the grace of God’s word and Spirit, Jesus calls us not to Gentile love (Matthew 5:47), not to Gentile prayer (6:7), not to Gentile fears (6:32), and not to Gentile leadership (20:25; also Mark 10:42; Luke 22:25). In short, he calls us to live like we know God.

Not Like the Gentiles

Until the coming of Christ, Gentiles (non-Jews) were, by and large, merely natural, worldly persons, born under sin and still under sin, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). God chose Abraham, birthing a special ethnic people to whom he revealed himself. God spoke specially to his chosen people, the Jews. Meanwhile, the Gentiles, with rare exceptions, did not hear from or know the true God.

Even in the ministry of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13; 1 Timothy 2:7), the stigma held. Paul wrote that Christ crucified was “folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23) and charged his converts to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds” (Ephesians 4:17). Peter also warned Christians of Gentiles who “speak against you as evildoers” (1 Peter 2:12); he drew a clear line between Christian conduct and “doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry” (1 Peter 4:3).

Maybe most revealing of all, Paul writes to believers “that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:4–5). At bottom, the issue is not ethnicity, but knowing God. Christianity makes the radical claim, and represents the remarkable reality, that through Jesus Christ, and by his Spirit, we know and enjoy the true God. Two kinds of people populate our world: those who know God in Christ, and those who do not.

Knowing God

Given the first-century expectations that Jews would know him, having been trusted with God’s oracles (Romans 3:2), and that Gentiles would not, we shouldn’t be surprised to find Jesus working with these categories in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus calls his people, those who know the true God as Father, to kinds of love, prayer, life, and leadership that are distinct from “the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2) and “the passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). He calls us to love and pray and live and lead not according to our natural instincts but according to supernatural power and perspective and practice.

How will our love, our prayers, our anxieties, and our leadership be different from the course of this world when we know Jesus?

How Not to Love

One of Jesus’s most famous teachings is his startling call to enemy love. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Even Gentiles love their friends.

If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5:46–47)

So, we have Gentile love. Which is the same as tax-collector love. Even tax collectors love those who love them. Even Gentiles greet those who greet them. It’s only natural.

But Jesus calls his people to love and greet others beyond what is natural. He calls us to supernatural love that goes beyond the pattern and norms of this world. Love that doesn’t have its immediate reward in this life, but waits patiently for the heavenly reward. Love that transcends the expectations of this world, defying natural explanation, so that it eventually will be said of us that something is different about us.

Enemy love is what our Father has shown to us (Romans 5:8, 10), and it is what will show the world that we are “sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). Loving our enemies doesn’t earn our heavenly sonship but evidences it. We display the supernatural love of our heavenly Father when we love those who do not (yet) love us.

How Not to Pray

Just sentences later, Jesus casts a radical new vision for prayer, unlike the way a natural person prays. “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).

Apart from special revelation from God himself, in his word, and in his Son, natural people assume we need to secure or earn God’s attention with “many words” — by heaping up pious sounding phrases. Jesus paints a vastly different picture of his Father, who “knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). In Christ, we come to know God as he truly is, as a loving and intimate Father who sees and knows our every need. Which means we don’t have to flag him down with many words and empty phrases.

Jesus then models prayer that is astonishingly direct and simple: a mere fifty words (Matthew 6:9–13). Christians will pray differently than those who can only speculate what God is really like. The difference comes down to knowing the true God, not a figment of human imagination and conjecture. “Do not be like [the Gentiles], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8).

How Not to Fear

Jesus then turns to address the everyday fears and anxieties of life in this world. “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25). He points his followers beyond the basics of human existence that can consume the natural mind, especially when food and drink and clothing become scarce. However, if we know God as Father, we know how he cares for his creatures and, all the more, his image-bearers.

Look at the birds, how he feeds them. Look at the lilies, how he clothes them. Are you not of more value to your Father than many birds and countless lilies? “Therefore,” Jesus says, “do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matthew 6:31–32).

Gentiles seek the things of earth without an eye to heaven. Jesus calls his people, who know his Father, to rise above the base concerns of natural people to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), banking on their Father’s help and concern.

How Not to Lead

Finally, we move to Matthew 20, where James’s and John’s mother asks Jesus if her sons can sit at his right and left in the kingdom. This is an audacious request, more so than she even knows. Jesus says such is not his to decide (Matthew 20:23), but then says more, pointing out the unsound foundation beneath her question.

Such a petition is founded on Gentile (or natural) assumptions about leadership as personal privilege. Jesus calls his men to another vision, the very vision of supernatural leadership he is living out as he walks toward the cross.

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:25–28)

Natural leadership lords it over those in our charge. Gentile leadership exercises authority without self-giving service. But Jesus says, “It shall not be so among you.” He himself is cutting a new path, and summons his followers to join him. He does not use his followers for personal privilege and private benefit. He does not empty them to fill himself. Rather, in his fullness, he empties himself, without abdicating his lordship, for the good of his followers. He does not surrender his authority but wields it for the good of those in his charge, not for selfish ends.

Hope for the Gentiles

Jesus calls his people to be distinct from the world, its patterns, and what’s natural. He calls us, guided by his gospel and supplied by his Spirit, to be like our supernatural Father in heaven, who loved us when we were yet enemies, hears our simple childlike prayers, knows and cares for our every need, and exercise authority with grace and self-sacrifice, not dominance or heavy-handedness.

God’s transforming grace means there is great hope for Gentiles. The negative references to Gentiles in the Gospels soon erupt into magnificent hope for the Gentiles in Acts and Romans, in the great “turning to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). No Gentile, no matter how far off he once was, is beyond Christ’s reach. And our Lord loves to redeem the ways that we, Jew or Gentile, fail to love, pray, live, and lead as we ought.

God is not surprised that we need deep retraining, and often default back to our Gentile ways. Yet at every turn in our journey to final glory, knowing him makes all the difference.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Churchin Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/knowing-god-makes-all-the-difference

The Lord is.... My Strength

by Wendy Wood

Psalm 28:7-8 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my son I give thanks to him.  The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.”

Psalm 46:1  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Exodus 15:2  “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

Psalm 118:14  “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

“I’m too tired.”

“I’m can’t do it.”

“I’m not the right person for this job.”

When we look at our circumstances and the tasks set before us, excuses leap to mind.  It is easy to look at ourselves, our weakness, our failings, our lack of knowledge, gifts, talents, or energy and not even try.  We get caught up in not wanting to fail, that we never even take the first step toward accomplishing anything.

Moses keeps us in good company.  When God approached Moses in the form of the burning bush, and called Moses to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses tried all kinds of excuses.

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11)

If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me “What is his name?” what shall I say to them? (Exodus 3:13)

But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, “The Lord did not appear to you.” (Exodus 4:1)

Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 4:10)

Oh my Lord, please send someone else. (Exodus 4:13)

Moses list of excuses, fearing his own lack of strength and ability, sound a lot like ours.  Essentially he says,

I’m not the right person.

I won’t know what to say.

I won’t be believed.

I’m not a good speaker.

I’m just don’t want to do it.

To each excuse God has a response.

I will be with you. (Exodus 3:12)

I AM who I AM. (Exodus 3:14)

The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?... Throw it on the ground… and it became a serpent…  Put out your hand and catch it by the tail… and it became a staff in his hand.. That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers… has appeared to you. (Exodus 4:3-5)

Who made man’s mouth? (Exodus 4:11)

And then the Lord sends Aaron to help Moses speak. (Exodus 4:14)

We have good reason to doubt our own strength.  Scripture tells us that we are like a mist that appears for a short time and then vanishes.  Scripture tells us that we are like grasshoppers in comparison to the greatness of God. Scriptures reminds us that we are dust.  We are jars of clay. The pictures used to describe humans are frail and small. First Corinthians 4:7 reminds us that God has given us every talent, gift, strength, and weakness that we have.  “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” God knows the strength, or lack of it, that we have because he has apportioned it to us.  The question is, do you rely on your own strength, or on God’s?

God is strength for the weary.

Following Christ is hard.  It is easy for us to get overwhelmed with life.  It’s easy to get discouraged in our circumstances and allow our eyes to focus on our problems rather than on Christ.  At times we run to God in his word and in prayer, but at times we shuffle toward him or collapse in the exhaustion of waiting for an answer or from the pain of trials and suffering.  But God is our strength! God never gets tired! God never has less energy or less power. God doesn’t “use up” his strength as he continually works to sustain all life every moment of every day.  He never has more strength or less strength. He doesn’t need to sleep and “recharge his batteries”. He never needs solitude and quiet to renew his strength. He never changes! His strength is perfect at all times!

Isaiah 40:28-31  “Have you not known?  Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

There is no need to fear that we won’t be able to finish the race with Christ.  We run with perseverance because He is our strength. God does not call us to follow him and then leave us on our own to keep up with him and sustain ourselves.  God is our strength!

God is strength for the weak.

We associate weakness with wimpiness.  We think of weakness as one of the worst possible traits a person can have.  Self-sufficiency is prized and strived for. However, we all know we are weak.  And that’s a good thing!

Paul goes through a long list of strength in 2 Corinthians 11.  He gives his pedigree as a sign of his strength. He is a Hebrew, an Israelites, an offspring of Abraham, a better servant of Christ, his labors are greater, his sufferers have been worse, his imprisonments have been longer.  He lists things that should be considered strength to society. Paul has the background and the proven track record of strength in enduring terrible circumstances. Yet instead of boasting of his accomplishments, he boasts of God’s strength that has been the force behind every single thing he has done.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Paul knew his own weakness.  He knew he wouldn’t be able to preach God’s word faithfully and endure hardship in a God-honoring way without God’s strength.  He boasted of his own weakness, knowing that God alone was the strength that helped him endure.

You will miss out on God’s strength if you always stay within your comfort zone. God’s strength shines in weakness, when we step outside of our own ability, and have to trust God in a new or scary experience, we see at work.  If we continue in old habitual responses, or stay close to what we are sure will go easy and smoothly for us, we fail to rely on God’s strength.

God is our strength.  When you think you can’t possible respond well to a hurtful spouse, God is your strength.  When your teenagers have rebelled and you want to run and hide, God is your strength. When you are asked to do an assignment that you think is too big or too scary, God is your strength.  When 1 Corinthians 13:10 promises that there is a way out of temptation, God is saying that he is the strength behind finding the way out of your circumstance that pleases him. We don’t do anything of eternal value in our own strength.  We rely on God to work through us.

God gives us the spirit of power.  “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).  This spirit of power is the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead and now dwells in you (Romans 8:11). Jesus himself said “I can do nothing on my own.” Christ also was dependent on the power of God to accomplish the will of God.  God delights to give his children the power to glorify his name. Whenever we respond in denying ourselves, the strength of God enables it, which is why it is pleasing to God. When you are tempted to a sinful response, but stop and trust God and his promises, you display the strength of God.  

Questions to Consider:

When was the last time you took a risk for God?  Maybe you shared the gospel even though your heart was pounding?  Maybe you choose to ask for forgiveness first even though the other person had sinned too.  Maybe you chose to respond kindly to a harsh word trusting God’s promise to experience peace and rest for your soul when you seek to please him.

If you can’t remember the last time you did something that required God’s strength, what will you do now?

The Lord is.... My Portion

by Wendy Wood

Lamentations 3:24  “The Lord is my portion”, says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him”.

Psalm 16:5  “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”

Psalm 73:26  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 142:5  “I cry to you, O LORD, I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

A portion is an amount that satisfies.  A portion is neither too big, nor too little.  When you go to Claim Jumpers restaurant, you a are served a gigantic dinner on an even bigger plate.  You either leave with a box of food left over or you are uncomfortably full for the rest of the day and maybe even the next day.  The meals at Claim Jumpers are bigger than a portion. On the other hand, you may go to a super fancy restaurant that focuses on the presentation of food, and you have an expensive meal but it is too small to fill you up.  After dinner, you are still hungry. This is probably a ploy to get you to order a beautiful looking, but small, dessert, too. Neither of these scenarios is a true biblical “portion”.

“The Lord is my portion” means that God is everything we need to be rightly satisfied.  He gives us all that we need in the perfect quantity at the perfect time. We live in a culture of “super size” and “big box” stores.  We are people who are constantly looking for more and more. Whether it is food for a meal or storing up food in a pantry, we tend toward wanting more than enough.  The Lord is my portion is God’s call for us to find complete contentment in him.

Proverbs 30 quotes the wise words of Agur son of Jakeh.  He says in verses 8 and 9, “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”  This Psalmist knew the dangers of having too much or too little. In either case, we tend to forget God. When we have riches too many, we start to depend on the riches and seek more and more. When we have too little, we start to worry about the future and take matters into our own hands to get more.  We deny God and place our trust in our riches or ourselves. God gives each of us what is “needful for me”. God knows your heart perfectly. He knows what you need and what you don’t need. He knows where you will be tempted and gives you the right portion to sanctify you and draw you to himself.

The Lord is my portion means that I am content when my eyes are focused on him and not my circumstances.  Psalm 90:14 says, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad in all our days.”  To “satisfy” is to “fulfill the desires, expectations, or needs of a person and give full contentment to a person”. God, in Christ, has fulfilled our greatest desire and need.  He has given us everything we need in Christ to be content and enjoy him forever. Philippians 4:19 tells us “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  When we are discontent, when we are striving for more and struggling to get what we want, we are not trusting in the glory of Christ. God’s supply of riches in glory in Christ are listed in Ephesians 1. God has given us “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”.  He “chose us in him [Christ]”, he made us “holy and blameless before him”, “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ”, “in him we have redemption”, “the forgiveness of our tresspasses”. The list goes on and on. The Lord is our portion. He has given us everything we need to be satisfied.  He has given us everything we need to be justified and made right with him, which is our greatest need.

Is the Lord your portion?  Jesus said “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27). Are you working for “food” that perishes? A better question might be, “What food that perishes are you working for?”  Do you look to your phone to bring satisfaction after a long day at work? Do you stare at a screen to bring ease and comfort and rest? Do you look to your job for security in reputation and achievement trusting that bonuses or promotions will provide for you and your family?  Is your “food” having children that are well behaved and achieving success in school? Does your satisfaction or contentment come and go with circumstances or times of plenty and famine? Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).  Jesus is the perfect portion for your heart. He fills our deepest longings and needs so that we can rest content without hunger or thirst for anything else.

The “bread of life” is found in the promises of God which meet every need both present and future.  The Lord is my portion because he is faithful to his promises.

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your

God; I will strengthen you, I will help you; I will uphold you with my

righteous right hand.”

The presence of God, his strength and help, his grip on you are what you need.  Those are your portion.

Revelation 21:3  “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold,

the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they

will be his people, and God himself with be with them as their God.”

Eternity is secure for all who place their hope and trust in Christ.  The guarantee of eternity with God, living in his presence, is the portion our souls need.

Philippians 1:6  “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in

you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

God promises to bring to work the process of salvation that started when elected you, called you, regenerated, you, converted you, justified you, adopted you and sanctified you.  He will keep you persevering until you are glorified. Romans 8:30 again promises that “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”  Your portion is secure! He gives everything you need to bring him to himself and to keep you for all eternity.

Hebrews 13:6  “So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not

fear, what can man do to me?”

God promises to be our helper!  We have no need to fear over what man can do.  When Joseph’s brothers came to him, he declared “What man meant for evil, God meant for good” (Genesis 50:20).  Everything that happens to us, including the sin of others, God uses for His glory which is what is good for us.  Our portion is forever, eternally linked in union with Christ. Our greatest need, to have the Lord be our helper, has been met.

Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  God’s path of life looks different from our culture. Culture tells us to seek more riches. Culture tells us we need to newest and latest technology and fashion.  Culture tells us we need a newer car and an expensive education. Culture tells us we should hold a grudge and make someone pay for their sins against us. Culture tells us to save up money so we can retire early.  Culture tells us to have relationships for happiness. God calls us to give generously. God calls us to love our enemies. God calls us to be humble and allow our relationships to sanctify us for his purpose.

Questions to consider:

Are you content?  Do you spend time wishing you had different circumstances or different people around you?

What things do you have on “bucket lists” of things to do, buy, or accomplish that will make you happier?  How is this not trusting that the Lord is your portion?

The Lord is.... My Rock

by Wendy Wood

Psalm 18:2  “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Deuteronomy 32:4  “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Isaiah 26:4  “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

The word “rock” in scripture refers to a cliff, a boulder, or a huge rock.  This is not a pebble or a small stone you would throw and skip on a lake. A rock is a solid, large, immovable object.  God refers to himself as a rock because large rocks don’t move. “A rock is battered by a storm and it does not bend. The waves beat against it but it does not fall.  Our weight presses down on it but it does not sink. That is our God: always perfect; always just; always faithful; righteous and upright; never unjust. So you can trust him and cling to him today, tomorrow and every day.”

“The Lord is my rock” means that when life seems uncertain, or when people betray you, or when everything around you is changing, God is sure, faithful and unchanging.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  The Lord is dependable.  The Lord is the one constant in life you can always count on.  He is faithful and will never let you down. He is unchanging so his ways and purpose remain the same in bringing honor to himself and working all things for the good of believers.  When your circumstances seem bad to you, you have a rock to depend on.  

This is what Joseph did when he spend over 20 years struggling in Egypt after being sold into slavery.  Joseph’s brothers threw him in a pit, sold him to slave traders, covered his coat with blood and told their father he had been killed.  Joseph was falsely accused of sexual assault and thrown in jail. Joseph was forgotten about in jail and left there an extra two years. Through all of this, God, the Rock, had a plan and was working all things for his purpose.  God had never left Joseph. God had never diverted from his plan. No one had thwarted God’s plan.  Everything was working out exactly as God ordained.  

In the midst of difficulty, suffering, false accusations, and fear of the unknown, there is a Rock you can lean on.  God the rock is unchanging, unwavering, solid, immovable, and constant. You can go to the rock for comfort and to find sure footing. When everything in life is shifting in your circumstances, lean on the Rock.

Another aspect of “God is my rock” is the title “cornerstone”.  

Matthew 21:42-44 says,

“Jesus says to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes?”

There I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him”.

Jesus is the cornerstone.  A cornerstone is a huge rock that unites two masonry walls.  It is a stone representing the starting place. It is essential to a large building.  

Jesus is the rock of faith.  He is the rock of the church.  All believers must have Christ as the starting place.  His gospel remains essential to faith and a relationship with God forever.  Rejecting Jesus as the cornerstone means that you will be crushed by the weight of your own sin.  Jesus is the only way to God.

Do you take time to think about the cornerstone of your faith?  Do you daily think about what Christ has done for you and that it is his completed work on the cross that gives stability and surety of your relationship with God?

God is my rock means that God is like no one else!  Deuteronomy 32:31 says, “For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.”  There is nothing that can replace God. There is no one who loves like God loves. There is no one who gives grace like God gives grace.  There is no one who rules justly like God rules justly. There is none like Him! Sometimes we try to substitute other gods in place of God.  We might believe that reputation, being loved by our spouse, achievements at work or school, having nice stuff, will provide the hope and peace that we so desperately want.  But, God is clear that nothing and no one can replace him. As creatures made by God, we were made to need him and depend on him. Nothing else can fill the God-shaped hole in our souls.  1 Samuel 2:2-3 says “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.  Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.”  No one is like God.

Questions to consider:

What are you looking to to be your rock?  Are you trying to depend on your spouse or your kids, or your job, or something else to give you stability and hope?

Only God is the rock that is dependable, unchanging, and who can withstand the weight of your hopes.  

The Lord is.... My Light

by Wendy Wood

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

John 8:12  “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

1 John 1:5  “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Light is defined as “something that makes things visible or affords illumination”.  Light makes things clear and able to distinguish. When we are in the dark, it is difficult to see objects clearly.  We may stumble around our house, tripping on things left on the floor, banging our knees against the coffee table, stub a toe on the corner of the doorway, all because we don’t see clearly what is around us.  Darkness can also be a place of fear. Walking down a dark street, we tend to look around us with fear. Our hearts will beat a little faster, our senses will be on full alert and we walk faster trying to get to a lighted area.  Darkness reveals our weakness and timidity. Darkness inhibits life. Things that are alive need light to grow and flourish. Without the sun, our universe’s source of light, there would be no life. Earth would be left cold and dead.  Plants must have light to go through the process of photosynthesis. This allows plants to produce food and oxygen for all life on earth. Darkness leaves us blind, fearful and lifeless.

But, if we have light, all that changes.  Light gives us the ability to see things clearly, to experience life, and to have courage.  God is light. God gives us the ability to see Him clearly and to see ourselves clearly in relation to Him.  God gives us life. He is the Creator of life and sustainer of life. In Him we have eternal life. God is the source of courage.  It is in His strength and presence that we can act boldly in faith.

Psalm 119:130 tells us “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”  Without God’s word, we are left unable to see clearly, trying to figure out life on our own. We are self centered and look for ways to solve our problems on our own.  We are not meant to do this. We are creatures. We are sinful. We are dependent on God for everything. Before the fall in Genesis 3, man was made to depend on God for water, food, shelter, wisdom, understanding, and companionship.  God graciously gives us the light of his word. Psalm 119:25 says “My soul clings to dust; give me life according to your word.” On our own, we cling to worthless things. We are blinded to seeing ourselves clearly. Our sin blinds us to our own sinfulness.  Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. Without the word of God, we fail to see our need for Christ. We are left to stumble and fall in the darkness of a sinful world. God is light. God’s word is light. God reveals himself to us.  God declares himself in Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” In Isaiah 43:3 God states, “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” In John 14:6 Jesus makes known, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”  God tells us who he is. He reveals himself in the light of his word. He is our God. He is our Creator. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He is the way. He is truth. He is life. God shows us the way to think about him and us. Scripture tells us that we are sinners and that our sin separates us from God. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).  The light of God’s word exposes our sinfulness and reveals God’s holiness. In light of who God is and who we are, we see life clearly. We need a holy Savior and Redeemer. We need to depend on God to show us our sin. God’s word is “living and active, sharper than any double edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joint and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God is light. He exposes our need for Him through the light of His word.

God is light.  He is the Creator and Giver of life.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1).  It is only in Christ, that we experience life. Light is necessary for our life.  John 1:3-4 says “All things were made through him and without him not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” We are born dead. Our sin separates us from God and makes us spiritually dead to truth.  Ephesians 2:1 says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sin in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we are once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  We were dead. We all naturally choose sin and selfishness over God and others. God exposes our desperate situation and then is the answer to our problem. He is light and life. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will” (Ephesians 1:7-9a).  As the sun gives what is necessary for life on earth, God gives what is necessary for eternal life with him. God gave us Jesus. God gives us eternal life with him through faith in Jesus Christ. God lights the way out of slavery to sin and into the freedom to be a servant of Christ where true life and joy are found.

God is light.  He gives us courage and confidence to walk obediently with him through life.  God gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and gives us his power to live life in him.  When Paul address Timothy in his second letter, Paul encourages Timothy that God has given him a spirit of power to live boldly.  “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:7-8).  Instead of being fearful and worrying about what others think of us, or if we can handle a situation on our own, God is the light of courage. His spirit in us grants us everything we need to live content, obedient lives. When we fix our eyes on the Light, we see clearly that this world is not our home.  The courage to live a life that pleases God, not man (including ourselves), is a gift from the Light of the world. With light, we see clearly where God’s path goes. Psalm 119:9 tells us that we can keep our way pure by living according to his word. Psalm 119:19 says, “I am a sojourner on earth; hide not your commandments from me!”  “Your testimonies are my delight, they are my counselors” (Psalm 119:24). Psalm 119 is a beautiful song about the glories of God’s word. God’s word is the light to our path. He shows us the way we need to go and gives us the courage to walk that path. Throughout this chapter we see the psalmist entreating God to give him the strength and courage to live it out.  “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (verse 37). It is God who gives us the ability to be faithful. It is God who gives us power to change and be obedient. We participate with him by staying in his word, meditating on His attributes and commands. We step out in faith knowing the Light is always with us.

Which of these descriptions of light do you most need to cling to right now?  God’s light to reveal His own awesomeness and our sinfulness? God’s light to give eternal life in Christ?  Or God’s light to give courage in the face of eternity?

What needs to change in these areas in your thinking, believing, and acting?

Is God your Light?  How are you living in the Light?

The Lord is.... My Shepherd

by Wendy Wood

John 10:11  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Psalm 23:1  “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”

Isaiah 40:11 “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

Sheep are dependent on their shepherd.  A flock of sheep will either flourish under a good shepherd or struggle under a bad shepherd.  A flock of sheep that is cared for by a selfless, gentle, kind, wise and brave shepherd will thrive and grow.  A flock of sheep under a careless, selfish, harsh shepherd will be thin, weak, riddled with disease and will fall prey to wolves and other wild animals.  Sheep are like humans in many ways and that is why God uses this analogy. Sheep are fearful, timid, stubborn and short-sighted. They wander and put themselves in danger.   When scripture refers to people as “sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:17), it is not a compliment! We, too, are fearful, timid, stubborn, short-sighted and get ourselves into dangerous situations.  We were made to be dependent on God, even before the fall, and God is the only true Shepherd.

Jesus is the good shepherd.  He provides everything that we need.  “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”  The NIV translation says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.”  God, in Christ, has met every single one of our needs. In Christ, we have been justified and made right with God.  In Christ, we have forgiveness and freedom from being enslaved to sin. In Christ we have eternal life with God. In Christ, we have eternal hope and joy.  We lack nothing that we need. You may have some things that you want, but if that was what was best for you, you’d have it. Your good shepherd knows what you need and knows what is best for you.  Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” The glory that is in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness, grace, mercy, and eternal life with God is all you need.  The Lord is your Shepherd and you lack nothing.

The good Shepherd makes you lie down in green pastures and leads you beside still waters.  Green pastures were hard to come by in the middle east, where David was shepherding when he wrote this Psalm.  A shepherd would have to seek out green pastures for sheep to graze and meticulously plan during dry seasons for the sheep to be fed.  Sheep only lie down when their stomachs are full. “He makes me lie down in green pastures” is a picture of God caring for us and making sure we have what we need.  “He leads me beside still waters” is another picture of God’s care and provision. Sheep will not drink from running water. A wise and good shepherd must find “still waters” and lead sheep there to drink.  God feeds and waters us through His word. He gives us “food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27) and says to us, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35).  God calls us to green grass and still waters. His ways, revealed in His Word and Son, are the best ways. God’s way of living leads to the rest and peace in our souls that sheep experience Our problem is that we think the grass is greener and the water is sweeter somewhere else.  We want to think that instead of overlooking a sin, holding a grudge will make the other person see their sin. Or we think that spending our money on ourselves will bring happiness instead of giving generously and trusting God’s word that it is better to give than receive. Only when we follow our Shepherd and listen to His voice will we find the contentment of green pastures and still waters.

The good Shepherd rescues His sheep and leads them back to the fold.  “I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.” (Ezekiel 34:15-16) Left on their own, sheep wander down wrong paths and get hurt or get devoured by wolves.  In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parable of a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and will leave the ninety-nine to find the one who has wandered off. God pursues us. John 10:27-28 tells us “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Our shepherd holds onto us. Even when we wander, God pursues, rescues and restores us to the flock. A shepherd has two different instruments to use to bring back a wandering sheep.

“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)  The rod is a club like weapon that a shepherd uses to save the life of a sheep in trouble.  The rod could be used against a lion or bear, the object of danger, or the rod could be used on the sheep.  If a sheep was continually wandering off and putting itself in danger, the shepherd may strike the sheep, even breaking its leg, to keep the sheep from being killed by a wild animal.  The shepherd does not delight in hurting his sheep. But, it may be the most loving thing to do, and necessary to save the sheep’s life. If the shepherd has to break the sheep’s leg, the shepherd would lovingly bind the broken leg and then carry the sheep around his neck.  Keeping the sheep close to him, was the shepherd’s protection and loving care. As quoted above from Isaiah 40 “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart”.

The staff was a more gentle form of guiding sheep, keeping them on the right path, or lifting them over obstacles.  The staff is the candy-cane shaped crook that we associate with shepherds. The shepherd must be close to the sheep to use this tool, and guides the sheep through difficult circumstances or darkened paths at night.  The path remains the same. The path may be treacherous, dark, close to a cliff, or steep and rocky. The shepherd leads and guides the sheep down whatever path is necessary to get to the destination. The gentle nudge of the staff keeps sheep on the right track.  Or, the staff may lift a sheep over an obstacle that is too high or difficult for the sheep to maneuver alone. We experience both the rod and staff at times. Both tools are used in love and protection for us. Sometimes in life we need a rod to break us of a sin of commission or omission and God causes pain to rescue us and bring us back into close fellowship with Him.  Sometimes God uses a gentle prod of His word or a well spoken word from a friend to reveal changes we need to make. God is the good shepherd who loves us. He pursues us and rescues us from our own stubbornness and wrong choices.

Often times green pastures come after a steep rocky path.  The best path might look like the most difficult path, but that’s the one the Good Shepherd is on with you!

Questions to think about:

Are you enjoying the tender care of the Good Shepherd?

Are you resting in the loving care and provision of the Shepherd who knows what you need?  Or, what are the greener pastures you are pursuing?

Are you seeking the green pasture and quiet water of God’s word and Jesus’ grace?  Or, where are you trying to find your contentment?

What does the path of your life look like right now?  Are you on a steep rocky path or are you in the meadow?  What evidence do you see of your Shepherd near you? What evidence do you see that you are listening to your Shepherd’s voice and following Him?

Have a Healthy Fear of God

The coexistence of fear with joy and human flourishing seems to be difficult for many people to understand. Yet the psalmist says, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). Fear and joy not only can exist at the same time, but must.

The combination of fear with joy is not limited to the Old Testament; the New Testament is full of warning passages directed at Christians (or at least those who have every outward indication of being saved) which draw their motivational force from the production of fear. These warning passages exist alongside assurance passages which stress the confidence, hope, security, and joy we have in our faith.

The Fear of Fear

Nonbelievers have long mocked and rejected the role of fear in Christian teaching and proclamation. Bertrand Russell famously focused on fear in his critique of Christianity in the early 20th century. He argued that, “Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. . . . Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion has gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things.”

Christians likewise seem terribly afraid of fear. We want to stress motivation from positive emotions such as love and gratitude, and tend to be very uncomfortable with any use of fear appeals to motivate conversion or growth in holiness. Such fear of fear, however, comes at a cost, and the warning passages throughout Scripture suffer neglect or interpretive abuse as a result.

Many Christian leaders seem determined to convince their hearers that they should never experience any emotional discomfort when contemplating God’s holiness, justice, and judgment; “the fear of the Lord” is always understood to mean respect or awe and never, we are told, indicates that we should actually be afraid of God.

Divine Threats

This avoidance of fearful exhortation directed towards believers and unbelievers based on the reality of God’s holy and just judgment was not shared by the authors of the Bible. There is no space to explore the many warning passages, but we can briefly consider several direct threats from Jesus through John to his church in the book of Revelation.

Ephesus: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5).

Pergamum: “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16).

Thyatira: “Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works” (Revelation 2:22).

Sardis: “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you (Revelation 3:3).

Laodicea: “I will spit you out of my mouth. . . . So be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:16, 19).

John did not follow up on these threats by assuring his hearers that they didn’t really apply, weren’t really severe, or didn’t mean what they seemed to mean. He doesn’t seem worried about potential emotional discomfort; fear producing threats were necessary to wake up and shake up the Christians and motivate them to repentance, perseverance, and faithfulness.

So how do we reconcile the biblical use of fear appeals and threats with our widespread cultural conviction that such rhetoric should be rejected? Recent research by argumentation theorists on the evaluation of threats in argumentation points to several points for evaluation.

Legitimate Threats

The context is key for determining whether a threat is appropriate. For example, if a salesman concludes his sales pitch by threatening to punch you in the face if you don’t buy his vacuum cleaner, the context would suggest the threat is inappropriate. Likewise, you would not want to conclude a marriage proposal with a threat. But threats are appropriate in other contexts. An academic dean can threaten a student with expulsion for plagiarism and a judge can threaten to take away your license for drunk driving. The legitimacy of a threat depends upon the context and whether the threatener has legitimate authority.

The Bible reveals a God who is sovereign and powerful, the ultimate legitimate authority. Since he is our Creator, we belong to him and he has every right to command, threaten, and judge. This reality is, of course, offensive and contrary to ideas of ultimate human autonomy and self-determination. We want to be in charge, and we want to determine for ourselves what we should and shouldn’t do, but such aspirations don’t align with reality or human capacity. We will always fail when trying to play God; our frail human bodies weren’t built for that.

Threatened by Love

A legitimate authority can still be critiqued for the inappropriate, overbearing, or cruel use of threats, but at this point the character and intentions of the threatener become very important. Is the threatener cruel, vindictive, arbitrary, and reckless or loving, caring, and kind? What does the threatener intend by the threat? Does he intend to humiliate, manipulate, and harm or does he intend the threat to lead to well-being, wholeness, and flourishing?

God’s love for us in our brokenness and sin is a major theme throughout the Bible. While we were still weak, unrighteous sinners, God demonstrated his love for us through Jesus’s death on our behalf (Romans 5:8). God’s love for rebellious and broken humanity motivated him to send his Son to rescue us (John 3:16). God intends his warnings and threats to motivate us to repentance, perseverance, and growth in holiness — this is the way to shalom, wholeness, and human flourishing. Rejection of sin and pursuit of holiness leads to a life increasingly free from debilitating addictions and the sin that dehumanizes and destroys.

Living with Fear and Joy

Healthy fear and joy in the God of our salvation not only can go together, but must. We will never find joy in God while willingly and habitually living in unconfessed sin.

I don’t find the motivation to flee temptation and sin by assuring myself that sin isn’t dangerous or that my choices don’t matter; motivation comes, in part, by recognizing the terrible danger that sin poses, even for Christians. This fear, however, is not debilitating or destructive; it motivates us to cling closer to Christ in desperate and persevering faith and trust. Such constant dependence through faith produces an unspeakable and glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8).

Alexander Stewart is academic dean and associate professor of New Testament language and literature at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/have-a-healthy-fear-of-god?fbclid=IwAR3M2poRJoVDI97dYSeRznCaE_PN81ec5IEWvOCT7P5SKiyMX4fIdY9XR4M