Tag Archive for 'knowing-jesus'

06
Aug

A Terrible Thievery

By couch 1 Comment
Categories: Articles

I sense something deceptively sneaky is going on. I can smell a rat, a thief, and a plunderer is in the midst of us as the Western Christian Church. It’s hardly done by anyone on purpose, almost never maliciously, but leaves a dastardly effect, and a terrible thievery.

The Power of Discovery
All of us love the joy of discovery, the process of searching something out for ourselves and enjoying the richness of the revelation it brings to our inner man. To be ignited with passion to search out a question, mystery, definition, or insight for ourselves - whether or not its a deep revelation of Jesus or an everyday curiosity. We want to be fascinated!

Case in point, millions of people all around the world (including me!) have lined up at their local theatre to see one of about 6 tri-quels that have come out this summer. Hollywood is banking off of the God-given desire within each of us to discover. What is going to happen to Jason Bourne? Will Spiderman keep Mary Jane? Danny Ocean, and Jack Sparrow! The list goes on.

God-Given Desires
Our first hurdle to tackle as Western Christians is to realize God Himself is the author of this desire-for-quest within us. It’s a God-given longing, one that can’t be repented away or killed off. Sure, we must purify our hunger for discovery, especially as there is no greater, more satisfying treasure hunt than that for the knowledge of God and His eternal ways. But, it isn’t going to go away on its’ own - unless some one comes along and steals it right under our noses!

Since God created every man and woman with a longing to discover, it is therefore true that He desires each man and woman to discover things for themselves. Proverbs clearly says that “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search it out.” (Prov. 25:2) Jesus teaching that we should “Ask, seek, and knock” on the Sermon on the Mount shows us the progressive degrees He desires us to take to keep pressing in to “diligently seek Him”, something He greatly rewards (Heb. 11:6).

Hidden Treasures
Colossians 2:3 says something incredible for the “great discoverer” within all of us. It says “In Him (Jesus Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All of the richest treasures, that which we are to “store up for ourselves in heaven”, are found in searching out the depths of the God-man Jesus Christ. Seeking Him, knowing Him, and asking Him questions about who He is and His ways - these things ARE our very inheritance! That is, the inheritance of those who diligently seek Him as David did in Psalm 24.

David, the king of Israel, and the “man after God’s own heart” - didn’t hesitate to ask God seemingly obvious questions. He asks “Who is this King of Glory”? several times in Psalm 24. He didn’t allow his fear of man to keep Him from letting this heart cry come out, nor did he think that God only honored those who “knew the answers backwards and forwards”. In fact, he believed the very opposite, that God was looking for those whose deep cried out to God’s deep saying “Who are you? I know you, but I don’t know you! I want to know you.”

This deep desire for true spiritual knowledge, not a heady-academic understanding, but an intimate friendship with the God who is love - this is what Jesus called “eternal life” in John 17:3. And it is this knowledge, the personal discovery of the things of God that is being stolen away!

Grand Theft

In Luke 11, Jesus is asked to join a dinner-party of Pharisees and teachers of the law. Little did they know what they were getting themselves into! From what the passage speaks, Jesus spent much of the time rebuking them for their pride, hypocritical nature, and inner wickedness. But there was one final rebuke that Jesus laid against them that grabs at the crux of what I’m saying here - “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11:52

Jesus claimed that a terrible theivery was occuring in His day, one that kept people from entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. What a terrible theivery! Even worse, it was done by those teaching “the law of God”! How was it happening? They took away what Jesus calls the “Key of Knowledge”. Keys are used to unlock doors, or to provide personal access for someone into someplace special. Jesus said the key was knowledge, a living knowledge of Him and His ways. This key was meant to be given by the people teaching the law of God, as Jesus rebuked them for withholding this key from the people.

Therefore, we can see that the Key of knowledge, that permits one to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, is provided in the teaching of the Word, or law, of God. However, it is also clear that the Word can be taught in a way that removes or steals this key of knowledge. John Wesley commentates on this verse: “Ye have obscured and destroyed the knowledge of the Messiah, which is the key of both the present and the future kingdom of heaven; the kingdom of grace and glory”. This points to the very crux of the issue.

The Law of God —> Always Pointing to Christ

When the Bible is taught, is it centered on knowing and understanding the person and work of Christ? The Bible is clear that Jesus Himself is the Living Word of God (John 1:1) and that the written word of the Law, Prophets, and Writings are summed up in Christ. He is the point! He is the reason! He is the revelation, and He is the teaching!

If we teach the Word of God without teaching the Living Word of God, we are stealing the key of knowledge away from the people.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and teachers again in John 5:37-39 - “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life, and it is they who bear witness of me! Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” There are many reflections from this verse, but it is clear that the teachers of the law didn’t go “far enough” in their teaching to come to that which gives life, namely the teaching of Christ, nor did they themselves approach the person of Jesus in their searching of the Word of God.

Again, I’m sensing a problem in our Western Christianity, one that heaps up books and teachings and seminars and conferences, doctrines and missiologies, church structures and growth-patterns, cycles and programs, approaches and mindsets! Where is the person of Christ!? Who is leading people into the knowledge of God by revealing Christ through the Scriptures!?

Our studies, theology, and church life are bankrupt and vanity without the Living Word of Christ. If we have not Him, what do we have? And if we teach the Word of God without the Living Word shining through, what do we teach? We teach a form of the law, but deny the very power thereof. Another way to look at it - are people entering the Kingdom of Heaven? Do people even know that heaven is opening and coming down to earth (Rev. 21, Luke 11:3)? Do we teach “the gospel of the kingdom” which must be preached to all nations (Matt. 24:14) and scatter “the word of the Kingdom” as a farmer scatters seed (John 4). If they are entering in by revelation and understanding, then they are because the “key of knowledge” has opened the “door of eternity” into the Living Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory!

Blessed be His name! Because in these last days, He has seen fit to raise up shepherds after His own heart, who will lead His people on the living knowledge of God (Jer. 3:15) Those who will feed His sheep on His heart and His ways, and the understanding of His love, kingdom, and authority. He is raising up a company of David’s and John the Baptists’ to rejoice at the sound of the Bridegroom and prepare the way for His return!

No more stealing of the key of knowledge! “Let not the wise man boast in His wisdom, nor the mighty man in His strength, nor the rich man in His riches, but let Him who boasts boast in this, that He knows and understands Me says the Lord, who practices steadfast love, righteousness, and justice in the earth. For in these I delight!” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

25
Apr

Reflections on Psalm 25

By couch 0 Comments
Categories: Psalms

Psalm 25 -  “Of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.”

The soul is the deepest, most core part of a man’s being, the eternal part that will live forever. To lift up one’s soul to God is to lift up or lay down all one’s greatest desires, most inward thoughts, the very depth of who we are in our being. Surely there is only one being in heaven or on earth who is perfectly trustworthy to receive our soul and do what is best with it - “whom have I in heaven but you?” (Psalm 73) Interestingly, the regular practice of lifting up his soul in trust to God is the very thing that stirs him with the desire to know God!

Thinking about God as refuge, as protector, thinking of Him as the eternal savior who provides ultimate sanctuary for those who trust Him, does something deep in the heart of David, where he begins to yearn for the knowledge of God. Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the One true God, and Jesus the Christ whom you have sent.” (Joh_17:3) Jesus describes the “living water welling up from within us” (Joh_4:14), this eternal life, as the desire of and the fulness of the knowledge of God.

A great key lies within here - for our hearts do not always flow with the desire for God to “make me to know your ways, teach me your paths!” in the pursuit of the knowledge of God. Perhaps the root is that we have not done the first thing, lifting up our soul unto God. In our hurriedness, we forget to entrust everything to Jesus. The cares of this life are said to “choke the seed” of the Word of God (Mar_4:19). If we don’t lift up to the Lord our burdens, lay down our anxieties, and cast our cares upon Him, they will surely “choke out” the desire to know the ways of the Lord and the knowledge of Him.

“Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” (vs. 5) As David lifts up His soul, He worships, but His worship isn’t merely words to God, but a desire to hear words from God Himself. His recognition and acknowledgement of God as savior provokes in Him desire for a Holy dialog with God.

God desires that the light of His countenance be that which draws us in to more of Him. He gives revelation of Himself to draw us nearer, to take us deeper into who He is. As an unraveling ball of yarn, one revelation can quickly lead to another and another and another.

This is why it is good to meditate on one aspect of God, say as Savior, for a period of time, thinking and going over scriptures about that aspect of God, until something breaks and the Holy Spirit illuminates that not only that aspect but another as well! Jesus said, don’t just read the scriptures to go over them, read them so that you may come to me and know me, for the scriptures are that which testifies of me! (Joh_5:39)

David desires this with God, and doesn’t want anything in the way. The guilt of His soul from the sins of His youth threaten to push Him away from the Lord, so He pleads the mercy of God over His soul! Of late I’ve experienced this to some degree, as I mentioned in the last study, that the closer I draw to Jesus, the more I feel the enemy accusing me of former sin, condemning me with guilt and keeping me weighed down with a distressed soul. This he does for the sole purpose of distracting me from Jesus.

This is partly the case because the closer we are to Jesus, the more His light shines into the deeper depths of our heart, indeed exposing hidden areas and perhaps sins we weren’t aware of previously. When this occurs, Jesus’ desire is always to redeem and Satan’s desire is always to condemn. We MUST recognize this and go onwards towards Jesus’ redemption of that area, not shrinking back in fear, condemnation, and the guilt that is thrown at us to keep us from getting free of it in Jesus’ name!

If we are able to go through this HUGE hurdle, which many never make it over, then we will go on to a deeper cleansing of heart and a greater knowledge of Jesus. David’s thirst in this passage is satisfied, His asking for instruction is almost immediately satisfied after he passes the hurdle of trusting Jesus for the redemption of His sinful heart in vs 7.

Look carefully in vs.4-6, David asks to understand God’s “ways” “paths” and “truth.” Then, after vs. 7, David receives revelation of God’s “truth” in vs. 8, His “ways” in vs. 9, and His “paths” in vs. 10. Amazing! God answers prayer!

“Good and upright is the Lord” - truth, and knowledge of God. “He instructs sinners in the way” - truth, and knowledge of God. “He leads the humble in what is right” - truth, and knowledge of God. “He teaches the humble His way” - a “way” of the Lord. “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness - ” - the “paths” of the Lord.

So, in summary of vs.1-10 - we have David first lifting up His soul to God, all that He is trusting in all that God is as sufficient to protect and save Him. This action stirs in his soul a desire to know the Lord, to have that eternal life well up from within Him. He begins to cry out that God  would show Himself, His ways, and His paths to Him. In that moment, the Lord draws near to reveal Himself, and David is caught in a curious crossroads. He has the Lord approaching, His marvelous light exposing even greater depths of His heart, and he then has his own thoughts (and perhaps the enemy himself) accusing him, drawing back from the Lord as Peter did, thinking, I’m too unclean for the presence of Jesus!

However, instead of ending the psalm with a quick praise and then shrinking back, He acknowledges his feeling to the Lord and cries out for God to remember His steadfast love in dealing with him. Then, something great happens in between vs. 7 and 8, namely, God revealing Himself to David! 3 verses of answer specific to the very questions he asked in the first place! He wouldn’t have had this revelation if he has shrunk back, and neither will we!

To go on would find David again face to face with His guilt, His affliction and trouble once more, but He takes His stand on the promises of God and says “my eyes are ever toward the Lord” - and so should we! He recognizes that God ALWAYS acts in goodness and love towards Him, though it not be as he would expect, He ALWAYS acts in goodness, there for our eyes should ALWAYS look unto Him.