Face to Face with Jesus

One thought above all has encouraged me over the past few months. It is the thought of seeing Jesus face to face. There is no other thought that gives me more joy or accountability.

 

Though my imagination is small in comparison to what it will really be like, I can imagine seeing my King from a distance for the first time and knowing it is Him. Not because I know Him from a picture, but because when I see Him He will fully embody love, truth, courage, beauty, and glory in a way that only Jesus can. In the presence of our King His infinite greatness and wonder will be made evident. 

 

When I see Him and He looks at me with eyes that say, “I love you more than you could imagine,” I will be overwhelmed by His grace, remembering my sin debt that He passionately and mercifully paid.  The immensity and weight of His love will cause me to fall into His arms, or down at His feet (I’m not really sure which. Guess I’ll have to wait and see). I imagine that I will involuntarily shout with joy because I can’t contain what is happening in my heart. A shout that no words can possibly touch because no words can explain this love. I imagine that the greatness of His love will never be as real or more deeply experienced, as it will be in that moment. 

 

I can’t think of this without tears. What a wonderful longing. – But with the thought of seeing Jesus in eternity comes a recognition that – right now matters. In other words, on the day I stand before Him, will I be able to say that I lived the love that He poured upon me by sacrificing His life so I could have life; or will I look back and see that my life was wasted on things that don’t really matter and are temporal? Such a thought makes me want to live more earnestly for my King in the now.  

 

Let’s live today in light of seeing the King of kings face to face. And let us live for Him in a way that will grant us joy on the day we stand before Him. Let us embrace our Savior and the life He would call us to. Let us walk as He walked (1 John 2:6), loving as He loved.

Word Minded People

It is my belief that one of the biggest things that keeps us American Christians from reading the Word of God as much as we could, is that we are not thoroughly convinced that it is the gateway to the greatest life, and joy that we can have. But the truth of the matter is that the Word of God is what the Spirit of God uses to speak the greatest truths into our hearts. It is these truths believed in and lived out that God brings the fullness of joy through. Many times we buy into Satan’s lie that the comfort and ease our American culture provides is of more value than the struggle of searching God out through meditating on the implications of His Word. There is nothing farther from the truth!!!

Psalm 119:9-16

How can a young man keep his way pure, by guarding it according to Your Word. With all my heart I seek after You God, let me not wander from Your commandments. I store Your Word up in my heart that I might not sin against You. Blessed are You O LORD, teach me Your statutes. With my lips I declare the rules of Your mouth. In the ways of Your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes and I will not forget Your Word.

As we grow in developing a more thorough definition and vision for spreading a passion for the supremacy of God, we must come to a more radical and thorough pursuit of finding God in His Word.

Here are a few implications of the passionate writer of Psalm 119:9-16:

1. The Word is key to protecting our heart from unrighteousness and foolishness. We see this when the writer says, “How can a young man keep his heart pure, by guarding it according to Your Word.”
2. “With all my heart I seek after you God.” The writer’s whole hearted pursuit of God implies that He understands the worth of having a relationship with God. In other words, there is nothing of more worth, or more value to our lives but that we would pursue and love the King of kings (Philippians 3:7-14). And by pursue, I mean, know Him in a deeper way through the faith and knowledge that is given by mediation on His Word.
3. The writer sees the great value of memorizing scripture by saying that he “stores His Word up in his heart”. This in turn is not only what guards him from sin when he does not have “a Bible” on hand, but it also is what the Spirit uses to lead Him in righteousness.
4. The writer has this desperation for God that is important for us to get as well – He says, “Blessed are you Oh God, teach me your statutes.” – The writer is desperate to know how to follow God, what to do, and in what manner to do it. It is a like a young business person coming to a multibillionaire and asking him to teach him everything he knows so that he may glean wealth from it. This is nothing short of what we are called to do through feasting on God’s Word. In this passage, there is a desperation in the writers pen, because he sees the infinite value of knowing and worshiping God with his life.
5. And the response of the writer gets from what God teaches him through His statutes, which is the same response of us who are recipients of the true gospel – He goes out and shares it with others. He says, “With my lips I declare the rules of your mouth”. This is a natural response to anyone who has been truly convinced that Christ is not only the only way to God, but that sharing in a relationship with Him is the greatest life here on earth, as well as in eternity.
6. And then, in the passage, the writer shares another echo of the worth of God’s grace showering upon our lives through His Word when he says that he “delights in God’s testimonies as much as in all riches”. Can you imagine, finding a long lost, billion dollar treasure. What excitement and joy we would feel. – It is nothing short of the same thing, if not more when we see and find the depth of God’s grace in the Gospel. This in turn has great implications for how that effects our lives here, and in heaven. In this way, finding God and His grace is the greatest road to a deeper love and joy than we can find in anything of this world.
7. And after all the proof and evidence of what this writer says, he validates it’s worth by making this oath – “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes, and I will not forget Your Word.” – We would do well to follow the writers example. Not just in practice, but in passion, and in desperation for God.

In Conclusion:

As we are Christians that seek to spread a passion for God, let us do what will give us the greatest passion for God. That is, to seek to delight in Him through the faith, joy, and love that we gain through seeking Him in His Word.

 

Peace Like A River

One of hardest things for every sinner to reckon with is that we can be forgiven by God. I wrestled with God for years over this issue. For me, the struggle was the greatest when I would catch glimpses of His perfect holiness. Much like the prophet Isaiah’s experience in the book of Isaiah chapter 6, God’s perfection magnified my every flaw. In those times of beholding God in His purity, all my sins were brought to the forefront of my mind. And like a person who has every shameful act of their life on display before all who matter to them, I used to feel such horrifying shame in the presence of God. Of course, this caused every experience I had with God in those years to be to be marred by a terrible haunting. Like the trauma of a war veteran, I would wake up in cold sweats, in terror of what I feared most… God’s wrath. It is by the grace of God alone that I kept seeking Him at all during these times. But I knew I needed Him, even though I couldn’t get it through my thick skull exactly why my relationship with Him was so traumatizing. And at the time, a part of me wondered if this was how a relationship with God was supposed to be on this side of eternity. But the real truth of matter was, I did not truly BELIEVE in the gospel.

For some reason, and I would guess it was my foolish pride, I had convinced myself that I believed in the wonderful grace of the gospel, when I really didn’t. I was caught in self-deception. The whole time I found it impossible to rest in the fact that God had truly ransomed me, and paid for my sin in full through what Jesus had done on the cross. I would find myself constantly seeking a reason that God would love me, when my sins were so great and numerous. But I could find none. What a hopeless state I was in.

Then, one day I shared my struggles with a man of God. He lovingly, but bluntly asked me, “Do you actually believe that your sin is greater than God’s ability to save?” And oh how this question changed my life. It took years, but God through the question changed me nonetheless.

Romans 3:23-26
… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

As God in His grace worked in His timing, I began to see that I was so focused on how terrible ‘I’ was, and what ‘I’ could not do, and how ‘I’ was unlovable, that I was failing to focus on God’s infinite ability to save a soul from any and all sin. And isn’t that what we do so many times. As sinful beings we are constantly indulging thoughts of self. Most of the time we don’t even know that that is the very thing that is destroying us.

But I can remember when the joy of assurance of salvation began to kick in in my soul. It was when, by God’s loving-kindness, I focused more on His undefeatable ability to overcome. It is not our ability to become enough that God gives us salvation. In our imperfection, it is impossible to for us to be “enough”. That is why Christ is ENOUGH for us! This means pursuing the end of praying and being open to God’s Spirit helping us to see, and except – and truly believe that He is more than enough for our salvation. It means putting our faith in the miraculous and soul healing truth that He is BIG ENOUGH, He is STRONG ENOUGH, He is FORGIVING ENOUGH, His SACRIFICE ON THE CROSS WAS ENOUGH… etc. And the more we see how great He is and bask in the wonder of His immense grace for us, the more our peace and joy will grow and our fears will fade.

It is not about what you or I can do, but about what the infinitely great God can do. It’s not about us at all. It’s all about Him! Let us pray that God helps us to lose focus on our weakness, and gain a full focus on His limitless ability to work in us. There are no limits when we truly believe this. The chains fall off when we truly believe this. This is when real joy begins to take root and grow. And this is when God begins to spread a passion for Him through us. Perhaps this is close to the heart of what our King meant when He said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

 

Ever Increasing Joy of Heaven

A few hundred years ago, Jonathan Edwards wrote about what he thinks heaven is like. And although no human will be able to fathom heaven’s superior wonders until we get there, I believe Edwards caught the flavor of how the Bible describes heaven more than anyone. In his opinion, we will experience an ever increasing knowledge, joy, and love in heaven.

When I first heard this, I thought, “Well that’s ridiculous because we will be perfect when we get to heaven. And how can you improve on perfection?” But as God got a hold of my heart on this topic, I came to understand that just because we will be sinless, and without sinful motives, it does not mean that we will be without the ability to grow. At first, the sinful and self loathing side of me thought, “Great, I’ll never be enough.” But in reality, the thought of us being able to continually grow is an amazing act of the grace of God to us, His people. Because if we ever reached a pentacle of growth in eternity, then life in heaven would become extremely mundane. It is the continual increase in knowledge of the infinite greatness of our God and love-knowledge that will allow us to grow in our enjoyment of God and others. This is the greatest joy and pleasure of heaven. And there is nothing mundane about it.

One of the greatest promises we have in regards to heaven is Psalm 16:11. The Psalmist states, “You lead me in the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand is pleasures evermore.” This was written about what we can experience in life now. But we will experience this fullness of joy and pleasures evermore to a much grander degree when we are in heaven. And as I contemplate the statement, “… in Your presence is fullness of joy…” I have been perplexed by how we could experience fullness, and yet increase in our ability to experience more [fullness] throughout eternity. I mean, we can’t experience any more joy than fullness of joy. You fill a cup up to the top and it’s full, theres no more room. And yet, I also agree with Edwards’ assessment that heaven is a place where ever increasing joy through growth in love resides. So how could both of these be true?

As I sought God for an answer to this question, I was amazed when a realization came to my mind. I believe it was God who put it there. It was a realization of what the Psalmist could have meant. – Here is an illustration to make the thought a little clearer. – When we first fall in love with our mate, we think the puppy love is the greatest possible love we could experience. We may even say the foolish words, “It’s not possible to love you any more than I do right now.” As a marriage relationship grows, so does the love experienced, as well as our ability to love our mate. And when we look back on the lie we once believed, we see that what we once thought was love, was nothing compared to the love we have for our mate now. And in a year from now, the same will be true of what we are experiencing now. And so fullness increases as our ability to love increases.

What once was fullness of love, being the fullest we were able to experience love and give love, over time becomes fuller. So how does fullness of love increase? The answer is, though it is impossible to fill a cup fuller than full. It is possible to put more in a larger cup. To be clearer, SUCH IS THE AMAZING GRACE OF OUR GOD that as we grow in Him, He increases the size of our cup so that we can experience greater and greater joy through love. So what used to be the fullest we could experience, becomes a sip in comparison to the endless oceans of joy through love He has for us to experience as we grow in Him.

What a GLORIOUS thought! All praise be to our King of kings for being so gracious to His children. Let us be encouraged and motivated by thoughts of the eternal increase of joy that can start here, and become unspeakably greater in heaven. Moses and Paul are a couple men of the Bible who thought this way. Let us be more heavenly minded and we will be less earthly tired.

Hebrews 11:24-26
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Philippians 3:7-14

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

The Superman Files

A while back, I wrote a document with forty or so reminders of how I am to think and live by God’s grace to glorify Him. As God has grown me, these reminders have evolved. So I wanted to re-share them with the world in their present state. I hope they are a great edifying force to your relationship with God.

The Superman Files

[note to self] You must read these thoughts of excellence often so that you will be forever on the offense in this ever raging epic battle. If you do this, among your other spiritual disciplines, it will encourage you and assist you to think and strive rightly, that Christ may allow for you to be a mighty man, by His grace and for His glory and for the joy of all peoples

Inspired in part by the “Resolutions”
Of the late Rev. Jonathan Edwards

1. Do whatever you think will most glorify God.
2. Thoughts that should consume you while being afflicted:
   a) Oh that God might be glorified through this.
   b) If God decides to be gracious in this situation beyond what you deserve, then you will grow in Him through this and He will receive more glory! (Pray that He be fully glorified in your life)
   c) Oh that you would be afflicted more if God would receive more glory from it!
   d) Do not think of affliction as it applies to self, for your soul purpose is to glorify God.
3. Be Honest with yourself and others. Take the utmost care when speaking to only use words that will convey the truth. Be ever mindful of pride’s temptation to exaggerate a narration. When saying anything, stick purely to the truth!!!
4. Do not Compromise. Do the right thing, even if it leads to your death. For this pleases your Heavenly Father.
5. Be excellent with every second to use it in the most profitable way.
6. Strive valiantly with all your might while you are alive!
7. Practice Humility in all you say and do. Do not think of self, or about what others think of you. Pride should have no part in you. Your worth is found in Christ. Not because of anything you’ve done, but because He paid the price for you. It is not about you, it is all for your King. And He has called you to love Him and others.
8. Keep in mind whether you feel that you have lived the kind of life you believe you should have if you were to die today. Would you be afraid to face Christ? Could you say that you had run the race?
9. Worship Jesus in all that you do — whether working, resting, eating a meal, doing ministry, etc… It matters not what you are doing, do everything for the glory of Yahweh!
10. With every person you come in contact with, you should constantly be thinking of how you can care for/serve that individual – then act upon those thoughts.
11. Never give in or give up or loosen in your fight against the sin in your life no matter how unsuccessful you may be.
12. Remember that the harder you look for fulfillment by any other means but Christ, the more unfulfilled you will be.
13. Make sure to do whatever you feel is your duty.
14. Let benevolence rule your tongue above all else.
15. Endure suffering because it is your honor and privilege to do it in love for Christ (Romans 8:17). As Christ has suffered and died for you, so you have been given the HONOR of enduring suffering with the attitude given by enduring love – that others may see the love of Christ and He become more real to them. If you truly live for Christ then persecution and pain are inevitable. May it be an opportunity to glorify your King and not a weight of sorrow.
16. Always remember the many blessings of God in your life (Psalm 50:14).
17. Immediately get rid of such things that would gratify your pride and/or vanity. If anything in your life is about pride and/or vanity, then you are missing your purpose! (Ecclesiastes 12)
18. Be an excellent steward. The money, time, energy, ect. That you possess is not your own, so act accordingly. (Luke 12:35-38, 42)
19. Make it a mission to constantly find ways whether new or old to be kind to others. (1 Peter 1:22)
20. Never do anything out of revenge. (Romans 12:19)
21. Whenever you sin, fight with all your might to trace it to its core and cause, and fight and pray with all your might to eliminate that sin from reoccurrence.
22. Do not buy into sin’s illusionary allure. It is only an illusion because whatever you think you will gain from sin is settling for something so much less than the authentic pleasure and fulfillment found in Christ. God wants to bless you!!! He waits for you. Ultimately the depth of destruction that sin causes lasts so much longer and goes so much deeper than any momentary good you think you will receive from it.
23. Study the Scriptures with fervency so that you may grow in knowledge, faith, and joy in God.
24. Be cautious of the words you would speak to the Almighty God. Always remember why you pray… for the glory of God!
25. Strive to live by faith in God alone, and by His grace alone, because the more He is Lord of your life, the more your prayers will be effective.
26. Never allow any pursuit, motive, pleasure, affection, ect. of any kind unless it encourages the pursuit of God and what He has purposed you to do in life.
27. Live the Christian life in the fullest since. Live the Christian life in the way the Christian life and name should be represented. LIVE, in the fullest since of the word.
28. You must accept God’s forgiveness for all past sins. Otherwise, you will find that you don’t actually believe you are He has forgiven you. GOD HAS FORGIVEN YOU, now get over yourself and live in the freedom Christ has provided!
29. The more fully you know Christ the more fully you will be able to worship Him. Let this be your ever joyous pursuit! TO KNOW HIM MORE! (1 John 2)
30. Remember that God wants you to experience the greatest pleasure, joy, peace, love, fulfillment, ect. Strive to enjoy God in all you do.
31. Let go of your need to control everything in your life or in anyone else’s. Your thought of control is only an illusion, for control is impossible for you. It is impossible because there is only one sovereign God, and you are not Him. Put your faith in Christ and TRUST in Him!!! (Proverbs 3:5-6) Simply put, surrender.
32. See others in the way Christ sees you… with love, compassion, and grace. Always remember how much He has forgiven you and loving others will become easy.
33. The most exciting thought I can perceive is that somehow, in His infinite grace, He would find a reason for which He would smile over me as a proud father does a son He finds joy in. And that, by Christ’s blood He does smile over me, and more.
34. Remember that your Heavenly Father loves you so much that he “rejoices over you with gladness; he quiets you by his love; he exults over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17). Your King loves you more than you could imagine.
35.  Remember that knowing God is obeying God (I John 2). Fight and pray that this would be the greatest joy and affection of your life (to obey and please God).
36. Listen, think, and pray more. Speak much less. (Proverbs 29:11) When speaking, speak in the wisest, most concise way possible. Do this to avoid missing the point and the truth. The less you speak, the more people can understand, and it actually stick with them. If people want to know more then they will ask.
37. Constantly pray… And pray with PASSION!!! (Remember Spurgeon)
38. Live by the grace of God with Strength, Courage and Passion! Pray for these gifts!
39. Take care to remember that you are most liable to sin and should be most guarded and focused on a God-centered mindset when you are most comfortable, and/or most discouraged.
40. Make no excuses for things done wrong. Don’t count motives or anything else. If you make a mistake, admit it, and then press on to do what is right.
41. If you are truly living your life in Christ then your every relationship will reflect it.
42. Be ever conscious that when you are walking with Jesus the corruption of the world is vile and disgusting. If the [the way of the] world is not disgusting to you then you are not crucified to the world as you should be. Whenever this is true of you then repent, turn and follow God
43. Your mission in life is not for comfort, money, rock star status, your own safety, marriage/love, or anything else you desire. Your mission in this life is to live by His grace, fully for His glory and the joy of all peoples.
44. Remember that this is a war. A spiritual battle. Live this way every second of every day. If you were in a war would you be lazy? Or would you do everything in your power to fight, strategically, every second being aware of everything around you. This is not recess, this is war. Be mindful of this and always be alert and fighting. FIGHT with all the weapons God has given you while you are alive! (Remember Gurnall and all he wrote)

 

Looking To A Greater Treasure

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

There is a greater treasure to be found in Christ than any amount of money or power this world can offer us. It is a treasure of the truest kind of love, that ever increases. It is a treasure of joy and peace regardless of circumstances. And unlike the American Dream, it has nothing to do with how much “stuff” we have. When we treasure what is most worth treasuring – Christ – our ability to enjoy true treasure along with our enjoyment of it, continually rises.

And as we live on the cusp of eternity, with heaven in view, we see that all the stuff we have in this life will not last. Everything on this earth is so frail and destroyable. But everything in heaven will be eternal and incorruptible; incapable of fading, wilting, or dying. Heaven’s joys and delights will be infinitely greater than our greatest moments of delight here on earth. But not just for a moment, they will be continually increasing joys and pleasures that last for eternity!

Treasuring Christ, is also treasuring the promises He has given us for the future. One of those promises is heaven.

Let us pray that God helps us recognize the infinitely greater treasure that is found in Christ. That He may be worshiped, and that we may find our greatest joy!