The Good News

Some time ago, I was studying Paul’s writings to the church in Ephesus in the books of 1 and 2 Timothy.  As I read through the aging apostle’s writings I was struck with his fascination of what he called, “the blessed Gospel.”  Here was a man who had seen and done it all for Christ.  He had matured as much or more than any man had in Christ, and yet, here he was, absolutely fascinated with the power and beauty of the Gospel!  I was pierced by my own flippancy toward what is “the power of God to us who are being saved.”  I had viewed the Gospel as something for non-Christians to hear, and for new Christians to make their foundation, but beyond that we should mature into something greater.  I’d been a Christian for years.  Yet again, I was confronted with Paul and his childlike adoration of what Jesus had accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Was it possible that I had far undervalued the enormity of what it meant that God Himself had become a man— to die, and then be raised from the tomb after three days?  What incredible wonder is this that the Creator would enter His own Creation simply to let them kill Him— just so He could have them???

Over the course of the following months, I was struck, stunned, astounded, and driven to my knees in awe and gratitude over what Jesus Christ did for me, for us.  I had never known how complete His work truly was, and why He was able to utter, “It is finished,” until that period of time, and my life was revolutionized once again.  All it took was one moment with God, when He opened my eyes and I saw what He’d done, and everything became clear:  ”It is finished.”

In two and a half weeks, at FireUP be.loved 2011, Jesus will be the center, the essence, and the everything of this event.  The Good News will be proclaimed, and lives will be changed.  I hope yours is one.

 

Hope deferred (Pt. 2)

The next part of disappointment that I have been chewing on is this:  we’re so used to “surrendering everything to God,” that we often take the promises of God and stop believing that He is going to fulfill them because somewhere along the line, we hoped, and it didn’t happen and so we “surrendered” it —right into unbelief.

It’s like this:  we get a word or a promise from God.  Something we’re super excited for.  For me it was the ministry God had before me.  Three years ago I got a word that it would happen around Thanksgiving time.  Well, let me tell you, that Thanksgiving three years ago was the least thankful givings I may have ever had.  So anyway, I “surrendered” my dream, my promise, my desire to the Lord and told Him, “fine, Lord, I’ll just stay in my job for the rest of my life, and I won’t think about the ministry thing again!”  So I tried and I tried to forget about this dream, but it haunted me.  I was believing for revival in my workplace (still am), and trying to surrender this dream and give it back to God that I might get His desire for my life.  There was just this one problem:  The very promise I was working so hard to give up, was the very one He was wanting to give to me!

See, we get promises from God, that He wants us to joyfully and excitedly expect to be fulfilled.  Then, when they don’t come how and when we thought they should, we get disappointed and beat ourselves up for ever wanting anything from God other than His Presence, and we try to surrender ourselves right back into holiness.  Only it’s not holiness that we’re surrendering into—- it’s stupidity!  Here’s why:  God gave us promises to be excited about, promises that He fully intends to fulfill.  But because we are so afraid of being disappointed, we stop believing Him, just to protect ourselves from being let down again.  We actually slide into unbelief because of our fear of disappointment.

What God would have us do instead, is to draw near to Him (see Pt. 1), and taste and see that He is good.  When we have tasted of His goodness, faith arises once more for the promises that have been given to us.  See, when God gives a promise, He wants us to excitedly believe for it, and watch for it, celebrating its arrival even before we have it.  When disappointment comes, we are to press into Him, and through the disappointment, to maintain and actually grow in faith of the promise that just days ago we were ready to abandon!  It is not God’s desire that we would abandon His promises for our lives because we’ve been disappointed by their (in our esteem) untimely arrival!  It is His desire that we would rejoice in His goodness as we continue to let faith build in us, knowing that God is good and that good is on the way for us!

We have two options left to us:  One, because of our fear of disappointment, to not allow ourselves to hope for anything, and to maintain an even keel at all times in the name of “surrendering everything to God,” and by doing so live a life with no faith and no impact and no disappointment.  Two, to live such a radical life of faith and hope, that we are unwilling to let our own disappointments hinder us from hanging on to the goodness of God and of the promises that He has given to us!  I would rather be disappointed a thousand times and yet live with such great faith that mountains move, rather than live a life without faith, never tasting of disappointment again and leaving no mark on eternity whatsoever.

Hope deferred…

I think something that most of us are at least semi-familiar with, is the feeling that through our own failure we have somehow let God down, and coming back into restoration can be a bit of a process.  As in the case when David sinned and it took the prophet Nathan to rebuke him to restore him to his rightful place.  Or when Peter denied Jesus, it took Jesus chasing him down on the beach and restoring him there.  When we fail, it hurts.  It’s hard to look God in the eyes when we feel we have disappointed Him.  (Check out Saturday night’s message by Pastor T.  www.marquettechurch.com.)

Beyond that, I’ve spent the last couple years walking through something slightly different, but equally as challenging.  Because I think it is even harder to look God in the eyes when we feel that He has disappointed us.  When we have been faithful, and haven’t stepped into sin, even more, we have done everything that He has asked of us to do, and what we had hoped for is deferred.  It makes your heart sick, for real.  When your dreams seem to get farther and farther away in spite of your faithfulness.  When your hopes and dreams and promises from God seem to come so close, and the moment that you think you are going to step into them, disappointment.  

In my mind, all it takes to overcome my own failure is humility and brokenness, and a willingness to let God bring restoration.  That’s not too bad.  But when I feel like God has failed me???  When I feel like the One that I am supposed to run to is actually the One who has broken my heart???  What to do then?  

I believe what we do in this moment is what qualifies or disqualifies us to actually step into the fullness of the promise that God desires us to step into.  The question before us is this:  Do I love the promise more than the Presence?  Because when God has not released my promise, and I feel He has disappointed me, if I value His promise more than His Presence, I will be offended by Him and will begin to harden my heart and let my own feelings keep me from the depth of relationship that we once had.  Let me repeat that:  when God has not released my promise, and I feel He has disappointed me, if I value His promise more than His Presence, I will be offended by Him and will begin to harden my heart and let my own feelings keep me from the depth of relationship that we once had.  And as soon as I begin to harden my heart, I have begun to believe the lie that God is not good toward me.

But!!!  If I value God and His Presence with me more than the promise He gave me, then I will surely go directly to Him and express my disappointment, discouragement, hurt, frustration.  I refuse to accuse God of doing anything wrong, because He hasn’t.  But this is a genuine, “God my heart is broken, and even though I know you haven’t, I still feel like you broke it.” moment.  And in this honesty, in this humble brokenness, sometimes after a little while, He comes.  When our heart has shone itself to love His Presence more than his promise, and the refining has taken place, Jesus comes.  He doesn’t speak, He just arrives.  To be with me.  I tell you there is no promise that can compare to the ecstasy of being with God in a room.  No blessing comes close to the joy experienced when He sits beside you and your body trembles because the One who created it now has wrapped His arms around it.  The Promise to desire is this:  that we, get to be, with God.

If you have experienced disappointment with God, and it hasn’t been on your end (if it has you need to repent, and get back on track), then right now you need to get before Him and pour out your heart to Him.  Don’t accuse Him, that’s just dumb.  But tell Him how you’re feeling, and what you had hoped for, and how much you want to have the intimacy with Him back.  Pour out your heart before God and don’t stop until He comes.

[More to come]