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Love Songs

17 Tuesday May 2016

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I have a distinct memory from when I was in my religious studies classes (not like it was decades ago – I was a mature student). One of my professors said, with great disdain, that many of the modern Christian songs sound like a love song couples might sing to each other. A few people gave an amen. A few chuckled. But I started pondering…

Of all the metaphors God gives for our relationship with him, the most intimate is that of husband and bride. I believe that God meets us where we are with the metaphor that best speaks to us but then moves us to greater and greater intimacy with him – to the marriage metaphor. When he returns the major imagery is a groom coming for his bride and when we are all reunited it’s called the wedding supper of the lamb.

I like songs about God – his majesty, salvation, and comfort but maybe it’s a good thing that many newer Christian songs are singing to God; like love songs that a couple might sing to each other.

Now, how about this: what if God was to sing songs to us? What would they sound like? He would have to put them into ways we will understand; an unfiltered God song would be beyond what we can imagine. Sometimes, I hear God singing to us in love songs. Today, I again heard John Legend’s “All of Me.” It occurred to me that it could easily be God singing to you and me, his beloved bride to be.  Check out some of the lyrics:

How many times do I have to tell you
Even when you’re crying you’re beautiful too
The world is beating you down, I’m around through every mood
You’re my downfall, you’re my muse
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues
I can’t stop singing, it’s ringing, in my head for you

Check out Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

And to me, the chorus sounds like the cross:

‘Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I’ll give my all to you
You’re my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I’m winning
‘Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you.

What songs remind you of God’s love for you and his desire for you to be his forever bride?

The Temptation

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

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Recently, I was with a group of young people and we were talking about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. I asked them what is the take away from this story – what do we need to learn? They responded with the common things I have heard from many others: Jesus was showing us we can overcome temptation like he did, the devil is a liar, faith in God protects us from Satan; we need to know scripture so we are not deceived, and so on.

Those thoughts are not necessarily wrong or bad but something triggered in my mind. The Bible is the revelation of God; every story whispers Jesus name. Unfortunately, we often make the story all about us and from there we tend towards moralizing and even salvation and righteousness by works.

What if the story is all about Jesus and only there to tell us about him? If so, what does this story tell us about Jesus? As I look at the text through Jesus, what I discover is, it’s not about my abilities or overcoming, or my faith.

To me, it’s about Jesus, God with us, who was willing to do whatever it takes, to endure everything that can be thrown at him, so that he can set us free and bring us home.

What do you see in this Jesus story?

The Momentous Lamb

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Some people make a big fuss about when Jesus was born. The thing is, we are 99% sure that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. The evidence suggests he was born in September-October probably at the Feast of Tabernacles; the time when the Jewish people would remember when God made his dwelling with them in the wilderness. Ultimately, the Bible tells us the year but it is silent about the exact day and I suspect it’s because we’re not supposed to make an idol out of a day.
I would like to suggest that more important than when he was born is WHERE he was born.  Do you know where he was born? In Bethlehem. Why there? What’s the big deal?

Do you recall the story about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son? It was a lesson for Abraham about who God really is. Abraham was faithful, he trusted God, and he prepared the sacrifice but at the last moment he was stopped. Then a miracle happened. Close by in a bush was a male sheep – a sacrificial lamb was provided in the place of Abraham’s son! Now that’s where that story usually ends in the Bible but I’m told that in the Quran, it states that there would be another sacrifice beyond Abraham’s son, beyond the lamb provided on that mountain, and it would be a momentous sacrifice; a more excellent, better, sacrifice.
Where would that sacrifice come from? What or who would that sacrifice be? As the story unfolds through time we get more insight about this sacrifice. The prophet Isaiah revealed this momentous sacrifice to be a suffering servant. He wrote:

“He will be led like a lamb to the slaughter.  And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he won’t open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he will be led away. No one will care that he dies without descendants, that his life will be cut short in midstream. But he will be struck down for our brokenness, suffering, and pain so he can heal all of us.”

And that brings me back to Bethlehem. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Why were events arranged to get his parents to that town at that time? Why not just stay home where it was warm and safe?

Because Bethlehem was where the sacrificial lambs came from.

And who were the first to hear the Good News? Who were the first to witness this new baby born in a manger? Shepherds – those that cared for the lambs. And when the time came for Jesus to begin his mission, the prophet John the Baptist saw him and told everyone – “Behold! Look! Understand! There is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.”  The momentous lamb had arrived!

A Dwelling Place

07 Tuesday Apr 2015

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Do you have a treasure box? Perhaps it’s a collection of photos or postcards? Maybe you have some letters in it. Mine has those things and more. To me, these little things are remembrances of things that are important; I call them places in the heart. As I was thinking about such things, my thoughts turned to God’s sanctuary. Have you ever given any thought to God’s sanctuary?

After God rescued his people from Egypt, he gave them construction instructions for a sanctuary and described the services that would be performed there. The two most profound and symbolically rich services performed were the annual Passover and the Day of Atonement; teaching people about redemption and reconciliation.

For those seeking for God, the sanctuary was inspiring. The author of Psalm 77 wrote this:

“I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; Who is so great a God as our God?”  (Psalm 77:11-13)

God’s sanctuary, its services and its meaning even for us today is woven through His grand redemption story and it is both beautiful and complex; inspiring and challenging. But I like to keep things simple so I want to draw your attention to a singular purpose for the sanctuary that you can find in Exodus 25:8:

“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”

It’s been noted that the phrase, “that I may dwell among them” could be translated as “that I may dwell within them.” The point of the sanctuary was to bring God within the hearts of His people. This is God’s eternal plan. On the night before the cross, Jesus made his strongest appeal to experience God’s abundant peace and joy. In John 15:4, Jesus said:

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”

The interesting thing about God’s story is that right after he says this, he generally refers to the sanctuary as his tabernacle – his dwelling place. It’s like he is saying he wants them to build a place for religious purposes but the reason is because he wants to dwell (tabernacle) with them (as opposed to jump through religious hoops). Hence the emphasis on dwelling with his people. We tend to get stuck on the outward forms of religion and miss the true reason for worship.  Even from the beginning, God was telling them to stay focused on him above all else.

Would you be willing to reflect on God’s desire to dwell among and within you? Take a moment and do a searching inventory of yourself. Consider these questions:

Who do you think about throughout the day?

Who do you love to talk about on a regular basis?

Who has your warmest love and your best work?

Is it Christ? Are your kindest thoughts of Him?

Does God reside in the treasured places in your heart?

Bread Enough For All

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

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I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 8:1-10.

We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. Sure enough, they run into a Syrophoenician woman. What does she get from Jesus? Bread!*

Now we are in Mark 8 and we are going to watch Jesus feed another group of people. Seems like a repeat of the event in Mark 6 but there are subtle but critically important difference. Please read the passage because I have some questions for you.

Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?

Everything in this passage shouts Gentile. How many loves of bread? Seven.
How many baskets of bread left over? Seven. There are no five books of the law here; no twelve tribes of Israel. Seven tells us this is Gentile territory. There were seven nations in Canaan that were sent packing by the Jews. Even their baskets are wrong – spuris baskets, not kophinos, the Jewish word for bread baskets.

This time around, the people need to eat but it’s not the disciples who point this out, it’s Jesus. Back in Jewish territory, the disciples told Jesus their people needed to eat. Now they are silent. Why wouldn’t they want to give them something to eat? These are not God’s people! They don’t know Moses, they don’t keep the commandments! No bread for them!

And yet, did anyone go hungry? No, they all ate and were satisfied.

Are you understanding yet?

*Symbolically speaking

The Three – Sealed With A Name

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

The mark of the beast is the beast’s name and it’s in contrast to the seal of God, which is God’s name. In both cases, we end up with one or the other name written on our foreheads. Having the Father’s name means belonging and acceptance.

But if we look deeper, we see that the word name in the Bible refers to character. One of the most beautiful examples in scripture is in Exodus 33 and 34.  Chap 33:19 God says to Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the NAME of the Lord before you. Then he tells him he has to hide moses in the cleft of the rock as a full revelation of God would be overwhelming. A few verses later in chapter 34, God appears:

“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the NAME of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

What happens when we worship something? We become who we worship. If we choose to worship the beast, we will become like the beast, we will manifest his character; we will receive his mark.

Those that have the Father’s name written on their forehead are those that belong to God and because they belong to God they manifest or reflect his character. The father’s name – his sealing – is not something you can get or do or earn – it’s what happens when you find your being in Jesus Christ and allow God to love you into all you were created to be.

The Three – The Beast part 1

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth,” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – and it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:9-11 proclaims: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Revelation is all about worship. The book begins with the worship of Jesus and then it’s revealed in Revelation 12-13 that there is a counterfeit trinity that also wants to be worshipped. What is worship?

It’s the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for someone or something. What does that mean? Words that help us understand worship: veneration, glorification, glory, exaltation, admiration, adulation, idolization.

Worship is powerful and affects us to the core of who we are – we become or reflect what we worship. The last part of this warning message reveals the terrible consequences that come from worshipping the beast. The repeating of the warning stresses how important it is to hear it.

Wouldn’t it make sense to take time to understand who the beast is?

The Three – Foundations

02 Monday Dec 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

The loud cry of the angels is for “those who dwell on the earth” and announcement that the hour of judgment has come is a wake up call for them. Rebellious, angry, self-centred, they will come under the judgment that the way of self is a dead end and as it collapses they will be caught in it.

What about those who know God and are known by God? How do we understand God’s judgment and those who have set their hearts upon the heavenly kingdom? What I can tell you is Good News but I need to lay down a foundation first.

One of my favourite authors was inspired to write:There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. {FW 18.3}

Why is that so important? What I have observed is that we tend to slip easily into making obedience our focus. It’s rooted in our desire to be our own gods. Why is it that something that’s good – obedience – can go so wrong? Emphasizing and focusing on obedience does one or more of the following in our hearts (feel free to check the ones that apply to you):

Become self-absorbed and develop performance anxiety – never good enough.
Salvation goes from faith alone to faith + obedience.
Nurtures a “God owes me attitude” – salvation, victory, healing and so on.
Distorts our picture of God.
Lose sight of grace; lose grace towards others.
Leads to shame which leads to blame, judgment, and contempt towards self and others.
Become fruit inspectors and gnat strainers.
Jesus becomes a means to an end – we love the father’s things and not the father himself.

If you are struggling with a habit; if you have a character trait that hurts you and others, if you lack joy, peace, and patience – it is not that you are a failure, that your will power needs a kickstart, or that you need to try harder. The problem is likely found in your struggle to trust, abide, and cling to Jesus as your all-sufficient saviour.

Do you need to adjust your focus today?

The Three – Beyond Our Imagination

03 Thursday Oct 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

In my last post, I wanted to let you know that the message of the three angels isn’t for people who have put their life into God’s hands; those who are in an intimate, trusting, obedient relationship with our Creator. The message is for those who dwell on the earth, a phrase that the apostle John uses to describe those who have turned away from God. These are the people with blood on their hands; these are the people who love themselves and the world more than they love others and the kingdom of God.

Think of it this way. Recently, the news was filled with wildfires raging in California. Imagine there are people in the path of that fire and they are not moving. God comes racing ahead of the blaze with a loud voice – he has to use a loud voice because the roar of the fire is deafening – and he cries out – the fire is upon you, the time has come to take my hand, trust me and I will be able to save you.

A man-made God would say something like – I died to save you, you rejected me and my salvation, get lost! Isn’t that how we usually are in our relationships when things go bad? Haven’t you written off some friends and family because they got on your bad side?

But the true God, the living God, is beyond our imaginations; he loves with everything he’s got to the very end.

The Three – Earthlings

30 Monday Sep 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

Who is this message for?

In a sense, this is a message for all people because we all need to meditate on where our hearts are resting; we need to ask ourselves – Where does my heart lie; who has my allegiance and all my best efforts? However, when John uses the phrase “those who dwell on the earth” it’s code and it’s not talking about the church – he’s not speaking about those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. “Those who dwell on the earth” is John’s way of talking about those who are being deceived by or have even decided to worship the beast.

Check out: Revelation 3:10, 6:10, 11:10, 13:14, and 17:8.

Do you get the picture? These are the people who have turned away from God; these are the people with blood on their hands; these are the people who love themselves and the world more than they love others and the kingdom of God. These are the kind of people we write off – they have betrayed, lied, or simply made your life miserable.

To the people who hate God and you for loving him, Jesus is making a final appeal: came back to me, come back to safety, let me save you from what’s coming.

Now that’s a God I want to know more about!