I always get nervous before a major exam. It usually makes my performance on the exam go down. Should I be nervous? Why do they have to give exams anyway? Some say it is so that the teacher can see how well they have taught. Somehow I do not think that is why most teachers give an exam, but since teachers are paid to do what they do, tests become a way of measuring whether the teacher is effective or not. Some say that is so that the teacher will know what the student has learned; therefore, he or she will know how to rank the student according to the norms. Having been a teacher before, I usually could fairly accurately forecast how a student would do on an exam based on his/her participation prior to the exam. Others say that the teacher gives tests so that the student will know what he or she has mastered. That is probably the best reason for giving the test. If the student cares then he can take what he has learned from the test and improve what is needed.
Why does God test our hearts? God is amenable to no one, so I do not think He gives tests to see how effective He is as a teacher. Who’s going to fire Him, or evaluate Him? Does He need to evaluate Himself? So, why does He give the test? God is all-knowing, so He knows before I enter the test how I am going to respond. So, why does He give the test? He gives the test so that I will know the true condition of my heart. He allows me to hunger to show me how important physical bread is to me in relation to spiritual bread. He wants to teach me to hunger in the same way for spiritual bread.
One morning in seminary we had no bread. We had nothing with which to make a meal in the cupboards or refrigerator. We had no money. I walked to the seminary library to have my quiet time and pray. While sitting there reading the Word, another student, whom I barely knew, stood up walked over and put a twenty dollar bill on the table in front of me and said, “I don’t know why, but the Lord told me to give this to you.” I thanked him and he walked away. That was a defining moment for me. It taught me that the Lord can and will meet my hunger needs. The problem is that I am not as sensitive to my spiritual hunger needs as I am to my physical needs.
As I am writing, I am sitting at the Tampa Convention Center looking out over Tampa Bay. People are constantly walking and jogging by. I am amazed that there seems to be a higher number of beautiful women jogging than there are buff men, or perhaps it is just my maleness that notices it. One might say that it could be a time when the Lord is testing my heart and showing me what it is really there. Twenty years ago I would have had to have found a different location. I’d like to think that my heart is purer now, but really, it probably has more to do with the fact that I am getting old. He allows me to be in situations where I can see the true condition of my heart so that I can turn to Him to change it. Maybe He is changing it.
Yesterday one of the other delegates reported that the Howard Johnson’s Hotel in which he was staying caught fire. It prevented him from getting to the center on time. I had left my Howard Johnson’s early in the morning, so I wondered if it was the same one in which I was staying. Secretly I was hoping that it was my hotel and that my clothes were burned up. It would be a wonderful excuse to get a new wardrobe. What does that test say about my heart? Rather than being content with simple covering, perhaps I cling more than I should to having nice clothes. The clothes I have are not bad. My house burned down 5 years ago, and the clothes I have were given to me after the fire. They are starting to get a little old. After all, they were used when I received them. If one looks closely, one can see that they are getting a little worn. Can you imagine walking around in the desert for 40 years and not wearing out your clothes? What do you suppose the test revealed about their hearts?
I want my children to have their needs met, but I also do not want them to be so focused on their needs that they miss what is really important in life. Otherwise, they end up whining all the time. We do have God-given drives for food, sex and clothing, but our heart’s desires for them twist those desires making them more important than they are. We then rationalize ways of fulfilling them that are outside of God’s plan. It is part of our sin nature. That nature takes those desires into directions that The Lord did not intend for them to operate. God allows tests for us to see what our hearts are really like. He, like a father, sends those disciplining—challenging tests, so that we may join with Him in changing our hearts. He loves us too much to let us remain demanding whining little children! He desires to deeply bless us with our needs, but those needs should be kept in alignment with His design! There is bread that is more important than physical bread. There is intimacy that is greater than sex. There is covering that is better than clothing which we wear. These are found delighting in His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PROVERBS 4
Today verse 23 struck me the most: Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. (NKJV). The New Century Version, translated on a third grade reading level, says, “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” Hmmm. . . How much of what I think on the Glory of Christ runs my life? Do I really grasp the relationship between thinking upon his greatness as it relates to every area of my life and what actually happens in those areas? If it is legitimate to segment my life into areas in order to more fully grasp how thinking about His glory in that area, how would thinking first about His glory there change how I think and run my life in each area.
Of course I would have to begin with my relationship with Him. If I did that, then certainly I would become more of a person who practices the presence of God (i.e. Brother Lawrence). How would it affect my relationship with my wife? Does the way I love her reflect His glory? Does it reflect the way He loves? How would it affect my relationship with my children? My grandchildren? How would it affect my relationship with the congregation which I pastor? How would it affect the use of the material things of which He has appointed me a steward? How would it affect the use of the time which He has given me to live? How would it affect my interaction with my neighbors? HOW? HOW? HOW?
I think I am starting to get worn down by how far short I fall from the ideal. I cannot attain His glory. But I guess that is part of what Paul was talking about when by the inspiration of the Spirit he said, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” It almost makes me want to throw up my hands and say, “So what’s the use? I cannot do it!” That is why He offers grace. It is His divine enablement in me. It is Himself in me.
Verse seven says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Nelson’s Topical Bible Index says that understanding is knowing things in their right relationship. I cannot know anything in its proper relationship without understanding its relationship to the glory of Christ. Lord, give me understanding and the power to put it into action! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
ISAIAH 65
Relatively speaking, I have lived a rather charmed and favored life. Yet if I recount some of the less pleasant things, I think that I could say, “I have had my share of evil.” When I was growing up, my dad was plagued with health problems that resulted in his unemployment from the time of my earliest memories until after I had graduated from college. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow health problems?” I have stood by the coffin of my 12-year-old sister-in-law, hit by a car while trying to catch her school bus. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow children to be run over?” When I first moved to seminary, we were plagued with unemployment and underemployment for quite some time. There were many days when we literally did not know where or when our next meal would come. Yet, we were always fed. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow poverty?” While babysitting the infant child of friends in our home, she died of SIDS. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow infants to die?” I have listened to the news from the war front in Iraq and learned that my son who was there had many acquaintances and friends in his unit that came home in body bags or permanently impaired. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow war?” I have stood and helplessly watched firefighters try to put out the fire while our house burned until it was no longer repairable. I could ask, as many do, “Why does God allow houses to burn down?” I have held the lifeless body of my granddaughter and grieved with my son and daughter-in-law and my wife. I could ask again, “Why does God allow the infant to die?” I have stood by the coffins of many other friends and family members and grieved. I could ask again and again, “Why. . . ?” Evil is always personal.
Ultimately the answer to that question is relatively simple. I/we have sought our own god/gods rather than seeking the God who created all things. We have not sought Him, but rather have sought gods of our own creation. Perhaps that is why religious wars are some of the most insidious. We have burned incense to our own pleasure, our own imaginations, our own intellect. We seek false gods as did the Israelites who sought Gad and Meni. It could and does become a very depressing thing but for one fact, the God who created the universe will one day create a new one. In that new creation, we will no longer seek other gods. There will be no sin. Consequently, the curse upon sin will be no more. There will no longer be any weeping. There will no longer be any predators. The wolf will lie down with the lamb. There will no longer be any destruction. It will all be His doing. We shall see His glory, and it will be enough.
You may say, “That is just the old pie in the sky when you die routine.” You know what? If the Scripture is wrong, and the evil which we experience is not the result of sin, if there really is no God who created the universe, then there really is no evil anyway. There is just what is. Life is ultimately meaningless. Neither is there any beauty in the earth. There is just what is. I think the Scripture’s description of reality fits what I have seen and experienced far better than any other explanation. He holds it all together and will one day refashion it. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
JOHN 14
As we continue in our meditations on the glory of Jesus, consider these thoughts from the Gospel of John 14:1-31:
1. He is the way to the Father. When we look at the negative aspects of what is happening in this world, it is easy for many to get lost in the pain and disappointments and fall into Satan’s trap and say that God is no where to be found. The following letters can be read in two ways, depending on the way you break them up: GODISNOWHERE can be read GOD IS NOWHERE or GOD IS NOW HERE. What a difference the placement of a space makes! Jesus is the way to God the Father. Many are trying to find God through many different ways. It can be very complex to consider all the different philosophies and religions that are out there to persuade us. The glory of Jesus makes it very simple. The way to God is simply through Him. It is simply a relationship with Him, a person, a God-man. What a difference the placement of Jesus makes! You can have all the right ingredients for life but without Jesus, God is nowhere, with Jesus God is now here.
2. The Father dwells in Him. How can one Man be so different from all other men. There is indeed a multitude of men who have tried to tell us how to find God, Moses, Zoraster, Gautama Siddhartha, Mohammed etc. The systems they developed continue on without their life. Not so with Jesus, because the Father dwells in Him. If He is dead, there is no way to the Father, God is nowhere. But because He is alive and the Father dwells in Him and He in the Father, for those in a relationship with Christ, God is now here!
3. The Father grants our requests asked in Jesus’ name in order to glorify the Son. The Father’s intense desire is to glorify the Son! As we develop our relationship with Him, His desires become our desires. Those desires become expressed in prayer. The Father quickly answers those desires and requests because it brings great glory to His Son! The important thing is the glory of the Son!
4. The Son comes to us through the Spirit. But how do we develop a relationship with a Man (albeit God) who is not physically present? To His glory, He did not leave us orphaned, alone. He has sent His Spirit to live in those who will receive Him. The glory of Jesus is that we can still have a genuine relationship with Him even though He is not physically present. That relationship is through His Spirit, Who resides in all who receive Him by faith. He couldn’t make it any simpler. Had He remained physically on the earth, I could never know Him because there would be too many pressing for His time. I will never know the president of the United States. He is too busy for someone like me. By nature of who he is, the president must limit his relationships. But I do know the King of the Universe because He has sent His omnipresent Spirit to live in me and I have received Him. What a glorious king!
5. The Son manifests Himself to those who obey Him. His commands are the Father’s. But then if this relationship is spiritual, how can we know it is genuine and not something we have made up? To those who obey Him, He manifests Himself. To manifest something is to make clear or evident; show plainly; reveal; evince; to prove; be evidence of. He provides evidence of His relationship with us as we obey Him. Still unsure about your relationship with Him? Perhaps it is because your faith has not resulted in obedience. The glory of our King is that as we trust Him we have power to obey. As we obey, He shows us more of Himself.
6. The Son obeys the Father. The glory of the Son is that, albeit God, He is man. Everything He did on earth, He did as a man, not as God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. As he obeyed, so to can we, as we depend upon Him.
What a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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