Joy is a powerful force.  But it is also a force that needs to be fought for.  If we give up the fight, we plummet ourselves into a state of sorrow and despair.  But a true, deep and lasting joy is not found in anything that this world can give.  It is found in the eternal satisfaction of an eternal God.  In Jesus Christ we are liberated to relentlessly pursue realities and rewards that far surpass anything this world offers.  He calls us to pursue a deeper satisfaction and a superior joy that is only found in the life that Jesus secured for us on the cross.

Jesus sums up the source of our joy in a parable.  He says “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”[1]

The man who found the treasure in the field saw the infinite worth of Jesus and then, being driven by joy made every sacrifice to gain the full reward.  Jesus leaves no doubt that belief in him is driven by a joy that exceeds every momentary satisfaction that this world offers.  It’s a joy that readily and gladly forfeits temporary pleasure for the hope of eternal reward.  And it is this eternal hope that sets deeply in our hearts and echoes back into this life which provides superior joy and satisfaction.  If we were to consider the full weight of the extravagant eternal rewards promised in the gospels it would make us blush.  Many of us settle for far less, fooling around with drink, sex and possessions when infinite joy is offered to us.  Like ignorant children, we settle for making mud pies in the slum because we cannot imagine the beauty of a holiday by the sea.[2] Eternity will blow our minds.  We cannot begin to imagine the sights, the sounds and the wonder of the presence of God. Knowing that there is something far greater waiting for us becomes our source of joy in this life.

But Jesus did not die to make life easy for us.[3] [4] He did not die to make us healthy or prosperous.  He died to remove every obstacle that stands in the way from us having a relationship with him.  The fight for joy on this side of eternity is the struggle to trust God with the burdens of life.  It’s a fight for freedom of worry and for peace and hope.  It is the fight to believe that God will be faithful to fulfil his promises.   But this fight does not come without scars.  It sings happy songs with tears.  It remembers the dark hours and knows that more are coming.  The road to eternal reward is hard, but it is driven by joy.  Joy in suffering is how the believer shows the world that Jesus is more valuable than any earthly possession.  If we simply follow Christ because we think he will make us healthy, wealthy or successful then we desire exactly the same things the world wants and we become no different.  But if we fight for satisfaction and superior joy through suffering, loss, depression, terminal illness and broken relationships then it will be apparent to the world that our hearts are set on a different fortune than theirs.  To give up on the fight for joy is to proclaim that Jesus is not sufficient for our daily lives and that we do not desire heaven.

[2] Adapted from: C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1965), 2.

[3] Mattew 5:11-12

[4] Acts 14:22

It may seem like a strange and unthinkable concept that God would intentionally and completely break a Christian because of Pride. I’m not talking about a minor scolding or correction, but rather the destruction of both the individual’s worldview and character.  At the end, all that the person can do is fall completely and utterly into the grace of God.

I feel that Peter knew what this meant well.  He writes:

“… “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:5c-7, ESV)

Peter well knew the devastating effects of pride.  He was of course the disciple that thought he knew better than Jesus, telling him that he would not go to the cross. Peter was rebuked with the powerful words, “get behind me Satan” (Matt. 16:23).  Years later, Paul found Peter contradicting the gospel due to pride.  Eating with gentiles, but then withdraw from them when Jews entered the room (Gal. 2:11-14).  Peter “stood condemned” and was opposed publicly by Paul.  Finally, how can we forget of Peter’s great boast that all others might deny Christ, but he would always remain true.  From the heights of that great boast he fell into the pit of denial.  Was there ever a morning when the crow of the rooster did not remind him of the moment he denied Christ?  Peter was continually chastened.

Pride is a destructive force in the life of the believer.  I can see two negative results from this single sin.

The first negative result is self-sufficiency.  A self sufficient person requires no outside help, let alone understands the meaning of grace.  We believe we have everything or at least can accomplish what we wish without the means of God’s intervention.  But have you ever thought that we in fact have nothing except by what God gives us by his grace.  Every heartbeat – every breath – every morning that we wake up – it is all given to us by God’s grace.  If we even think for a moment that we can achieve anything eternally outside of God’s grace, in any area of life, then we are erring on the side self-sufficiency.

The second negative result is self-glorification.  A self-glorying person lifts themselves above God.  Drawing attention to themselves for who they are and what they have accomplished, rather than directing the attention to Christ.  In fact scripture calls this ‘conceit’ from the Greek word ‘kenodoxian’ (κενοδοξίαν) meaning ‘empty glory.’  We have absolutely no reason to boast in anything except that which reveals Christ’s glory (2 Cor. 11:21-12:13; 2 Cor. 10:17; Gal. 6:14; 2 Thess. 1:4).

Pride causes us to look down on others and causes a rebellious heart against heart.  The proud person sets himself against God, therefore God sets himself against the proud.  Even in the life of the believer pride can exist.  We may have a very intimate and personal relationship with God, but it is possible to see something in the distance that our heart desires and chase after it – leaving God to wonder where we went.  This is self-sufficiency.  We might achieve something, and not realising that it was in fact achieved through God’s grace, we exalt ourselves.  This is self-glorification.

God replies to this sin with his mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6).  This is not to be taken lightly.  Judah was continually placed under the mighty hand of God in order that she might trust in God.  For her entire existence Judah’s pride caused her to be apostate and idolatrous.  The consequence for Judah was the destruction of her worldview – total devastation of Jerusalem and the Temple – and 70 years in exile.  Judah learnt the hard way that they had nothing to boast in, except God’s grace.

God deals with the believer in the same way – a complete devastation of an incorrect worldview.  A worldview that causes us to believe we are able to achieve things without God – without seeking God.  A worldview that causes to glory in our achievements rather than directing the glory to Christ.  The only thing we are able to do while under his mighty hand is to humble ourselves.

After our worldview is destroyed – after we are broken, after we have been humbled, he lifts his mighty hand, and gently rebuilds us – gently restores us.  He replaces our proud worldview with a Christ-centred worldview.  Christ is the pinnacle of God’s grace – and so it is a grace-filled worldview.  A worldview in which we wake up and say, “I live today in the grace that you have apportioned me.”  A worldview in which every heartbeat and breath is understood as God’s grace.  A worldview in which the gift of eternal life is viewed as God’s grace.

• Have you ever had your worldview destroyed?
• How did this happen?

This is the second article that I wrote for the local newspaper.

***

Depression is a frightening thing.  It descends quickly causing all hope and ambition to flee.  In the midst of the battle, large tasks are impossible and even simple tasks seem overwhelming.  It is a paralysing experience that cannot be dismissed with a simple “get over it.”  According to research, mood and anxiety disorders are all too common in Australia.  Next time you are out in public, you will be rubbing shoulders with people who are struggling emotionally.

You may no realise it, but the Bible is no stranger to depression.  Many of the “godliest” men in the Bible struggled emotionally.  Let me give you only a few examples.  King David, the greatest king of Israel struggled throughout his life, at one point saying, “all day long I walk around filled with grief.”  Both Jeremiah and Job cursed the days they were born because of their emotional struggles.  Even Paul, the greatest missionary the church has ever seen said at one stage on his Journey, “for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.”  The Bible is familiar with depression and God is not an enemy to those who suffer with this frightening reality.

So does the Bible provide any resolution to the problem of depression?  To answer this I want to look at the struggle of the man who wrote Psalm 42 (If you have a Bible please read it).  Nothing is known about this man, not even his name.  All we have is his Psalm.  But this is a good thing because it makes his struggle all the more relatable to our own.

Everything is going wrong for this man, to the point where others begin to think that God has abandoned him – they ridicule him, “where is your God?”  Inside, he is mess.  He struggles every minute to hold back tears.  He is drained of all physical energy.  He has no answers.  He feels isolated, alone, rejected – even to the point in believing that God himself has forsaken about him.

So how does this godly man battle through his depression?  He deals with it in several ways.  First, he asks God why?  He wants to know why God has allowed such terrible circumstance to fall upon him.  This is a legitimate question, and God is big enough to have such a question directed at him.  God does not want superficial people; he wants real people – people who are able to express to him their deepest hurts and fears.

Second, in the midst of his darkness, he affirms God’s love.  He says, “each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs.”  He cries out, “my salvation and my God.”  Even though he feels as though God has forgotten him, he never stops believing that God is in absolute control of all his circumstances.  Through his dark struggle, he never loses sight of the great truths about God.  They keep him from falling into complete hopelessness; they provide a foundation while his own world spins out of control.

Third, this man preaches to his own soul.  He stops listening to the negative thoughts that come so easily, instead he says to himself, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him.”  We know that our greatest hope is in Jesus Christ: crucified for our sins and triumphant over death.  So in our own lives we must learn to preach the great hope of the gospel to ourselves.  We can say to ourselves – If God is for you, who can be against you?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for you, how will he not also graciously give you all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for you.  Who shall separate you from the love of Christ?

Finally, this man thirsts for God.  He says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”  This man is not thirsting mainly for relief from his external circumstances.  He is looking to God and placing all his affections and hopes onto the only one who is able to save.

What then is the outcome to this man’s struggle?  Like everything in life, it is mixed.  He has not yet received hope and peace, but his faith is amazing, his fight is noble and he never loses sight of God.

***

For the sake of length, I had to cut a number of ideas from the article.  I wanted to quote Spurgeon, but was unable.  So here is a Spurgeon quote that has helped me.

“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, not sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

Kristal Griffith

DU researchers have found that couples who live together before they are engaged have a higher chance of getting divorced than those who wait until they are married to live together, or at least wait until they are engaged.

In addition, couples who lived together before engagement and then married reported a lower level of satisfaction in their marriages.

The research, which appears in the Journal of Family Psychology, was conducted by Galena Rhoades, senior researcher, Scott Stanley, research professor, and Howard Markman, professor of psychology.

“We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting,” Rhoades says.

“It seems wise to talk about commitment and what living together might mean for the future of the relationship before moving in together, especially because cohabiting likely makes it harder to break up compared to dating,” Stanley says.

The three researchers also studied the reasons why couples decide to live together. That study, which appeared in the Journal of Family Issues, shows that most couples chose to live together in order to spend more time together. The second most popular reason is convenience, followed by testing the relationship. This is different than previous research that found most people cohabit to test the relationship.

“Cohabiting to test a relationship turns out to be associated with the most problems in relationships,” Rhoades says. “Perhaps if a person is feeling a need to test the relationship, he or she already knows some important information about how a relationship may go over time.”

http://www.du.edu/today/stories/2009/07/2009-07-15cohabit.html

This was the first article that I wrote for the Glass House Country News (no really, this newspaper is huge).  The comment made by my pastor after he read the first draft was rather comical – “this is too preachy and reads like an exegetical paper.”  That made sense to me, a major aspect of college is preaching and exegesis – i’m not at college to become a journalist.

Thirsty

During the early 1990’s Nirvana became the first punk-rock band to reach triple-platinum sales.  The band’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain was labelled as a ‘spokesman for a generation’ and the song ‘Teen Spirit’ became a defining sound of generation X.  Cobain struggled through years of drug addiction and bitterly resented the attention that was given to him and his band.  In April of 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment along with a 20 gauge shotgun and a suicide note that read “I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music… for too many years now.”

Jesus was no stranger to those who suffered.  While travelling through Samaria, Jesus met a woman who had come to draw water from a well.  The woman was a five time divorcee and the man she was currently living with was not her husband.  As a woman, she had a lower social status.  As a Samaritan, she was looked down upon.  One can only imagine the pain of rejection that she felt as she endured the social stigma of her many failed relationships.  Jesus does not let the opportunity pass by but rather engages with the woman.  He said to her, “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”  The woman came to the well simply to draw water, but was confronted by Jesus with a greater need.

We don’t have to be experts to conclude that the desire for something greater and the feeling that there must be something more is universal.  Hollywood might try and convince us that we can fill this void with possessions or wealth or sexuality, perhaps even falling in love with a vampire.  I agree, we certainly can temporarily numb the feeling, but our desire for something greater always comes back.  Has physical gain, achievement or ability ever really satisfied?   Did athletic ability satisfy Ian Thorpe?  He’s now retired from swimming!    Does our search for beauty fully satisfy?  Ask Shirley Temple, she’s not dead, but she’s not cute either! Does sex fully satisfy?  Why then does Hugh Heffner need so many women?

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, whether or not you’re pretty, rich or gifted –you, just like everyone else has a desire for something greater and a longing for something more to this life.  Well, that’s because there is something more, and this is why Jesus came into the world.  Jesus reveals to us who God is.  He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, fed the hungry, gave hope to the hopeless and rebuked the religious.  Finally, in Jesus’ greatest display of love, he went to the cross and absorbed the wrath of God.  Jesus took the punishment of sin that each person rightly deserved and placed it onto himself so that sinners could be reconciled with God.

The next words that Jesus said to the woman at the well were, “the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The longing that everyone has is nothing short of eternal life and a relationship with God.

]]> http://timothygrant.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/thirsty/feed/ 1 timothygrant desert http://timothygrant.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/its-soley-about-christ/ http://timothygrant.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/its-soley-about-christ/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:50:38 +0000 timothygrant http://timothygrant.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/its-soley-about-christ/ ]]>

I thought I would test my commitment to blogging by addressing the topic of Eschatology (the last things).  Especially in regards to how my understanding of the topic has changed over the past year.  My presuppositions caused me to be very zealous for Israel – to the point that I would watch the SBS news because it had the best coverage of the Middle East  and frequently read the Jerusalem Post online (http://www.jpost.com/).  However, I no longer believe that this is the correct approach to Biblical interpretation.

The area of Eschatology is big.  It addresses so many areas of scripture that it is impossible to discuss it in a single sitting.  I am under the conviction that Amillenialism is the correct approach to eschatology and therefore will write from this standpoint.  One of the compelling arguments for the amillenial interpretation is how a number of the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ.  If such prophecies have been fulfilled, arguments presented for other interpretations simply evaporate.   This post will address the topic of “Christ as the True Israel.”

Christ, The True Israel

Solomon could say when the Temple was dedicated, that all God’s promises of blessing had been kept (1 Kings 8:56 http://ref.ly/1K8.56).  Solomon wanted the nations to be drawn to pray at God’s Temple, and asked God to hear those prayers (1 Kings 8:43 ff http://ref.ly/1K8.43).  It wasn’t long before Solomon himself turned his back on the house of God to dedicate to Chemosh on the Mount of Olives (1 Kings 11:6 http://ref.ly/1K11.6).  Idolatry bought God’s judgement (and the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68).  The glory departed from the Temple.  Israel in the North, then Judah in the South went into captivity.

The message of the prophets pronounces God’s judgement on the sin of his people, but it does not end with judgement.  The final vision is not of dry bones in Death Valley (Ezekiel 37 http://ref.ly/Eze37).  Rather it is renewal beyond conceiving.  The  prophets picture the restoration of all that had been lost: the land, the Temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood (Is. 2:2-4; 56:7; Ezek. 40:2; 44:9-31; Jer. 33:18).  But the restoration does not look back to recover the past; it looks forward to God’s final renewal.  Not only will the remnant of Judah and Israel be gathered, but the remnant of the gentiles will be gathered with them (Micah 4:1-3 http://ref.ly/Mc4).   This does not mean that the prophets had no ministry to their own time, but rather that the full meaning of their prophecies could not appear until Christ appeared (1 Peter 1:10-11 http://ref.ly/1P1.10).  To quote Clowney [1] (1988, 59), “The prophets ministered mysteries still hidden from them and their own generations; they ministered those marvels to us, as they spoke of the things of Christ.”

For example, in Isaiah, Israel is called by God as his chosen one (41:8-9) – “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend…”  But as we continue to 42:1-7, the Lord says:

Is it still the nation that is in view as the Lord’s Servant, or is this now an Individual, the Messiah?  Jewish commentators to this day are puzzled!  If we were to continue reading here in Isaiah, we would see the movement back and forth, and the cause for puzzlement – clear statements that the nation of Israel is the Lord’s Servant, but also veiled hints that the Servant is an individual.  This puzzle could not be resolved before the birth of Christ.  It is true that Israel was called to be God’s Servant, a light to the nations and to glorify God’s name.  But since Israel was unfaithful to her calling and failed to fulfil her purpose, the Lord bought fourth his Servant, Christ – the true Israel.

The Gospel writers interpreted these prophecies from Isaiah as fulfilled in the mission of Jesus.  As Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, Matthew saw in this the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy of a suffering servant (Matt. 8:17 cf. Isa. 53:4).  Luke spoke of both Israel and David as servants of God (Luke 1:54, 69).  Yet in Acts, Luke spoke of Jesus as the servant of God (Acts 3:13 http://ref.ly/Ac3.13; 36 http://ref.ly/Ac3.26).  Further on in Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch puzzled over the meaning of Isaiah 53:7-8 (http://ref.ly/Is53.7)  and asked Phillip about whom it referred, Phillip told him that it referred to Christ (Acts 8:34-35 http://ref.ly/Ac8.34).

A prime example of a New Testament writer “spiritualising” Old Testament prophecy can be seen in Matthew 2:13-18.  Hosea quoted God as saying, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11:1 http://ref.ly/Ho11.1).   But Matthew told us that Hosea’s prophecy was fulfilled in Christ when Jesus’ parents took him to Egypt to protect him Herod’s “slaughter of the innocence.

Since Christ is the true Israel, the true seed of Abraham, we who are in Christ by faith and the working of the Spirit are the true Israel, the Israel of faith, not of mere natural descent.  Paul states this clearly in Galatians 3:7-9 (http://ref.ly/Ga3.7):

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Finally, in Hebrews 8 and 10 the writer here quotes the new covenant prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34 (http://ref.ly/Je31.31) and seems clearly to say that the new covenant prophesied through Jeremiah is that better covenant founded on better promises of which Jesus Christ is the mediator (8:6), and which is in force now, bringing blessing to both Jews and Gentiles.

[1] Clowney, E 1988.  The Message of 1 Peter, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP,  England

For further reading:

Riddlebarger, K  2003,  A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times, Baker, Grand Rapids.

Strimple, R 1999, Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond, Zondervan, Grand Rapids.

These are just some of the books I read for my last posts… have I taken this whole blogging thing too far?