the impossible thing God has done

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Mark 10:27

This powerful statement by Jesus has too often been misapplied. It has been misunderstood by Christians and scoffers alike. It truly is absurd to take this truth out of its context and use it to claim that God must do all sort of things for us. It is not why football teams win Super Bowls, or unhealthy people lose weight. Scoffing comedian George Carlin used it in an anti-religion stage routine with his mocking question: “Could God make a rock so big He couldn’t lift it?” Of course those absurdities are not in the realm of what Jesus is claiming here. Neither is the “health and wealth” prosperity gospel.

We need to understand why Jesus said this. This story is not unique to Mark, but is repeated in other gospels. Putting the details together we see that a rich young man, a “social influencer” in today’s jargon, had come to Jesus and proposed becoming a disciple. He seemed to have his act together in every way. He was rich. He was young. He was a ruler. He knew and followed the Jewish Law. Jesus truly cared about the guy. Jesus asked him to do one thing that he asked of all His disciples: leave it all and follow. He had to leave the wealth behind and follow Jesus. It was a legitimate call to discipleship. But the young man turned away, choosing his material wealth over following Jesus, showing what his heart truly followed. Then, in an aside to His disciples Jesus comments how hard it is for those who trust in wealth to follow Him and find salvation. The disciples ask in astonishment: “Who then can be saved?”

The impossibility that is being addressed is the salvation of sinners. It is quite specific. And that is the basis for understanding Jesus’ answer back to His disciples. Man cannot save himself. That is impossible. But God can save sinners. Only God can do it. God must work in hearts first. God, Who sent His Son as our only Savior, must do the imposible. He must save us. And in Jesus, God is doing this impossible work. Through His Spirit, God is doing the impossible in the hearts of people. In every person who trusts Jesus for eternal salvation, God has done the impossible!

foot races with horses

If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,

how will you compete with horses?

And if in a safe land you are so trusting,

what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

Jeremiah 12:5

Jeremiah the prophet has come to God with his questions. He has seen things he does not quite understand: wicked people prospering as God’s justice seems far away (Jeremiah 12:1-2). This disregard extends not only to the wrong treatment of people, but also creates environmental damage and spiritual apathy (Jeremiah 12:4). Jeremiah is grieved and broken by this wicked damage that incenses his moral compass and makes God seem distant and unconcerned (Jeremiah 12:3).

God’s answer to Jeremiah puts the prophet in his place and is essentially this: “You think you are hurting now, Jeremiah? Wait until I do unleash my judgment... it is about to get even harder to witness what is happening in your world!”

Jeremiah was weary from running the foot race against these wicked people. But he would not stand a chance of running against the coming war horses! Jeremiah dwelt in secure borders... but God’s people were about to be scattered to desolation like rabbits hiding in a bramble! God was about to answer Jeremiah’s prayer. And his judgment would also increase the prophet’s pain.

I think Christians should be careful about our potshot observations of our broken world. We ourselves are not without sin and the need to answer to God. I have seen a lot of holier-than-thou attitudes come from the Christian community in my lifetime. I was at one time deceived by legalistic spirituality that defied grace and constantly took pride in taking potshots at “the world” in order to make graceless living look “better”. I learned that it was Pharisaical pride and sinful self justification that created the sense of feeling better about myself that this practice generated. It is very wrong. And it fails to keep pace when the horses burst on the scene! 

Jesus blessed the meek, the peacemakers, the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the pure in heart, and the persecuted. It is when I am weak that Jesus is strong. It is when I recognize my utter need that the kingdom of heaven is closest to me and provides the grace that richly sustains. It is in that humble realization that I repent of my pride and let God by the judge of all. It is useless to legalistically foot race with the horses!

soul talk

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:11

Emotion overwhelms:

sorrow, pain,

bewildering change.

It all seems more than

I can take in.

It is all more than

I should manage.

I want to give in.

I want to just feel bad.

I want everybody to pity me...

to be noticed in my suffering

as if that would make me feel better.

It doesn’t.

The flood of feelings, I can’t control.

The desire to empower them to

get me what I want IS

what I do control.

I tell myself to pray.

I tell myself to trust God.

I tell myself to hope.

And by that soul talk I change.

I find God’s Word telling me

what to say to my soul,

how to choose to think

about how I feel, and

Who to believe when 

I am overwhelmed.

Divine irony and a way beyond hate

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

1 Samuel 24:19-20

David models a way beyond hate, revenge, and killing. And David was a man of war. In the storyline just previous to this, David led his ragtag army of deserters and misfits to recapture an Israelite city from Philistine invaders. He knew how to fight in battle. David was a soldier. He knew what killing the enemy was all about... as a kid he hacked off the head of Goliath and walked around with it! 

Even though Saul had made David his enemy, David refused to do the same. He refused to go to war with Saul. He saw him as God’s anointed king and waited on the Lord to deal with Saul’s rage against him. David in his heart refused to make Saul the same kind of adversary as Goliath.

At the cave at the Wildgoat’s Rocks in En-gedi, Saul made a strategic error. The king entered the enclosed cave without having someone scout it out first, not realizing David and his men were hidden in it. Saul had more pressing kingly concerns. Nature was calling! It’s sorta comical and my inner ten year old boy imagines all the bathroom humor possible in the situation. Saul removes his robe to take care of business, and David sneaks up and stealthily cuts off a corner of the king’s royal robe. 

This would have been the perfect opportunity to strike Saul down, end the fugitive lifestyle, and claim the throne for David. But David refused to see Saul as an enemy. As the king’s company musters again in front of the cave, David marches to the entrance and then this treaty with Saul is made by Saul as the king acknowledges what God is doing.

Ironically, in 1 Samuel 23, Saul had hoped to capture David in a vulnerable position when David’s troops went to liberate the city of Keilah from Philistine invaders. It was a walled city which Saul hoped would be a trap. God intervened to spare David as Saul was closing in. Now, at the cave, the tables turned and it was Saul that was delivered, not by circumstances, but by David’s own choice. This is what got Saul’s attention... God turned the tables. God saved him, and at least for a while, Saul’s raging against God and against God’s plan for David to become king stopped. God will ironically do His work, for His glory, and no person will stop what God will do!

The One Who does it

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.’

Exodus 6:6

God has a conversation with Moses in Exodus 6:1-13 that was meant to strengthen Moses for the hard task ahead of convincing Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. In this conversation, Moses asks just one question, revealing his struggle feeling sinfully inadequate for the task God had given him (Exodus 6:12). All the rest of the conversation is a sermon from God about Himself, clearly speaking of His ruling intentions and power to perform what He has willed.

Four times God refers to Himself by His covenant name, Yahweh (the old King James translation of this was Jehovah), and God emphatically states His powerful control over the situation with this repeated declaration: I am the LORD (Yahweh). God is clearly in control of both His covenant people Israel AND their oppressors in Egypt. Both sides were under His authority and in His view. He would soon show the world, through His man Moses, what it looked like for Yahweh to be the LORD. Throughout this conversation God clearly states what He has done and will do. There are 13 of these statements:

• “I will do...” Exodus 6:1
• “I appeared to Abraham...” Exodus 6:3
• “I... established my covenant...” Exodus 6:4
• “I have heard the groaning of the people...” Exodus 6:5
• “I have remembered my covenant...” Exodus 6:5
• “I will bring you out...” Exodus 6:6
• “I will deliver you...” Exodus 6:6
• “I will redeem you...” Exodus 6:6
• “I will take you to be my people...” Exodus 6:7
• “I will be your God...” Exodus 6:7
• “I will bring you into the land...” Exodus 6:8
• “I swore to give...” Exodus 6:8
• “I will give it to you...” Exodus 6:8

O LORD,

You are sovereign, We are not. You do not forget Your people, of that we are sure. So we wait and trust that even now, You are working to bring about Your deliverance through Your Son in this world as the gospel promises and we believe. All the events that are happening right now are not things that surprise You, but are in the wisdom of Your redemptive plan. You are Yahweh... powerful keeper of all that You say. We trust You!

Amen

Where is God when we meet?

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:12

The Holy Spirit of God is best known in the Church of God when the people of God are built up in maturity to worship and live like the Son of God. The Corinthian church had an unhealthy fixation with the unusual. They were a church of immature believers but they wanted so desperately to experience manifestations of the Holy Spirit in visible ways. So some of their worship got wildly out of control. Paul issues all kinds of corrective teaching to them in 1 Corinthians 14 to get them over their unhealthy fixation with tongues-speaking. He calls them to emphasize the Word of God in prophetic ministry, focusing on understanding what God reveals clearly. He issues orders for who should speak in a service, when it should happen, and how it should happen. He strictly guides them to emphasize the disciple making message through the process of understanding and applying God’s Word. He calls for order to their meetings and rebukes their chaotic superficiality.

How do we know if the Spirit of God meets with God’s people in any church service? The answer is this: when God’s Word is carefully explained, the gospel is clear, and God’s truth builds up the believers so they can mature in Christlikeness, then God’s Spirit has led their assembly. The goal is not to “feel something”... that is emotionalism. The goal isn’t to see something supernatural... that is sensationalism. The goal isn’t to hear an elaborate sermon or a gifted speaker... that’s celebritization. The goal is to declare what God says, worship Jesus as Savior in the gospel, and grow believers to live more like their Master.

One very real benefit from the COVID creative pivot in our worship services as they have gone online, outdoors, and in smaller settings has been to force us as the church back to the simplest understandings of true worship. I pray this changes us permanently! May we steer clear of celebrity, sensation, emotionalism, or any other false focus as we begin assembling together again! May God’s Word be taught, may God’s people be encouraged and strengthened to believe and follow it, may the gospel be preached so that souls may be converted, and may God’s Church stay strong!

Who is most important right now?

And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Mark 8:29

The most important person in the world is NOT the president of the Unites States. It is not the head of the United Nations. It is not the leader of the WHO or any regulating body among human beings. It isn’t Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos who are powerful because of their immense wealth. And, it is not, as the rumors circulating in the craziness of COVID say, some shadowy financier in a hush hush deep state secretly manipulating world economies and governments.

Who is the most important person in the world? That question can be answered once we deal with this question Jesus asks in Mark 8:29. Let me rephrase it just a bit: Who is Jesus? You see, there were various guesses about His identity even as He walked this earth, and they were noble, but just off the mark. Some people thought that He was a resurrected John the Baptist. Others reasoned He was some other prophet come back to Israel from the past. But His disciples knew His identity. Jesus is “the Christ”, literally “the Anointed One”, that is, the Messiah sent to deliver Israel and save the world. That made Jesus the fulfillment of all that God had promised. And His saving work would go far beyond Israel,  to go worldwide as people truly believed the truth about who Jesus is.

The world looks for a Savior. It always has, and will continue to do so. Today, the myopic, misplaced hopes for salvation (and sadly I hear even Christians voice this) stop at politicians, financial bailouts, or medical science with the “Vaccine” being the mythical holy grail of hope sought by many. Don’t get me wrong... I want to see treatments and cures come to this pandemic. I pray for it daily. But what humanity really needs is the One Who offers permanent hope and the deepest help. He gives us the solution for the deadliest pandemic that has raged among humans from the very beginnings of human society. The world needs Jesus... the Christ... the Savior of the world... the Healer of lives! His identity, when embraced by faith, transforms lives and brings permanent healing and peace. Who is Jesus? He is Lord, Savior, Healer, Helper, Sustainer, Keeper, Deliverer, and Friend!