Your pastor has taken up wrestling. No, not the sport in which a recent Hillsdale High School student became a state champion. I mean wrestling with God. I have become more true to my status as a Christian which Paul says I am the New Israel (Romans 9:6).
If you recall the story of Jacob in Genesis 32, you will remember that Jacob wrestled with God in order to receive God’s blessing (32:26). Near the end of that wrestling match, the One Jacob was wrestling with said this, . . . "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." (Genesis 32:28)
Jacob had his name changed by the One with whom he was wrestling (and we know from Genesis 32:30 that that One who changed his name was God) because he had struggled and overcome.
Now, I don’t know about you, but Luke has really caused me to struggle or wrestle with God. Luke’s revelation of Jesus’ demands, commands and teaching is enough to make anyone believe they never were nor could they ever be a Christian. The very idea of Jesus saying what He does in Luke 6:17-49 seems downright impossible for any human being to achieve. But, I believe that Jesus purposely says what He does so that we have to wrestle with Him.
This started to really dawn on me when I noticed the number of times Jesus purposely taught or preached and never explained very complicated and hard parables. In fact, many times, Jesus says something (that on the surface seems nebulous or obtuse)and then walks away without ever offering an explanation: Matthew 13:13, 15; Mark 9:32; Luke 2:50; 8:10; 9:45; 18:34; John 8:27; 10:6; 12:16, 40; 16:18; 20:9). Why would He do that unless He was expecting His audience to wrestle with His sayings?
Ever since this began to dawn on me, I have endeavored more and more to wrestle with God. And if you have ever taken time to read the Bible, I’m sure you have discovered there are a whole lot of things with which we can wrestle.
Holy Week and Easter also has all sorts of issues with which one can wrestle with God. Why did Jesus have to suffer so? Where did Jesus go from His death on Good Friday until His resurrection on Easter morning? Why was Jesus so cautious about people hanging on to Him? Why did He not manifest Himself to all of Jerusalem? What kind of a body did Jesus really possess after His resurrection? How could the Romans and Jewish religious leaders be so stupid as to not listen to their own promotion of their own lies?
To be quite honest with you, I don’t have comprehensive answers for any of these questions. But, it doesn’t matter. As John states near the end of His Gospel, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
We really don’t need intellectually satisfying answers. The truth is, the more you study anything the more you realize that intellectually satisfying answers become more and more of an illusion. We just can never be that smart to understand EVERYTHING! So, we must come to a point of intellectual contentment. That we have wrestled with the Scriptures and find satisfaction and contentment in the truth that they reveal to us. For me, this means constantly asking, seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7 — and wrestling) to find more satisfying answers. I have become what Paul said I would become. The new Jacob. The new Israel. The new one who struggles with God and has overcome. Praise God His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9) and that I can be involved in an eternity of struggling and never run out of thoughts that amaze me and cause me to worship Him (Romans 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; 2 Corinthians 11:32).
I hope you become a wrestler as well. One who wrestles with God. And in the process of wrestling with God you will discover intimate things about Him: His power, grace, mercy, wisdom, patience, peace, forgiveness and love. Happy Easter and happy wrestling!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
March 2009
John Wesley once said . . . “each revival has built within it the seeds of its own destruction, because as Christians put into practice the virtues of hard work and thrift, they prosper, and as they prosper they see less a need of God, and as they see less a need of God they turn away from the very principles that led to their prosperity and the whole cycle must repeat itself.”
This is a wise insight. And it was the heart of my message for February 15th.
Just because you have become a Christian, your striving and moving on towards perfection is never over. Keep asking! Keep seeking! Keep knocking! Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Never be satisfied with where you are but be always content and satisfied with who you are in Christ and what Christ is for you.
There is one other thought that I would like for us to consider while John
Wesley’s quote is still fresh in our minds: As revival takes place in your own heart and mind, never forget the danger that comes afterwards.
You see your progress. You know you are moving on towards perfection. And
it is possible for you to suddenly become arrogant and confident of your own righteousness; and then, everything comes unglued
A good test to see if you are truly moving in a Spirit led direction, and not one in which the seeds of destruction will come to maturity, is to take inventory of your own life. Are you more gracious? Are you more forgiving? Does your life more and more reflect the fruit of God’s Spirit via such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
This church is undergoing some really cool changes. If it were a little more
compressed, we could almost say a revival was taking place.
What is happening, you might be saying? People are reading their Bibles more. Giving is remaining steady and we are doing fine financially when nearly every church I talk to is having troubles. Our attendance is averaging nearly 260 now. We have a good number of new faces each week who are checking out what it means to accept Jesus as their Savior. The Official Board and Pastor’s Cabinet enjoy a unity and harmony that I have never experienced before in a church board. All in all, things are going really well. And this is where John Wesley’s quote is most significant.
Never forget that if we ever forget we are who we are by God’s grace and not by our own merit or doing, we can easily succumb to the disastrous results for which Wesley warned us.
Never forget that we enjoy present success, not because we are wiser, not because we have a nicer facility, not because we have an effective pastor, not because we are the cool place to be in town—we enjoy present success by the grace and mercy of God. It is God’s Spirit that moves people to come and attend our worship services. It is God’s Spirit that motivates people to give to our church. It is God’s Spirit that encourages people to read their Bibles, pray and practice the spiritual disciplines. So all that we are and ever hope to be, we owe it all to God.
Let’s not become another corporate casualty that John Wesley warned about.
Let us never forget Who has allowed us to enjoy our present success. We owe everything to Jesus. And if we remember that, and continue to give recognition and praise to God for our present success, and pray that God will keep us from destroying ourselves, then the seeds of our own destruction can remain unplanted, and not allowed to be watered, fertilized or harvested. AMEN!
This is a wise insight. And it was the heart of my message for February 15th.
Just because you have become a Christian, your striving and moving on towards perfection is never over. Keep asking! Keep seeking! Keep knocking! Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Never be satisfied with where you are but be always content and satisfied with who you are in Christ and what Christ is for you.
There is one other thought that I would like for us to consider while John
Wesley’s quote is still fresh in our minds: As revival takes place in your own heart and mind, never forget the danger that comes afterwards.
You see your progress. You know you are moving on towards perfection. And
it is possible for you to suddenly become arrogant and confident of your own righteousness; and then, everything comes unglued
A good test to see if you are truly moving in a Spirit led direction, and not one in which the seeds of destruction will come to maturity, is to take inventory of your own life. Are you more gracious? Are you more forgiving? Does your life more and more reflect the fruit of God’s Spirit via such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
This church is undergoing some really cool changes. If it were a little more
compressed, we could almost say a revival was taking place.
What is happening, you might be saying? People are reading their Bibles more. Giving is remaining steady and we are doing fine financially when nearly every church I talk to is having troubles. Our attendance is averaging nearly 260 now. We have a good number of new faces each week who are checking out what it means to accept Jesus as their Savior. The Official Board and Pastor’s Cabinet enjoy a unity and harmony that I have never experienced before in a church board. All in all, things are going really well. And this is where John Wesley’s quote is most significant.
Never forget that if we ever forget we are who we are by God’s grace and not by our own merit or doing, we can easily succumb to the disastrous results for which Wesley warned us.
Never forget that we enjoy present success, not because we are wiser, not because we have a nicer facility, not because we have an effective pastor, not because we are the cool place to be in town—we enjoy present success by the grace and mercy of God. It is God’s Spirit that moves people to come and attend our worship services. It is God’s Spirit that motivates people to give to our church. It is God’s Spirit that encourages people to read their Bibles, pray and practice the spiritual disciplines. So all that we are and ever hope to be, we owe it all to God.
Let’s not become another corporate casualty that John Wesley warned about.
Let us never forget Who has allowed us to enjoy our present success. We owe everything to Jesus. And if we remember that, and continue to give recognition and praise to God for our present success, and pray that God will keep us from destroying ourselves, then the seeds of our own destruction can remain unplanted, and not allowed to be watered, fertilized or harvested. AMEN!
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