Uncategorized Murray McLellan on 09 Jun 2007 12:34 pm
Jesus and My Mini-Van pt. 4
Here is the fourth article of Steve Lehrer’s in this series. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to scroll down and read the first messages. May you be challenged once again to live for the King.
Before I press on and address prayer, I want to write about something I forgot to include in the last entry and I would be remiss if I did not include it now. I would like you to think with me about our responsibility to “be moved” or to have an “emotional response” to the Word. I believe that it is our sacred responsibility to be appropriately and massively moved by the truths in Scripture (not an simply an emotional response that is faked or torked up by mood music and lighting, but one that is in response to God’s truth) and when we are not, we need to repent. I strive at this and so I repent a lot and I am moved a lot. Let me try to explain by illustrating what I am talking about. First I will give you an easy text to be moved by and then I will give you a text that takes a bit more work.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Now, when you and I read this we have a responsibility to think AND to feel! God loved us…me…a sinner who was a follower of Satan (v. 1-3). He showed me mercy at an unbelievable cost—the death of His Son. I deserved unending torment and yet I get the pleasure of God’s company in this life, I get a life of meaning and purpose as I live for my King, and I get to be with experience the incomparable riches of His grace as He is kind to me forever when I go to live with Him in glory. God saved a wretch like me! Let it sink in. If I read this and I am not moved I must come to one of two possible conclusions: One—I am not thinking deeply about this and the reality of my own sin and the holiness and majesty of God. I am not thinking about the Son taking on flesh and becoming a human servant even though he is the fullness deity. I am not thinking about the unimaginable torment of experiencing the wrath of God in Hell that I am saved from and the unimaginable pleasure of knowing God and seeing His glory in Heaven. Two—I do not know God and my heart is truly an unmovable stone apart from regeneration.
Now, let’s look at a slightly more difficult text to be moved by:
“The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15″Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”
16They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.
20″And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
They answered, “Seven.”
21He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:14-21)
The pharisees did not believe despite what they saw and what they knew. Now the disciples are in the boat with Jesus, whom they had witness feed thousands of people on two separate occasions, and they were concerned about the fact that they forgot to bring bread on the boat. Jesus gently rebukes them for their lack of understanding AND their hardness of heart. Let me explain why this text moves me, if I work at being moved by it. You see, I know far more than the disciples knew at that time because I know about the cross—the ultimate revelation of Christ’s glory. I know that he is not only absolutely capable of meeting my needs (He not only fed the multitudes but he defeated sin and death by His sin-bearing death and His resurrection from the dead), but He has proved that He cares for me (Romans 8:32) and He has told me that He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7). Yet, like the disciples I choose to grumble or fear when I forget something or I am lacking something. Although Christ is closer to me than He was to the disciples in the boat, I choose not to turn to Him as the all-sufficient provider so that He might gain glory through showing His power in meeting my needs. Instead, through my hard heart I choose not to understand and I willingly forget that God is with me and He is the all-powerful and all-sufficient one to whom I can turn to for anything and everything. Oh how I have insulted God! Let this sink into my soul and move me with the gravity of this truth. Allow me to weep, mourn and wail over my sin. God, please give me the gift of repentance! I am so glad that Ephesians 2:7 says that I have been saved by grace and that everyday I can repent and start over because God unconditionally accepts me because of the costly blood of Christ.
This takes blood sweat and tears. But Bible reading that does not grapple with the text and apply it so it moves your emotions is actually not taking the Bible seriously. It is reading about God as history or as one reads an encyclopedia to gain knowledge, but it is not reading God’s Word to know God better and to be transformed by Him. I cannot be moved by God’s truth unless He continues to soften my heart, gives me eyes to see, and grants me repentance. So, I strive to be moved by God’s Word and I pray that God would move me!
I will write about prayer in my next entry.
Steve
