Category Archives: The Good News of Jesus

The Same God

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The woman of my fantasies whispered in my ear. I had spent the night at the college infirmary and she woke me with the most seductive voice.  “It’s time to wake up, Honey.”  But when I opened my eyes, all my adolescent hopes were dashed.  I’m pretty sure that old lady knew what she was doing to us.  She could have sold alarm clocks with that voice…   But when you only hear a voice and can’t see the face, it’s easy to get the wrong idea.

That’s why so many people have screwy ideas about God – even people written about in the Old Testament.  Because they could not see God, they imagined all sorts of distorted things about Him.  But David – King David – had the right idea.  God said he was a man “after His own heart.”  David knew God.

Question is, was David’s God the same God portrayed in the New Testament?  You know how the 23rd Psalm starts out: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…”  But take a closer look at how David ended that Psalm:

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)

David’s God was the God of goodness and love, the God Who kept track of His people (He followed them…  probably not yet on Twitter) and cared for them faithfully.  This concept of God is nothing like how pagan gods were imagined to be.  It sounds right to us because it is a New Testament idea, but in David’s day it was fairly radical stuff.  Jesus reaffirmed the goodness and faithfulness of God in all His teachings.

But David’s final thought, the hope of living “in the house of the Lord forever,” is inconsistent with what the Bible teaches for those whose souls are dead, disconnected from God’s Spirit.  Without the redeeming work of Jesus, without being forgiven by God and reborn by His Spirit, no one can “live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Jesus made this clear when He spoke with Nicodemus:

“In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”  (John 3:3)

“Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:5-6)

Without being brought to life by God’s Spirit, our souls are dead and cannot “live in the house of the Lord forever.”  God had given David a peek under the tent to glimpse a mystery that would not be revealed until the coming of Jesus.  It  was the mystery of how dead souls are brought to eternal life.  Here’s the third verse of Psalm 23:

“He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3)

Here’s how Jesus said it:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13a)

Maybe you have wondered if the Old Testament God is the same as the God described in the New Testament.  He is.  Scroll down through the previous posts.  Adam knew Him; Job knew Him 3500 years or more ago; Abraham knew Him; David knew Him; Isaiah knew Him and Jesus knew Him.  He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Ancient Wisdom

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I found a 110 year-old book, “The New Idea,” that summarizes everything known in 1904.  It’s a fun read.  We’ve learned a bit more since that book was published.

What is the oldest book you have ever seen? The most ancient book in the Bible may well be Job not Genesis.  Genesis, the first book in the Bible, was written by Moses.  The folks that study these things tend to believe Job came before Moses, probably even before God called Abraham.  If so, then Job’s understanding of Who God is, and what God is like, is as early as it gets.  Was Job’s God the same as the God of Jesus?

Consider what Job said:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

Whoa…   When I grapple with these words and ideas, the small hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention!  Not only did Job know God, but He knew God’s future plan:

–  He would send a Redeemer (One Who would purchase us from slavery)

–  This Redeemer was already alive in Job’s time and would still be alive “in the end.”

–  Job’s Redeemer is God.

–  Job knows that, after he has died, after his body has decayed, he will see his Redeemer.

–  Job knows his “seeing” will be a physical reality – that he will see him with the eyes a restored body.

– In the midst of his worldly trials, he yearns for this future certainty.

All those assertions, convictions of this most ancient witness, are truths taught by Jesus in the New Testament.  Ponder how long-lasting and unchanged those ancient concepts of God have been!  Job must have had a sense, when he uttered those words, that he had tapped into a deep, eternal truth.  Because he preceded them with this urgent appeal:

““Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!” (Job 19:23-24)

He got that right, too…

Could God be That Cruel?

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What kind of god would command a father to kill his only natural son?  In Genesis, we read how God told Abraham,

…“Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Genesis 22:2b)

Some say there is no way this God could be the same God described in the New Testament, the God of Jesus, the God of love.  In their opinion, there is no way a “good” God would even suggest child sacrifice.  Makes sense, unless you know the whole story…

First, we must understand that it was not unheard of for pagan gods to require child sacrifice.  Abraham’s unquestioning obedience gives a strong indication that he had been aware of such practices.  Secondly, as you read through the account, just before Abraham stabs his son, Isaac, to prepare him as a sacrifice, God puts a stop to it.  Instead, God Himself provides the sacrifice.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:12-14)

God’s purpose, He said, was to test Abraham’s faith.  Even as a test of faith, however, this seems unnecessarily cruel.  Why would God put both Abraham and Isaac through such torment?  But there is more going on here.  God tells Abraham:

“I swear by myself, … that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you … and through your offspring [literally seed] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:16-18, excerpts only, for clarity)

God’s plan to redeem and rescue “all nations” is reaffirmed after Abraham’s act of faith.  How will His plan be accomplished?  “Through [Abraham’s] seed.”  Who is that “seed,” that descendant?  It is  Jesus.  How do we know it is Jesus?  Because through Jesus, God fulfilled the plan.  How?  By sacrificing His One and Only Son as a sacrifice for our own sin.  Where did this happen?  On the same mountain!  Do you see the beautiful symmetry?

With that information in mind, reread this:

So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

The God of the Old and New Testament does not require sacrifice from us.  This same God provided the necessary sacrifice, for us.  (If you don’t understand why the sacrifice was necessary, click here.)  Jesus, God’s One and Only Son, went to the cross on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem, to pay for our sins.  Here’s how this was foretold by the prophet, Isaiah:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  (Isaiah 53:5)

This profound gift of grace, given to redeem and rescue all those who will receive it by faith, is perhaps the most compelling evidence that God has not changed.  He is the same God throughout the whole Bible.

The Same Plan

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There was no Plan B.  God’s plan in choosing Israel was to bless “all peoples” (Genesis 12:3).  There is evidence throughout the Bible that this plan has not changed.  It is a strong theme that ties the Old and New Testament together.  Here is an example of that from the prophet, Isaiah, who lived roughly 1000 years after Abraham and 700 years before Jesus:

” This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:1-3)

Isaiah used the word, mountains, to symbolize nations or people groups.  Notice that the plan was for “all nations” to be attracted to “the God of Jacob” (Israel) and to learn “His ways, so that we might walk in His paths.”  God’s blessing comes to those who discover that life works best when they follow the “Manufacturer’s instructions.”  God’s plan is for “many peoples,” “all peoples,” to recognize this simple truth and live by it.  When this plan is fully accomplished, Isaiah foresees international peace!

“…They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4b)

And, with that goal in mind, that he urges the people of Israel:

“Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:5)

They could not do it.  Despite being chosen and uniquely blessed, Israel could not bring themselves to “walk in the light of the Lord.”  Nevertheless, God’s plan continued, unchanged, through Jesus.  Born to the people of Israel, He was the “word of the Lord” that would go out from Jerusalem!  Amazing…

Sourdough Theology

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Why would a loving and just God have a “Chosen People?”   What is so special about Israel?  Does God play favorites?  It seems petty for God to focus His attention on one small tribe – just one man, originally.  What about everybody else?  Isn’t this a sure example of how the Old Testament God is nothing like the God of the New Testament, the God Who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”? (Matthew 5:45)

To examine this, look carefully at what God said to Abram (later renamed Abraham) when He first called him:

” The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”” (Genesis 12:1-3)

When you bake sourdough bread, you begin by making starter.  Starter is made with ordinary ingredients – flour and water – but it requires a lot of special attention and It takes awhile.  You can’t use just any old container.  You can’t use chlorinated water.  You need to keep it warm but not too warm.  Periodically, you have to discard half of the starter and feed the rest.  But when you have good starter growing and bubbling, a small portion of it will cause a whole batch of bread to rise.

Israel was God’s “starter.”  He gave that small group of people special attention and required they follow special strict laws so that, like growing and bubbling starter, through them “all peoples on earth [would] be blessed.”  Read back through God’s call to Abram, thinking about sourdough starter, and reflect upon the history of Israel.  It’s amazing, really, after all they have been through, how many times they have been conquered, exiled, dispersed and slaughtered, how central they are to world events right now.  There is no other nation that compares.  Consider how the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, has spread His influence throughout “all peoples.”  God’s “Starter.”

No illustration works completely but I like the sourdough starter analogy for another reason.  God’s ways seem so mysterious to us.  Can you imagine, if each of us was a particle of rye flour in God’s bread bowl, with some of us in the starter and some of us added later, how we might have a few questions?  “Does God know what He is doing?  Why is He so particular?  Why does all this take so long?”

Maybe you think it’s time I got some professional help.  On the other hand, maybe it’s time to toast up a fat slab of sourdough with lots of butter and strawberry jam…  Either way, it’s time to recognize that the God of Israel loves you and has reached out to you through Jesus!

Which God is the Real One?

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Is God bipolar?   Can the same God be gracious and angry, forgiving and strict?  A comedian said, “My wife likes to play a game with me every morning: Guess what mood I’m in today?”  He said, “I always lose that game…”  Is God like that?  Does He flip back and forth between warmth and wrath?  Or, is the Old and New Testament written about two different Gods?

Mr. Bigelow taught math at my high school.  Best teacher I ever had.  He could draw a perfect isosceles triangle or circle behind his back without looking while keeping his attentive and steely gaze fixed on the whole classroom.  If you wanted to learn how math worked, there was very little that Old Man Bigelow would not do for you; he’d spend hours with you, making sure you saw how interesting and elegant the complexities of math could be.  But if you were in his class to disrupt it in any way…   watch out!  Same guy – two very different responses.  He was not bipolar; he was passionate to teach.

After God rescued the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt, He gave them a choice:

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

Much of how God seems to be portrayed in the Old Testament is due to those people repeatedly making the wrong choice.  The Old Testament is a record of how hopelessly rebellious we humans tend to be.  If you feel angry to read that, ready to argue and say that we are not rebellious and that God should not act like that, your attitude proves the point.  We are hopelessly rebellious; we tend to want to decide for ourselves what is right to do.  Inevitably, we make the wrong choices.

But God still reaches out for us, ready to forgive us and fix us.  But even the way in which He reaches out to us through Jesus may seem a bit bipolar.  That is because God’s character is a perfect mixture of love and justice.  In justice, He requires full punishment for our rebellion.  In love, He pays the penalty for our rebellion Himself!  He accepts the curse, to give us the blessing.   (For a fuller explanation, see: What’s Love (and Justice) Got to Do With It?)

If we refuse His offer to pay for our sin, we experience God’s wrath and justice.  But if we accept His gift and receive His forgiveness, the same God pours out His love and grace upon us.

Ready or Not

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The waters of the North and South St. Vrain are rising again.  So are the fears of the folks in Lyons, Colorado.  Last September, after 18″ of rain, those two rivers ripped through town and left little behind except twisted, mud-soaked wreckage.  The River Church building clung tenaciously to its foundations, against a 6′ surging torrent, until a telephone pole swept down and knocked the corner of its foundation out from under it.  By God’s grace, most of the rest of the building hung on.  By God’s miraculous grace, scores of volunteers from around the country have reconditioned and restored that building from the foundation up (see more below).  But now the heavy snows in the Rockies are melting.  The St. Vrain is rising.  If you are praying for rain, please be specific about where you need it!

Jesus said life on this planet would resemble the Lyons flood.  But He also gave us words to survive by – the Sermon on the Mount.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Live by the Sermon on the Mount and you will survive the pounding floods of life.  Easier said than done.  Living with an awareness of spiritual bankruptcy, hungering for righteousness, being salt and light in the world, loving your enemies, never thinking about sex outside of marriage, avoiding the pull of materialism, …  putting the words of Jesus into practice seems impossible.  It’s like saying to a caterpillar, “Just become a butterfly and you will be able to survive life’s troubles.”

Don’t despair or quit.  Just as there is a way for a caterpillar to become a butterfly, there is a way for you and me to begin to live by the words of Jesus.  They both involve a complete transformation, from the inside out.  We cannot make it happen or pay to have it done.  The charges have already been fully paid at the Cross.  Our only part is surrendering to Jesus, confessing our bankruptcy and inability, asking for and accepting His forgiveness, and then trusting His Spirit to begin the transformation.  Our part is to humbly call out to Him for rescue.  As Jesus begins the work of transformation, your life will begin to conform to His words.  I wonder if caterpillars feel amazed to look down one day and discover they are flying.  If so, they must feel like people who trust Jesus and discover the new birth and growing influence of His Spirit in their souls.

One last note:  Jesus didn’t say that if we follow Him there would be no floods, only that we would stand.  You may not live near the St. Vrain, but know this:  the water is rising.

PS – You can see pictures and find more about The River Church here.

What’s Enough?

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There’s a surefire way to get backstage at a concert: know somebody and get a backstage pass. No pass? No backstage. Don’t know anyone? No pass. When I was in the sound business, I routinely saw people plead with the security guard, trying to get backstage. They always had a story. “We were in a band together in high school; I know he wants to see me…” But the stories never worked. The only thing that worked was a pass, given to those who knew someone. I think about those desperate pleas whenever I read these sobering words of Jesus:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” (Matthew 7:21-23)

It’s not enough to call Jesus Lord. It’s not enough to do miraculous things in Jesus’ Name, or to preach in a bold and prophetic tone of voice. The only thing that is enough Jesus said, is to “do the will of My Father in Heaven.”  Say what? Does Jesus mean only those who always do the will of God?   If not, then what does He mean by,  “…only he who does the will of God?”  Jesus gives a strong hint when He says, “I never knew you.”

The word, know, in Scripture frequently refers to a close, intimate and personal relationship. “Knowing” Jesus is more than knowing Who He is. It is more than wearing a Jesus T-shirt, or publicly claiming to be a Christian.  It has nothing to do with my doing amazing things for Jesus.  Knowing Jesus means entering into a close, personal relationship with the the Son of God. Because of Who He is, such a relationship begins with reverent humility and transparency.  In the words of the hymn, I come to Him “Just as I am, without one plea…”  Knowing Jesus includes a willingness for Jesus to know me.  Nothing about me is off limits in our relationship.

And that relationship, that knowing and being known by Jesus, is God’s will. And that – only that – is enough.

Don’t Trust the Herd

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Just when I began to lose hope, I heard people have had enough of Lady Gaga.  Of course, soon enough, the thundering herd will head off over a different cliff.  There is no accounting for how powerful and unpredictable groupthink is.  Fads of pop culture are relatively harmless.  More serious is what happens when people cluster around social and political ideas without thinking.  How did Hitler get to be so powerful?  How did Rob Ford get elected?  How does extreme political correctness get imposed?  Groupthink about how to make money gave us the tech bubble and the housing crash.  People who broke away from the pack and followed their own ideas did better during those tough days.

As a rule of thumb, when everybody agrees about something, watch out!  Think to yourself, “Can all those people really be right?”  Jesus said:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  (Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus was talking about how to find life, real life.  He said, when it comes to life, the thundering herd has it wrong.  It’s not happiness or money or a better job and house.  It’s not thrills or music or fame or intoxication or even great achievement in your career.  Those paths are packed hard with countless footprints of those who thought they would find life and were disappointed.  Those gates resemble the bent and trampled doors of a city Walmart on Black Friday.  But the herd is wrong.

So how do we find the “narrow gate?”  Don’t get the wrong idea: the “narrow gate” is not for the “narrow minded.”  Narrow mindedness is another form of groupthink.  That herd is wrong, too.  The narrow gate Jesus referred to “leads to life” – abundant, full, rich and satisfying life.  And He showed us how to find it:

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.  (John 10:9)

In a Nutshell

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How many words would you need to summarize the Old Testament?  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus… Moses, the Ten Commandments, The Exodus, King David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah – the whole thing: how would you boil it down and how many words would you need?  Jesus needed 14 words. He said:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:12)

Elegant.  Golden.