Jesus, Draw Me Close

In John chapter 6 we read of Jesus feeding more than five thousand people and then withdrawing. The next day when the crowds sought Him out again He told them:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves… I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:26, 35 ESV).

We are often like the crowds, seeking Jesus to meet our felt needs rather than for a desire to know Him deeply. Sam Allberry wrote about this passage, “The greatest gift Jesus gives us… is Jesus. He is not the means to some other, separate end. The Bread of Life is not something else, with Jesus being the one who dispenses it for us. He is the prize.” Heath Lambert wrote, “They minimized Jesus and his work by seeing him as the source of only one good thing rather than cherishing him as the fountain for all life… You should come pursuing a full-fledged relationship with this sovereign King who saves, desiring to draw close to him in every way, and not just seeking to get your problems fixed” (142).

It’s not just unbelievers or young Christians who seek Jesus for the wrong reasons. Even those of us who’ve been on this journey for a while can lose perspective. Our prayers can become a shopping list: heal this person; save that one; bless our food; and, oh yes, I could use a little bit of forgiveness and freedom from temptation too. I know I’m not the only one to fall into this pit at times. It is all too easy to go through the motions of prayer and Bible reading without actually seeking God or interacting with Him. Alistair Begg often uses this short prayer at the beginning of his sermons: “Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me Yourself within Your Word. Show me myself and show me my Savior, and make the book live to me, for Jesus’ sake.” That might be worth adopting for personal devotional times, though that too can become a meaningless habit.

How might our lives and our churches be different if we were truly and consistently seeking a living relationship with our Heavenly Father rather than seeking the good things He can give us? It is appropriate to be thankful for forgiveness, the promise of eternal life, and the blessings of life and family. But we may start to sound like little children at Christmas saying a perfunctory “Thanks!” while racing off to play with our toys. And yet children who only get periodic packages from an absentee parent quickly learn that gifts are meaningless apart from a loving relationship.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians:

“[That] according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16b-19).

The blessings of His riches are for the purpose of knowing the Father’s love—knowing the One who is love. We miss out when we settle on the gifts apart from the Giver. May we not stop short of knowing the best He has to offer—Himself.

“See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are… So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 3:1, 4:16).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

A Firm Foundation

A recent book, God’s Grace in Your Suffering, by David Powlison, is based on the hymn "How Firm a Foundation." This is a solidly biblical hymn from 1787 that is probably neglected in many churches, or may be sung with little thought given to the words. Much of the text comes directly from Isaiah 41:10 and 43:1-2. As I read through the book and meditated on the hymn, I have been particularly drawn to the third verse:

When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

Powlison commented on this verse:

“God himself calls you into the deep waters. God sets a limit on your sorrows. God is with you, actively bringing good from your troubles. In the context of distressing events, God changes you… In other words, your significant sufferings don’t happen by accident. There’s no random chance. No purposeless misery. No bad luck. Not even (and understand this the right way) a tragedy. Tragedy means ruin, destruction, downfall, an unhappy ending with no redemption. Your life story may contain a great deal of misery and heartache along the way. But in the end, in Christ, your life story will prove to be a comedy in the original sense of the word, a story with a happy ending… Life, joy, and love get last say. High sovereignty is going somewhere… He is working so you know him, so you trust him, so you love him” (62-63).

We rarely can see God’s purposes while we’re in the midst of suffering. It is in hindsight that we start to see the good that God has brought out of difficult experiences. I’ve only recently begun to see some of the ways that God has used trouble from past decades not only to sanctify me but to open doors for me to encourage the struggling and to edify and exhort the church to protect the innocent and care for the wounded. Though the experiences in themselves were not holy, God has sanctified them for His good purposes. That doesn’t mean the struggles are any less difficult or painful, but I can learn to endure them with the hope that there is a purpose in them that will one day be revealed. The Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 8:18-39 and 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 point us to this purposeful hope in suffering:

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now… And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose… to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:22, 28, 29b ESV).

“If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we share” (2 Cor. 1:6).

In the midst of writing this post this week I listened to a podcast from The Allender Center that reminded me that when we are struggling with the difficulties and events of life it doesn’t really benefit us to keep it to ourselves or try to power through as if nothing is wrong. We need others in the Body of Christ to support and encourage us, and likewise, we need to do the same for them.

Powlison concluded his book with this thought:

“Finally, you are prepared to pose—and to mean—an almost unimaginable question: ‘Why not me? Why not this? Why not now?’ If in some way, your faith might serve as a three-watt night light in a very dark world, why not me? If your suffering shows forth the Savior of the world, why not me? If you have the privilege of filling up the sufferings of Christ? If he sanctifies to you your deepest distress? If you fear no evil? If he bears you in his arms? If your weakness demonstrates the power of God to save us from all that is wrong? If your honest struggle shows other strugglers how to land on their feet? If your life becomes a source of hope for others? Why not me? … If all that God promises only comes true, then why not me?” (116-117).

“A bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burning wick He will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice… I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:3, 6-7).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Great Expectations

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).

I recently noticed a word in that verse that I hadn’t paid attention to before—“easily.” Sin easily entangles us. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19 ESV emphasis added). I know from experience that temptation and sin don’t just miraculously disappear when we reach a certain point in our faith journey. If we do make some progress, we often start patting ourselves on the back—until we trip again and realize we’ve been relying on our own willpower. As Brennan Manning used to say, “God expects more failure of us than we expect from ourselves.”

Jerry Bridges wrote in The Gospel for Real Life:

“Sometimes our obedience is marked more by desire than by performance. So we have to ask ourselves: ‘Is my life characterized by an earnest desire and a sincere effort to obey God in all that He commands? What is my attitude toward God’s Law? Do I find it to be holy, just, and good? And do I delight in it in my inner being even though I find my sinful nature struggling against it?’ (See Romans 7:12, 22-23). Accompanying our sincere desire to obey God will be a heightened sensitivity to our indwelling sin. Often it is our increased awareness of sin that causes us to doubt our salvation or to give Satan an inroad into our minds to suggest that ‘a Christian wouldn’t sin like you do.’ But think about that accusation for a moment. Satan would certainly not suggest such a thought to an unbeliever.”

“We should never be afraid to examine ourselves. But when doubts do arise, the solution is not to try harder to prove to ourselves that we are believers. The solution is to flee to the cross and to the righteousness of Christ, which is our only hope. And then, having looked to Christ alone for our justification, we can look to His Spirit to enable us to deal with those areas of our lives that cause doubt. The work of the Spirit within us is as much a gift of God’s grace as is our justification and adoption as sons”

In one sense, my sin may be small compared to some of the “great sinners” in Scripture who found forgiveness. However, my sin contributed to the reason Jesus had to die on the cross, and I am just as incapable of saving myself as any other person who’s ever lived. If it were not for the cross of Christ, my “small sin” would be grounds for damnation and despair.

“But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV).

As this article, “What To Do When You’ve Blown It,” quotes from Sam Allberry, “There is more forgiveness in Jesus than there is failure in us.” Yep, we blow it—repeatedly. But in Christ God offers us forgiveness repeatedly. My sin is not too big or too frequent for His forgiveness. My sanctification is not yet perfected, but neither is my temptation indicative of terminal failure or reason for hopelessness. Martin Luther wrote, “By saying ‘repent,’ our Lord and Master Jesus Christ willed that the whole of the life of believers should be repentance.”

For now we can rest in God’s lavish forgiveness, and one day we will be able to relish His perfected Kingdom, all because of His grace and mercy.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9 ESV).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Heart and Mind

The other day I was listening to Christian radio and heard a song I was not familiar with—“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray. As I thought about the lyrics they made me distinctly uneasy. One line that is repeated several times is “It’s gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in; more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance.” The story behind the song (found here) clarifies his intent somewhat, but I still have problems with the message. Gray said,

“I think we’re in danger of making our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today. The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters.”

While that may be true to some degree, I don’t think that is the predominant problem with American Christianity. It seems to me that we are far more likely to pursue some kind of emotional response that may have very little to do with the facts of who Jesus was and is. Yes, faith is more than an intellectual exercise, but it is also more than a love affair. Gray’s lyrics set up a false dichotomy. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Faith requires engagement of both heart and mind.

In his chapter in Standing on the Promises, Larry Knowles wrote:

“Let it be said again that worship ought to engage the mind and the emotions. Careful wording and cerebral agreement alone do not a worshiper make… There is no doubt that the love of God is something the Christian will want to internalize personally and celebrate with emotive affection… Our concern with heavily romantic or sensory lyrics is that they communicate God’s love as primarily a subjective phenomenon, grasped mainly by its emotional and personal impact. Granted, these words may come from the genuine experience of a lyricist. But the glut of choruses that talk about ‘falling in love with Jesus’ finds no correlate in Scripture” (178-179).

Someone may say, “True, but Christian radio is not worship.” The average listener is drawn to songs that stir their emotions, not necessarily those that clearly represent scriptural truths. That’s one reason I rarely listen to the radio. Listeners tends to identify artists they like, and then listen indiscriminately to anything that artist wrote. A large percentage of the new songs that get introduced in churches start out on the radio, and many church music leaders don’t evaluate songs by their theology. Church leaders should be cautious about “endorsing” artists who are not consistently presenting solid theology.

I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to music used in worship services. In many churches the music is unbiblical, unsingable, or (often) unrelated to the day’s sermon. Since Jesus proclaimed that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23b), those who plan the worship service and choose the music have a responsibility to lead in spirit and truth. Alistair Begg gave three guidelines on worship music:

1. It is biblical, being grounded in the truth of Scripture.
2. It is rational in that it engages our minds.
3. It is clearly spiritual in that it involves the very core of our being.

Begg also quoted from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s helpful guidelines from 5 Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. Their first point, “Begin with the pastor,” states:

“Ultimately the buck stops with him in congregational worship. Every pastor must be intimately involved in the language being placed in the congregation’s mouth, for that singing ultimately affects how they think, how they feel, how they pray, and how they live.”

In Christian freedom, we can each listen to whatever we like on the radio or online, and churches are free to use whatever music seems to best fit their context. But personally, I have found that “taking every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) is closely linked to “making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2). Our ears and eyes are the two primary methods of input to our thoughts and beliefs. If we aren’t paying attention for ourselves, no one else is likely to do it for us.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.