Come and Listen…

Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. Let us know; let us press on to the know the Lord; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:1-3

The Lord Jesus gave this verse to one of my friends to pray for me a while back. It confirmed what I already sensed Him doing in my life – refining me and breaking me to pieces. I have no doubt that the Lord is preparing me for whatever He has in store. It will be glorious, but it will be oh so hard. This is probably the hardest year I have experienced to date. Through it the Lord has taught me much about suffering. Now, comparatively, I would say that I have suffered very little compared to others…but suffering is relative. The hardships I faced this year were none that you could really see. The Lord led me down into a deep, dark valley and left me there for 8 long, hard months – I had little direction, could not sense His presence or see Him working around me and felt isolated and alone. In fact, all I could see was my sin – my un-Christlikeness. As the months progressed, my joy waned, my strength faded, my faith wavered and hope was hard to find. I was exactly where God wanted me to be, though – desperate for His presence and power, weary with living in my own strength and willing to do whatever it took for the joy of my salvation to be restored (Psalm 51:12). And though I could not see or sense the Lord, He never left me. As I read His word, He showed me why I was going through such a difficult time. He led me into the wilderness to humble me, to test me and see what was in my heart and to teach me to live on His Word alone (Deuteronomy 8:2-3). As the Lord stripped away relationships, possessions and even ministry opportunities from my life, this is exactly what began to happen. And what’s more, this is something that I had prayed for numerous times (though this wasn’t the answer I expected!). I ran across – by the Lord’s design, no doubt – some journal entries late last fall and earlier this year where I asked the Lord to make me more like Christ, to deepen my dependence on Him, to humble me, to conform my will to His, to hide me in Himself (Colossians 3:1-3), to increase my satisfaction in Him and to take away anything that would distract me from Him. So, that's exactly what He did.

The Lord, however, is healing the wounds He afflicted upon me. He has heard my cry and is bringing me up out of this valley (Psalm 40:1-3). He has graciously restored to me the joy of my salvation and, like the Apostle Paul, I am learning the difficult lesson of contentment. Most of all, He has allowed me once again to sense His gloriously presence. :) I still feel like I am in darkness regarding the future or even the next step, but I am at peace. The Lord knows the future and He is satisfied with it...and I have become satisfied in His satisfaction.

I stumbled upon this song and I think it is very fitting:

How He Loves, part 3

This is the third and final segment of my study in 1 Corinthians 13. I think that my initial premise proves true: this chapter describes love and God is love, therefore, from this chapter we can learn about the character of God. And what an amazingly good and generous and satisfying and mind-blowing God He is!

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a

Love bears all things


To bear something means to hold up, support, remain firm under, to be capable of, to suffer/endure/undergo, to sustain or to carry/hold. All of these meanings are true of God. God promises that He will carry us even to our old age and that He made us and will bear and carry and save us (Isaiah 46:3-4; see also 1 Corinthians 1:8). In fact, Jesus upholds the whole universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). And while He upholds both those who do evil and do good—those who are against Him and those who are for Him—the upholding looks different for each group for “the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous” (Psalm 37:17). Those of us who follow Christ are commanded not to fear because Jesus will strengthen us and help us and uphold us with His “righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). He is our foundation which can never be shaken (1 Corinthians 3:11; cf. Isaiah 28:16). What’s more is that He bears us up daily. King David said, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation” (Psalm 68:19). He is our salvation because He bore our sins in His body so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24; cf. Isaiah 53:12; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 3:18). The Scriptures tell us that when we bear one another’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

Love believes all things


To believe is to have confidence in the truth and/or have conviction that something or someone is, has or will be engaged in a given action or situation. Jesus has perfect confidence in the the truth because He is truth (John 14:6) and in the future because He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; cf. Isaiah 41:4 & 44:1-5). He is acquainted with all our ways and knows our words even before we speak them (Psalm 139). He works in us, “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11). He predestined us for adoption according to His purpose in which He works all things out according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11), so God knows those who are His and He saves them and keeps them. He also knows the ways of those who are far from Him and works through them to accomplish His purposes (i.e. Romans 9:17).


Love hopes all things


To hope is to look forward to with desire and reasonable – in God’s case, perfect - confidence. Jesus endured the gruesome death of the cross and all the shame and humiliation that accompanied it because He was looking forward to the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2 - see below) – furthering His glory, redeeming the nations and conquering death and the devil. The Lord desires to be with us (believers) who are His bride and knows that it will happen (Revelation 20-23), but He is patiently waiting until all of His people come to know Him (Isaiah 30:18; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:8-10). The Apostle John saw it in a vision and said,

“And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new…Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true…It is done!’” (Revelation 21:2-6a).

Love endures all things


Diving into this aspect of Christ and His love was pretty exciting. God endures much for us. He endures with much patience people who are wicked (Romans 9:22). He endured much hostility from sinners as He suffered on our behalf (Hebrews 12:3). Furthermore, He “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated on the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus endured because He knew it was necessary for Him to suffer these things in order to enter into His glory (Luke 24:26) and in order to “make many to be accounted righteous” (Isaiah 53:11).


Love never ends

God is an everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28; cf. Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 26:4; Jeremiah 10:10; Revelation 22:13) and He loves with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3; cf. Psalm 103:17; Isaiah 54:8). Love never ends because God never ends. God is Love. We have come full circle. :)

But God shows His love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

How He Loves, part 2

The study in 1 Corinthians 13 continues. The great, patient love of Christ is truly amazing. The depth of His love is unsearchable and beyond our finite understanding, but these verses do give us just a glimpse of the richness of His love.

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:5b-6 

Love does not insist on its own way


The love between God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is perfect. Jesus was perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. His obedience means our salvation for God requires perfect obedience to His Law. When was the last time you were perfect even by your own standards? Jesus had to obey the Law for us because we could not. He says in John 5:30 & 6:38, “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus did not insist on His own way in order to please Himself (Romans 15:3). Jesus proves this over and over in the Gospel accounts. Right before He was about to give His life as a ransom for many, He asked the Father to remove His impending death and suffering and separation with this clause, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39, 42 & 44). A little later He tells Peter who tried to rescue Him, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once send Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:53-54). He did not insist on His own way in order to save Himself (Isaiah 53:7; 1 Peter 2:23). Jesus is the same toward us. The Apostle Peter says that Christ does not want anybody to perish (apart from His glorious presence), but desires that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He does not insist on His own way by not choosing all for salvation. His purposes are much grandeur and higher than we could ever comprehend. Jesus, instead, stands at the door and knocks and “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to Him and eat with Him and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

Love is not irritable


To be irritable is to be easily irritated or annoyed; easily excited to impatience or anger. The Bible is clear that God is “slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6; cf. Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8). See love is patient.

Love is not resentful


Some versions translate this part of the verse as “does not keep a record of wrongs.” If you think about it, it is an amazing thing that God does not hold our sins against those of us who are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19) because we have seriously offended Him (Romans 3:23; cf. Isaiah 30:1-5, 9-11). We have rejected Him even though He is our Creator and Sustainer and instead make either gods out of ourselves or out of other things (Romans 1:18-3:20). The Apostle Paul said that God, in His divine forbearance, “passed over our former sins” (Romans 3:25) so that He might display His righteousness at the present time through Christ (Romans 3:26). While we were still sinners Christ Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8) thereby canceling the record of sin debt that was against us by nailing it to His cross (Colossians 2:14). The atoning sacrifice of Christ puts our sin far from Him and us (Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:17; Micah 7:19). The fact that our sins are cancelled in Christ means that God remembers them no more (Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34). In fact, there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). King David put is this way, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count sin” (Romans 4:6; cf. Psalm 32:1-2).

Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing


All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17) and all sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Those who do not follow Christ take pleasure in wrongdoing (Romans 1:32; 2 Thessalonians 2:12) and will receive God’s judgment (Matthew 7:23). The same used to be true of us who are now in Christ before the Holy Spirit convicted us of our sin (John 16:8-11) and brought us to repentance (1 John 1:9). The Lord does not delight in wickedness (Psalm 5:4; cf. Malachi 2:17) nor does He take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23, 32, 33:11; “for the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23). Rather, He delights in displaying His steadfast love (Micah 7:18) so in order to display His great love and perfect justice, He sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin…in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). Jesus came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and to redeem us from all lawlessness (Titus 2:14) so that He could rejoice over us (Zephaniah 3:17). :)

Love rejoices with the truth


God Himself is Truth (Isaiah 65:16) and He is completely satisfied in Himself. There is much rejoicing in the Godhead where perfect unity, love and truth abound. Jesus rejoiced “in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” (Luke 10:21). The Lord takes great delight in the truth. In fact, He searches for those who act in accordance with the truth (Jeremiah 5:3). The Scriptures tell us that God’s Word is Truth (2 Samuel 7:28; Psalm 119:160; John 17:17) and that the Gospel is Truth (Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus is the Word of God and is Truth (John 1:1, 14, 17, 18:37; Ephesians 4:21; Revelation 19:11, 13). Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth because He testifies to the truth (John 14:17, 16:13; 1 John 5:6). “But when the Helper comes, whom I will sent to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me” (John 15:26). God is both love and truth and Christ came so that we might know the truth and be set free (John 8:32).