spirit

40 Days of Praise — Day 27

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I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BLIEVED by Daniel Whittle

I know not why God’s wondrous grace, To me He hath made known

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love, Redeemed me for His own

I know not how this saving faith, To me He did impart

Nor how, believing in His Word, Wrought peace within my heart

I know not how the Spirit moves, Convincing us of sin

Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating faith in Him

I know not what of good or ill, May be reserved for me

Of weary ways or golden days, Before His face I’ll see

I know not when my Lord may come, At night or noonday fair

Nor if I’ll walk the vale with Him, Or meet Him in the air

REFRAIN:

But I know whom I have believed, And am persuaded that He is able

To keep that which I’ve committed, Unto Him against that day

This hymn has always resonated with me, from my childhood until now. I do not pretend to know why God loves me. I do not pretend to know how He could ever forgive me nor why He would. He, in His mercy, showered me with His grace. That act of kindness overwhelms me now even more than it did when I first experienced it.

               I truly do understand that His Spirit gave me faith to believe the truth of His words. That His Spirit brought understanding to my mind, conviction to my soul, repentance to my heart but how that occurred – it just did. One moment I was living for me, the next I was bowed under the Spirit’s leadership, crying out to God for mercy and forgiveness. What a miracle.

               It is also a miracle that as we read His Word the Spirit makes it come alive, imparting its wisdom and truth to us. God’s Spirit does create faith in us, just as He creates new life and transforms our minds. I don’t know when Jesus will return. He may return for me today. I may die and return with Him years from now but I do know He will return with His saints to judge the ungodly.

               I don’t know many things about the God I have served for 50 + years now. But I do know this: He hides my soul in the palm of His hand and is faithful to keep it forever. I love how the refrain of the hymn is a direct quote from 2 Timothy 1:12. God is faithful and He is able to keep us from falling. He never fails to keep a promise and His Spirit has sealed me in His love forever, praise His holy name.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping my soul safe forever. Thank you for redeeming it. Thank you for sanctifying it. You are a great God and worthy to be praised.

40 Days of Praise — Day 22

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RESCUE THE PERISHING by Fanny J. Crosby

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying; Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave

Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen; Tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to save

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting; Waiting the penitent child to receive

Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently; He will forgive if they only believe

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter; Feelings lie buried that grace can restore

Touched by a loving heart, weakened by kindness; Chords that are broken will vibrate once more

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it; Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide

Back to the narrow way, patiently win them; Tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died

REFRAIN

Rescue the perishing; Care for the dying Jesus is merciful; Jesus will save

This hymn shows me what attitude I need to have toward those who do not yet know Jesus. They are spiritually dead as well as physically dying, headed toward a Christ-less eternity. My heart should break for them and my recognition of their state should spur me to action.

               I must tell them of a Savior. I must introduce them to my Lord. It is my duty. I am to see the world through Jesus’ eyes and do the work He commissioned me to do.

               It is amazing to me that many times, those who seem the furthest away from God are the ones who accept His offer of salvation the quickest. Even though they are insulting Him, denying Him, His Spirit continues to work on their heart, melting their stone cold indifference.

               His grace penetrates, quickens, brings about a restoration of life to a dead soul. How beautiful it is remade, reborn.  What a wonderful privilege we have, to be part of His divine plan to bring a lost one into the fold of salvation. Our job is to sow the seed of the Word. The Spirit implants it and causes it to grow, eventually bringing about new life.

               Go, cast your seed where the Spirit directs, and who knows, the soul you help rescue may be the one that is dearest to you.

Lord, help move us to understand the urgency of sharing Your gospel. Help us to understand the priority of throwing a lifeline, Your Word, to those who are drowning in sin. Help me to be moved with pity and compassion, so that I take my part in Your grand plan of redeeming souls to Yourself.

A Heart Hungry To Worship Part 14

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Jesus found him. The man did not find Jesus; Jesus found him. That is the deepest truth of Christian faith; Jesus found me. Our fellowship with Him is rooted in His compassion.[1]

Chapter 13

Steve and Sarina’s Story

            It has been many years since Steve and Sarina experienced the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Despite the passage of time, they have never lost the wonder and excitement of being chosen, out of all the people in the world, by God. Their gratitude over being adopted into God’s heavenly family has only deepened as time has marched on.

            Steve and Sarina came into my life one afternoon in need of a favor. One of their daughters was weeks away from being married. The pastor of their church had resigned and moved away, leaving them without someone to officiate the wedding. Not wanting just anyone, Steve and Sarina went looking for a minister with the same doctrinal beliefs. I agreed to meet with them and we sat and talked for quite some time. Over the next few days, a friendship developed between our two families, one that would continue to grow and deepen.

            The wedding went off as planned and as our friendship grew, I came to admire their deep faith and love for God. It didn’t come as too much of a surprise when they showed up for church one Sunday morning. As the congregation sang, I couldn’t help but notice Sarina’s voice. Strong and beautiful, her voice brought a rich fullness to the service. Afterwards, I asked her to consider joining the choir and helping to lead the congregational singing. I was given such a funny look that I was afraid that I had somehow offended her. I dropped the subject rather awkwardly, and prayed that whatever misstep I had done would be revealed.

            The following Sunday, some of our ushers were absent. On the spur of the moment, I asked Steve if he would mind helping the other guys collect the offerings during the service. He hesitantly agreed, but I was struck with the feeling that I had again done something not quite right.

            Earlier in the week, knowing Steve’s mechanical skills, I had asked him to take a look at some equipment the church owned that needed fixing. After the service was over, I gave him a key to the church and told him that he could pick up the equipment anytime and take it to his shop. I was shocked to see this big bear of a man tear up, drop the key like a hot potato, and stammer incomprehensibly. I knew then that something was definitely wrong and that I needed to investigate. Over coffee the following day, their story came out.

            Steve and Sarina had both come to faith in Jesus Christ as adults. At the time, they lived back East and they moved to Montana not too long after their conversion experience. A gifted mechanic, Steve loved to restore old vehicles to their original conditions. They had a wonderful family and were very outgoing and jovial. They were relatively young Christians and had not had the opportunity to be discipled in the faith. The church they had been attending was doctrinally similar to ours. Steve and Sarina were charter members, excited to become part of a new church so soon after moving to a new state. For the last seven or eight years they faithfully attended every service. There was one glaring difference between our two churches, though.

            In their church, a person could not sing in the choir, usher, teach, take up an offering, play an instrument or even lead a corporate prayer unless they were judged to be spiritually mature enough by the pastor. For over seven years this couple, full of desire to worship the God they loved, were told that they hadn’t reached a spiritual level high enough to be acceptable to God. That was why it was so shocking to them that I had asked them to participate in our services. They did not feel worthy enough.

            Rarely have I ever been so angry in my life. Here were these wonderful people, passionate about their faith, full of untapped talent and zeal, eager to serve the Lord in any capacity, that were victims of a misguided human tyrant. I was outraged that a human being, under the guise of a minister of God, would dare to intervene and prohibit one of God’s children from worshipping their Father.

            This was why they had reacted so peculiarly to my requests. They didn’t feel worthy enough to sing in the choir or take up an offering. To be offered the responsibility of having a key to the church was overwhelming to them. Their natural response of wanting to serve and worship the Lord who had saved them had been stifled by years under the teaching of a person who had added rules and regulations to Holy Scriptures.

            I began sharing with them, from the Bible, how God gifted each one of us with certain abilities and talents. I shared how God desires us to use those talents and abilities in service for His Kingdom. We talked about how God delights in hearing the praises of His children. We discussed how even new Christians, those still immature in their faith, could please God and render acceptable service to Him. Most of all, I shared how they could find their worth and identity in their relationship with Jesus Christ. I used Steve’s passion for rebuilding cars as an example of how God rebuilds us, how He begins the process of transforming us into the image of His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. They began to get excited as God’s truth penetrated the shell of false teachings they had believed for years. They began to truly understand and accept God’s love for them and His declaration that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus.”[2]

            The change in their lives was dramatic. Freed from a false sense of guilt and feelings of inadequacy, Steve and Sarina pursued worshipping God with fervor. Joy at finally being able to express how much they loved their Savior and Lord poured forth from them like a torrent. Their faith was infectious, changing those around them for the better. Many people were attracted to the gospel of Christ by observing the passion and excitement that penetrated their lives. God began preparing Steve and Sarina for even greater things as they matured in their knowledge of Him. Like sponges, they soaked up Scripture; their minds grasping the deep truths of God as they put into practice the teachings of the Bible.

            Almost a year after our conversation over coffee, Steve was ordained as an evangelist. Far from being unworthy to serve, the Holy Spirit uses Steve to witness for Him in a mighty way. For almost two decades now, he has served with a group of Christian motorcycle riders, sharing the gospel in places not easily accessible to most Christians. His wife accompanies him quite often, in between the Bible studies she leads for various ladies’ groups.             As I look back on their lives of service for God, I am filled with joy, sadness and pride. Joy, seeing how much Steve and Sarina have accomplished for the Lord and for the happiness that explodes out of them as they serve. Sadness, because of the wasted years under the influence of a person who does not understand grace or what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth. I have a sinking feeling that Steve and Sarina are not the only followers of Jesus Christ whose worship of Him has been stifled by false teaching. I shudder to think of the potential consequences faced by those who interfere with God’s children worshipping Him with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. Pride, at being used by God to assist Steve and Sarina, in helping them come into a realization of their worth in God’s sight. I pray that God will continue to use Steve, Sarina and I to reach out to the multitude of people that have yet to experience true worship. Not just those who have yet to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but also to those whose relationship with Him has been hindered from growing. It is vitally important to be able to share the meaning of how worship in spirit and in truth accurately, so this can take place.

[1] William Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel

[2] Romans 8:1

Hymn Devotions Day 38 – His Way With Thee

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 DAY 38 – HIS WAY WITH THEE

 Yielding to the Holy Spirit’s guidance each day is easier said than done. My will, my desires, have to be constantly pushed down so that His desire and will can shine through. I cannot live a godly life in my own power. My heart is desperately and deceitfully wicked. I need to always submit myself to Him, in order to do what is right and holy.

Some of my favorite lines in this hymn point to great gospel truths. He can carry my load far better than I can. Better yet, He offers to carry that load. My worries, frustrations, concerns and ailments can be turned over to Him and exchanged. I especially love the next to last line in the second stanza. The line comes straight out of Jude’s epistle and gives us hope. He can keep us from stumbling or falling. What a magnificent Savior!

Everything is dependent upon Jesus. Only His saving power can make us what God intended for us to be when He created us. Only His atoning death on the cross can cleanse us from all unrighteousness and free us from sin’s power. Only His love can completely fill us because only He can love us with a pure love.

It is a mystery why I struggle with letting Him lead me. I know all these biblical truths. I see the truth of them lived out in my life day by day. Yet I still struggle with turning my life over to Him minute by minute. What a frail, fickle creature I am. How reassuring to read in Scripture that even when I am faithless, He remains faithful because His Spirit lives in me and He cannot deny Himself.

 

Lord, give me the ability to consistently turn my life over to You. I struggle with control issues. I know You know best but my own deceitful heart wrestles with You. Overcome it Lord and reign supremely in my life so I may experience true freedom in You.

 

HIS WAY WITH THEE by Cyrus Nusbaum

 

Would you live for Jesus and be always pure and good?

Would you walk with Him, within the narrow road?

Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?

Let Him have His way with thee.

 

Would you have Him make you free and follow at His call?

Would you know the peace that comes from giving all?

Would you have Him save you so that you need never fall?

Let Him have His way with thee.

 

Would you in His kingdom find a place of constant rest?

Would you prove Him true in providential test?

Would you in His service labor always at your best?

Let Him have His way with thee.

 

REFRAIN:

 

His power can make you what you ought to be

His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free

His love can fill your soul and you will see

‘Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Spirit and In Truth – Excerpt from A Heart Hungry to Worship

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Worship is not about us and how we feel; it is about giving God the honor due His name. His Word, not our feelings, define that “honor”, which is due Him.[1]

In Spirit and in Truth

            At the end of the second chapter, a question was raised: “What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?” Subsequent chapters have helped to lay the foundation for the answer to that question, which we will now consider. We will look at each of the terms Jesus used: worship, spirit, and truth, in order.

Worship

The word Jesus uses  for worship in John 4:24 is proskuneo in Greek (or shachah in Hebrew). It means to “bow down” or “prostrate” oneself. The connotation is to engage in an act of humility, submission and reverence toward God.

In His conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus pointed out to her that the Samaritan’s idea of worshipping God was wrong. “You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”[2] The Samaritans worshipped God through ritual. For them, God was not personal. He was viewed as the Creator but not as their Father. Jesus was very deliberate in addressing God as Father (3 times in a row) emphasizing the personal nature of the relationship. He was trying to show her what was missing in her worship – a personal touch.

The only way true worship of God can take place is for a person to enter into a personal relationship with Him. God has to become their Father and they His children. The Samaritans knew God’s name, but not His character, personality or purposes. This is true of many people today. They know of God, but they do not know God personally for they have never experienced His salvation.

Unless a person accepts God’s salvation, he or she cannot enter into a filial (family) relationship with Him. Without this personal relationship, one cannot worship Him correctly. “In other words, one can know and worship God by experiencing His salvation which is in Jesus and which enables the worshipper to call God “abba”, Father.”[3]

This is one reason why Jesus Christ came to Earth. He came to personalize God and to model the type of relationship with Him that God desires.

In Spirit

Christ, in the statement He made to the Samaritan woman, makes worship a matter of the heart, not ritual or tradition. Worship has sincerity at its core. It is the response of one’s spirit to the Spirit of God, a communing of one to the other. While worship can be planned, most often it is spontaneous, a response to proximity with God.

The New Testament uses different phrases to illustrate what it means when a person submits their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Phrases such as “born again”, “born from above,” or “becoming a new creation” serve to convey the idea of what it means to become a child of God. The language of adoption is also used, with God the Father shown as adopting sons and daughters into His Kingdom, out of the kingdom of this world.

Those who have experienced this adoption, this being “born again”, are the only ones who can worship God in spirit because the spirit now in them is the Spirit of God. You see, at the moment of salvation a wonderful event occurs. God recreates us spiritually (we are born anew) which allows us to interact with Him intimately. This is what Jesus was telling the Samaritan woman. She did not need to worry about where to worship. She needed to understand how to be able to worship. She needed to experience a rebirth, spiritually. Jesus had a very similar conversation with a man called Nicodemus in John, chapter 3.

Intellectual, erudite, skilled in rhetoric and theology, Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking answers. Nicodemus was “the” teacher of Israel, their premier religious instructor. He had heard Jesus speak, he had seen the miracles Jesus had performed, and he accepted the truth that Jesus was a man sent by God, yet he was not a Christian. He did not accept that Jesus was more than a man sent from God, that Jesus was God in the flesh.

When Nicodemus approached Jesus, he gave him a very sincere compliment. He was met by a very confrontational reply, “Unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God.”  Jesus tells the premier religious teacher in Israel that he is not going to be in God’s Kingdom unless he experiences a spiritual rebirth. The word Jesus uses for rebirth means a transformation so complete that it will allow a person to enter another world and adapt to its conditions. He is telling Nicodemus that he needs to undergo a complete metamorphosis in order to enter the Kingdom of God. He is saying to Nicodemus, “Unless you allow me to spiritually transform you, you will not be able to survive in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus is insisting that Nicodemus undergoes a spiritual change from who he is currently, to what he needs to be. To Nicodemus, this statement is staggering. He understands what Jesus is implying, that his religion was futile. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Pharisees tended to be hyper-legalists who externalized religion. They pursued a form of godliness that had no basis in reality. They were fanatically religious, striving to obey over 600 laws. For a Pharisee, salvation was obtained by works, doing things that they believed were pleasing to God. Being born again is something Nicodemus cannot do. Being born is something that happens to you, not something you do for yourself.

Nicodemus and Jesus did have something in common. Both were Jewish teachers. Jewish teachers taught spiritual truths in symbols. Nicodemus understands Jesus’ symbolism and answers back in kind. “How can a man, whose habits and ways of thinking have been fixed for so long, really be expected to change radically? Physical rebirth is impossible so is spiritual rebirth any more feasible? I can’t start over again. It’s too late. I’ve gone too far in my religious system to change now. I’d have to start all over again. My case is hopeless.”

Many people feel that way. Unlike Dinah, from chapter 3, they are too steeped in their religious tradition to be willing to change. They feel trapped and hopeless by beliefs that they have held all their lives and yet they are unwilling to change. It is not that they cannot change; it is that they will not change unless they allow God’s Spirit to convert them.

In order to satisfy the hunger of their hearts, in order to worship God correctly, they must allow God to transform their life spiritually. The new birth must come from the Holy Spirit of God. A person needs to be spiritually purified and spiritually reborn, and only the Spirit of God can only accomplish this.

We aren’t told how Nicodemus reacts to what he is told. He understands that Jesus is telling him that the new birth must be experienced in order to be understood. None of his scholarly wisdom will explain it. Only by immersing himself in Jesus will he be able to understand salvation.

Nicodemus knew about Jesus, had listened to Jesus, admired Jesus and complimented Jesus, but he did not know Jesus. He needed Jesus to transform his life through being born again.

Those whose hearts hunger to worship God must allow God to transform their life first. Then, they will be able to worship Him spirit to spirit. They will be able to hear Him and understand Him when He speaks. They will experience closeness, a sense of belonging, a kindred-ness with God that surpasses anything they could have imagined.  This is what Jesus means when He tells us we have to worship in spirit.

In Truth

The second criteria Jesus says is necessary to be able to worship God is found in the phrase, “and in truth.” Knowing whom to worship, Jesus, is of supreme importance. To worship in ignorance makes a sham of religion.

Truth, in biblical terms, is whatever is in harmony with the nature and will of God. The essence of true worship must be on God’s terms and He has revealed that the only worship He will accept is that which is based through Jesus Christ. The revelation of God in Christ is absolute truth.

The issue is not where a person worships, but how they worship and whom they worship. The how is in spirit. The who is Jesus. Worship is more than just emotion. Too many people confuse the terms praise and worship. Praise is rooted in emotion. Worship is grounded in knowledge – the knowledge of God’s Word and the knowledge of God’s Son.

By gaining a proper understanding of what Jesus said to the woman at the well, a person can come to worship God properly. A person can no longer sustain the argument that the format or form of worship does not matter. Jesus clearly states that it does. It must come from the spirit and it has to be rooted in God’s revealed truth. Not truth as a person feels it should be (subjective), but as it actually is, measured by divine revelation via the Bible (objective). When knowledge of God is deficient, worship of Him will also be deficient.

Since God has decreed that He will only accept worship that is grounded in and which flows through Jesus, this makes Christianity the only religion accepted by God. No other form of worship is accepted. A person cannot decide to worship God in whatever way he or she wants to. They did not make the standard. No religion can develop rules that make worship to God possible, because worship is rooted in and through the person of Jesus. Truth cannot be found in the Koran, Baghivad Gita, Pearl of Great Price or other religious works, because they do not contain the historical record of Jesus Christ and the truth of His life. Truth is not perception. Truth is an absolute.

To worship God in spirit and in truth requires a person to come to God on His terms, surrendering their life to His Son Jesus, accepting His forgiveness and cleansing from sin. At that moment, the heart is renewed, God’s Spirit comes in, and fellowship begins with God that will last for an eternity.

It is a wonderful thing to experience the transforming person of Jesus Christ. Just ask the Samaritan woman and her neighbors.

A Heart Hungry to Worship is available in print or Kindle editions from Amazon or from the author at http://discernmentministries.webs.com 

[1] Dean G. Thomas

[2] John 4:22

[3] Jey Kanagaraj: Worship, Sacrifice and Mission:Themes Interlocked in John, Indian Journal of Theology V.40.1&2 1998