Year: 2014

Categories
Jesus

The Restraint of Jesus

“The Restraint of Jesus”
  by brian rushing

I’m sure that you’ve noticed this as well, but…
Sometimes the words of the Bible are confusing.
Sometimes when I read it, I find that the choices that God made are confusing.
Sometimes the things that Jesus said and did are confusing.
loads of question marks symbolizing the questions about Jesus such as his restraint of using his divine attributes
For example, how is it that Jesus – being fully God and fully human – seems to not know certain things (“Who touched my clothes?” “How many loaves do you have?”), while at other times He knows things it is impossible to know (“You have had five husbands.” “Lazarus is dead.”)?

How is it that Jesus can be hungry or tired or thirsty, while also being able to multiply fish and bread from thin air, change water to wine, command storms, heal sickness, and raise the dead? Was Jesus lying when He said He was thirsty or didn’t know something? No, Jesus never was dishonest, so that can’t be the answer. At times it seems that Jesus is fully human with little or no divinity, and at other times He doesn’t seem human at all.

Because of this back-and-forth situation we find in Jesus, I can find myself scratching my head about Him – wondering why it seems that Jesus’ divine nature and power are sometimes reduced. But I now realize that “reduced” is not the right word:

“The impression of Jesus which the Gospels give is not that he was wholly bereft of divine knowledge and power, but that he drew on both intermittently, while being content for much of the time not to do so. The impression, in other words, is not so much one of deity reduced as of divine capacities restrained.”

“The God-man did not know independently, any more than he acted independently. Just as he did not do all that he could have done, because certain things were not his Father’s will, so he did not consciously know all that he might have known, but only what the Father willed him to know. His knowing, like the rest of his activity, was bounded by his Father’s will. And therefore the reason why he was ignorant of (for instance) the date of his return was not that he had given up the power to know all things at the Incarnation, but that the Father had not willed that he should have this particular piece of knowledge while on earth….”

This answers a lot of questions for me about why Jesus did what He did and said what He said. It was all based on His connection to the Father – following His will completely.

This also helps me realize that there are times where certain things will not be in the Father’s will for my life, and certain things that the Father has not willed for me to know yet. All things are permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial, so if I am walking perfectly in God’s will (which Jesus always did), then God will give me the knowledge I need when I need it. And He will give me the ability I need when I need it.

Regarding Jesus’ restraint and the Father’s will, Packer concludes the idea with:

We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory… a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony —spiritual even more than physical— that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich. The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity —hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory— because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

I am so glad that Jesus restrained Himself in accordance with the will of the Father, so that the messages of hope of Christmas and Easter became the greatest messages I ever heard and believed.


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Jesus

Intentionally Choosing Death… How Strange

“Intentionally Choosing Death… How Strange”
  by brian rushing

“It is not strange that He, the Author of life, should rise from the dead. If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than that he should rise again.”

Absolutely.
It is not odd that the one who raised people from the dead could Himself rise from the dead. But it is very remarkable (strange, odd, unfathomable) that He would die in the first place.

gravestone symbolizing Jesus choosing death
And yet, parents, isn’t it true that you would willingly trade places with one of your children facing death in order that they (the child) could continue on in life? Certainly. Many children unfortunately end up in the hospital struggling for life. Parents pray fervently, and many will somewhere in one or more of those prayers ask God to let them trade places with their precious child. It is natural for us to be willing to choose death in order for us to save someone we desperately love.

What Jesus did for us is similar. The only way that I would be able to continue on in life forever was for Him to die as a substitute and take the punishment I deserved. So He willingly, intentionally chose death due to His love. In fact, He was born to die.

Though I now try to avoid using the word “church” to refer to a location, I used to call the main worship service on Sunday, “Big Church.” I still hear kids call it that today. And the word “Incarnation” is one of those “Big Church” words. At it’s simplest, it means a divine being taking a human form… God becoming a man.

How do we wrap our heads around that idea? Well, the New Testament doesn’t encourage us to worry too much over how it works, but rather encourages us “to worship God for the love that was shown in it. For it was a great act of condescension and self-humbling. ‘He, who had always been God by nature,’ writes Paul, ‘did not cling to his privileges as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man, And, plainly seen as a human being, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal.’ And all this was for our salvation.”

“The key text in the New Testament for interpreting the Incarnation is ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake’s he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ When Paul talks of the Son as having emptied himself and become poor, what he has in mind…is the laying aside not of divine powers and attributes but of divine glory and dignity.”

God the Son, Jesus, while in Heaven in His full divine glory and dignity loved me and you. Due to that love, He laid aside His divine glory and dignity for a time so that he could be born as a human with a plan to die a cruel death as a substitute sacrifice for you and me. In your eyes, I’m not worth that. And in my eyes, you’re not worth that. OK, maybe you and I would pick some people who we’d say are worth it, but there are a whole lot that we’d leave out. So I’m glad we weren’t the ones having to make a decision as to whether or not to lay aside divine glory and honor and dignity for the people walking around on this giant ball called Earth.

It is strange to think that Jesus…God the Son…would die at all, much less that He would willingly choose to die for such ungrateful, irritating people (including you and me). But, strangely, oddly, fortunately…He did!

Be sure to thank Him for setting aside His divine prerogatives in order to die for you! And then strive to tell this great news to someone else today.

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Christian Living

Finding Renewal When You Are Worn Down and Beat Up

I believe this has been my longest “hiatus” away from writing since I began the blog. Sorry to those of you who thought I must have deleted you from the email subscription list!

The reason wasn’t that I ran out of things to say (as those of you who know me well already knew!), but rather that I have been out of my office (and my house) for much of the past three weeks. The first week out was for a trip to Honduras to spend time with a missionary friend who serves there. The next two weeks were ministry conferences and conventions in Jackson, MS, and Alpharetta, GA. It has been a great three weeks, but I am ready to get back into my regular routine. Thanks for the kind words from those of you who let me know you missed the weekly postings!

Getting away from our regular routines does some great things for us – it lets you see new things, meet new people, have new conversations, imagine new directions, perhaps even reset your course if you have veered a bit wayward on the journey. If we utilize the time rightly, getting away can be a time of refreshment and renewal.

Photo of Lake Yojoa in Honduras where I found time for renewal
Lake Yojoa in Honduras

–This is a photo of Lake Yojoa in Honduras, which was taken from the “Path to Heaven” Camp area in the midst of a coffee and banana plantation at the top of a small mountain. It was a great place to find a time of refreshing and renewal – at least once you finished the hike up to the top! To give you a sense of the scale/size, Lake Yojoa is about the same size as the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi.–

Now, I didn’t feel worn down or beat up when I left for Honduras some three-and-a-half weeks ago, but almost four weeks later, I find myself with a sense of renewal and refreshment that I wasn’t expecting. And this sense of renewal is from having new experiences with my friend, with the people he is serving, and with the fellow ministers I have been around for the past two weeks. I now have some new ideas to mull over regarding directions for my life and the life of my church family that I would not have ever thought about in the midst of my regular routine.

Paige and I read Genesis 18 yesterday during our family devotion time. This is the account of God and two angels coming to Abraham and discussing the upcoming birth of Isaac. When he sees them, Abraham asks the Lord to rest for a moment under the tree, to let him bring them water to wash their feet, and some food to give them strength – all so that “you may refresh yourselves.” Abraham wanted them to experience a sense of inner renewal before they continue on with their journey. Now certainly, God doesn’t need rest like we do, but Abraham realized the principles of renewal and rest during the journey.

I thank God for giving me an opportunity for rest and renewal these past few weeks. Even though I wasn’t resting under a tree during the time, the break in the routine provided me with a sense of renewal that I didn’t even realize I needed. But many times we don’t get a week or more to find renewal. Many times we have to find renewal in a lot less time. In fact, some of you reading this might be saying – I need a sense of renewal right now!

So let’s try to help each other by answering one or more of these questions to give some possible renewal ideas to those who need it today: How do you do it? How do make sure that you experience renewal during your journey? How has God helped you feel refreshed in the midst of your walk of life? What practices have you put into your routine so that you take time to feel renewed?

For me in this past three weeks, one of the keys was that I spent time with God-honoring, encouraging people. I spent time with people who were available for me to ask important questions to (and who had time to give me their answers). I also spent time in a new location. I spent time away from my regular routine. And during it all, I spent time hearing from God through His Word, through some Sermons I downloaded to listen to, and through reading some ministry-focused books.

What about you? What else would you add about how do find refreshment and renewal on this journey called life?

Categories
Bible

Does Reading the Bible Have Any Value?

“Does Reading the Bible Have Any Value?”
  by brian rushing

“They tell us that the Bible is the Word of God… a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. They tell us that we shall find within it the knowledge of God and his will for our lives….

“So we take our Bibles and start to read them… because we really do want to know God. But as we read, we get more and more puzzled. Though fascinated, we are not being fed. Our reading is not helping us; it leaves us bewildered and, if the truth be told, somewhat depressed. We find ourselves wondering whether Bible reading is worth going on with.
photo of person reading the Bible symbolizing the question - does reading the Bible have any value? Is it important?
“It is all intensely interesting, but it all seems very far away. It all belongs to that ancient world, not to this world. We feel that we are, so to speak, on the outside of the Bible world, looking in. We are mere spectators, and that is all. Our unspoken thought is — “Yes, God did all that then, and very wonderful it was for the people involved, but how does it touch us now? We don’t live in the same world.

“How can the record of God’s words and deeds in Bible times, the record of his dealings with Abraham and Moses and David and the rest, help us, who have to live in modern times?”

Have you ever felt like this? Dr. Packer explains exactly how I have felt at times. That as I read God’s Word, I have certainly thought that there were portions of the Bible that were rich and wonderful, but there were also portions that were dry and tedious and puzzling. And many times it got me frustrated and discouraged and therefore I’d just stop reading the Bible.

But what I have learned is two-fold. 1st – Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In fact, one of my favorite quotes about life is about the hard stuff in life: “”It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” (From the movie, “A League of Their Own”). So I’ve learned to press on even in the hard spots of reading God’s Word. And as I do so (with the help of Bible commentary to assist me in difficult spots), I find that it isn’t as hard as I once thought, and even the “puzzling parts” become less tedious.

2nd – I’ve learned that I should come back to the parts that I most enjoy when I start getting frustrated. The four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell us the story of Jesus. This is our “meat and potatoes” and anytime I start getting bogged down in the Old Testament, instead of allowing my Bible reading to become frustrating or discouraging, I simply stop reading that portion for a while and go back to the “meat and potatoes.” Then after a few days or weeks, I go back to where I left off in the difficult spot, and I have a new attitude about reading it.

The more we read God’s Word – and ALL of God’s Word – the more we understand that it all works together – it is all God’s revealing Himself and His story to us. It should amaze us. It should excite us. It should direct us. It is the most important book ever written. We should give serious attention to it. Yes, there are places where it might seem hard – but as we spend more time with it, we find that we even enjoy the hard parts, because as we study them, we learn more about who our great God is.

Dr. Packer summarizes our lack of attention to the Bible by saying: “It is feared that many today who profess to be Christ’s never learn wisdom, through failure to attend sufficiently to God’s written Word. . . . How long is it since you read right through the Bible? Do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do even with the newspaper? What fools some of us are! And we remain fools all our lives, simply because we will not take the trouble to do what has to be done to receive the wisdom which is God’s free gift.”

Take some time today to stop reading all the other stuff beside your chair, on your desk, or on your phone or tablet for a little while, so that you can pick up God’s Word. If you are not sure where to start, go to the gospel book of Mark. It is a fast-paced account of Jesus. Take time to start digesting the very Word of God to you. It truly is worth it!


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Jesus

The Freedom of Someone Else In Charge

“The Freedom of Someone Else In Charge”
brian rushing

In school, we were occasionally required to do group projects. Group projects were the worst.

At first it would seem that group projects would be great – more people sharing the burden to get the work done. But that was rarely the reality.

I love the t-shirt quote I recently encountered:
“When I die I want my group project members to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.”

The reason group projects didn’t work well very often is that no one knew who was in charge and no one wanted to volunteer to be in charge. But as soon as someone did step into that “group leader” role, they became the responsible one to get the work done. It then seemed that everyone else then decided to become lazy or incompetent!

A person sleeping on a grassy hill symbolizing the Freedom of Someone Else being in Charge
i think this is one of my group project members

What we learn from such exercises is that: Being in charge requires responsibility.

When you have agreed to provide the leadership for an event or a project, the burden of responsibility can get heavy. That is why most of us would prefer to not be the group leader. If someone else gets assigned that role or voluntarily chooses it, then we feel much more relaxed and we often wash our hands of the consequences. We take the attitude of: “Well, he is in charge, so if it doesn’t go well… if it isn’t successful… the blame falls on him.”

And while most of us never wanted to take on that group leader role, Jesus is different. He says to us: “Give me your life. I want to be in charge of it.”

I like the idea that if I give Him that responsibility, I can wash my hands of the consequences. Others in the Bible found that same freedom. Take Daniel and his three friends as an example:

Those who know God show great boldness for God.

Daniel and his friends were men who stuck their necks out. This was not foolhardiness. They knew what they were doing. They had counted the cost. They had measured the risk. They were well aware what the outcome of their actions would be unless God miraculously intervened, as in fact He did.

But these things did not move them. Once they were convinced that their stand was right, and that loyalty to their God required them to take it, then, in Oswald Chambers’s phrase, they “smilingly washed their hands of the consequences.”

“We must obey God rather than men!” said the apostles.

“I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with joy,” said Paul.

I’m striving to do a better job of letting Jesus take the lead, so I can smilingly wash my hands of the consequences! I like the freedom of letting Him be in charge.


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)