Voice in the Wilderness

Intimacy – Fueled by love/passion, “we love Him because He first loved us.”

If we find our love for Him lacking, it is because we have listened to the lies of the enemy accusing God’s love being conditional, therefore not available in power to us because of our sinful, frail human condition. The enemy wages war against our soul heaping shame and condemnation upon us like the Egyptians heaped heavy bags of grain and mortar upon the shoulders of the Isrealites. At the end of the day, our strength is spent, our identity as children of God is all but forgotten after seemingly 400 years of slavery – despite our elders, teachers, parents, friends and family reminding us of our heritage week after week, day after day. The reality of the harsh conditions of slavery and the brutal searing lashes of our demonic oppressors weigh heavier upon our minds and our concept of who we are than does the truth of God’s Word or the encouragement of a well-meaning friend or teacher.

Then we hear a voice raised up like a trumpet shouting, “PHAROAH! LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!” The voice echoes through our soul like an earthquake, and just like what happened with Paul and Silas, we look down with astonishment and see that our shackles are broken and the doors of the prison holding us captive have been opened.

The voice shines like a light from heaven, piercing the darkness, driving away fear, shame, condemnation and every other deception of the evil one. The voice is one of a modern-day deliverer whom God has raised up to echo the words of Jesus, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

This same voice proclaims, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6-11)

It is this message of unconditional love that is stronger than our sin that pulls us out of our self –pity and deprecation, and awakens our heart to the possibilities of a life free in God. It is this message of unconditional love that motivates us to return to our first love. This same voice proclaims, “Even in your weakness, you are lovely! Everything I do,” says the Lord, “I do for you, my love.”

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned…” (John 3:16-18a, emphasis mine)

It is this love that motivated God to create us in the first place, desiring to have relationship with us. It was this unconditional love that motivated Him to set His plan of redemption into place after the fall of humanity instead of wiping us out and creating a new race of creatures that could please Him better.

It was this unconditional love which motivated Christ, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11)

This is why when the voice of the deliverer that cries out from the wilderness cries out shouting, “PHARAOH! LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!” Pharaoh listens. Pharaoh must submit. If he resists, the powers of heaven and of earth are shaken as God displays mighty works of power and glory in demonstration against the hand of Pharaoh. Jesus defeated death and the power of the devil on the cross, and Ephesians 4:8 states, “When He ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” The apostle Paul was quoting David in Psalms 68:18 which also includes, “and He gave gifts to men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.”

This is where the rubber hits the road. Yes, God loves rebellious you and I. God loves our hearts, despite our nature being prone to wander from His presence. God’s love is stronger than our sin. God’s love is stronger than besetting sin, even habitual sin that we can’t seem to leave in the past. A revelation of God’s unconditional love for us is our only hope for defeating this sin.
Gazing upon Him, beholding His glory, we will be changed from glory to glory. God is love. As we gaze upon Him, and upon His great love for us, we WILL be changed. That is why it is so important that we take time to gaze upon Him, because we become what we are beholding (gazing upon).

When Jacob set the spotted branch in front of the strong goats of Laban’s herd as they were breeding, they gave birth to strong, spotted offspring. By the time Jacob had done this over a course of several years, Jacob ended up with all of the strength of his father-in-law’s herd, because he had previously made an agreement to leave with the spotted of his flock.

Let this be our motivation then, to gaze upon Him with a revelation of His unending, overwhelming love for us and for all of humanity. Lord, visit the apple of your eye with your Spirit! Visit the apple of your eye with your power! Turn the hearts of your people! Send forth the spirit of Elijah again! Let your voice be heard once again!

True Love can't wait (to give)

(this is a synthesis of a message by John Piper in his video series The Blazing Center)

2 Corinthians 8:1-4,8
1 Corinthians 13:3

The apostle Paul was encouraging the Corinthian church to give generously for the needs of the poor in Jerusalem by describing a miracle which he had experienced in Macedonia as he saw how the church there gave.

1We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.

Verse 8 shows that what is described in vv1-4 is what Paul would call "genuine love".

So this is how the whole deal came down:

First- "the grace of God was given among the churches"
then- "in a severe test of affliction" (circumstances)
"extreme poverty" combined with "abundance of joy"
to produce an overflow of wealth of generosity

this generosity is further described as:
giving- according to their means--> beyond their means
of their own free will--> begging earnestly for the favor of giving

Picture this: a bowl made out of clay (earthen vessel) = the Macedonian church
sitting on brambles and thorns which are on fire = severe test of affliction (probably persecution)
with a few tablespoons of thin soup in the bowl= extreme poverty

then ALL OF A SUDDEN God rains his grace on them!

and the whole mess bubbles up and spills over = generous giving for the needs of the poor

Now consider 1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul says, "even if I make an extreme act of generosity and devotion, if it is not motivated by LOVE- it isn't worth anything in God's accounting."

Based on 2 Corinthians 8, Love is:
The outpouring of God's grace which produces such joy that it overflows in generosity to others (even in extreme circumstances of poverty and persecution).

So the often quoted teaching that "Love isn't a feeling, it is something you DO." is wrong, or at least incomplete. I believe it is a reaction to worldly, selfish "love" which is motivated by the loveliness of the object, and produces feelings of desire in the "lover". Certainly it is true that love is more than a feeling, in this sense.

The next step up is a love motivated by knowledge of God's law and a sense of duty to obey it. It is a legalistic, dutiful love. It is an act of the will. Piper (characteristically, in my opinion) sees only black and white, and says this is NOT love at all. I quibble with this, because I believe we are to use all the weapons at our disposal, and sometimes the only one at hand is duty.

In the first case, the love is focused on the object, the person being loved.
In the second, the focus is on the subject, the lover and her duty to love.
The best case includes both the object and the subject, but is energized neither by the desirability nor the needs of the former, nor the desire or duty of the latter, but by the grace of God.

Yes we see the need, yes we realize our duty- but then the grace of God pours down and soaks us in joy! We love out of an exuberant desire to share God's love which is overflowing in our hearts.

So true love can't wait, and true love is a feeling.