The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 12 – The Choice

So, we have spent the last 11 weeks reviewing the The Story, to understand the background of the warning of Hebrews 10.

As the story unfolded, we found three key developments.

Life

When The Story began, we had Life. That is, our existence had meaning.

We had an identity. We were created to represent God – to bear His image. When you look at us, you were to see Him. We were somebody.

We also had significance. As His representatives, we were given the responsibility to rule over creation, administering His agenda, and fill that creation with others who would do the same. Our lives made a difference – we had an impact.

And our lives were full. As His representatives, we walked with God. He gave us a place to live — the Garden — a place of beauty and abundant provision. And, He gave us a mate — someone who would perfectly fulfill the needs and desires that we had for assistance, companionship and intimacy. We had fulfillment.

So, in the beginning, we not only had existence, but that existence had meaning – identity, significance and fulfillment.

Death

But, very early in The Story, our role as God’s representatives was tested. Rather than choosing to administer God’s agenda, we decided that we could be god-like ourselves, and began to pursue life according to our own agenda. In this betrayal of God, we abandoned our relationship with Him and became rebels. In this  choice, we abandoned our identity as His representatives. And since we no longer represented Him, we forfeited the significance and that came with ruling as His representatives. God  responded with a curse, bringing futility to creation and physical death to us, and then kicked us out of the Garden.

So, we became objects of God’s wrath, doomed to return to the dust, and abandoned the identity, significance, and fulfillment that gave meaning to our existence. We died.

Hope Read more

The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 11 – Serving The Christ

So, if I get to go to heaven simply by trusting Jesus for forgiveness, and if this discipleship-thing is so demanding, why go to all the trouble? Sure, it might make me a “better person,” but I’d rather do my own thing. And, if we’re Christians, we’re all going to end up in the same place anyway. Yeah, a really committed Christian might get a few extra perks, but the difference is not really much of a big deal, right?

Not exactly. Actually, not even close.

Aside from the audacity of rejecting portions of the offer of the Christ, and aside from the foolishness of choosing to work things out on our own – aside from that, there are ramifications.  Read more

The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 10 – Following The Christ

So Jesus comes as the Christ, announcing the Kingdom, and calling individuals to follow Him as disciples. How does this discipleship fit and what is involved?

Let’s begin with John’s statement that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we will have Life (John 20:30-31). And as we saw last week, when Jesus appeared as the Christ, He called individuals to follow as His disciples. Does that mean that we have to be His disciples in order to have Life?

Well, yes and no. This is a critical point to understand.

The answer is “no”, if we mean “Life” in the sense that it is often used in Gospel presentations. In this sense, “Life” would mean that I go to heaven when I die. And if that was all we were talking about, then the only thing that would matter is whether I had trusted Jesus to pay the penalty for my sins. If so, then I would go to heaven when I die, regardless of how well I lived the Christian life.

But that is not the primary meaning of “Life” in The Story, and that does not encompass all the Life that Christ offers to us. Read more

The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 9 – Responding to The Christ

So, when the Christ shows up, what does He do, and what kind of response does He require?

Well, two emphases dominate Jesus’ ministry from the very beginning.

Matthew and Mark summarize the first of these with the statement that Jesus began to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15). Our minds tend to interpret this in light of our modern Christian experience, and probably envision something along the lines of street evangelism or evangelistic outreach events.

But Luke gives us more detail in his Gospel (Luke 4:14-44) – Read more

The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 8 – The Hope Identified

We have journeyed through the Old Testament, tracing the hope held out since man decided to pursue life on his own terms. Following it through the millennia, we have seen the hope grow from a glimmer in Genesis 3:15 into a full-blown image with surprising detail. By the time we get through The Prophets, we are able to put together the following description -

• He will crush the Enemy who challenged God’s Kingdom on earth.
• He will bring, not only relief from the curse, but, in it’s place blessing to all nations.
• He will bring such complete knowledge of the Lord that pain and destruction will be done away with among all creatures. The lamb and lion will lay down together.
• He will be a descendant of Abraham and David, ruling sovereignly over a regathered Kingdom of Israel that will not be overthrown. All Israel’s oppressors will be finally and completely defeated.
• His government will establish perfect peace, justice and righteousness in all the earth.
• He will suffer for the atonement and healing of the many.
• Oh, I almost forgot. He will also be God-incarnate.

The period of the Prophets, which began, perhaps as early as 872 BC, and lasted until 431 BC, was relatively rich with communication from God. Much of this communication relayed God’s displeasure with Israel for their failure to keep their covenant with Him, and the resulting judgment. In this vein, one of the earlier prophets, Amos foretold (760 BC) of a coming time when men would long to hear from God, but would not.

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
The will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it.”
(Amos 8:11-12)

With the closing of the book of Malachi, this famine began. From 431 BC until the prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus and John, around 1 BC/AD, there is only silence. Yet the anticipation continues. Read more