The past couple of weeks have been so amazing. Of course, my definition of amazing here is probably drastically different than how I might normally use it. I definitely wouldn't say that I've been having fun and really been blessed with joys abounding. But then again, maybe I would say that.
If I think back 6 months, I can almost hear myself asking God "how can I find joy in trials?" Maybe I only have to think back 2 months or even less to remember that same question. I can say triumphantly that one of the most amazing things God is doing in my life right now is teaching me how to rejoice in trials and suffering. It has taken a whirlwind of events and emotions for this process to happen, but it's happening and I couldn't be more excited because I know I'm growing and becoming more like Jesus! He's answering my prayers! He lives so that I can have life in abundance!
So where is the joy? It's in the continued evidence of Jesus Christ's work in my heart and in my life and the impact that it has on my relationship with Him and my relationships with those around me. He's teaching me to walk in the prayer that I've had for a long time: "Jesus, make me like you no matter what it costs me...even if it is my life." He's teaching me how to LIVE that prayer! Praise God!
With all of that being said, I want to take a look at an idea that God has been stirring in me for awhile from John chapter 6 at the end of Jesus' Bread of Life discourse. To start with some background, just previous to this sermon, Jesus has fed 5,000 men with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, walked on water, healed many diseased and crippled people, oh and told all of those following Him that He is God. He's had a busy time.
Now He meets a crowd of people, likely the same crowd that He fed the day before, and they are hungry. Just as God rained down manna from Heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness, this crowd is expecting Jesus to provide their meals for them. Jesus tells them to seek the food that endures to eternal life and believe in Him. They ask Him for a sign so that they might believe. That's when Jesus hits them with the life-giving or heart-hardening truth depending on which side the hearer falls under.
He says: I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35
Jesus goes on to give a very difficult speech about eating His flesh and drinking His blood which threw the Jews into a fit of rage. I believe Jesus did this intentionally to harden the Jews' hearts and to give His disciples a chance to make a stand for Him or shrink away because things were getting difficult. His disciples were mumbling that it was a hard statement, and Jesus confronted them about it. We find the result of that confrontation in verses 66-69 of John 6:
After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
Notice the two responses. MANY turned back and followed Him no longer. But His true followers responded differently. By continuing to follow Jesus, each in turn made the statement that Peter uttered. "Jesus, you have the words of eternal life and we believe and know you to be the Holy One of God. Where could we possibly go? Your words are life."
We are all faced with times in our lives when we are confronted with this question from Jesus. "Do you want to leave too?" It can happen at the outset of our spiritual journey threatening to remove the seed that God has sewn in our hearts. It can happen when we are young in the faith still in need of spiritual milk when we are vulnerable to believing a lie of the evil one. It can happen when we are established in our faith and feeling confident in our relationship with Christ.
How we answer that question goes a long way to show where our heart is. Is it immersed in the words of life that Christ gives us? Is our heart prepared for the turmoil that may come from continuing to follow Jesus? Or will we shrink from it? Will we leave disappointed because Christ didn't provide what it was that we thought He should have?
God, that we could be people who know that your words are life eternal and follow you wherever you lead us! May we be so by your grace for there is no other way it be possible!
Knowing that Jesus' words are eternal life, we come to the reality that following Him requires us to die to ourselves. Consider the following words of A.W. Tozer describing this death:
"In human experience that veil is made up of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the Cross no cross and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the Cross did to Jesus and it is what the Cross would do to every man to set him free."
Dying to ourselves brings freedom to live life the way that God has always intended us to live. Jesus doesn't promise easy living, but He does promise real living, living that is immersed in the Truth of His Word. Do we dare approach the Cross and offer ourselves on its rough and splintery planks? We must if we choose to follow Jesus for there is no other way to know Him than to die.
It hurts. It hurts each and every time we face it. Yet it brings life more abundantly each and every time as well. Jesus loves us enough to not stop at saving our souls but continuing the work to make us mature and complete in Him. He asks us to follow Him as He has gone before us suffering and agonizing in this body of death. He promises life in return. He promises Himself. Nothing is so sweet. Nothing is so satisfying than Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 2:8, Paul writes "And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Jesus simply says "Follow me." I encourage you to be like Peter as I strive to be like Peter who says "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
May God give all of us the courage to come to the Cross and follow Him.
If I think back 6 months, I can almost hear myself asking God "how can I find joy in trials?" Maybe I only have to think back 2 months or even less to remember that same question. I can say triumphantly that one of the most amazing things God is doing in my life right now is teaching me how to rejoice in trials and suffering. It has taken a whirlwind of events and emotions for this process to happen, but it's happening and I couldn't be more excited because I know I'm growing and becoming more like Jesus! He's answering my prayers! He lives so that I can have life in abundance!
So where is the joy? It's in the continued evidence of Jesus Christ's work in my heart and in my life and the impact that it has on my relationship with Him and my relationships with those around me. He's teaching me to walk in the prayer that I've had for a long time: "Jesus, make me like you no matter what it costs me...even if it is my life." He's teaching me how to LIVE that prayer! Praise God!
With all of that being said, I want to take a look at an idea that God has been stirring in me for awhile from John chapter 6 at the end of Jesus' Bread of Life discourse. To start with some background, just previous to this sermon, Jesus has fed 5,000 men with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, walked on water, healed many diseased and crippled people, oh and told all of those following Him that He is God. He's had a busy time.
Now He meets a crowd of people, likely the same crowd that He fed the day before, and they are hungry. Just as God rained down manna from Heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness, this crowd is expecting Jesus to provide their meals for them. Jesus tells them to seek the food that endures to eternal life and believe in Him. They ask Him for a sign so that they might believe. That's when Jesus hits them with the life-giving or heart-hardening truth depending on which side the hearer falls under.
He says: I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35
Jesus goes on to give a very difficult speech about eating His flesh and drinking His blood which threw the Jews into a fit of rage. I believe Jesus did this intentionally to harden the Jews' hearts and to give His disciples a chance to make a stand for Him or shrink away because things were getting difficult. His disciples were mumbling that it was a hard statement, and Jesus confronted them about it. We find the result of that confrontation in verses 66-69 of John 6:
After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
Notice the two responses. MANY turned back and followed Him no longer. But His true followers responded differently. By continuing to follow Jesus, each in turn made the statement that Peter uttered. "Jesus, you have the words of eternal life and we believe and know you to be the Holy One of God. Where could we possibly go? Your words are life."
We are all faced with times in our lives when we are confronted with this question from Jesus. "Do you want to leave too?" It can happen at the outset of our spiritual journey threatening to remove the seed that God has sewn in our hearts. It can happen when we are young in the faith still in need of spiritual milk when we are vulnerable to believing a lie of the evil one. It can happen when we are established in our faith and feeling confident in our relationship with Christ.
How we answer that question goes a long way to show where our heart is. Is it immersed in the words of life that Christ gives us? Is our heart prepared for the turmoil that may come from continuing to follow Jesus? Or will we shrink from it? Will we leave disappointed because Christ didn't provide what it was that we thought He should have?
God, that we could be people who know that your words are life eternal and follow you wherever you lead us! May we be so by your grace for there is no other way it be possible!
Knowing that Jesus' words are eternal life, we come to the reality that following Him requires us to die to ourselves. Consider the following words of A.W. Tozer describing this death:
"In human experience that veil is made up of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the Cross no cross and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the Cross did to Jesus and it is what the Cross would do to every man to set him free."
Dying to ourselves brings freedom to live life the way that God has always intended us to live. Jesus doesn't promise easy living, but He does promise real living, living that is immersed in the Truth of His Word. Do we dare approach the Cross and offer ourselves on its rough and splintery planks? We must if we choose to follow Jesus for there is no other way to know Him than to die.
It hurts. It hurts each and every time we face it. Yet it brings life more abundantly each and every time as well. Jesus loves us enough to not stop at saving our souls but continuing the work to make us mature and complete in Him. He asks us to follow Him as He has gone before us suffering and agonizing in this body of death. He promises life in return. He promises Himself. Nothing is so sweet. Nothing is so satisfying than Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 2:8, Paul writes "And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Jesus simply says "Follow me." I encourage you to be like Peter as I strive to be like Peter who says "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
May God give all of us the courage to come to the Cross and follow Him.
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