There is an interesting passage I have been meditating on that has always seemed odd to me. John the Baptist is a prophet whom I have always admired, especially since Jesus spoke so highly of him. But there is an incident that occurs when John is in prison that I have always interpreted as a time where he was having doubts about his ministry. That never made complete sense to me, since Jesus was the same man John had called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”! After taking another look at the accounts in Matthew and Luke, I have come to another conclusion for you to consider. Let’s look at what Luke said.

When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Luke 7:20-23 NKJV)

I think one problem was that I would stop at the end of verse 22. But in verse 23 Jesus not only reassures John that He is in fact the Messiah, but also reminds him to focus on the big picture of His mission, and not be offended because someone else is getting a miracle deliverance and seemingly John is not. What do I mean by that?

Well just a few chapters earlier in Luke, Jesus gets up to read in the synagogue from Isaiah and fulfills a prophetic picture of what His earthly ministry would be.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18, 19)

Jesus, by giving the answer He gave about the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lepers being cleansed, and the poor having the gospel preached to them, is reminding John of a couple of things.
1. It’s not about you.
2. Focus on and give thanks for what God is doing, not on what He is seemingly not doing.
I believe John asked the question, not because He was starting to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah, but because he knew the prophecy Jesus was fulfilling from Isaiah 61. John was trying to say, “the sick are healed, the lame walk, but what about delivering this captive?” And that is why Jesus added verse 23 to His reply to John’s disciples and reminded him not to be offended.

So what are some applications of this for us today?

Have you ever been striving for something in prayer with God? Maybe it was for restoration of health. Perhaps you were struggling financially, or were battling an addiction. And in the heat of the battle someone comes along that prays one time, and gets an instant reply. They quickly return to health, or get an inheritance from a long lost uncle, or are delivered from an addiction. Or a marriage or other family relationship is healed. While all of this is going on, you are still in the trenches doing battle and calling upon The Lord for deliverance. In times like these, it would be easy to resent what God has done for the other person rather than “rejoicing with those who rejoice”. Rather than focusing on what God has done and being thankful, we are tempted to turn inward and focus on what has not been done and become offended. This is dangerous ground, for a root of bitterness will defile us and those around us if we do not dig it out. (Hebrews 12:15) We are serving a Savior who has promised that He will never leave us, and will be with us always (Matthew 28:20) and that is a promise we can rest in.

Another application of this principle of not being offended when someone else gets an answer from God can be seen in two other miracles that Jesus performed. I would like to call attention to how these stories would have changed if resentment and bitterness had been harbored and offense had been taken.

In Luke chapter 8, Jairus comes and begs jesus to heal his little girl. When Jesus was walking with Jairus to his house to heal her, a ceremonially unclean woman with an issue of blood causes Jesus to stop when she reaches out, touches His garment, and is healed. While Jesus is ministering to her, Jairus’ servants come and tell him that his daughter had died. Can you imagine how different things would have been if he had become offended and lashed out in anger because this woman’s miracle had delayed Jesus from getting to his daughter before she died? He would have gone into unbelief and lost a daughter.

Or what about the man who was lame from birth, who sat at the Beautiful Gate by the temple in Acts 3? What if, when Peter and John mentioned the name of Jesus, the beggar had been offended because Jesus was a frequent visitor to the temple, and had healed thousands of people, but had never stopped and healed him? His miracle would literally have passed him by.

So don’t short circuit your answer from God by becoming offended when someone else’s prayers are answered. Rejoice with those who rejoice and gain courage from the knowledge that Jesus knows exactly what He is doing. Be heartened in the promise that He will never leave you or forsake you. You have not been abandoned. And in contentment, rest in the assurance that God is working all things together for good for saints like you that love Him. (Romans 8:28)

Faith. It is a fruit of the Spirit that is essential to our spiritual progress, and even our salvation. Much is said in the Scriptures about having faith enough to receive whatever we ask of The Lord. And it is correct to say that God rewards the faith of those who diligently seek Him.

But there is a deeper level of faith than the one required for receiving an affirmative answer to our requests. A question we all need to consider is this: “Do I have enough faith to get a ‘no’ from God?” Please let me illustrate what I mean.
If you are faced with a terminal illness, do you have enough trust and faith in God to continue to follow Him if you are not healed? Do you trust Him enough to die if that is His will? I submit to you that this takes more faith than receiving an instant healing.

That kind of faith was shown by the three Hebrew young men who refused to worship the golden statue of the king.

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17, 18 NKJV)

Did you catch what they said? They believed that God could protect them, but were determined to follow His commandments even if their deliverance did not come. That is the kind of faith God is looking for — unconditional faith! I think it was there “no matter what” attitude that helped them to be delivered from the fiery furnace without even a hint of smoke on them. You see, faith is not belief without evidence; it is obedience without reservation.

In the Gospels, Jesus showed that same kind of faith in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. ” (Matthew 26:39 NKJV)

Jesus’ depth of faith and trust was displayed by His willingness to receive form The Father whatever the divine will entailed. It involved subordinating His own will to that of the Father. It begs the question about our own faith. Am I willing to not shrink back in my faith if it means the will of God leads through the valley of the shadow of death? When it all comes down to it, will we be able to say what Job said? “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (Job 13:15a).”

Too often today, the lost are told that they need to come to Christ because of all the things He will do to make life better for them. It’s a “me” centered message that is both harmful and unbiblical. Television preachers talk incessantly about how healing or deliverance hinges on how much faith they have. But salvation is not about having “our best life now” or being a success in business. It is about complete and utter surrender to the will of God, no matter where that leads us. That is why we need to be able to put aside what we desire and accept what He desires without reservation.

The poet, Joyce Kilmer once wrote that “only God can make a tree” and she was right. Many important events in the Bible happened on or around trees. But I would like to consider what are arguably two of the most significant events in history that involved trees.

To look at the first event, we need to go back to the Garden of Eden. From the beginning, Adam lived in complete freedom to partake from any tree in the garden, except for one.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16, 17 NASB)

Pretty simple, right? But as we all know, Adam and Eve both ate from the tree after satan convinced them that Jehovah was trying to withhold something from them. Once they stopped trusting what God had told them, they were setup to fall.

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4, 5)

After the Fall in the garden, they were kicked out of paradise and sin, or a sinful nature that predisposes us to sinfulness, passed to all. It was like someone dented the bread pan and from then on every loaf had a defect.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- (Romans 5:12)

But that was not to be the end. Even though death and sin entered the world because of what happened on a tree, the remedy for our situation would come from a “Second Adam”, at it would also happen at a tree.
The early church father, Irenaeus, put it this way:

“Through a tree we were made debtors to God; so through a tree we have our debt canceled.”

And he was right! The death that came through the sin at a tree was atoned for by the perfect sacrifice of the Son of God on a tree. Paul, by inspiration, described it like this:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree “- (Galatians 3:13 NASB)

Jesus took the cross, a tree of death, and turned it into the new tree of life for us. An implement of torture and cruel punishment for sin, is now a source of life and forgiveness of sin.

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed. (I Peter 2:24 NKJV)

Yes, Joyce Kilmer was right when she wrote that “that only God can make a tree”, but even more significantly, only God can take a tree of death, and make it a tree of life! Where the first Adam fell and brought death, the second Adam has paid for life and immortality for all who would receive it!

but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel! (2 Timothy 1:10 NET)

Much of our everyday existence is filled with routine. While some things are only done occasionally, there are a whole host of things that we do on a daily basis that are so routine that we may not even realize that we do them. And that’s not always a bad thing, for there are spiritual and temporal habits that are healthy and should be second nature to us. What I want to talk about are the things we ought to do on a daily basis so that they become part of who we are, but that get relegated to one day a week or times of deep distress and spiritual need. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Colossians talked about some of those things.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:16, 17 NKJV)

The foundation for all of this, is letting the word of Christ dwell in you. But not just a sparingly, but richly. We need to have an overflowing abundance of the Word of God inside of us, so that it is always coloring whatever we do on a daily basis. Now I don’t care how good your preacher or teachers are, they cannot get this level of the Word into you, any more than you could sit down one day and eat enough physical food to nourish your body for the rest of the week! We have to hunger and thirst after spiritual food, and that happens when we go to the Word and take it in on a daily basis.

In the physical realm, there comes a point when someone is starving that they lose their appetite. In time, they become so weak that they lack the energy and will to eat. The same thing can happen spiritually if we do not feast in the Word of God. What is amazing about the Word of God is that the more you read it, the hungrier you get for it. We need to feast on the Word in order to grow and thrive.

as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, (I Peter 2:2 NKJV)

What will the result of an overflowing abundance of the Word of God be in our lives? We will begin to have the Word come to mind just when we need it, or when someone else needs it. We can be a resource to help others along the way. We also begin to see things from a scriptural perspective, which is good, because in the end, it only really matters what God thinks about things, not what our own opinions are.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. (Psalms 119:11)

If we continually feast on the Word, there can press on towards the time when whatever we say and do will be affected by what we have taken in from our consumption of the truths of God’s Word. Does that mean that we cannot do anything at all without chapter and verse to authorize it? Of course not. Try finding a verse that says to floss your teeth! But the point is that when we start to see the pattern, albeit through a glass darkly, of how God thinks and the principles that we should live by, we can slowly move to conform our daily lives into ones that honor God and our Savior Jesus Christ. We can start doing things “in His name”, for we are His ambassadors here on the earth.

The natural and continual by product of this type of living is a spirit of thanksgiving. Our gratitude will be another thing that permeates out thinking and our actions. In turn, that gratitude will spur us on to greater love and good works. Which will make us grateful, etc. it’s a continual upward spiral! But again, the foundation is a continual taking in of the Word. If we stop and depend on what we read in the past alone, we will grow weak, lose our spiritual appetite, and starve. We will also be ungrateful.

So the next time you pick up the table, try doing this: open it up, pray, and then as you begin to read say, “lets eat!” and spiritually chow down. After all, you have to be full before you can overflow.

He was a traitor to his people, his family, and his own integrity. He had been kicked out of his family, his faith, and his nation. No one wanted anything to do with him, unless it meant casting further scorn on him or even killing him. He had nothing left but a nagging conscience, which he tried to drown out in the pursuit of wealth at the expense of those who had cast him out.

Things had not always been this way. He was from a priestly family, and had been given the name of his tribe — Levi. But somehow, somewhere, the temple worship had lost its luster for Levi. Perhaps it was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as the paraded around like pious peacocks wanting to be admired for their meticulous obedience to the traditions of the fathers. Then again, maybe it was the greed of the money changers, who were stealing from the people like the hated tax collectors, but whitewashed it as holy commerce. So Levi left it all and went to the dark side. He began collecting taxes for the emperor, with extra added on for his personal “needs” as he saw fit.

His father Alphaeus (Clopas in Hebrew) was heartbroken, as was his mother Mary. His brother James had severed ties with Levi long ago and would not even speak to him or acknowledge that he was even alive. This family, once admired for their priestly piety and decorum, was coming apart at the seams.

But then He came along. A prophet from Nazareth of all places. His name was Jesus, and He taught in a way none of them had heard before. Instead of rambling quotes from rabbis of the past, He taught with authority. What especially appealed to Levi was the man, Jesus, who was not afraid to say out loud some of what he had been thinking all along about the Pharisees and the money changers. From what he could tell, his mother was the first to become a disciple, followed soon after by his brother James and father Alphaeus. It was all well and good for them, but what Levi had done was so heinous as to be irreversible. There was no path back into the fold once you sold your soul to Rome.

“Good for them!” he thought. At least they had found the answers he had been looking for but only discovered too late for redemption. Even if, somehow, this Jesus would let him follow at a distance, his father and brother would never publicly accept him back into the family. And he was wrong. Jesus was teaching about forgiveness and restoring relationships with his Father in heaven. Perhaps there was a chance, but did Levi dare to get his hopes up? No, it was best to resign himself to making the most of life as an outcast.

And then one day, as if out of nowhere, Levi was blindsided. Before he had time to consider the “what ifs” Jesus of Nazareth walked by his tax station. Would he be today’s object lesson, or the brunt of righteous indignation? Levi braced himself. What he heard instead were the sweetest words ever to enter his ears and pierce his soul. As their eyes met, Jesus simply said, “Follow me.” And that’s exactly what he did. Levi had messed up enough things in life, and he was not going to miss this opportunity. For instead of scorn and condemnation, he heard words of forgiveness and redemption from his Creator.

Levi (or Matthew) was now reunited with his family, including the brother who once counted him as dead. Soon they would both be apostles. They were not brought together as priest and traitor, but as brothers in Christ, and the old had passed away forever. I wonder sometimes if Levi and Jesus ever discussed what it was like to have a mother named Mary and a brother named James? This family, once so broken and shattered, had been reconciled around their love for Jesus Christ. Love does that; it restores. Levi could be “brother” to James, and the other disciples (even Simon the Zealot).

Have you wandered so far that you think there is no way home to God? If that worries you, then no, you can still come home. But do not delay to do so, for if you refuse His offer of restoration and reconciliation to God, the urge will wane and you will lose the desire and eventually the ability to repent. Come back now. Jesus is still looking at each one of us and saying “Follow Me” on a daily basis. Make today “that day” for you.

Whenever there is a patient with a newly discovered medical condition, one of the first questions families ask the physician is, “what’s the prognosis?”. They do this because they want to know what the eventual outcome will be for their friend or family member. There is a measure of comfort in knowing what to expect, for we generally fear the unknown. As nearly as possible, the doctor gives the expected outcome so that people can make intelligent decisions about medical care. With that in mind, doctors are very careful about the prognosis they give, since life and death decisions are often made based on their professional opinion. If they are wrong, the results can be tragic.

We serve a God who also makes a prognosis. And when He does, it is always accurate and we can make decisions of eternal significance based on what he says. We can do that because Jehovah has foreknowledge. The Greek word used in the New Testament that is translated as “foreknowledge” is the word “prognosis”. Unlike with humans, when God gives a prognosis based on His omniscient foreknowledge, it is never wrong. Let’s see a few times this word is used and look at what it tells us about our Heavenly Father.

During the apostle Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, he made the following statement about Jesus Christ:

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts 2:22, 23 NIV)

The crucifixion of Jesus was not an unforeseen hiccup in the plan of God. One of the things that made it “the fulness of time” for Jesus to come was that Jehovah knew that if Jesus came in the flesh at this point in history He would be crucified. That was the point, since Jesus was coming to seek and save the lost. Does that mean God manipulated those responsible and somehow forced them to crucify Jesus? Of course not! Fore knowing something and foreordaining something are two very different things. God foreknew what evil men would do and simply accommodated it into His plan.

But why would The Father allow that and even plan for it? Out of love for us and for our salvation. God had planned that all who would come to Christ for salvation would be saved. He didn’t foreordain some to come and others not to come. Our election was based on foreknowledge that we would come to Him(1 Peter 1:2). And knowing that, He made provision for all who would come to make it from justification to glorification. What was necessary was for us was to be “in Christ”.

But this says something more profound about his love for us. Paul, in the letter to the Christians at Ephesus, says that our election (which we already saw was according to foreknowledge) occurred before the foundation of the world.

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love (Ephesians 1:4 NASB)

He chose us by choosing Christ as our Savior. In doing so, He was choosing all who are “in Christ” as well. That means, before the world existed, Jehovah God knew what would happen to His creation and looked down through time. In His foreknowledge He knew each of us individually who would respond to the Gospel. He looked at each of us, knowing how we would blow it, and how we would be helpless, but also that we would come to Him someday, and said “yes, I will go to the cross for every one of them that come to Him in faith.” He looked down the corridors of time and saw John, Tom, Susan, Whit, Cory, Hannah, (your name here), and even me, and said “they are worth it. I will go and suffer and give my life, because if I do, they will come to me and I can save them.” Stop and contemplate that for a minute, or an hour, or a day. Jesus’ prognosis for each one of us was that if He would bleed and die and pay the debt for our sins, we would respond. And based on that, He had compassion on us, emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant, being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2). There is something to dwell on the next time you take Communion.

A few years ago, a song was recorded by Hillsongs Australia called, “So You Would Come” and I think the words are an appropriate way to conclude this post.

Before the world began
You were on His mind
And every tear you cry
Is precious in His eyes
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come

Nothing you can do
Could make Him love you more
And nothing that you’ve done
Could make Him close the door
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come

Come to the Father
Though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives
He will take them all
The power of the Word
The power of His blood
Everything was done
So you would come

(Copyright 1997, Hillsongs United)

Misappropriation of Funds
Back in my Navy days, there was a form of theft that was prosecuted called “misappropriation”. It occurred when someone would take something that belonged to another work center or division and use it for their own division. It was different than larceny because the person didn’t take it for personal use. The money or items never left the ship. But it was still a crime because as a result of the misappropriation, supplies would have to be reordered and money was wasted.

Sometimes, I wonder if misappropriation is happening in the Christian community in America. Jesus Christ set out what the priorities of the church were to be, and our use of church funds ought to be a reflection of those priorities. After all, Jesus said “where your treasure is, there will your heart be, also.” (Matthew 6:21)

The priorities, as set forth in the New Testament, are evangelism, care for orphans and widows, and ministering to the needs of others. But is that where our money is being spent? Or is the priority in the American church the comfort of the members, building bigger ministries, and marketing a user friendly inoffensive message? Have we turned from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium?

In light of The Lord’s priorities, how do we justify multimillion dollar building projects? There was no such thing as a church building for the first 300 years of the Church and they changed the world! Lets see what could be done with the money used for a building expansion at a cost of $20 million if it were not spent on the comfort of the flock.

The average cost for sending a missionary from America is $6032 a year. (It is even less for support of indigenous missionaries). That $20 million dollars would support 300 missionaries for 10 years and result in the salvation of those who otherwise would have no Gospel witness. Instead we make the church larger and offer more programs to attract spiritual consumers that will be called "Christians" because they sign their names on a card, or slip their hand up for prayer when no one else is looking around.
Ideally, we could have a two for one special and support missionaries that not only preach the Gospel but care for orphans and widows and feed the hungry in Jesus name.

Speaking of orphanages, $20 million would run 7 orphanages for 100 years! Not only would we be ministering to "the least of these" by giving the poorest of the poor food, clothing and education, we would be raising up a generation of champions for Christ that would penetrate their culture with the Gospel far more effectively than a mass crusade every couple of decades or so.

And yet the American church goes on spending its time and treasure on itself. We use 96% of our finances at home and neglect the Great Commission. Why? So we can have a nicer facility to bring our friends to? To have the best fitness center and yoga classes in town? To have bigger and bigger congregations? It is very telling when a senior pastor has to be more of a CEO than a shepherd. I don't mean to be harsh, and I do want to speak the truth in love. But how do we expect God to ignore our extravagance here while missionaries have to spend time begging for the crumbs from the American church's table or risk having to come home?

Instead of building bigger churches, how about getting to a certain size and then planting smaller churches where people can grow in a healthy spiritual environment where they can't go and be anonymous. Wy the desire for spiritual empires? In the First Century they didn't bring people to church to get them saved. They could all tell someone about Jesus and salvation. They went out and made disciples, and brought them to the congregation so they could be shepherded and grow. The church growth program of the first church is still the only church growth program God approves of. Lift Jesus up so that He draws all men to Himself, and co-labor with Christ to add to the church daily as many as should be saved.

On the flip side, it is also wrong to spend money on orphanages that refuse to teach children the Gospel. Or to support programs that amount to little more than sending a social worker that don't tell anyone how to be saved. It is just as wrong to preach to a hungry person without feeding them as it is to feed someone without telling them about Jesus!

This seems hard, and in some ways it is. But please know that I love the American church. Over the past few centuries America has been a launching pad for literally thousands of missionaries and evangelists. But we have to wake up and get our fiscal policy in line with His. After all, it is supposed to be The Lord's money, right?

I have had some experience with pharmaceutical sales, and one of the questions asked by doctors about a drug is whether or not it loses efficacy over time. In other words, does the medication work well at first, but over time loses its effect on the condition that is being treated? What I want to talk about is something that definitely does not lose efficacy over time. In fact, it is still the most powerful cure in the universe. It is the blood of Jesus!

The apostle Peter talks about the blood this way:

knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (I Peter 1:18, 19 NKJV)

The blood is something precious. Its value is far above that of silver or gold. This blood is the cure for the most deadly disease in existence. It is used to bring spiritually dead people back to life! You may wonder if we baptize dead people. I would say that, yes, we do. Every one of them starts of spiritually dead. They are then made alive by the blood of Christ!

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13, 14)

Our sin had separated us from a holy God. We were without hope of curing ourselves, and were completely alienated from God. But the blood of Christ changed all of that!

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13 NKJV)

Even though we were enemies of God, Christ died for us in order to demonstrate His love for us. We have gone from being enemies of God to having peace with God! (Colossians 1:20)

There was a song written by Andrae Crouch many years ago ago the blood of Jesus, that said that the blood would never lose its power. Even though it was shed for us nearly 2000 years ago, it is just as potent as ever. It will save the worst sinner today the same way it would save one back then. The words of the chorus say, “it reaches to the highest mountain“. Even when we are on the mountaintop and have intimate communion with God, we still are only there because of the blood that was shed for us back at Calvary. Then it continues with “and it flows to the lowest valley“. No matter how far we have wandered in sin; no matter how far into the depths of wickedness our life has plunged, the blood of Jesus will still reach us right where we are if we will only appropriate it.

The words of John at the beginning of the Revelation some it up best:

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5, 6 NKJV)

Worship is at once a simple thing and a complex thing. There are aspects of worship that we may never fully comprehend here below, but we have eternity to explore. While worship includes aspects such as rejoicing, thanksgiving and proclamation of the goodness of God, I wonder if we are not missing an essential element in the church world today. What I am suggesting is not that there is anything wrong with those aspects of our worship, but that we have forgotten a key ingredient, which can only be cultivated through intimacy with Jesus Christ. That element is awe.

Awe has its roots in accurate knowledge of the character and attributes of God. It begins with a sense of reverence. But when it really comes to life is when we know God, not just a set of facts about Him. As in other things, data does not equal knowledge. Awe blossoms when we come to a realization of who God is and who we are. When we have God high and lifted up, and realize that the only reason we can worship Him at all is because of grace, we begin to experience “awe”. The Hebrew writer out it this way at the end of chapter 12:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Y et once more I will shake not only the earth , but also the heaven .” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:22-29 NASB)

When we bow before the immovable, unshakeable, consuming fire, who dwells in unapproachable light, our sense of awe will cause us to be broken and contrite before Him. We will be in awe of His supreme condescension in emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, and coming to suffer for our sins while we were still His enemies. “The Message” renders it this way:

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 MSG)

But let me call your attention to what was said in Hebrews 12. The Writer describes “acceptable worship” as having the key ingredients of reverence and awe. Back in Isaiah, God revealed that those are the only worshiped that get His attention. And keep in mind here, that He is specifically talking about worship.

Thus says the Lord , “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the L ord . “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:1, 2 NASB)

There is no shortcut to awe. Is not something that can be drummed up by a worship leader working the crowd and “pumping you up”. Oh, we can appear humble and broken, and even shed a tear. But let’s not confuse that with awe. Awe is what causes us to tremble at His Word. Awe is what fosters the fear of The Lord in our soul and spirit.

So lets make a concerted effort to focus on who our God is. As we meditate on this “consuming fire” lets realize that if it were not for His mercy, we would be consumed by that very fire instead of being welcomed by it.

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23 KJV)

Here is something to meditate on for a day. Roll this one around in your head for awhile: “My God is a consuming fire.”

There are many things and people in the Old Testament that are types and shadows of things in the New Testament. For example, the Tabernacle in the Old is shown in the Letter to the Hebrews to be a type of Christ. An interesting parallel can also be found between Genesis 1 and John 1 when it comes to new creations.

Interestingly, both books begin with the same phrase — “In the beginning”. With Genesis it is “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and in John we start out with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”. John continues on with

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:3 NKJV)

So, through the fuller revelation of the New Testament, we see the Jesus was the one who is the Creator.

Later in Genesis 1, the inspired narrative continues with the creation of light.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5)

In the same way, John continues with he’s description of Jesus Christ.
I

n Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. (John 1:4, 5, 9 NKJV)

In His earthly ministry, Jesus even describes Himself as “the light of the World”

In Genesis, we see the Spirit hovering over the waters of creation (Genesis 1:2) and in John we see the Spirit hovering over the waters of baptism, where a new creation now takes place.

And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:32-34)

The apostle Paul draws a further parallel between Genesis and the Gospel by comparing Jesus and Adam.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. (Romans 5:14, 15 NKJV)

Paul goes further and calls Jesus the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49). Both were tempted in a garden (Eden and Gethsemane). Through the failure of the first Adam sin and death entered the world. Through the obedience of the second Adam life and redemption have come to the world. Adam sinned at a tree, realized he was naked, and brought sin and its shame. Jesus was stripped naked, crucified on a tree, and paid the penalty for our sin, bearing our shame. The early Christians called the creation account the “protoevangellium” or first gospel for that very reason.

The Old Testament becomes so rich when we read it while asking what it is telling us about Jesus. It also illustrates how Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the Law. It also shows how the Bible fits so well as a revelation. Only God could orchestrate a collection of 66 books with 47 authors and have it fit so well together!