Goodbye fears

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” Matthew 8:23-27

Jesus did not mind to be disturbed when sleeping. He minded that they came to Him filled win fears. Their fears displeased Him for they came from a lack of faith. We can pray as we want, knock at God’s door as often as we wish, we will always be welcome. Our heavenly Father showed us that He is always ready to help us. But only let us go to Him with faith and not with fears, overwhelmed by storming circumstances. We are praying the One who is sovereign on the sea as on the land.
Jesus was asleep, but He was still Lord of the entire creation and beyond.
When God seems silent, when it feels like He is blind to our sufferings, He is still God. He is watching in the night, ready to quiet not only the storms of our lives, but also the effects of those storms. He just has to say a word. And after He speaks, everything becomes calm.

A Life Worthy of the Gospel

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. Philippians 1:27-28

What does it take to live in a way worthy of the gospel? It takes faith of course, but faith in the reality of the gospel. It is easy to preach the gospel, to share our faith, to read the Bible without believing in the gospel, without being in awe of the gospel.
Before you think that I am crazy, think of it a bit.
If you really believed that Jesus died then raised from the death, would you not be taking risks for His sake, ready to suffer to bring Him glory?
If you really believed that God will judge you according to what you have done, would you not be doing more and better?
If you truly believed that sin separates you from God, would you not be more eager to repent quickly?
If you really believed that the way you treat the poor determines where you spend eternity, would you not be loving, serving, feeding them?
If you really believed in the holiness of God, would you not be rejoicing in your suffering, happy to be made holier?
If you really believed that Jesus came, died, and is coming back, would you still be friend of the world?
If you really believed that everyone who dies without Christ will go to hell, would you not be sharing your faith with your family, your friends…? Would you not be praying and fasting for them?
And if you truly believed that the one who created everything and is sovereign over everything loves you and is for you, would you still be afraid of being rejected? Would you still be looking for people approval? Would you still be afraid of the future?
Remember without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is the key for a life worthy of our God and Savior.

The disciple whom Jesus loved

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. (John 21:20-24 )

How John could know that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved? And what does that mean exactly?

In John 15: 9, Jesus says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:9)

And in John 13:34, He says: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. “

Jesus’ love is the perfect love. It is the love to imitate. There is nothing greater, there is nothing deeper, there is nothing bigger. So what was special in the way He loved John? Was Jesus showing partiality?

Maybe it was not that Jesus loved John in a special way. Maybe it was that John knew in a special way that he was loved that deep and that much. Maybe John understood so much Jesus’s love that he remained in that love. Maybe it was all about John’s faith and surrender to that amazing love. Maybe it just depends on us to be the disciple whom Jesus loves.

Just like Nebuchadnezzar

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Daniel 4:34-36

This pagan king lifted his eyes to heaven and gave glory to God. And God was pleased and gave him back his kingdom. God was pleased because Nebuchadnezzar showed two qualities He longs to see in His people: faith and humility.

God loves humility (1 Peter 5:5). And the essence of humility is to recognize that God is God and that we are only creatures. Nebuchadnezzar recognized that God has the right to do whatever He wants with whom He wants and when He wants it. And  that “none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?” He let God be God and submitted to His authority.

God loves faith (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is essential to please Him. Nebuchadnezzar knew who was God. He proclaimed that God is God and that He is eternal. He believed in God and gave Him the glory that is His. He recognized that God is King and that we are nothing before Him.

He blessed the Most High and he received His favor. Nebuchadnezzar had something I want and need to have: a heart that trusted God and surrendered totally to Him.

Reasons to dance

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-16

I read a lot about depression today.

I went to see my family doctor and she asked me to do some blood tests. While waiting to do them, I was feeling down. Not depressed just down. I had my reasons. My life sometimes seems to be a joke. Some days  it feels like everything I do is vain. And I have been sick for 10 days. And, just by accident, there is on the wall near the lab an ad explaining what depression is. And of course I had all the symptoms.

So I spent the beginning of the evening depressed. Not down anymore, but really feeling depressed. I read articles about Christian depression and how to deal with. Of course there was not a real solution for me. Then the Holy Spirit, my Counselor, my Helper, stepped in and advised me to bring my feelings to the Father in prayer. It was not easy. I knew I should pray. I planned to pray, but praying is so difficult to do when I need it. So, carried by God’s grace, I finally asked for help to pray and God, in His mercy, made me pray. And it was good. So good.

I was honest and I asked for help. I asked for help for everything, from joy to hope and happiness until my heart, my mind and my thoughts changed. I asked for help because the Holy Spirit never ceases to remind me that I can draw near the throne of grace to receive help in my moments of need.

Even though I felt like when I need help God never helps, the Holy Spirit did not stop whispering that it is a promise and that it is always true. So I asked for help. And I have been helped. After my prayer, I had energy to cook and dance. Not a lot. I get tired easily those days. But I danced and loved it. And I will dance again. I will dance because I have reasons for. First I have a Father who loves me and cares for me and listens to me (1 Peter 5:6-7; John 16:26-27). Then I have a redeemer who lives and intercedes for me (Hebrews 7:23-25). Also I am never alone. My Counsellor is always with me (John 14:15-18). And… one day, soon, I will begin my eternity of everlasting joy (Revelation 21: 1-4).

No more crumbs

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:21-28

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-31

What is faith? Is it to be ready to accept crumbs from God or to expect all things from Him?
When we say to God that we are ready to accept crumbs from Him, are we not telling Him that our faith in His goodness is low? We believe actually that God will treat us as He will do with outsiders. It may look like humility, but we are questioning God’s goodness.
Psalm 34:8 says:”Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Which good shepherd will give crumbs to his sheep. Which good father will give leftover to his child? (Matthew 7:9-11)
God has already given us more than His best. He gave His only son so that we can have all He has decided to give to us. In Christ-Jesus, God pours on us all He has promised (2 Corinthians 1:20).
So are we to become arrogant and be demanding? No. God owes us nothing (Job 41:11). However He is willing to give us all things (1 Corinthians 3:21).
All we have to do is to ask and we will receive (Matthew 7:7-8). If you are waiting for God’s crumbs, not sure you will receive something, unless you are not a child. God has made it clear: crumbs are for the dog and bread is for children.
And when we understand that we can expect only the best from God, then we can only expect the best from life. We will therefore stop accepting all the crumbs Satan put on our way to tempt us. We will say no for we are children of the King and we will inherit heaven.

When God becomes 100% for us (John Piper)

Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:3)

All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.

The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?”

In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.”

Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity? The answer hangs on the meaning of “100%.”

With the term “100%” I am trying to preserve a biblical truth found in several passages of Scripture. For example, in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says that Christians were “children of wrath” before they were made alive in Christ Jesus: “We all once lived [among the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Paul is saying that, before regeneration, God’s wrath was on us. The elect were under wrath. This changed when God made us alive in Christ Jesus and awakened us to see the truth and beauty of Christ so that we received him as the one who died for us and as the one whose righteousness is counted as ours because of our union with Jesus. Before this happened to us, we were under God’s wrath. Then, because of faith in Christ and union with him, all God’s wrath was removed and he then became, in that sense, 100% for us.

Therefore, exult in the truth that God will keep you. He will get you to the end because in Christ he is 100% for you. And therefore, getting to the end does not make God to be 100% for you. It is the effect of the fact that he is already 100% for you.

When following is difficult

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise…

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. Hebrews 11:8-9; 17-19

Sometimes you wonder what God is doing with your life. Sometimes you don’t understand what He wants from you. It seems like the only thing you can do is to trust and keep obeying. You don’t see where you are going but you know that you must keep moving if you don’t want to miss Jesus. So you walk blindly in Him (Colossians 2:6).

Abraham is a great example of someone who walk blindly, obeying his God. If you are in that situation, take the time to read this post from John Piper. Enjoy.

“For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

Perhaps the command or call of God you hear just now is to stay married or stay single, to stay in that job or leave that job, to get baptized, to speak up at work about Christ, to refuse to compromise your standards of honesty, to confront a person in sin, to venture a new vocation, to be a missionary. And as you see it in your limited mind, the prospect of doing this is terrible — it’s like the loss of Isaac.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Now you know what it was like for Abraham. This story is in the Bible for you.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able. ”

John Piper, Solid Joys

 

Relationship or only power?

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”  And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Mark 5:25-34

No one can imagine the pain and the despair of that woman. She was so desperate that she chose to do what she knew she should not. She needed Jesus desperately. She needed His power to heal. That was all she wanted. She touched Jesus and was healed, but did not touch God’s heart. She was healed but God did not know her. She was healed but she did not meet her God.

But because the Lord is a loving God, He did not let her go. He wanted to give her more than she asked for. He wanted to offer her the healing of her soul, a relationship with Him, a place in His family. So He pursued her, offering her the choice to reject Him or to run to Him. The same thing He does with us every day. We are always free to choose His blessings and refuse His affection. Sometimes we are frustrated because He offers only Himself. But for God, Himself is the best gift He can offer (John 17:3). And sometimes it is the only thing we need. To have God’s blessing can make us happy, to have God will give us an unending joy and peace (John 14:27; 16:22).

This woman understood that she needed more from Jesus. She was healed, but came to Him and fell down before Him, showing her faith. And Jesus honored that faith. He made her well, whole, complete. She got a lot of more by choosing to acknowledge Jesus’ Lordship. And He called her “daughter”. He gave her a place in His family, a place in heaven with Him (Colossians 1:12-13). God pours His blessings on the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45), but only those who are ready to fall down before Him, to accept Him as Father are part of His family (John 1:12-13). And that is more that all the blessings we can want. Let’s  praise the Lord for that precious gift of Himself.

Christ is all.

For by Him, all things were created , in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things , and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1: 16-17

For in Him the whole fullness od deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. Colossians 2: 9-10

People think that Colossians is about the centrality of Christ. It is not. It is about Christ, period. He is not central, He is all. He is not  the one who matters, He is the only one. He created all things and sustains them. Nothing would exist without Christ. If He is not, nothing is. He disappears, nothing is left. He is Christ, the anointed one, the beloved Son of the Most High (Colossians 1:13), the Messiah. All rule and authority bow down before Him. He is their Master. And for all who trust in Him, it is the best news ever.

The Holy Spirit tells us that we are filled with Him, complete in Him. We share His life and His glory. Buried with Him in baptism, raised with Him by God (Colossians 2:12), we share all He is. Maybe it does not seem to be the case everyday, but it is true. God never lies.

So if we are in Christ what can we need? We are with the one to whom belongs everything in the universe.

And who shall we fear? He is above all authority.

So really, Christ is enough. He sustains everything including you and me.  I don’t understand it all. And more often that  I wish, I think that I don’t have all  I need. But all my eyes see, all  my heart feels and all my fingers touch don’t change this reality: Christ is enough. Yes “In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” Colossians 1:19

So instead of trying to please men and women and of compromising to have why we think we need, let’s strive to please the one who have all authority and who possesses all we can dream of.