Cry Out !

The Lord has been speaking to me this past week through a passage in the book of Exodus which we will be looking at in a moment. However, I wanted to lay down some ground work on the issue of suffering and affliction from the point of view of a child of God who has entrusted their life to the Redeemer and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible speaks of suffering and afflictions to be inevitable in the believer’s life. We can see this clearly in the following passage from Philippians 1:29

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him…”

We also read in many other passages that in the midst of our sufferings and afflictions that we are to rejoice in the Lord at all times and we are to not feel that these trials are “unusual”. I see mainly two major “types” of sufferings/afflictions in the believer’s life. One type may come in the way of discipline or correction from the Lord. This is not a punishment of wrath but rather correction in which God wants to teach us and to discipline us to get us back onto the right track in our relationship with Him. The other type of suffering/affliction has nothing to do with discipline or correction but rather the suffering is there because He has a bigger purpose or plan in view for you.

We see this in the book of Job. Job was a blameless man, upright, and feared God but we see in one day a major calamity that comes upon him and stays with him for some time. Job did not quite understand it until the end when God’s purposes behind the suffering were made evident and Job makes this statement from Job 42:5 –

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You..”

So regardless of the type of suffering/affliction we are going through we know that God is good and has a good purpose in mind for us. We can rest in His divine sovereignty and have comfort in knowing that He loves us and that He is trustworthy. The Bible says in Romans 8:28

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

However, keeping all of this in mind we find a tension in Scripture in which we rejoice in our sufferings, we rest in God’s ultimate purposes and plans in our suffering, but “we are not to live or act fatalistically in this world”. As believers we should not just say “it is fate” and sit complacently in our suffering and afflictions. We must pursue God and come to Him for deliverance, to hear His voice and find His will for our lives.

Let us look at this in the following passage from Exodus 3:7-9

“The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

"So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

"Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.”

Keep in mind that in the context of this passage we remember that the children of Israel have been in oppression for hundreds of years at the hands of the Egyptians. However, at this particular time God calls Moses as an instrument in His hands to deliver His people from their bondage. We see in verse 7 that God “sees and is aware” of His people’s suffering. In Hebrew this literally means intimately connected to or concerned with the suffering of His people. I want to encourage you as a believer that God sees your suffering and He cares for you!

In verse 8 we see that not only does God care for His people who are suffering but He has a plan of deliverance for them. We as believers have a “living hope” in God who is the one who breaks the bondages of suffering in our lives. Not only does He desire to break the oppression in your life but also take you to a “new and spacious land”. However, this is in His timing and in His way and according to His will.
However, He does it via His people “crying out to Him” (see verse 9). Now this cry is not out of a complaining nature but rather out of desperation. We can see this clearly in the previous chapter in the 24th verse:

“And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.”

When we take this into context we see the children of God crying out to God for deliverance from their oppression. This “crying out” is not a simple stoic prayer, but it is an emotionally charged prayer from the heart of a believer out of desperation and dependence on God. I do not believe in formulas for our prayer lives like if I pray x number times God will answer or if I pray a certain way mustering up my faith He will answer me.

However, I do see two major principles of intercessory prayer found in the Word of God. The first is God looks at the heart of the individual and our heart must be in utter “dependence” upon Him. We must understand He is in control of our lives and we come to Him boldly but humbly to find grace in our time of need by way of dependence upon Him. The second is “persistence” in prayer. We must come persistently to God with our needs in prayer. We can see this articulated in our passage where it is says “the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me”. This literally means that the fullness of the cry of the people of God in persistence has come to God and He is now going to move in His delivering power. I believe these are two very important points which we need to take to our personal and corporate prayer lives.

If I can, let me challenge you to have an extraordinary prayer life in crying out to God. When was the last time you cried out in a loud voice to the living God? Are you desperate for Him to move in your life? Are you persistently in hope seeking His face daily by faith in the prayer closet? I encourage you to cry out to God and believe upon Him in faith for the deliverance, and at the same time resting in fact that He is good and His compassions they fail not.

“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” – James 5:16

So, crying out to God in prayer for deliverance from suffering and affliction is powerful and God sees and is aware of His people’s suffering and oppression and He desires to set us free, but we must cry out to Him persistently knowing our help cometh from the Lord the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Let me end with saying that knowing Jesus and abiding in Him is entering that “land flowing with milk and honey”. Let us come to Jesus and allow Him to break through in our lives with His desires and purposes. The Gospel of Luke chapter 4 verses 17-18 says speaking of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth:

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed”

Blessings,

How To Be Great Without Being Great

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Have you ever thought that you might be wasting your life because you are not accomplishing anything seemingly great? Have you ever wondered if anything you ever did mattered in the eternal sense? Do you look at great men of God like Luther, Edwards, Calvin, Owen, Henry and Piper and wonder if you will ever have an impact like they did and still do? Do you long to do something great for God so that you may leave a legacy to your children? Are you mesmerized by large and grand ministries or movements and wish that you could do something equally important?

The verse above should be comforting to you if this is the case - at least if you are willing to be foolish in the eyes of the world, weak, low and despised.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all." Mark 10:43-44

God is great, people are not. God works through empty vessels that have no greatness in themselves, other than the greatness of humility to be nothing and do nothing of their own ambition. Consider that Jesus told James and John that if they wanted to be great they had to become the lowest of all - they had to consider others more significant than themselves (Philippians 2:3). Paul continues in Philippians to show that Jesus displayed the utmost humility by considering the good of others before His own, became obedient even to death on a cross and therefore God has highly exalted Him.

We must not think like the world. God doesn't exalt great people, He humbles them. God exalts humble people and they will not be exalted in this life-time, but in the one to come so that no one has any room for boasting in their humility.

• Jesus didn't come to be great - He came to become nothing.

"...but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Philippians 2:7

• Jesus didn't come to rule or be served - He came to serve.

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

• Jesus didn't draw people by being great, eloquent, or through any particular gifting - the Father drew people to Jesus because God was pleased to work through that which is nothing and that which is weak, low and despised.

"...he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isaiah 53:3

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." John 6:44

• God doesn't reveal His greatness through great people - He reveals His greatness through the humble and downcast; through those who are nothing.

"He must increase but I must decrease." John 3:30

This last verse from the gospel of John is particularly telling. John the Baptist doesn't just say that Jesus must increase. He also says that he himself must decrease. If Jesus is to be revealed as great it is not enough for us to expound upon His greatness. We must decrease and become nothing. Then and only then will God work great things through us. And it will be God doing them, not us, so that He alone is glorified and we have no room for boasting about anything we have done.

If you want to be great and do great things for God, be like Jesus and become nothing. Then you will see that there is nothing you can do for God - but He can do great things through you.

Blessings!

The Terrible And Glorious Sovereignty Of God

"See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."

Deuteronomy 32:39

These words come from the mouth of God Himself - this is God's own description of His sovereignty. There is absolutely no way around the truth that God reigns and rules over all the earth. He gives life and He takes life. He wounds and He heals. There can be no victory over the sovereign Lord of all the universe. All who fight against Him will lose and to fall into His hands is a terrible thing.

He alone sits enthroned as God and ruler of the world and He does as He pleases. No action or choice of ours can thwart His will or catch Him by surprise.

"Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." Psalm 115:3

Compared to the awesome majesty of God we are all like a grain of sand on a vast beach or like a drop of water in a giant bucket.

"Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust." Isaiah 40:15

In His wrath He makes men eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.

"And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them." Jeremiah 19:9

He has readied His bow and whetted his sword to slay all who are opposed to Him.

"If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts." Psalm 7:6

In the end, He will cast into His lake of fire all those who do not belong to Him.

"And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:15

Consider therefore, those who do not belong to Him, the goodness and loving kindness of God in Jesus Christ.

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

"For 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 own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8

And realize that God gave His own son for us. In His sovereignty He made His own Son suffer and die for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God.

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief...yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:12

This absolutely sovereign God used His sovereignty to make a way for you to be reconciled to Him.

"...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." Acts 2:23

Know that there is no other way but through Jesus Christ that salvation and reconciliation with God can be attained.

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

Consider His kindness and His goodness. You don't need to be a better person - you need Jesus Christ! You don't need to clean yourself up - you need Jesus Christ! Turn to Him and simply fall to your knees before Him acknowledging that you cannot win against Him. Fall in love with Jesus!

And those of us who do belong to Him should remember His sovereignty and worship Him while trembling.

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13

"Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!" Psalm 96:9

It's been kind of a "Sinners in the hands of and angry God" kind of day :)

Blessings!

Does It Smell Good or Bad?

My family always makes fun of me for smelling my food before I eat it. Do you do that? I find that some of my friends do it and others think it is weird. The sense of smell is an interesting gift God has given to us that sometimes we take for granted. There are many good odors in life, but there are also very bad odors that make us turn the other way. For example, when I was a kid I used to always love filling up the car gas tank with my Dad because I love the smell of gasoline. However, I also know many other people in my life who dislike the smell of gasoline. Isn’t that interesting – one specific odor but two different reactions or responses to that one odor? Keep this concept in mind as we go through a quick study of the passage in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16.

Let me give you a quick background of the passage which we will be looking at today. The Apostle Paul has already written his first letter or epistle to the church at Corinth, and in that letter there were many corrections or rebukes by Paul to the Corinthian believers. With this backdrop in mind Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians his desire to visit them twice on his missionary journey to Macedonia – on the way there and on the way back (2 Corinthians 1:16). However, it seems Paul changes his mind from his original plan and does not visit them on this missionary trip. He goes into detail about why he changed his mind in 2 Corinthians 1:14-24, 2:1-4. Basically in summary Paul says that he did not change his mind due to a vacillating and capricious heart, but rather he did not want to visit them at this particular time because he did not want to distress them or hurt them in person by them taking his rebukes in the wrong way (see 2 Cor. 1:23, 2:1). So even though he does not meet them in person he reminds them of the promises of God which are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ Jesus, and he tells them that he wrote the first letter with a heart full of love toward them.

After Paul describes what happened in terms of this “change in plans” he goes on to describe how he went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ but again felt restless in his spirit even though a door of opportunity was opened to him in Troas, and instead departed to Macedonia (2 Cor. 2:13-14). So, Paul essentially does not go to Corinth as he had originally planned and he also leaves Troas fairly quickly even though there was an open door for ministry there. Interestingly it seems Paul is all over the place and some might look at this as not sticking to the “course” or “plan of God” and hence he is not being used by God in “ministry”. However, Paul does not think this is the case by the following verses we are focusing on today:

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who is adequate for these things?”
- 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NASB)


So Paul starts off this section of Scripture with the small but powerful word “But” which makes the transition to this climactic passage. He has just gone through an entire discourse more or less from the end of 2 Corinthians 1 to 2 Corinthians 2:13 about ministry plans being changed, changing the course of traveling to different cities, etc. However, he reminds us that God always leads His people in triumphal procession no matter where we are in life by manifesting His sweet aroma through us in every place.

A few words which really stand out to me in the first section of this passage are “always”, “triumph”, and “every”.

Paul says he thanks God that God “always” (not sometimes) leads us in triumph in Christ. This is an amazing and encouraging statement we read from God’s Word. No matter what season you find yourselves in at the moment whether you are living on the mountain top or in the valley of the shadow of death God always leads you in triumphal procession in Christ. What a great hope we have in God that He is always leading us in triumph whether we recognize it or not.

Paul has this confidence not to mislead us into thinking that we should not have plans or a course of action in life. This sort of thinking can potentially lead us into aimless living and complacency; rather we are to focus and put God first in our lives trusting Him and knowing He will direct our steps. Paul rests in God’s divine sovereignty knowing that wherever he is at in life God has a purpose for him in that place. Do not fret child of God the Bible says the steps of a righteous man or woman are ordained by God.

Furthermore, the Bible says in Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Praise the Lord this same triumph is in the children of God when we are in union with Christ and have put our faith and trust in Him. This is why Paul can say “He always leads us in triumph in Christ”. When the enemy comes against you remember you are paraded by God on a red carpet in triumph because of the finished work of Calvary. You are the apple of God’s eye through faith in Jesus Christ. The triumph Paul speaks of here is not inherent in ourselves but rather is appropriated by the finished work of Jesus Christ defeating sin, death, and the grave once and for all. So, anyone who puts their trust in Him will never be put to shame.

The effect of this triumph is the manifestation of the sweet aroma of God through us who believe and results in continual fragrance unto God in every place we are find ourselves in. Are you a follower of Christ who does not see this fragrance of God in your life in “every” place you go? Then pray to God and ask Him to reveal to you the surpassing greatness of His infusion of love in you which should be spreading to every arena of your life. God fully intends that His people are a fragrance unto Himself in “every” place. We all must humble ourselves and recognize where we fall short and ask God for His Name sake to empower us by His Holy Spirit so we can manifest the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

Now verse 15-16 talks about this sweet aroma or fragrance of Christ manifesting itself as the aroma of life to those who are being saved and as the stench of death to those who are perishing. Remember what I spoke about at the beginning of this blog, namely the one odor having two very different reactions in people? This one aroma of Christ – the sweet fragrance of God’s love manifested through the God-man Jesus Christ in which He died for the ungodly (which is all of us) so that we might find life in Him; smells differently from one person to another.

To one person it may “smell” like something good – something better than life itself and according to this passage from “life to life”. It ends up being a vital fragrance and a living fragrance where eternal life begins and only gets better.

To another person it may “smell” like something bad – something that they do not want. A fragrance that makes them look the other way or causes them to get mad, angry, upset, etc. To them it ends up being a fatal odor; the smell of doom.

What does the fragrance of Christ smell like to you? Is it good or bad? Every person on this planet has to answer this question since Christ has defeated the principalities and powers; either you are for Him or you are against Him there is no in between.

Remember this fragrance of Christ is an effect of the triumph of Christ. As we saw earlier the triumph of Christ took place at the cross; it is a done deal which leads to one particular aroma. See the following verse from 1 Corinthians 1:18-19:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

You see the Bible says Christ came into the world by God’s initiative of love not to condemn the world but to save the world. However, men love darkness more than the light and hence do not come into the light of Christ.

Right now if the cross is foolishness to you and hence the fragrance of Christ is a fatal odor to you I plead out of love for you to repent and ask God to save you and give you a new heart so that the fragrance of God will manifest itself in your life and be a sweet smell of God’s love, peace, joy, and hope.

If the fragrance of Christ is already a sweet fragrance to you and is life to you, but you have forgotten that He leads you always in triumph in Christ in every place – be encouraged today through His Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit!

One final point is Paul ends this section of Scripture with a rhetorical question – “And who is adequate for these things”. The fragrance of Christ which is the sweet aroma of God that diffuses out of the followers of Christ as mentioned earlier is not naturally from ourselves lest we boast. Paul makes this point of adequacy clear in 2 Corinthians 3:5 where the Bible says “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God…”

As Kristian mentioned in the inaugural blog on this site the verse from Romans 11:36 –"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever."

The passage we looked at today fits perfectly with this concept. From God comes the manifestation of the fragrance of Christ which goes through our lives when we are found in Him and it goes back to Him by the aroma of the knowledge of God being manifested in every place we go!

Blessings,