WHY DO YOU ASK MY NAME?

One of my favorite events in scripture is the night Jacob wrestled with God. I don't believe you find anything like this in any religious teaching other than the Bible. The God who created the universe humbles Himself to wrestle with a man. The story is in Genesis 32.

Jacob feared that he and his family would be attacked by his brother, Esau, and an army of 400 men with him. Jacob sent his family and all his possessions across the Jabbok River to protect them. And left alone, all that night a man wrestled with him. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip and put it out of joint. If he hadn't known before, Jacob now knew who this was. This is not the first time in scripture or even in Jacob's own family, that God appeared to someone as a man. I am convinced that Jacob wrestled with the preincarnate Christ whom The New Testament identifies as the I AM who appeared to Moses at the burning bush. He told Jacob to let go of Him because the night was over. But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” Jacob, already crippled so that he would limp for the rest of his days, knew he was now risking his life for the blessing of God. And in blessing him God changed Jacob's name to Israel.

But then we read in verse 29 that Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me your name.” He said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” Why did Jacob ask his name? If he didn't already know whom he was dealing with, he wouldn't have asked Him for a blessing. And we read in verse 30 that Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

I remember something from my childhood that impressed me deeply. My father, who was usually a very quiet man, talked about an answer to prayer that he thought could never happen. And Dad said, “God had to have done that!” That statement from my father encourages me to this day. Many of you can look back on some time in your life in which you were absolutely certain of God's intervention. Your’s, like my dad’s, may have been an impossible answer to prayer. It may have been a miraculous rescue. You may have trembled at the wonder of the universe. You might have been stunned by the complex language of DNA, or the calculated peregrinations of migratory birds. You could have sensed God’s very presence in a prayer meeting, a worship service, or in your private devotions. And you knew it had to be God. Whatever it was, sometime later you asked if that could really have been God. You may have asked a friend or a mentor their opinion. You may even have asked God, “Was that you God?” even though, somewhere in your mind, you knew it had to have been. While most if not all of us have had experiences like that, we sometimes need to remember that He is just as real when we no longer sense His presence. He is God even when He is not wrestling with you.

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THE SIN OF THE CHURCH

What sin is enveloping the church in these days?

Any sin is serious. And God's people are not immune to the enemy’s temptations, although we are given armor against them. To some extent, it is not unusual for God’s people to be sucked into whatever sin dominates our culture. But those who desire to be godly will seek deliverance from the sin of the world around us.

The sin that is shaking our country is slander. It is prevalent on Facebook and other social media. It seems to have consumed politics. And yes, it can be found even in God’s church. We are tempted to think that castigating those we disagree with or that we feel are attacking us is the right thing to do. That is an ungodly notion. The Bible clearly condemns slander.

In Mark 7:21,22 Jesus listed slander as one of those things that come from within our hearts and defile us before God.

In Ephesians 4:31 Paul directs us.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

This includes all bitterness toward those whose politics, world view, or lifestyle we abhor.

1 Peter 2:1 calls God's people to stop slandering others.

“Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

Like a number of sins, slander defies several of the Ten Commandments. First it breaks the command not to bear false witness. If you say or write something that you have not verified about anyone, a neighbor, a politician or a public figure, you are saying you don’t care as much about the truth as God does. I have heard people defend this by saying, “Well, most of what I said has to be true.” I wish I could say that ruins your whole argument. It certainly does for me. But in this post-truth era, people may not care whether everything you say is true or not. But you can be sure that God is not with you in that tirade.

Slander also breaks the command not to murder. You may be scratching your head at this one. In Matthew 5:22 Jesus said,

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Jesus called hatred, murder in your heart. We need to strive not to minimize the seriousness of this evil.

Possibly a little more obscurely, slander challenges the first commandment. God said “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” Pride and hypocrisy are the seeds of slander. The person committing this sin pretends to be better than the person we are slandering. Slander puts into words the worship of your own thinking, your attitudes, your fears, your politics, and even your bitterness.

Some of you are cut to the heart by what I have written. God bless you. Some of you have known all along that hatred of our enemies is not Christ-like. But what are we to do?

First we need to turn to God with a repentant heart. That includes those of you who have not participated in this sin as far as you know. We are all part of the church, and many in the church are guilty of outrageous slander. We must not approach them with an arrogant spirit. Before we say anything to anyone else, we need to pray like Nehemiah and Daniel prayed when they confessed the sins of their people. They had probably never participated in those sins, but they recognized that they were part of the people of God who had sinned.

We are to pray consistently, both for our enemies and for those who would hate and lie about them rather than loving them in the name of Christ. Pray for God to help us love both those who slander and those who are slandered.

And trust that God is sovereign. The saying, United we stand. Divided we fall. Can be traced back to one of Aesop. In a different context, Jesus said, “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” Although especially in this time of pandemic, I see bright sparks of unity in America, I fear that our nation might not survive the divisiveness in our culture and politics. Trust me, you will not enjoy the destruction this country. And whatever emerges will be worse, maybe worse than anyone could imagine. I am not suggesting that we not disagree with one another. I am crying out to God and to God’s people that we set an example for the rest by not hating or believing the worst about those with whom we disagree. However, even if God’s people seek to be holy in the midst of all this, I am not sure what will happen in our nation as a whole. I am certain that no matter what happens Jesus is Lord, He is coming back, and God is still on the throne. Our security is in Him. Therefore, “love one another, just as he has commanded us.” (1 John 3:23)

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HOW ARE YOU WORKING FOR SUCCESS?

I am writing especially to you who are pastors, but much of what I have to say will apply to any believer in Jesus Christ. I suspect that much of what is pressed upon us by the church growth movement and its widely accepted continuations are little more than superstition. Some of these things remind me of the labors of Jacob in the 30th chapter of Genesis. Jacob put striped sticks before the eyes of the livestock while they were breeding so that they would bear striped and spotted offspring which were to be his wages.

I have recently been trying to memorize chapter by chapter through Genesis. And frankly, I had great difficulty with this chapter. I did not believe for a minute that what those animals saw had any relation to how their offspring turned out. However, I am pretty sure that Jacob believed it while he was doing it. And low and behold, it worked! Jacob became extremely rich. That may be the mantra of some in the church growth movement. Whatever works must be right.

I didn't really get any peace about this until I was into the 31st chapter, and discovered that at least eventually Jacob found out that his strategy was not what increased his flocks. And Moses had to have known it when he penned chapter 30. God made the animals produce the offspring that were designated as Jacob's wages, not his machinations.

Now, let me say emphatically that the Bible teaches that God and God alone adds numerically to His church. I am aware that by God's grace and in union with God's Spirit we, like Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:11, seek to persuade people. But we do not do it with cleverness, sidestepping truth that is uncomfortable, or appealing to worldliness. We persuade in the fear of God, the conviction of the word of God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is not to say that you can never bring success by gimmicks. I once heard someone quip, "That church would have grown if there wasn't a God." But I strongly suspect that if you reach people by any means but the movement of the Holy Spirit, they are still lost. And they will often do harm to the fellowship before they leave completely.

What then can we do to become successful? Let me suggest some things that lead to long-term success, at least in the eyes of God.

1. Seek to grow in the Lord by saturating yourself in God's word.
2. Seek to grow in the Lord as you obey what God shows you of His will.
3. Pray earnestly and lead others to pray for God's will and work in their lives and in His church
4. Pray for people all around you, and help others pray for deep connections with people who need to hear the gospel.
5. Compassionately minister to needs that God shows you.
6. Consistently teach and train your people to walk with God and touch the lives of others.

The scriptures give us the fodder for this kind of development and teaching. Things like the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 and those things that pertain to life and godliness listed in 2 Peter 1 and in many other Scripture passages that God enlightens in your heart, in your preaching and teaching, for your organization and encouragement of the flock, and in the lives of your people.

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SPIRITUAL CHILDISHNESS

I believe this is the most important truth that God has pressed upon me in the past few years. I wrote a book that was never published, titled, SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. I abandoned that book because God convicted me that part of my purpose in writing it was to say, “I am smart.” I am still plumbing the depth of that wickedness. In addition to and because of my pride, the focus of about half of that book was wrong. I would rather write something on Spiritual Childishness. I have been stirred again and again by the words of Jesus in Luke 10:21.

“In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

I certainly don't understand enough about this concept to write a book. But I think I do see some really good things that relate to it.

First, in Spiritual Childishness we have The Humility of Understanding.
Like a child we come to spiritual things knowing we do not understand them. And God in grace reveals Himself to His children.

Then, Spiritual Childishness brings us to The Submissiveness of Understanding.
Most spiritual insight is blocked by our willingness to argue with God. When you come to something in Scripture that goes against what you think, the struggle to understand must be accompanied by an attitude that says, “If this really is what You are saying God, I will change my mind.”

Spiritual Childishness develops The Faith of Understanding.
Children automatically trust many things to their parents. The arrogance and fear of unbelief keep us from risking and resting in the arms of God.

Finally, Spiritual Childishness brings The Joy of Understanding.
Children often have a freedom to rejoice over many things. Fellowship with Christ brings us into the joy that overflows into our hearts from this verse.

I too rejoice in the Holy Spirit and thank You, Father, 

that You offer Your truth to little children.

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IT IS APPOINTED

Last week I wrote a blog on praying for healing. http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/2020/01/healing-faith.html. Healing is close to my heart. For, although I didn't mention it in that blog, I have terminal cancer. However, I have an unusual testimony concerning praying for my own healing. It seems that every time I have prayed for healing, Hebrews 9:27 comes to mind.

“It is appointed for man to die once.”

God has not exactly told me He will not heal me. But He has pretty clearly told me that I am not to pray for healing. I have wondered why God would tell me this. He has certainly not retracted His promises of prayer or even of healing. He has not restrained me from asking Him to heal others who are suffering. But in the past few weeks God has shown some light on this for me. What God has been telling me relates to Paul's testimony in 2 Corinthians 12 where he said he prayed three times for the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh. The Lord told Paul His grace was enough for him. God has comforted me with Paul's words. But He has spoken to me in the past weeks through Luke 9:23-25.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”

Christians are to live as people who are going to die.

This is a key to focusing on our purpose. Because of the urgency of time pressed on me I have been able to write 10 books. I would never have done that if God had not put this pressure on me. He had to remove some of my physical strength and energy to keep me from continuing to be busy with a hundred other things. They were not bad things. But they were not what God wanted me to focus on.

This is a key to courage. I need to be honest. God has had me write some things that have made people uncomfortable, including what I wrote about healing. I might as well admit that what I am writing here will make some of you uncomfortable. In these days of increasing devisiveness, I will surely have to upset more people with what He calls me to write. I want to do that with His love, gentleness, and wisdom. But I doubt if I will have to courage to be faithful, if I am not living and writing like someone who has already given up his life.

This is a key to peace that transcends understanding. Preoccupation with the wants and worries of life steals the peace of God from our hearts. But God instills His eternal peace in us as we begin to say with Paul in Galatians 2:20,

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is a key to God's glory being revealed in us. In John 12:27 Jesus said His heart was troubled and He asked if He should pray to be delivered from that hour. "But," He said, "for this purpose I have come to this hour. Glorify Your name." God can use illness and the most troubling of situations to bring glory to His name.

This is a key to ultimate hope. I need to fix my hope beyond success, beyond popularity, beyond my life on this earth. The fuller context of Hebrews 9:27 calls me to this hope.

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

Hebrews 9:27-28

I am waiting for Him in His eternal purpose.

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BE CAREFUL HOW YOU HEAR

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU HEAR

In Luke 8:16 Jesus warned us to be careful how we hear. This is a rather stunning warning against only catching the surface meaning of what He has to say to you.

“Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

Luke 8:18

I am not sure I have anything to say to those of you who are satisfied with whatever depth of spiritual truth that you have. But for those of you who hunger grow deeper spiritually I think I have some encouragement. Let me share with you four principles for hearing the voice of God better in Scripture.

• Read it slowly.

Everything I learned about reading in my younger days encouraged speed. That is wonderful training for many things in life. It is even a good thing for reading through the Bible, say in a year. But slowly reading God's word may be something every Christian should learn to practice. James 1:21 calls us to,"receive the implanted word of God." We need the Holy Spirit to plant His word deep in our hearts and minds.

• Memorize it.

Many of us have memorized Scripture verses from time to time. Most of us would admit that memorizing Scripture is a healthy practice. Last year I began memorizing in a way that I never have before. I read the same chapter of the Bible everyday for a week. And each day I commit a segment of the chapter to memory. It takes me a little over a week to memorize some chapters, others a little less. They generally balance out. I am amazed at the nearness to God that I sense while memorizing larger segments of His word. Of course, this whole process has to be bathed in prayer. As I pray for God to help me memorize, I also pray to see deeper into what He is teaching me.

• Review it.

Anyone who has memorized Scripture knows that you have to review it, to really have it memorized. I find this need greater with whole chapters. I review these chapters every day for about three weeks. Still, I could not quote most of these passages without reviewing them again. To memorize them I have to read each verse over and over again. I usually have to do the same in reviewing them. This becomes meditation which gives me deeper and deeper insights into God's word.

• Submit to it.

For God to plant His word deep in our lives, we need to submit our hearts to it. There are two facets to this. The first is general. I have to yield to the over all authority of God's word. I have to surrender to the understanding that God knows better than I. God has a better grip on reality than my theological system, than my culture, than my limited experience. Have you ever heard something from Scripture, and said, "I don't believe that!"? You need to approach Scripture with the attitude that God is right.

You also need to come to each passage with an attitude of submission to what God presses on you that day. I quoted earlier from James 1:21. That verse continues, "receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

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GREATER?

GREATER?

One of my favorite movies is Chariots of Fire. It tells the story of men competing in the 1924 Olympics. At one point in the movie the fiancee of Harold Abrahams, who would win the 100 meter race, asked why he was so possessed by his training. One of the other runners said, “Because he has the chance of being the fastest.” She counters, “But all of you are running in the Olympics.” He answers, he does not just have the chance of being a fastest man, but the fastest man who ever was.”

In Luke 7:28 Jesus spoke a much higher greatness. He said John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born.

“I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.”

But that is only half the verse. Jesus goes on to say you will be greater than John.

“Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Now to be honest, that is hard to understand, much less to believe. I told someone last week that God's standards of greatness must certainly be different from ours. How could any one of us, in fact the least of us, be greater than the prophesied forerunner of the Son of God? I still believe that is the case. There is more to this than I can grasp. But I have been thinking and praying about it. And I think I see ways that by the grace of God we are actually greater than John.

We have
A Higher Purpose
John was the forerunner who prepared the way for Jesus. But you and I have a higher calling than that. We are to tell people the good news of forgiveness and grace. We invite people into the embrace of our Lord. Paul said we reconcile people to God through Christ.

We have

A Greater Message

John's message was for people to repent to prepare their hearts for the coming Messiah. It was in a sense, a mandate. He told people what they had to do. We bring people the good news of what only God could do for them in the gospel.

We have
A Deeper Ministry
John told people to do what they could do to prepare for the Messiah. We lead people to receive Christ and be transformed by the power of God. In the transformation of the Holy Spirit we become more and more like Jesus until we are changed into His likeness, seeing Him face to face.

But make no mistake—none of this greatness can be accomplished by human effort. We are trusting God day by day for this grace in our lives. The Scripture says,

“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”

Romans 1:17N.I.V.

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