Tag Archives: Jesus

Day 298: Striving for simplicity

Psalms 4-6; 2 Thessalonians 3
(Psalm 3 was read on Day 119)

Even though we live in a fallen world, we are still created to enjoy God – and often, we do this through simple pleasures…working our hands in the tilled ground, washing away our thirst with cold water, rising early to watch the sun rise or sleeping after a hard and satisfying work day.

There’s a simplicity to following God that is hard to find in the busy-ness of our western culture. If we can break through all the many demands on our time and attention – and just be in the presence of God, we will find rest.

There is no striving at the foot of the cross. Only trust. A very still sense that God is faithful and he will accomplish it – whatever the it is that we are anxious about…he will accomplish it.

The truths of Scripture can lead us into rest. Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 3 remind me of the elegant simplicity of following God… trusting in his faithfulness (3:3), working quietly to earn a living (3:12), and praying for God’s peace and presence (3:16).

Even the Psalms echo these sentiments. They speak of pondering in our hearts (Psalm 4:4), sleeping in peace (4:8), seeking God in the morning (5:3), and the comforting truths that God hears our weeping and accepts our prayers (6:8-9).

It’s a paradox, but I challenge you to strive to live a simple life. For in simplicity we find… rest, a quiet trust, and peace. Ultimately, we find Jesus.

“You can have all this world. Just give me Jesus.” -Fernando Ortega

Day 289: The comfort of Christ

Job 32-34; Colossians 2

Elihu speaks today. You might be wondering… Eli-who?  After all, he just appears out of nowhere and speaks unabated for six chapters! But Elihu’s goal is neither to comfort or rebuke Job. His goal is to defend God’s justice.

In many ways, Job’s friends offer simplistic answers to Job’s complicated questions. Elihu is no different; however, he does reorient the conversation away from Job and back to God! But like Job’s friends, Elihu’s understanding of God is limited. They live before the written revelation of Scripture and are thus limited to their own human understanding.

Paul warns the Colossians against human logic and arguments in today’s text from Colossians.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8).

The gospel goes against all human logic. Every other world religion provides a path for man to merit his own salvation. The specifics of how to earn salvation vary from religion to religion, but the system is universal… Man works his way up to God. Jesus came and turned human logic on its head. The gospel says that God came down to us because it’s impossible for us to reach the heights of Him.

Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace, Restoration, Redemption… These are God’s ideas…not man’s.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).

Elihu’s words might have shifted Job’s heart by refocusing his eyes to God. But Elihu’s words offered Job no comfort. For comfort is found in the gospel. Real comfort is found in Christ.

“God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3).

Day 288: The sufficiency of Christ

Job 30-31; Colossians 1

Considering Job lived before the written revelation of Scripture, Job and his friends deliver man’s best attempts at wisdom, and in so doing, reveal the insufficiency of man to offer comfort in the midst of suffering. They are limited by their false assumptions about God.

Today we read Job’s final lament (Job 30) and his final appeal (Job 31). His final lament reveals he is still consumed with anger at God’s apparent injustice. And while his final appeal for justice is impressive, Job shows his great need for wisdom and understanding by assuming he can approach God’s throne “like a prince” (31:37).

For we know the only way to approach God’s throne is as a pauper, poor in Spirit, leaning on the sufficiency of Christ!

[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 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. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:15-20).

Day 286: Knowing Christ

Job 25-27; Philippians 3

Knowing Christ…isn’t this the heart of every believer? This is Job’s heart! If you peel away all the layers of confusion and anger over his circumstances, Job’s greatest desire is to be accepted by God. Job’s desire for God is so strong that he refuses to forsake Him and he continues to choose the righteous path…

As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit (Job 27:2-4).

Job longs for Christ – even though he doesn’t even know Christ exists! This should be the longing of every believer… to know Him and to rest in the assurance of His care and strength.

Paul was willing to sacrifice any earthly treasure for the sake of knowing Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:8-9).

Paul goes on to write that he longs to know Christ by sharing in his sufferings. Isn’t this God’s purpose for Job? Satan meant Job’s sufferings for evil – to tempt Job to curse God. But God had a higher purpose – for Job to know Him more deeply!

Job’s anguish enables him to see God in a way he never could have in more prosperous circumstances. Even through all of Job’s false beliefs that God has rejected him in anger, he holds fast to his longing for God. Ultimately, suffering is the conduit through which God reveals more of Himself to Job (Job 42:1-6)!

Knowing Christ…this should be the motivation of our life. Like Paul, we should “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). In other words, we press on in our faith so that we might see Christ face to face!

Day 285: Comfort to Endure & Overcome

Job 22-24; Philippians 2

I think one of the most disturbing aspects of all of the speeches from Job’s “friends” is that they teach a “prosperity gospel.” In other words, they believe that if you do good works for God, he will make you prosperous. And if you sin against God, God will make you suffer on earth. This just isn’t true!

The best defense against this position is Christ, himself. Christ was absolutely sinless! Yet, he suffered greatly. He was born in poverty and lived in Egypt to avoid being murdered by Herod. As an adult, he had no home, no income and was unjustly arrested, flogged and murdered. Christ knew suffering – just as Job knew suffering.

But Job seems to have gathered himself and can think more objectively about his suffering in Chapters 23-24. He is able to articulate God’s sovereignty and understands that he is being tested (23:10).

But he is still confused by the apparent lack of justice in this world. He spends Chapter 24 wondering when and if the wicked will ever be judged. The question of why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer has been asked for centuries.

Job cries, “If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?” (Job 24:25). God, rather than “reduce [Job’s] words to nothing,” preserves them in Scripture and lived them thirty-three years in flesh. After the Fall of Adam and Eve, we live with evil and suffering and temporary injustice. We do not understand entirely why, but God himself has endured with us and has overcome it in the resurrection (Frances Bennett, Job, Lessons in Comfort, CEP, 2009, pg 68).

Paul talks about Christ’s suffering in one of the most profound passages on Christ’s incarnation in Scripture (Philippians 2:5-11). But Paul was using Christ as an example of how to serve others in love. He had just commanded the Philippians to “count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3).

Isn’t this the key to offering comfort to the suffering AND receiving God’s comfort in the midst of our own suffering?? 

It’s all about humility…laying down our idols of “entitlement” and looking to Christ’s example of pouring ourselves out for others.

Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8).

If Christ wasn’t spared from suffering, then why would we? God expects and endures our questions, but it is our faith that brings God delight. Just as Paul instructed the Philippians…enduring suffering without grumbling or complaining is like a bright light in a “crooked and twisted” world (Philippians 2:14-16).

Lord, through the preservation of these questions and through the recorded pain of Christ’s life, You seem to say You know suffering exists, but You have a purpose in permitting it to remain until the Day of Judgment. Because Job endured and Christ overcame, You offer comforting assurance: those who look to You can also endure and overcome. Thank you Lord…” (Frances Bennett, Job, Lessons in Comfort, CEP, 2009, pg 68).

Day 279: The value of Truth

Job 8-10; Ephesians 1

Job needed Ephesians 1. Seriously.. he desperately needed the truth found in Ephesians 1.

For Job misinterpreted his sufferings and chose to believe that God was angry with him. Job feared that God’s anger would cause him more and more pain…

And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion
and again work wonders against me.
You renew your witnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you bring fresh troops against me (Job 10:16-17).

Job’s friends were no help. In fact, they should be lifted up as an example of what not to do when someone you know is suffering. Today, in Job 8, Bildad theorized that Job’s children were destroyed because of their sin (8:4), and that God had rejected Job because he was not blameless (8:20). Encouraging, eh? But even more damaging, Bildad’s words were just not true!

What Job needs is truth. Healing, refreshing words of truth to pour over the bitterness of his heart. He needs the truths found in Ephesians 1….

That before the creation of the world, God chose us to be adopted as his children. And because of His great Love for us, we have been redeemed and forgiven.

Job longs for an arbitrator to stand between him and God (Job 9:32-33). He needs to know that Christ is our mediator! That God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus on the cross… that his wrath has been satisfied – that we are not to fear His anger.

Job needs…

the Spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God…He needs to have the eyes of his heart enlightened, that he may know what is the hope to which God has called him, what are the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints (adapted from Ephesians 1:17-18).

How thankful I am to have God’s word to guide me when trials strike! God will reveal Himself to Job in time, but for now, Job’s thoughts about God’s purposes and plans are distorted. Consequently, he is left hopeless, despairing for his life. He needs truth. He needs Christ!

Day 262: Our eternal home

Ezra 5-6; Haggai 1-2; 2 Corinthians 5

The book of Haggai serves as a rich commentary to these chapters in Ezra. Haggai (along with Zechariah – which we’ll read through in December) was the local prophet who encouraged the people to restart building the temple. Evidently, all the earlier opposition pushed the people into complacency. They were content to live in their own houses while the house of the Lord lay in ruins. God had something to say about this!

He had sent drought and hail in the hopes that the people would turn to him for help, but they continued in their self-sufficiency. In spite of this, God was merciful and intervened through the prophet Haggai.

There are so many rich layers woven throughout these passages.

First, we see that the Jews’ responded to Haggai’s message in obedience – so that the temple was completed! The temple represented God’s continued presence with his people and his faithfulness to keep his promises.

But glaringly obvious to everyone was the fact that the temple did not compare to Solomon’s former temple. God addressed this in Haggai:

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, [and] work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not (Haggai 2:3-5).

God asserted that the temple’s outward grandeur was of secondary importance to His presence. This second temple served as a stepping stone to the day when the temple would no longer be a physical building – but rather God would manifest His presence within His people.

Paul touches on these themes in today’s reading from 2 Corinthians. He teaches that we are not at “home” in our physical bodies – rather we long for “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Paul says that while we are on earth, we “groan” for our heavenly tent – for “mortality to be swallowed up by life” (2 Cor. 5:4).

So, in many ways, this second temple’s lack of grandeur is a physical picture of our life on earth. We long for more… We long for our eternal home.

Lastly, we see a hint of the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the last verse of Haggai. The hint isn’t obvious, but it’s there!

On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:23).

Zerubbabel was the current governor of Judah, but he was also a descendant of the last king of Judah, Jehoiachin (1 Chron. 3:16–19, where Jehoiachin is called Jeconiah). And if Zerubbabel was descended from the last king of Judah, that meant he was also descended from King David. And who was prophesied to come from the line of David to establish his Kingdom on earth? Yes. Jesus.

“On that day” (Haggai 2:23), looks forward to the end of the age, when the temple is replaced by the Lord himself!

…for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb … and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it (Rev. 21:22, 24).

Yes, one day, this man, who knew no sin – but became sin, so that we might become His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21)…this man will take his place as the final temple. And then, and only then, will we be home.

The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:9).

Day 255: A Strong Mountain

Daniel 1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:1-34

Ahh. Daniel. He is a character that shines in the darkness. Daniel was among the first group from Judah to be exiled to Jerusalem. He lived during the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s ministry. These prophets didn’t have too many encouraging words about the people of their time! But Daniel and his friends stand in stark contrast. They were faithful, and similar to the way God showed favor to Joseph (Gen 39-41), God showed great favor to Daniel and his friends.

The story recorded in Daniel 1-2 is probably familiar. But don’t let the familiarity steal its wonder! First, God greatly rewarded Daniel’s faithfulness to the law. God wasn’t honoring Daniel’s religious works, God was exalting a heart that strived to stay faithful in and amongst a foreign culture.

But the highlight of this story is God’s revelation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Somehow Nebuchadnezzar realized this wasn’t any ordinary dream, and Daniel’s trust in God’s faithfulness paved the way for God to use Daniel as His ambassador to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon!

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream revealed the future destruction of Babylon and the rise and fall of three subsequent earthly kingdoms. But on a deeper level, the dream revealed the sovereignty and power of God.

This God gave the tyrant-king, Nebuchadnezzar, the dream.

This God gave the faithful, Daniel, the interpretation.

This God would destroy the Babylonian kingdom and all future kingdoms – so that HIS KINGDOM would grow to fill the whole earth and endure forever! 

Listen to Daniel’s interpretation…

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever (Daniel 2:44).

Paul speaks of this same eternal kingdom in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians! Paul cites Jesus’ resurrection as the proof of this eternal kingdom. His resurrection represents the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:23) – or the first of many others who would one day be raised from the dead. At the end of the age, when all have been resurrected into new life, Paul says…

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power (1 Corinthians 15:24).

This is the fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream! Christ is the stone which destroys all other kingdoms to pieces and grows into a strong mountain which fills the whole earth (Daniel 2:35)! And we are a part of that mountain! Thanks be to God!

Day 250: Words of life

Isaiah 54-55; 1 Corinthians 11

The first half of 1 Corinthians 11 seems dated and irrelevant. What’s all this talk about women covering their heads? What in the world does this mean, and is it really important?

Once again, Paul is addressing a specific issue in the Corinthian church and we must look through the details to find the applicable principle.

In Paul’s day, it was only a married woman who wore head coverings. So this passage is specifically referencing the relationship between husbands and wives – not between men and women in general. If a married woman worshiped with her head uncovered, this would bring great shame to her husband – as if to say she were “sexually available” or not married at all.

Evidently, this was an issue in the Corinthian church, so Paul exhorts the congregation to act in a way that would bring glory to God. In other words, do not let external acts of disrespect distract others from the gospel.

Similarly, Paul instructs the church in the proper way to celebrate The Lord’s Supper (11:20-34). It wasn’t to be a glutenous feast with people gorging themselves with food and wine. No! It was an act of worship – a time where the congregation was supposed to lay aside their own desires for the sake of others and for Christ.

Their corporate worship was a witness to the world! What did their community communicate about Jesus when they came together to worship? Did they send a message of disrespect and lust for selfish desires – or did they consider the needs of others before themselves?

The Corinthian Church struggled with the same temptations we face… selfishness, individualism, rebellious attitudes, conformity to the culture, lust, greed, should I go on?? ;)

When my sin threatens to overwhelm me, I look to the grace and kindness of my God.

Today’s reading from Isaiah is spilling over with God’s goodness and grace! Savor the words from Isaiah 54-55. Let them sink deep into your soul and breathe life into your dry bones. These are the words of your Lord. These are the words of life!

Seek God while he’s here to be found,
pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness. (Isaiah 55:6-7, The Message).

Day 249: The transcendent gospel

Isaiah 51:9 – 53:12; 1 Corinthians 10

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

Paul details the Israelites idolatrous history in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians as a warning to the church… “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (10:12).

We, too, should heed Israel’s history, for hidden in her history is the love of Jesus Christ for the sinner.

Consider the flow of today’s passages from Isaiah.

Isaiah 51 is written to the Babylonian exiles. Why were they exiles? God’s chosen people were being punished for the gross sin of breaking God’s Law, especially for the sin of idolatry.

But.

God gave his afflicted people good news. He exhorted them to no longer fear men – because He would rescue them from their oppressors! And God, in Isaiah 52, promised that His people would return to Jerusalem in peace for the sake of His name!

The exiles experienced the gospel. They experienced salvation based on grace, alone!!

And then we come to the final servant song…the familiar words of Isaiah 53. Here we learn how forgiveness is made possible…how grace is made available to us all…Forgiveness and Grace are available because of The Servant…

He was pierced. He was afflicted. He was silent before his accusers. He was the sacrificial lamb, led to slaughter.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.

Here is the gospel – written by Isaiah 700 years before Jesus came in the flesh!

This gospel must be the agent for change in our lives…for we are also called to walk in the way of “the servant.”

This is the message Paul has been preaching to the Corinthian church over the last few chapters of 1 Corinthians…

He teaches that as members of Christ’s body, every decision and action we make should be influenced by affecting good to others (10:24) and bringing glory to God (10:31). We are called to lay aside our self-interests. We are called to become like The Servant.