Revelation 5

"And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation'...'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing'...'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever'...And the elders fell down and worshiped." :: Revelation 5:9,12,13,14

To someone reading this chapter, I can imagine one question (among many) that they might have would be, "Who is this 'Lamb' and why does everyone in heaven bow down and worship him?"

A valid question. With an amazing answer. This Lamb is the very Son of God, who lived a perfect life and died a cruel death to pay the penalty that God requires for the sins that each of us commit against Him. He died to bring us back into right relationship with God. He died to re-order our worship - from self and stuff-centered to God-centered.

It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, at the end of time you will join the rest of creation, on your face before the throne of heaven, in worship of the Lamb who was slain to take away the sins of the world.

The question is, will you do so willingly?

Will you be gratefully rejoicing because of your love for the Savior and the price that He paid on your behalf?

Or will you be forced to your knees in submission to the God that you refused to acknowledge your whole life?

The choice is yours.

---

That you might know Christ,

I AM

I don't know about you, but lately the stresses of life have really been weighing on me. So much so, that even my quiet time has suffered. Honestly, for the last couple of weeks my mornings have been dry, weary, and...well, work. I have felt like I was trudging along trying to stay consistent but not seeing any results. To be completely honest, at times I've felt discouraged in my walk with God, almost to the point of giving up...almost.


Ever been there?


But I choose to stay faithful, even if I do feel a bit discouraged, because God calls me to be faithful regardless of how I feel, or how busy I am or anything else.


All that said, I was reading in Matthew 14 and I am so thankful for my faithfulness because God showed me something that I had never seen before. He made clearer a passage that I thought I had understood reasonably well. It's the passage where Jesus walks on water. To give a little bit of context, right before this event Jesus feeds the 5000 and then goes up on the mountain for some alone time and prayer. Then He decides to come down and walks on the water to the disciples who have gone on ahead in the boat. They're terrified, because a storm has begun and they're thinking they see a ghost, but Jesus says something curious to them in verse 27:

"But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.'"

The Holy Spirit just grabbed my attention there. "It is I" is a weird phrasing and all the other versions say the same thing, so I did some digging to find out exactly what Jesus was saying.


What I found was like discovering high definition television for the first time after a lifetime of silent black and white films.


Here's another translation:

"Have courage; I AM. Don't be afraid."

The surface-level meaning ("It's me.") is literally Jesus identifying Himself. Beneath that however, the implication of Jesus' words is clear. The disciples understood it. Peter certainly understood it.


I AM.


Jesus didn't casually say to His disciples, "Hey guys, remember me? It's Jesus. We've been hanging out for a while now. There's no need to be afraid!" That really wouldn't have calmed anyone down. Though he was identifying himself, Jesus was also (not so subtly) saying, "I AM Yahweh, God over creation and God over you. In me all things find their being, even the wind and the waves. You have no reason whatsoever to fear."


Seen in this light, it easily explains why the disciples were so quickly calmed of their fears. Or why Peter so quickly believed he could walk on water if Jesus asked him to do so. Or why they respond at the end of this whole story by worshiping Jesus, saying "truly you are the Son of God." They knew that He was in control and they were reminded that they could trust Him.



Jesus says the same thing to us that He said to the disciples and it's so comforting.



In life...and in death - I AM.
In joy...and in sorrow - I AM.
In success...and in failure - I AM.


But it's also incredibly convicting.


When the storms of life are bearing down on you, who do you put your trust in?
When the past is haunting you or the future seems uncertain, who do you put your faith in?


Do you trust other people? They will eventually disappoint you.
Do you have faith in yourself and your own strength? You will eventually fail.


But God never fails or disappoints.
He shows up, time and again, stepping over all of our junk, and whispers ever so gently in our ears,


I AM.
It is finished.
Trust in me.


And so I rest in that truth. I know that in the good and in the bad (from my perspective) is still what's best for me from God's perspective. Does it mean that I understand it all? No. Does it mean things don't hurt? No. It simply means that I'm part of something greater than myself. It means that I follow a God who is bigger than my circumstances and sees farther than my perspective. He is worthy of my trust and my faith and my worship.

Free To Be Me

I was finishing up Judges the other day, and the last verse of chapter 21 not only stood out to me - it struck me as a good theme for entirety of the book.

"In those days, there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  Judges 21:25

If you aren't familiar with Judges, the short version is this:  the Israelites would do evil in the sight of the Lord, they were then taken captive or invaded by the enemy, then they cried out to God for deliverance, then a judge came and helped them out, then they had peace for a while, and then the process was repeated all over again.  The first time you read a cycle you kind of feel for the Israelites a little bit.  The sixth time through, not only is it redundant, but you're almost screaming at the page - "Why don't you get it already?!"  The Israelites can be pretty dense at times.


The reason this particular verse stood out to me, I think, is because I started wondering how many times that would be said about my own life.  How often, were there a book of Jacob, would there be a verse that said, "And Jacob did what was right in his own eyes."  It scares me, really.  Every day, probably every hour and minute, I do what I want, when I want to do it.  And the way I choose isn't always the way God expects from a follower of His.


I am realizing more and more that while I laugh to myself at how silly and dense the Israelites were at times, I can be just as silly and dense - if not more so.  Lessons like these are hard to learn because they strike at the core of the issue, my pride.  In order to truly work on being more like Christ in this area, I must first swallow my pride and admit my fault.  It is also lessons like these that make me glad for verses like Romans 8:29: 

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (emphasis added)

God is daily working to conform me to the image of his Son.  It is a work in progress and I am not nearly there.   It is a long road to travel toward Christ's completed work of sanctification in our lives, but the good news is that we are in it together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, if you catch me being like the Israelites, you have my complete permission to give me a gentle reproach - in the form of an all-out head-knocking, if necessary...

A Heart Issue

Let me just preface today's entry by saying that I have discovered a new love for the Old Testament.  Ever since I started reading through the whole Bible this year, I've grown to look forward to reading each passage from the Old Testament.  For me, it's because every page points forward to the Savior, every passage speaks of the hope we have in Christ.  It's a beautiful picture of what God has had in mind for us all along.


There I go rambling...


Deuteronomy 9 and 10 were part of my reading this morning and they spoke volumes.  Here's my favorite verse, from chapter 10 verse 16:

"Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn."

It's a graphic picture, I know, but I think Moses got it exactly right.  He perfectly captures a striking truth for me today.  The CEV says, "Remember your agreement with the Lord..."  Moses knew that his audience would understand exactly what he meant when he used the word 'circumcise.'  They would immediately think back to God's arrangement with Abraham.  They would be instantly reminded of the physical representation of covenant relationship with God.


The great thing is that while we don't physically signify our covenant with God, this still continues to hold true today.  Set apart your heart to be in covenant relationship with the Lord.  But, how do we do that?  Verse 12 gives some pointers:

"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commands and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?"

This passage reminds me of Micah 6:8 quite a bit, but regardless it's a calling to live a life set apart.  Fear the Lord.  Walk in His ways.  Love Him.  Serve Him.  Keep His commands.


Is it going to be easy to do?  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  Just like the real procedure has pain associated with it, for God to do a circumcision work in your heart will be painful.  We all have sin that we have to confront and deal with and God will have to cut it out of our lives through His redeeming work.  Don't forget the end of this verse, though.  "...for your good."  This whole process is for our good, for our benefit.  Ultimately, it's for the glory of God the Father.  As painful as it may be, in the end it's worth it all.


So, the take away is this:


Quit being stubborn.  We have a heart issue that needs to be taken care of.

Suffer

According to dictionary.com, there are four definitions of the word suffer.  All have to do with loss, distress, pain, disadvantage, disability, or death.  There is one thing missing from each definition, though - Christ.  None of the definitions have anything to do with the life of a believer and what we are guaranteed to go through because of our faith in the Savior who has called us to Him.


I've been reading through 1 Peter the last five days.  The theme of the whole book is suffering and rejoicing in the suffering that we go through.  He views suffering as a good thing:

"If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." 1 Peter 4:14

A great friend, Wesley, and I meet on Friday mornings and part of our discussion yesterday had to do with putting together a working definition of Christian suffering.

"The patient and willing endurance of pain, loss, disadvantage, distress, and even death because of Christ."

There is a lot that can be said about the suffering of the believer.  I'm sure there are books and books on the subject.  The most convicting part of my thinking about suffering, particularly the fact that my faith in Christ guarantees my suffering, is:


Do I truly suffer for the name of Christ?


If I do, then there is nothing more to be said.  My suffering is proof enough of the genuineness of my faith.  But if I do not...then the question that will forever haunt me is...


Why not?

A Remnant

On occasions when I'm by myself and thinking about life, there have been some times where I've felt lonely.  It's the kind of lonely that Elijah felt in 1 Kings:

"I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.  For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." (1 Kings 19:14)

Don't get me wrong - I'm not claiming to be a prophet or to have everything together.  That's not it at all.  I'm far from perfect and God has a lot of molding left to do in me.  I'm just saying that sometimes I really resonate with Elijah in this passage.  He's had to be the bearer of bad news (a drought for an unspecified amount of time), challenged and killed a whole slew of Baal prophets, and now Jezebel wants his head on a platter.  He feels like he's the only one left who believes in God.

Do you ever feel that way?  Maybe at work you're the only Christian...or at school you're the only one of your friends who stands up for the kid who's being bullied...or you have Christian friends who aren't living out their faith while you struggle to be genuine.  It can be quite discouraging...


Look at how God replied to Elijah, though - "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." (vs.18)  Encouraging?  Yes!  God saw what Elijah could not - a remnant of people who were faithful to Him.  I've been reading in Revelation the last few days (in the L3 Journal) and I noticed a similar pattern.


In Revelation 2 and 3, there are 7 letters to 7 churches and almost all of them have a fault of some sort.  But in each of the 7 churches, Jesus sees and points out a faithful few.  They are the people of the church who are "faithful unto death" and who still "hold fast my name", who continue in "faithful endurance" and suffer "tribulation and poverty" for His name.  It's a beautiful picture of a world that is broken, even churches that are broken and people who have remained faithful.  They are the remnant.


And so I'm challenged today because, well...you and I?  We are those people.  We are the few.  We are the remnant.  Be encouraged today to live out your faith.  Keep pressing on in the effort to live for Christ, even when it seems that no one around you is with you in that effort, because God has set us apart for His purposes.