God’s Voice

If someone asked me where to start reading the Bible, I’d recommend John’s gospel. It opens with the most informative prologue in the New Testament. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it“ (John 1:1-5).

John’s principal subject is Jesus so several fundamental truths about Him are revealed in these five verses. Being the Creator of everything, He is eternal. He’s always existed. He is part of the Trinity Godhead in that He’s with God. Yet He’s not to be considered anything less than God Almighty. He’s the God of Genesis 1:1. He is life itself. And He is, as He publicly announced, “the light of the world“ (John 8:12); the hope of our fallen planet that’s cursed because of sin’s darkness.

But He is foremost “the Word.” A.W. Tozer explained, “A word is a medium by which thoughts are expressed, and the application of the term to the Eternal Son leads us to believe self-expression is inherent in the Godhead, that God is forever seeking to speak Himself out to His creation. The whole Bible supports the idea. God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is by His nature continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking voice. …He is the expression of the will of God spoken into the structure of all things.”

J.I. Packer wrote, “The Word is a person in fellowship with God, and the Word is Himself personally and eternally divine. He is, as John proceeds to tell us, the only Son of the Father. John sets this mystery of one God in two persons at the head of his gospel because he knows that nobody can make head or tail of the words and works of Jesus of Nazareth until they’ve grasped the fact that this Jesus is in truth God the Son.”

The Word has a voice that speaks to us clearly. R.C. Sproul wrote, “The zenith of God’s self-revelation is the person and work of Christ, the ‘Logos,’ who is also called ‘the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word‘ (Hebrews 1:3). God’s supreme revelation of Himself was His incarnation, the Word becoming flesh and speaking to us at our level of understanding.”

I’m not downplaying the vital importance of the Bible. Heavens no. But God’s voice isn’t limited to pages of chapters and verses. Rather, it’s as alive and free as He is. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life“ (John 6:63). Tozer wrote, “God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. It’s the present Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful. Otherwise, it would lie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.”

Contemplate the immense power unleashed by that voice! “By the LORD’s decree the heavens were made; by a mere word from His mouth all the stars in the sky were created. …Let the whole earth fear the LORD! Let all who live in the world stand in awe of Him! For He spoke, and it came into existence. He issued the decree, and it stood firm“ (Psalm 33:6,8). Never forget that Christ, the omnipotent One who literally spoke the atoms we’re made of into existence, willingly came to earth to suffer and die a criminal’s death in our place. Our magnificent Savior loves us that much.

The tragedy is that “He was in the world, and the world was created by Him, but the world did not recognize Him. He came to what was His own, but His own people did not receive Him“ (John 1:10-11). The Israelites had been taught for centuries that the promised Messiah would be a fierce, supernatural warrior rather than the Prince of Peace Jesus was. They chose to ignore what the prophet Isaiah had heard from God:

“He had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, no special appearance that we should want to follow Him. He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from Him; He was despised, and we considered Him insignificant“ (Isaiah 53:2-3).

God spoke then and He still speaks now. Tozer wrote, “God is here and He’s speaking – these truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them there could be no revelation at all. God didn’t write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years.”

This doesn’t mean God has revealed “everything about everything” in the Bible. What He’s revealed is all we need to know. It is sufficient. Cornelius Van Til wrote, “The existence of all things in the world are what they are by the plan of God. The knowledge of anything is by way of understanding the connection one has with the plan. The sin of man is within the plan. Its removal is within the plan. The facts of redemption, the explanation of those facts, are together a part of the plan. And man’s acceptance is within this plan.”

Evidence that false teachings abound is obvious whenever one hears from a pulpit the phrase, “God told me….” The words God has already spoken remain relevant. He doesn’t change and neither do His utterances recorded in Scripture. The revelator warned, “If anyone adds to them, I’ll add to him the plagues described in this book“ (Revelation 22:18). Beware.

God’s Universal Presence

God’s divine immanence is a fundamental truth of the Bible. God not only exists in His creation but is indivisibly present in all He’s made. Many modern-day Christians either ignore or downplay that fact for fear of being labeled a pantheist (one who believes God is the sum total of creation, i.e., everything and everyone is God).

The pantheistic concept is incomplete. While God certainly created the universe, He’s nonetheless before, during, after, and transcendent of it. He’s eternal. His material creation isn’t. To borrow from what Jesus taught in John 17:16, God is in the world but He’s not of it. God is altogether “other.”

A.W. Tozer wrote, “‘In the beginning God created…’ Not matter, for matter isn’t self-causing. It requires an antecedent cause, and God is that Cause. Not law, for law is but a name for the course which all creation follows. That course had to be planned, and the Planner is God. Not mind, for mind also is a created thing and must have a Creator back of it. God is the uncaused Cause of matter, mind and law. There we must begin.”

Our all-knowing God is aware of everything about us. That includes our actions, our thoughts, our attitudes, our desires, etc. He’s also as near to me as He is to someone on the opposite side of the globe. For a born-again Christian nothing is more comforting than sensing Father God is with them constantly. However, for a habitual, unrepentant sinner that truth is terrifying, so they attempt to hide from God.

But that’s impossible. Adam tried it but quickly realized he couldn’t. As did David who stated, “Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence? If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your right hand would grab hold of me.“ (Psalm 139:7-8).

King Solomon once exclaimed, “God doesn’t really live on the earth! Look, if the sky and the highest heaven can’t contain you, how much less this temple I’ve built! But respond favorably to your servant’s prayer and his request for help“ (1 Kings 8:27).

Paul addressed the curious Athenian wise guys thusly: “The God who made the world and everything in it, who’s Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t live in temples made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. From one man He made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they’d live, so they’d search for God and perhaps grope around for Him and find Him, though He isn’t far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move about and exist…” (Acts 17:24-28).

I, for one, am glad God controls everything. Spurgeon preached, “There’s nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation – the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands – the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there’s no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they’ve made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah.”

Yet if God’s sovereign omnipresence is an incontrovertible fact, why doesn’t everybody in the world act like it? It’s because billions don’t realize our invisible God is always nearby. Tozer wrote, “God’s Presence and the manifestation of His Presence aren’t the same. There can be one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He’s manifest only when and as we’re aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work is to show us the Father and the Son.”

What every person who sincerely desires to know God must do is to continue increasing their spiritual receptivity. David is a good example of a person who did just that. He respectfully asked God to “Hear my voice when I call, LORD; be merciful and answer me. My heart says of You, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek“ (Psalm 27:7-8).

I must warn you, there’s a danger in becoming overly preoccupied with God’s omniscience. It can lead to developing a “whatever” frame of mind; a fatalistic mindset that can erode a believer’s willingness to “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you“ (Matthew 28:19-20).

Hard as it is for some to accept, we can’t know everything. Tozer commented, “God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, ‘O Lord, Thou knowest.’ Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it’ll never make saints.”

We must trust in God’s gracious providence no matter what.

The Puritan John Flavel wrote, “How great a ground of quietness it is that the whole disposal and management of all our affairs and concerns is in the hand of our own God and Father. No creature can touch us without His commission or permission. ‘Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above”‘ (John 19:11). Neither men nor devils can do anything without God’s leave and be sure He’ll sign no order to your prejudice.” Trust God.

The Unseen Reality

There’s no end to the universe. Thus, it’s completely beyond any human being’s capacity to comprehend its immensity. We can gaze into it, predict the movements of the objects in it and speculate about what’s “out there”, but wrapping our brains around what we’re actually a part of boggles the mind. Therefore, we tend to concern ourselves only with what our senses tells us is a tangible reality.

Yet as tangible as it is, there’s a spiritual reality we’re not even aware of that dwarfs all of creation. A.W. Tozer commented, “The great unseen Reality is God.” While being interrogated, Jesus informed Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world“ and “My kingdom is from another place“ (John 18:36). Our Lord’s kingdom is a spiritual realm.

This doesn’t mean that just because we can’t see Him, we can’t know God. Tozer wrote, “The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing that comes within the field of their experience. The same terms used to express the knowledge of God are used to express knowledge of physical things.”

Examples abound in God’s Holy Word: “Taste and see that the LORD is good!“ (Psalm 34:8). “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me“ (John 10:27). “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God“ (Matthew 5:8). “See my pierced hands and feet. See for yourselves, it is I, standing here alive. Touch me and know that my wounds are real“ (Luke 24:39). You get the point.

Not everybody gets to do that, though. It’s a blessing limited to those who have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. The spiritual faculties of an unregenerate man or woman lie dormant unless and until they receive the divine gift of faith in Jesus. Why’s that? Because original sin ruined everything. Only Christ’s atoning death on the cross made salvation available to those who humble themselves before Him. They alone can know God.

What’s the payoff? J.I. Packer explained, “Those who know God have great contentment in God. There’s no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they’ve known God, that God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death and on forever. …The comprehensiveness of our contentment is another measure whereby we may judge whether we really know God.”

So why do so many Christians think God is some kind of force rather than a loving person who desires we should know Him intimately? Tozer wrote, “The answer is our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things.”

Understand God isn’t somewhere far away. He’s right here. His spiritual kingdom envelopes and embraces His adopted children 24/7. God is well within reach. He patiently waits for us to trust Him, cling to Him and immerse ourselves in His immediate, fatherly presence. The mistake too many make is to foolishly live in a false reality; a counterfeit one of our own design and preference.

Tozer defined spiritual reality as “That which has existence apart from any idea the mind may have of it, and which would exist if there were no mind anywhere to entertain a thought of it. That which is real has being in itself. It doesn’t depend upon the observer for its validity.” In other words, like it or not God’s reality is the only reality there is.

Pity the atheist who believes solely in what they can touch, see, hear, smell or taste on this mortal coil all of us began our existence upon. Don’t get me wrong. Christians aren’t daft. We know this world isn’t an illusion. We know God has provided us with five senses to recognize and appreciate the beauty of earth, His most unique creation of all.

It’s important to recognize knowing God and knowing everything He knows aren’t the same thing. Calvin wrote, “Since the Holy Spirit always instructs us in what is useful, but altogether omits or only touches cursorily on matters which tend little to edification, of all such matters it certainly is our duty to remain in willing ignorance.”

The term willing ignorance offends those who deem themselves “smarter than the average bear.” It’s also why most with that attitude aren’t Christians. Tozer commented, “At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The object of the Christian’s faith is unseen reality.”

Philip Yancey, in Reaching for the Invisible God, wrote, “The modern world honors intelligence, good looks, confidence, and sophistication. God, apparently, does not. To accomplish His work God often relies on simple, uneducated people who don’t know any better than to trust Him, and through them wonders happen.”

Tozer opined, “If we truly want to follow God, we must seek to be other-worldly. I say this knowing well that that word has been used with scorn by the sons of this world and applied to the Christian as a badge of reproach. So be it. Every man must choose his world. If we who follow Christ, with all the facts before us and knowing what we’re about, deliberately choose the Kingdom of God as our sphere of interest, I see no reason why anyone should object.”

He then adds the kicker. “If we lose by it, the loss is our own; if we gain, we rob no one by so doing. The ‘other world,’ which is the object of this world’s disdain and the subject of the drunkard’s mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing.”

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who haven’t seen and yet have believed“ (John 20:29). The Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood put it bluntly: “If a man wishes to avoid paradoxes, the best advice is for him to leave the Christian faith alone.”

Restless Hearts

I’ve been a leader in our church’s Celebrate Recovery ministry for over a decade. A complaint I hear often is “I’ve surrendered all to Christ so why do I still sin? Remorse is killing me. Am I not saved?” I tell them their guilty conscience is proof positive they belong to Jesus, our gracious Lord who’s forgiven their every sin.

In other words, if they didn’t feel shame over their sinful ways (due to erroneously believing Christ’s sacrifice rendered sinning no big deal) they’d have reason to doubt their salvation. But, if their faith is real, the indwelling Holy Spirit never lets them off the hook when they fail to live up to our Savior’s standards. Their regret confirms their redemption and their acceptance by God. A.W. Tozer taught, “Thirsty hearts whose longings have been awakened by the touch of God within them need no reasoned proof. Their restless hearts furnish all the proof they need.”

Yet our hearts are restless because Adam & Eve’s sin erected a thick, heavy veil between us and God’s holy presence. When Jesus died on the cross that impenetrable curtain in the temple split from top to bottom, figuratively granting all who believe in Him access to our Heavenly Father. No rituals required. Only faith. Nevertheless, we still have fleshly desires to battle.

Tozer wrote, “God wills we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It’s more than a doctrine to be held; it’s a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence.”

Believers are free to bask in God’s light. But most don’t. Why? Because we’re so very unspiritual. Jesus said, “God is spirit, and the people who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth“ (John 4:24). Therefore, there’s nothing automatic about it. Like David, it must be our #1 goal in life to constantly yearn for God.

“As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God! I thirst for God, for the living God. I say, ‘When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?’ …Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! I will again give thanks to my God for His saving intervention“ (Psalm 42:1-2,5). Bear in mind David lived prior to the arrival of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who opened the way for the elect to enjoy a personal relationship with the Father. The physical veil is gone.

So, what’s our problem? Tozer explained, “It’s none other than the presence of a veil in our hearts. A veil not taken away as the first veil was, but which remains there still, shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It’s the veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It’s the close-woven veil of the self-life of which we’ve never truly acknowledged, of which we’ve been secretly ashamed, and which we’ve never brought to the judgment of the cross.”

As Voddie Baucham often says, “Can I get an amen or an ouch?“

For myself, it’s the latter. Previously I wrote about how our obsession with our “stuff” prevents us from treasuring as we should our merciful Father in Heaven, our glorious Savior and our infallible counselor, the Holy Spirit. I’m as wretched as they come. I’m too easily distracted by worldly things and selfish pursuits. Thank God, He forgives me of my weaknesses. Still, I have no excuse.

Tozer didn’t mince words, writing, “When we talk of the rending of the veil, we’re speaking in a figure, and the thought of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality there’s nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it’s composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed.”

He continues, “To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It’s never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that’s what the cross did to Jesus and it’s what the cross would do to every man to set him free. But let us beware of tinkering with our inner life, hoping we can rend the veil ourselves. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust.”

The reality everyone must accept is that we’re sinners. However, that status doesn’t disqualify us from gaining eternal life. J.I. Packer commented, “The sins of God’s children don’t destroy their justification or nullify their adoption, but they mar the children’s fellowship with their Father. “Be holy, for I am holy“ (1 Peter 1:16), is our Father’s word to us, and it’s no part of justifying faith to lose sight of the fact that God, the King, wants His royal children to live lives worthy of their paternity and position.”

We must endeavor to allow and welcome the change the Holy Spirit is working in us. R.C. Sproul wrote, “True transformation comes by gaining a new understanding of God, ourselves, and the world. What we’re after ultimately is to be conformed to the image of Christ. We’re to be like Jesus, though not in the sense that we can ever gain deity. We’re not god-men. But our humanity is to mirror and reflect the perfect humanity of Jesus. A tall order! It requires a serious level of sacrifice. That’s the call to excellence we’ve received.”

It’s normal for a Christian to have a restless heart. Heaven’s our home and we’re not there. Not yet, anyway.

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Our “Stuff”

My wife and I are getting some much-needed improvements done to our home. She’s lived here for four decades (two with me) and during that time lots of “things” have accumulated. I’m sure that’s the case with most Baby Boomers but when I realize just how much “stuff” we have I’m embarrassed because the vast majority of it consists of furniture, knickknacks, decorations, etc. that don’t have any lasting value. Yet we’ve hung on to them for years.

Christians must guard their hearts from elevating anything or anybody above Jesus Christ. It takes spiritual effort and discipline. We all know “we can’t take it with us” so why do we act like we can?

A.W. Tozer wrote, “There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets ‘things’ with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns ‘my’ and ‘mine’ look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

Not long ago in one of my blogs I brought up the story of the rich young man who asked Jesus, “What must I do to gain eternal life?“ (Matthew 19:16). He then bragged about how religious and law-abiding he was, thinking that would impress Christ. But when our Lord told him to give all his money and “stuff” to the poor, he turned and “went away sorrowful, for he was very wealthy“ (19:22). Evidently, he found salvation too expensive.

This doesn’t mean Christians are to live like beggars. What our Savior demands of His disciples is that we be willing to surrender whatever we treasure more than Him. He taught, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits his soul?“ (Luke 9:23-25).

That’s not a passage preached in most modern-day church pulpits with regularity. Folks don’t really want to hear what Christ taught about being poor or enduring hardships. Calvin wrote, “Those whom the Lord has chosen and honored with His intercourse must prepare for a hard, laborious, troubled life, a life full of many and various kinds of evils; it being the will of our heavenly Father to exercise His people in this way while putting them to the proof.”

Most of us don’t like tests.

Nothing’s more uncomfortable and downright disturbing than reading about God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son in Genesis 22. Understand that his and Sarah’s son Isaac was the miracle child God had promised they’d have. It’s not hard to imagine that the apprehension Abraham suffered on the eve of the event was matched only by the angst Jesus’ endured in Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. God has never asked for more than He did of Abraham.

Abraham’s faith is legendary. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He’d received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his son. God had told him, ‘Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,’ and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense, he received him back from there“ (Hebrews 11:17-19). An unbeliever would conclude that God’s a cruel trickster who can’t be trusted. Nothing’s further from the truth.

Tozer wrote, “We’re often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.”

Brennan Manning opined, “The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials. Through the indescribable anguish on Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, Abraham learned that the God who’d called him to hope against hope was eminently reliable and that the only thing expected from him was unconditional trust.”

While it’s doubtful God will test any of us to the extent He did with Abraham, we must do all we can to nurture our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. First, we must rid ourselves of all defenses and excuses. Tozer explained, “Whoever defends themself will have themself for their own defense, and they’ll have no other; but let them come defenseless before the Lord and they’ll have for their defender no less than God Himself.” “Christ is the one who died (and more than that, He was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us“ (Romans 8:34).

Secondly, Christians should never underestimate the necessity of placing God above all human beings, creatures and material things in their life. This can be extremely hard to do and impossible without the assistance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Tozer commented, “The ancient curse of Eden will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us won’t lie down and die obedient to our command.”

We must pray daily, asking God for the power to expel the accumulated “stuff” from our heart and replace it all with His glorious presence. Yes, it might require specifically identifying things and people we’ve made more important than Him. But by doing so you’ll come to realize the old saying, “Give up everything you have for what you could never buy“, is absolutely true.

Christian Liberty

An overused and blatantly hypocritical phrase heard almost daily is “no one’s above the law.” But we live in a fallen world where lady justice has misplaced her blindfold. That’s not the case in God’s courtroom. Regardless, due to the ultimate Judge’s grace and mercy, Christians won’t suffer the eternal punishment our lawlessness deserves. We’ve been liberated from prosecution.

Understand mankind is cursed. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” (Galatians 3:13). It’s easy for folks to misinterpret that verse. It certainly doesn’t mean we’re free to sin willy-nilly. Paul nipped that falsehood in the bud. “What’ll we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?“ (Romans 6:1-2).

Calvin wrote about Christian liberty, starting with God not requiring us to earn our salvation via good works. “The consciences of believers, when seeking assurance of their justification before God, should raise themselves above the law, and forget all the righteousness of the law. Since the law leaves no man righteous, either we must be excluded from all hope of justification, or it’s necessary for us to be delivered from it so completely as to not have any dependence on works.”

Does this nullify the importance of depending upon God’s moral and civil laws to learn how to think and act like Jesus? Nope. We’re to do everything possible to comply with every one of them. Paul wrote to the church: “Brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more. …For God didn’t call us to impurity but to holiness“ (1 Thessalonians 4:1,7).

Another blessing of Christian liberty is having the Holy Spirit inside who encourages us to honor our Savior by willingly obeying His commands. Of course, this entails constantly engaging in battles with our flesh. And, if we’re not careful, our defeats in some of those battles can become roadblocks. Calvin wrote, “Those who’ve made considerable progress in the way of the Lord are yet at an immense distance from perfection. Though they love God with their soul and with sincere affection of heart, they have still much of their heart and soul occupied by carnal desires which retard their progress toward God.”

Sad to admit, though I’ve been ransomed by my Lord Jesus, I’m still a lawbreaker, a sinner. If not for Christ’s sacrifice, I’d be headed for hell. I thank God for what He’s done for me. The Bible states: “Sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace“ (Romans 6:14) and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death“ (Romans 8:1-2).

Christian liberty also rescues us from becoming slaves to empty religious rituals and rites. Calvin wrote, “Christian liberty teaches that we’re bound by no obligation before God regarding external things, which in themselves are indifferent… The knowledge of this liberty is very necessary, for without it we’ll have no tranquility of conscience, nor will there be any end of superstitions.”

A.W. Tozer wrote, “Since man’s expulsion from the Garden, religion has been an intolerable burden on the back of all mankind. But now the people of the world, bearing the heavy yoke of religion, can know the true freedom of genuine worship. God never called man to walk knee-deep in the sludge of the world, nor did He intend for man to be mired down in the traditions of men. Therefore, the Lord sets us free and opens a fountain of healing water for the wounds of the world. Yet, in spite of all this, man deliberately chooses the bondage of religion over the liberating freedom in Christ.”

Jesus asks that we believe in Him. Nothing else. He doesn’t care where we’re from or where we are now. He doesn’t care about skin color or how well off we are. Calvin wrote, “Let all men, in their respective stations, whether of poverty, of competence, or of splendor, live in the remembrance of this truth, that God confers His blessing on them for the support of life, not for luxury; and let them consider this as the law of Christian liberty, that they learn the lesson which Paul had learned when he said, ‘I’ve learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things, I’m instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need‘ (Philippians 4:11-12).”

Believers have been released from the onus of worrying about appearing gullible or foolish in the estimation of others. Our responsibility is to obey God, not our ego. The Holy Word is our infallible life coach. “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up“ (Romans 15:1-2). “Be careful that this liberty of yours doesn’t become a hindrance to the weak“ (1 Corinthians 8:9). “You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another“ (Galatians 5:13).

Larry Crabb wrote, “If we look only at our lives, we’ll wonder if we’re saved. If we evaluate our progress along the spiritual journey, doubts will arise. But if we learn to listen to the Spirit, we’ll know we’re Christ’s. And we’ll delight in holy fellowship with God. We’ll walk out of the courtroom and into the judge’s home. We are His children.”

What a blessing it is knowing we’re beloved children of God.

A Living Sacrifice

The third of the 12 steps in Celebrate Recovery reads, “We made a decision to turn our lives and wills over to the care of God.” The corresponding Scripture is “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service“ (Romans 12:1).

I recently posted an essay about surrender. To now present one about sacrifice may seem redundant but there’s a big difference between the two. As we learn in CR, the former’s what a repentant sinner does when they lay down at the foot of the cross a hurt, habit or hang-up that’s become unmanageable. It could be alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, overeating, codependency, etc. No matter what it is, Christ can take it away and begin the healing process. Most will gladly surrender what they don’t want.

Conversely, sacrifice involves giving up something/someone we cherish and deem so valuable we’ve placed it/them above our Savior. Charles Swindoll wrote, “What Paul asks for doesn’t come naturally, easily or automatically. When people sacrifice, they’re usually not doing it on a whim. Sacrifice hurts. Sacrifice works against our natural inclinations to keep a tight hold on our possessions and creature comforts. We come hard-wired with the instinct to watch out for ourselves, guard against risk, and preserve our own lives at any cost.”

Understand that Paul’s not promoting suicide. Hardly. Everyone’s life is a gift from God. What he’s advocating is voluntarily choosing to abandon our self-centered manner of doing things and more faithfully follow Jesus. “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God“ (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Calvin called it “…the sacrifice with which we dedicate ourselves, soul and body, to be a holy temple to the Lord. It’s not enough that our external acts be framed to obedience, but we must dedicate and consecrate first ourselves, and, secondly, all that we have, so that all which is in us may be subservient to His glory and be stirred up to magnify it.”

He added, “This kind of sacrifice has nothing to do with appeasing God, with obtaining remission of sins, with procuring justification, but is wholly employed in magnifying and extolling God, since it can’t be grateful and acceptable to God unless at the hand of those who, having received forgiveness of sins, have already been reconciled and freed from guilt.”

Jesus said, “My commandment is this – to love one another as I’ve loved you. No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you“ (John 15:12-13). Christ didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk – all the way to Calvary.

James S. Stewart commented, “Christ unites Himself with us, and takes our place and bears our sins. We then identify ourselves with Him by sacrificing to Him our life. Thereby His attitude to sin becomes our attitude, His love for the Father our love, His passion for holiness our passion.” Stewart then said of the resulting reward: “The man who’s in Christ is right with God. He may be far from perfection yet, but that union is the seed which contains within itself all the promise of the future. In the face and in the soul of Christ, God sees what the man yet may be.”

Most Christians discover sacrificing things is a lot easier than sacrificing loved ones. But it’s not about ceasing to love and care for them. Jesus made it clear we’re to love one another unconditionally. However, we must be willing to let go of our insistence on running their lives for them and let God’s plan play out. I have two unbelieving adult offspring. I adore them both, but I had to put God in charge of them and trust in His providential sovereignty. He loves them, too.

A.W. Tozer wrote, “We’re often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety. This is especially true when our treasures are loved ones, relatives, and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything’s safe which we commit to Him, and nothing’s really safe which is not so committed.”

Tozer added, “Let us never forget that a truth such as this can’t be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of physical science. It must be experienced before we can really know it. The tough old miser within us won’t lie down and die in obedience to our command. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the moneychangers from the temple.”

While I prefer to label myself as “frugal”, the truth is I’m the tough old miser Tozer identified. I was raised by parents whose motto was “If you don’t really need it, don’t buy it.” Therefore, I’ve always been reticent to part with my hard-earned savings. But when this prodigal finally went back to church in 2009, I began to tithe and contribute to our missionaries. And you know what? Not once have I regretted giving back to the Lord what’s His. Not once.

I’m not patting myself on the back. I’ll let other Christians decide how and when they support their church. Having the funds automatically drawn from my bank account helps immensely because it keeps me from having to sit down and write out a check every week. It happens without me thinking about it and I’m good with that.

The Bible promises, “God will supply your every need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus“ (Philippians 5:19). It’s true. I have yet to miss even one cent I’ve contributed. This Jim Elliot quote sums it up well: “He’s no fool who gives what he can’t keep to gain what he can’t lose.”

Silence is Golden

When I was growing up my parents would sometimes tell me to “pipe down”. That was a nice way of saying “shut your trap”. In our spiritual journey, as we “work out our salvation“ (Philippians 2:12), it’s vital we “pipe down” often so we can hear God speak to us through the silence. He doesn’t do it audibly. He can, but probably won’t.

The Hebrew word selah appears frequently in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. Scholars agree it likely means “pause”. God’s telling us there are times to quieten ourselves, relax, breathe deeply and patiently wait on the Lord. David wrote, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD“ (Psalm 27:14).

Dan Rather once interviewed Mother Teresa. He asked, “When you pray, what do you say to God?” She replied, “I don’t say anything. I listen.” He then inquired, “When God speaks to you what does He say?” She said, “He doesn’t say anything. He listens.” This stumped Rather. She politely added, “And if you don’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.”

Most of us talk too much. A.W. Tozer opined, “The inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience can be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children in the marketplace, chattering about everything, but pausing to learn the value of nothing.”

Solomon wrote, “My child, if you receive my words, and store up my commands within you by making your ear attentive to wisdom and by turning your heart to understanding, indeed, if you call out for discernment – raise your voice for understanding – if you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasure, then you’ll understand how to fear the LORD, and you’ll discover knowledge about God“ (Proverbs 2:1-5). Of course, our “calling out for discernment“ should be done before we silently listen.

Our prayer time can present our best opportunity to selah. Brennan Manning recommended, “Speak to Jesus – or just lovingly stay in silence and communicate with Him beyond words.”

Charles Swindoll preached, “Our only reliable source of communication from God is the Bible. The purpose of silence isn’t to receive extrabiblical instructions or secret messages. Yet somehow in the crucible of silence the Holy Spirit boils the truth we get from Scripture down to its essence, reveals specific insights that are pertinent, then applies them to our most perplexing problems and our most stubborn misconceptions. As God transforms our heart to beat more truly for Him, our decisions accomplish His will as we reflect His character.”

Henri Nouwen wrote, “We’re left with the question of how to practice a ministry of silence in which our word has the power to represent the fullness of God’s silence. This is an important question because we’ve become so contaminated by our wordy world that we hold to the deceptive opinion that our words are more important than our silence.”

Realize God isn’t asking much of us here. We don’t have to assume a yoga position, chant a mantra or do anything except to not utter a single sound. The hardest part for us is turning off our phones and other distracting devices, instructing others to give us some “alone time,” then closing our eyes and making room in our mind for God to enter. It’s not rocket science but it’s essential to maintaining spiritual intimacy.

I’m not downplaying the difficulty involved in achieving even a semblance of solitude sometimes. But if you keep at it consistently it’ll become a habit others will eventually accept as an aspect of your deepening relationship with Christ. The peace, serenity and contentment you’ll gain will be worth it to both you and them.

Christians are to emulate our Savior. He didn’t spend His life sequestered in a cave. On the contrary, He was “out there” among the people. He stayed busy converting lives, healing the sick, exorcising demons, restoring sight to the blind, raising the dead, etc. Yet after one particularly harried day we’re told: “Then Jesus got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there He spent time in prayer“ (Mark 1:35).

I used to have a hard time listening intently when someone was speaking to me. I’d be preoccupied with coming up with an impressive or clever response. Therefore, I often misheard. (My wife complains that I still “don’t listen” well to her. Guilty as charged.) But Celebrate Recovery has helped me immensely in that regard because in our small group gatherings nobody’s allowed to speak except the person sharing so it’s pointless to do anything but listen and, over time, it became natural to do that with everyone.

In one Old Testament story the prophet Elijah was depressed and distraught. He wanted to die. But then God quietly “spoke” to him. Nouwen commented, “Wind, earthquake and fire manifested themselves in succession, but God is said not to have been in any of these. Then a different phenomenon followed. The translations a gentle whisper and ‘a still small voice’ don’t do full justice to the enigmatic Hebrew expression, which may be better rendered ‘a brief sound of silence.'”

May we never lose sight of what God has commanded is our principal goal. Paul wrote, “My aim is to know Him, to experience the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, and to be like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead“ (Philippians 3:10-11). The most efficient way to know Him is to meditate on Scripture, pray for guidance and then selah long enough to listen.

Swindoll advised, “Make silence and solitude a priority. In that quiet aloneness, let the Holy Spirit cultivate serenity in you. You owe it not only to yourself but to those you love most. If you don’t, you’ll never really know the God you worship, and your loved ones will never really know who you are.”