G.O.D.

This morning I simply feel the words of Job 42:1-6 resonating in my heart. I had a look at a couple of different translations, and Eugene Peterson's "The Message" relates the core of it all so awesomely.

After all the hardship and tough shizzle that Job had endured, he finally came to this realisation:

I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.
Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
You asked, "Who is this muddying the water,
ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?"
I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me,
made small talk about wonders way over my head.
You told me, "Listen, and let me do the talking.
Let me ask the questions. You give the answers."
I admit I once lived by rumors of you;
now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!
I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.
- Job 42:1-6 (MSG)

My hope today is that we come to the full realisation of the fact that God is good...that God is faithful...that God is our provider...that God is our strength...that God is our hope...that God holds every aspect of our lives in the palm of His hand...that God is GOD.

Be-leave

Whenever we encounter the terms "faith" or "believe" in the New Testament, they are generally translated from the original Greek word “pistis”. (Leitch n.d.). This is the noun form of the word, "pistis", which is usually translated as "faith", whereas the verb form, “pisteuo”, is generally translated as "believe". (Leitch n.d.).
The Oxford Paperback Dictionary and Thesaurus defines the word as to “accept (that) something is true or someone is telling the truth”. (Hawker and Waite 2007, 77). Further research revealed its meaning to include “a confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proofs”. (Bethany House 2004, 34). Some texts also allude to the word as being related to the old English word, “geleafa”, which essentially translated into ‘holding dear’. (Harper 2001-2013).

Consideration of the text which we find in the Gospel of John since commencing this subject for my current studies, has reminded me of a song which my parents listened to often as I was growing up. It was by an artist called Don Francisco, and the song was called “Closer to Jesus”. The lyrics allude to the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34), and the man with unbelief whose son Jesus delivered from a demon (Mark 9:14-29). Scripture is littered with examples of people showing exemplary faith in God. But these two instances stand out for me because of the simplicity of their nature.

The woman with the issue of blood simply knew that Jesus was capable of healing her, even though she was unable to come face to face with Him:

(27) When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, (28) because she thought,
“If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
(Mark 5:27-28, NIV).

The man with unbelief had the boldness to admit to Jesus that he believed, but that his faith was lacking. The response from Jesus was the personification of God’s words to Paul, which Paul recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) –

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

The boldness and courage which the man demonstrated in his confession of unbelief served as the very catalyst for the glorification of God in the matter of his son being delivered from the demon by Jesus.

Neither of these individuals needed lengthy sermons or physical evidence of who Jesus was before they approached Him. They were in a desperate situation and immediately believed who Jesus was, and trusted Him to irrevocably change their circumstances.
In contrast, the mercy and patience of Jesus is evident in the Gospel of John as He continuously reveals Himself to unbelieving people in order that they may believe. However, it is also telling of the Father’s relentless love for and pursuit of all that He has made, and illustrates the lengths which He will go to for us to believe and be reconciled with Him through Christ.

I would like to suggest that God not only loves us, but that He believes in us in the context of the old English understanding of the word – “to hold dear”. (Harper 2001-2013). The overwhelming thought of God holding us dear and loving us to the extent that He was willing to sacrifice His own Son so that we may be reconciled with Him, is something that may cause us to overlook the utter significance and simplicity of just who He really is and what the sacrifice of Jesus meant for all mankind. If we pause our lives for a moment to consider this – and choose to accept it as His unconditional gift to each one of us – then we may well come to a deeper understanding of how dear He holds us. May the simplicity in its magnitude stir in us a deeper desire to truly, without reserve and unequivocally LEAVE ourselves and our concepts of who God is and wants to be to us behind...and simply: BELIEVE.

Motive

This morning I came around to reading an email that I received last week already. It contained some dates and information on some early Friday morning discussion meetings at a local coffee shop. But what struck me was the opening section before all the dates and the regular hoo-ha.

The past week or two I have been quite aware of the reason that we do even the most mundane things - the motive, the drive behind it. Regardless of whether it's a spiritual discipline like fasting or agreeing to do something for someone at the office, motive is something that we cannot get away from, whether we acknowledge it or not. But the illustration presented below much better explains it.

One of the best illustrations of the difference between Religion and the
Gospel comes from Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) :

Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took
it to his king and said, "My lord, this is the greatest carrot I've ever
grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token
of my love and respect for you." The king was touched and discerned the
man's heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, "Wait! You are clearly a
good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want
to give it to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all." The gardener
was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing.

There was a nobleman at the king's court who overheard all this, and he
said, "My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the king
something better?" The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he
was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, "My lord, I
breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I've ever bred or ever will;
therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect
for you." But the king discerned his heart and said, "Thank you," and took
the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king
said, "Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were
giving yourself the horse."