Note: If you've not had the opportunity to read the foreword or previous chapters and would like to, please look for the title of this writing under the "Blog Pages" tab above and click on it. You'll find what's available to date under that tab. jbh
The Passion Well
Chapter 12
Peering Into The Well...
***
Proverbs 30:4-5 (NLT)
4 "Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down? Who holds the wind in his fists? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name—and his son’s name? Tell me if you know! 5 Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection."
***
What could transform a guy once hardened by life's seeming hardships, inequities and endless struggles to become so passionately grateful, devoted and filled with adoration for a seeming invisible God?...
The answers are endless, but for the sake of those who indulge me to follow me here, it's not easy, but I'll try to condense what overwhelms my heart...
It begins with acknowledgement.
Let's begin with the bible itself. There are 66 books of the Christian Bible. They were written over a span of many centuries by at least forty different authors. Yet despite the differing personalities and developing cultures throughout that amazing expanse of time, from beginning to end they together tell one story and are in complete agreement with each other both in history and in spirit. The story they tell in perfect harmony from beginning to end, is that of one God who created man with a passion to know and love each one that He brought into existence - to relate and have fellowship with each one for His own pleasure ... if they choose to enter in.
Many tend to follow the subordinate story of man throughout scripture with great interest. But that's not the main story. In order to derive the incredible intended wealth of what we've been offered to receive, it has to be recognized that scripture is intended to tell us about and make us familiar with only one of its many characters - God is telling us about Himself. Through scripture He's offered us the opportunity to gather some intimate insight into who He is and to begin to become able to relate to Him on His sovereign terms and as He's desired since He thought to create us.
From the beginning of Genesis, we understand the sovereignty, omnipotence and immenseness of God to create the heavens and the earth and all that exists in them. The full terror of His power is something man has not yet witnessed with his own eyes, however what we've been allowed to know of Him sets Him far above any being in existence. Yet God's love for the human beings He's created and His astounding deep humility before them in grace have been selflessly displayed in the story He relates to us through the fullness of scripture.
Who is this God that reigns supreme over all that exists? The bible describes Him in much detail and it's only by consuming the wealth to be derived from its pages that we begin to recognize Him, to see Him in our lives and spot His fatherly involvement with us. His early instruction, including the Ten Commandments gives us some pretty straight forward and basic understanding regarding not only what He requires, but also what He likes and dislikes. It begins to drive home a picture of a God who loves justice, righteousness, loyalty, kindness and peace. But that's only the beginning...
Setting aside the predictably sinful performances of man throughout the history of scripture allows us to view the sufferable story of a God who weeps over His children with a tender and broken heart for them. He endures countless transgressions against Himself and His rule, suffers recurrent and flagrant infidelity from His love interest and sees the object of His desire marching by choice toward destruction ... and yet He still faithfully loves unwaveringly. It's a story that once honestly and truly taken in, is not easily dismissed. It's a story of an enduring love that surpasses by far the capacity of any human to endure in its punishment ... and yet one that in all of His sovereign power and majesty, He still knowingly and patiently suffers to participate in.
We were created by this very same God. The body of our ancestor Adam was formed by the hand of God from the lowly dust of the earth. So my origin came from humble dirt and if my flesh is offended by that thought, then I may have lost touch with my place in the universe of God's perspective and the basic root of gratitude toward the massive elevation of my stature purely by His grace. What is created man's value compared to Creator God in that light? He could have justly decided at any time that we weren't worth the effort and wiped us from existence. As a child reading the account of the flood of Noah's time, I seriously wondered at the time why He didn't. But He didn't because He had a plan from before the beginning of time to offer us undeserved favor and hope.
Consider a loving God who repeatedly and passionately entreated His wayward children Israel to come back to Him despite their blatantly defiant offenses to Him throughout their history. Who can read Israel's history in scripture from our God's majestic perspective and not feel the pangs of rejection at Israel's infidelity and the misery of deep love unrequited. How can anyone attempting to enter into God's perspective not be captivated by the depth of His own emotions and the suffering of His heart? This is a God who loves more deeply and purely than any human has capacity - the one love that every heart was designed to ache for.
(I believe that it was God's intention that the prophet Hosea should begin to understand His own heart and suffering when He directed Hosea to marry a prostitute. God's own Israel was most definitely prostituting herself right in front of Him and His suffering is apparent in scripture.)
Then, when man's destiny appeared to be a complete failure and it's penalty loomed large without any hope of escape, ... came Jesus.
I'd read the New Testament accounts of Jesus' life repeatedly and had found myself deeply moved and grateful for His teaching, examples and sacrifice. But that gratitude fell woefully short before the revelation that combined all that I had learned of Jesus throughout my life with a fairly accurate and graphic display that attempted to recreate the horrific price that He willingly paid in order to offer us rescue and the hope of eternity.
That revelation combined a movie depicting the latter part of Christ's life on earth, what I knew of the history and culture at that time (both Roman and Jewish), the fullness of scripture and my personal interaction with Him to make them devastatingly real to me. I say it was devastating because the reality of it is truly impacting and life altering when the true heart of Christ is combined with the depth of torture that He knowingly entered into willingly - for me and for you. It was a revelation that I had asked for more than once in prayer while truly seeking to enter into a true and deeper relationship with Him.
In light of His deity and majesty, consider that Christ who is divinely perfect and all powerful came willingly to the earth knowing before hand exactly what he would suffer. We know well that the Apostle Paul stated clearly in Romans 3:23 " For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard" and in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Given what I know of man's history, I can't help but wonder how much terror Christ was made to suffer on the account of one man to settle the debt, let alone the sins of the whole world - He knew and He came anyway.
God's plan was to take what was of the lowest conscious form, in front of all of the multitude of angelic beings, and personally sacrifice himself in the most terrible way and in deepest display of humility in order to assign a value to that life form so great, that the value of it's promised potential could not be questioned. We, completely without any earned merit of our own are that created form ... and that indescribable value ... has been offered to us.
Christ, in His selflessness and perfect love has paid the horrific price for our failures before Father God and made it possible for us to be reunited with our creator - restoring the opportunity to engage in the most valuable and perfect relationship that because of Adam's initial sin, to say nothing of our own since, was once violated and lost.
(A sobering thought: Consider that all of this has taken place in front of the one who's insolence and vanity led him unworthily to consider himself an equal of God, led a rebellion against God and was consequently cast down from heaven with those who followed him. We have no reason to wonder why satan hates us so much...)
These things alone would be just cause for any heart to be given over completely to a passion for this God who loves us. This is a love and a belonging that every good heart yearns for. I ask myself: Who am I if I can't find my knees in worship before such a holy and perfect loving God? As a believer and follower of Christ, I am Israel, having been as Paul says "grafted in". I am Israel not only in that way but in the very essence of Israel's rebellion. As I've shared, in the past I've also been unfaithful and defiant. I've stood accusing God at times and questioning His motives and intentions. I know that I've absolutely failed the standards of my Father God having many times over made choices along the way that would have left me a convict worthy of eternal punishment. But I stand redeemed, not because of what I deserve or what I've done, but because the very same God whose heart I've wounded has compassionately and lovingly shown me selfless grace.
The act of being disciplined isn't necessarily pleasant in itself, but between both His word and His interaction with me personally, I know without question that He loves me passionately and I firmly believe that nothing around or about me escapes His notice. His interventions and fellowship with me give me absolute confidence that He loves me and that He works in my life with good and eternal intention. So if He allows something to affect me in one way or another, He has His reasons. I may not know or understand them, but He does ... and that's enough.
The things that I've shared are just a few of the points among many on a path. In the few situations that I've described from the countless many in my own life, our Lord's involvement can be seen by those who wish to do so. They will see His continuing faithfulness to involve Himself in the life of His child as the good and doting father that He is. Though, not every correction is pleasant, it's far less painful than the devastation that can come if His correction is withheld. And the formative things that we must go through in His wisdom yield rewards in terms that may not reveal themselves in worldly currency, but are vested in the character of an eternal spirit whose extreme eternal worth was graphically demonstrated in Christ's Holy blood. I have come to accept that in my Fathers' perspective I am precious and the apple of His eye, so His investments in me continue to be equally precious to me and with unerring wisdom toward His good intentions for me.
My wisdom, so limited in the face of His, is so lacking to explain His unlimited and discerning movements. But I have learned first hand through belief in His history, importations and my experience with Him that His interventions are always in keeping with His eternal perspective and character. They're always true to what He's said and always with good intention toward me regardless of how human eyes of limited viewpoint may elect to interpret them. Eternal eyes see with eternal vision the goals of an eternal God. If I can stand now before God knowing the fullness of all that He has done and said in an effort to reveal Himself to me intimately and to draw me in - without tears of gratitude and a heart of passionate loving joy for Him, then I am certain that I have no good heart.
***
Psalm 143:8 NLT
"Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you."
******"
The elation of salvation soon leaves me broken and humble
For I know that I could never bear the payment of what I have earned
And I could never earn what I have been freely given
As a man, I know not even the full weight of my own sin
For it is both known and unknown to my limited mind
You are my judge, knowing all, yet having forgiven, remember none ..." jbh
If the page appears blank and you don't see the post that you're looking for, please scroll up.
The Passion Well
Chapter 12
Peering Into The Well...
***
Proverbs 30:4-5 (NLT)
4 "Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down? Who holds the wind in his fists? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name—and his son’s name? Tell me if you know! 5 Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection."
***
What could transform a guy once hardened by life's seeming hardships, inequities and endless struggles to become so passionately grateful, devoted and filled with adoration for a seeming invisible God?...
The answers are endless, but for the sake of those who indulge me to follow me here, it's not easy, but I'll try to condense what overwhelms my heart...
It begins with acknowledgement.
Let's begin with the bible itself. There are 66 books of the Christian Bible. They were written over a span of many centuries by at least forty different authors. Yet despite the differing personalities and developing cultures throughout that amazing expanse of time, from beginning to end they together tell one story and are in complete agreement with each other both in history and in spirit. The story they tell in perfect harmony from beginning to end, is that of one God who created man with a passion to know and love each one that He brought into existence - to relate and have fellowship with each one for His own pleasure ... if they choose to enter in.
Many tend to follow the subordinate story of man throughout scripture with great interest. But that's not the main story. In order to derive the incredible intended wealth of what we've been offered to receive, it has to be recognized that scripture is intended to tell us about and make us familiar with only one of its many characters - God is telling us about Himself. Through scripture He's offered us the opportunity to gather some intimate insight into who He is and to begin to become able to relate to Him on His sovereign terms and as He's desired since He thought to create us.
From the beginning of Genesis, we understand the sovereignty, omnipotence and immenseness of God to create the heavens and the earth and all that exists in them. The full terror of His power is something man has not yet witnessed with his own eyes, however what we've been allowed to know of Him sets Him far above any being in existence. Yet God's love for the human beings He's created and His astounding deep humility before them in grace have been selflessly displayed in the story He relates to us through the fullness of scripture.
Who is this God that reigns supreme over all that exists? The bible describes Him in much detail and it's only by consuming the wealth to be derived from its pages that we begin to recognize Him, to see Him in our lives and spot His fatherly involvement with us. His early instruction, including the Ten Commandments gives us some pretty straight forward and basic understanding regarding not only what He requires, but also what He likes and dislikes. It begins to drive home a picture of a God who loves justice, righteousness, loyalty, kindness and peace. But that's only the beginning...
Setting aside the predictably sinful performances of man throughout the history of scripture allows us to view the sufferable story of a God who weeps over His children with a tender and broken heart for them. He endures countless transgressions against Himself and His rule, suffers recurrent and flagrant infidelity from His love interest and sees the object of His desire marching by choice toward destruction ... and yet He still faithfully loves unwaveringly. It's a story that once honestly and truly taken in, is not easily dismissed. It's a story of an enduring love that surpasses by far the capacity of any human to endure in its punishment ... and yet one that in all of His sovereign power and majesty, He still knowingly and patiently suffers to participate in.
We were created by this very same God. The body of our ancestor Adam was formed by the hand of God from the lowly dust of the earth. So my origin came from humble dirt and if my flesh is offended by that thought, then I may have lost touch with my place in the universe of God's perspective and the basic root of gratitude toward the massive elevation of my stature purely by His grace. What is created man's value compared to Creator God in that light? He could have justly decided at any time that we weren't worth the effort and wiped us from existence. As a child reading the account of the flood of Noah's time, I seriously wondered at the time why He didn't. But He didn't because He had a plan from before the beginning of time to offer us undeserved favor and hope.
Consider a loving God who repeatedly and passionately entreated His wayward children Israel to come back to Him despite their blatantly defiant offenses to Him throughout their history. Who can read Israel's history in scripture from our God's majestic perspective and not feel the pangs of rejection at Israel's infidelity and the misery of deep love unrequited. How can anyone attempting to enter into God's perspective not be captivated by the depth of His own emotions and the suffering of His heart? This is a God who loves more deeply and purely than any human has capacity - the one love that every heart was designed to ache for.
(I believe that it was God's intention that the prophet Hosea should begin to understand His own heart and suffering when He directed Hosea to marry a prostitute. God's own Israel was most definitely prostituting herself right in front of Him and His suffering is apparent in scripture.)
Then, when man's destiny appeared to be a complete failure and it's penalty loomed large without any hope of escape, ... came Jesus.
I'd read the New Testament accounts of Jesus' life repeatedly and had found myself deeply moved and grateful for His teaching, examples and sacrifice. But that gratitude fell woefully short before the revelation that combined all that I had learned of Jesus throughout my life with a fairly accurate and graphic display that attempted to recreate the horrific price that He willingly paid in order to offer us rescue and the hope of eternity.
That revelation combined a movie depicting the latter part of Christ's life on earth, what I knew of the history and culture at that time (both Roman and Jewish), the fullness of scripture and my personal interaction with Him to make them devastatingly real to me. I say it was devastating because the reality of it is truly impacting and life altering when the true heart of Christ is combined with the depth of torture that He knowingly entered into willingly - for me and for you. It was a revelation that I had asked for more than once in prayer while truly seeking to enter into a true and deeper relationship with Him.
In light of His deity and majesty, consider that Christ who is divinely perfect and all powerful came willingly to the earth knowing before hand exactly what he would suffer. We know well that the Apostle Paul stated clearly in Romans 3:23 " For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard" and in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Given what I know of man's history, I can't help but wonder how much terror Christ was made to suffer on the account of one man to settle the debt, let alone the sins of the whole world - He knew and He came anyway.
God's plan was to take what was of the lowest conscious form, in front of all of the multitude of angelic beings, and personally sacrifice himself in the most terrible way and in deepest display of humility in order to assign a value to that life form so great, that the value of it's promised potential could not be questioned. We, completely without any earned merit of our own are that created form ... and that indescribable value ... has been offered to us.
Christ, in His selflessness and perfect love has paid the horrific price for our failures before Father God and made it possible for us to be reunited with our creator - restoring the opportunity to engage in the most valuable and perfect relationship that because of Adam's initial sin, to say nothing of our own since, was once violated and lost.
(A sobering thought: Consider that all of this has taken place in front of the one who's insolence and vanity led him unworthily to consider himself an equal of God, led a rebellion against God and was consequently cast down from heaven with those who followed him. We have no reason to wonder why satan hates us so much...)
These things alone would be just cause for any heart to be given over completely to a passion for this God who loves us. This is a love and a belonging that every good heart yearns for. I ask myself: Who am I if I can't find my knees in worship before such a holy and perfect loving God? As a believer and follower of Christ, I am Israel, having been as Paul says "grafted in". I am Israel not only in that way but in the very essence of Israel's rebellion. As I've shared, in the past I've also been unfaithful and defiant. I've stood accusing God at times and questioning His motives and intentions. I know that I've absolutely failed the standards of my Father God having many times over made choices along the way that would have left me a convict worthy of eternal punishment. But I stand redeemed, not because of what I deserve or what I've done, but because the very same God whose heart I've wounded has compassionately and lovingly shown me selfless grace.
The act of being disciplined isn't necessarily pleasant in itself, but between both His word and His interaction with me personally, I know without question that He loves me passionately and I firmly believe that nothing around or about me escapes His notice. His interventions and fellowship with me give me absolute confidence that He loves me and that He works in my life with good and eternal intention. So if He allows something to affect me in one way or another, He has His reasons. I may not know or understand them, but He does ... and that's enough.
The things that I've shared are just a few of the points among many on a path. In the few situations that I've described from the countless many in my own life, our Lord's involvement can be seen by those who wish to do so. They will see His continuing faithfulness to involve Himself in the life of His child as the good and doting father that He is. Though, not every correction is pleasant, it's far less painful than the devastation that can come if His correction is withheld. And the formative things that we must go through in His wisdom yield rewards in terms that may not reveal themselves in worldly currency, but are vested in the character of an eternal spirit whose extreme eternal worth was graphically demonstrated in Christ's Holy blood. I have come to accept that in my Fathers' perspective I am precious and the apple of His eye, so His investments in me continue to be equally precious to me and with unerring wisdom toward His good intentions for me.
My wisdom, so limited in the face of His, is so lacking to explain His unlimited and discerning movements. But I have learned first hand through belief in His history, importations and my experience with Him that His interventions are always in keeping with His eternal perspective and character. They're always true to what He's said and always with good intention toward me regardless of how human eyes of limited viewpoint may elect to interpret them. Eternal eyes see with eternal vision the goals of an eternal God. If I can stand now before God knowing the fullness of all that He has done and said in an effort to reveal Himself to me intimately and to draw me in - without tears of gratitude and a heart of passionate loving joy for Him, then I am certain that I have no good heart.
***
Psalm 143:8 NLT
"Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you."
******"
The elation of salvation soon leaves me broken and humble
For I know that I could never bear the payment of what I have earned
And I could never earn what I have been freely given
As a man, I know not even the full weight of my own sin
For it is both known and unknown to my limited mind
You are my judge, knowing all, yet having forgiven, remember none ..." jbh
If the page appears blank and you don't see the post that you're looking for, please scroll up.
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