Search Me

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Wow! What a prayer. What’s the first thought that comes to your mind when you think about God searching your heart? A happy one or a fearful one? My first thought was, “Sounds scary.” What would God find in my heart? Would I be happy for him to look into it? And then I wondered, “Why does this seem like a frightening thing? Am I scared of God? Should I be?”

Deuteronomy 4:29 tells us, “If you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” And what will he look like when we find him? Will he have his arms folded in anger or open in love? The story of the prodigal son comes to mind. The father ran to his son when his son opened his heart to his father and said, “Here I am.”

When I’m not pleased with the condition of my heart, I can often feel afraid to come to God. But Scripture, and experience, tell me that I should feel quite the opposite. We should be afraid when we run from God, but when we run to God we should expect only love – every time. Start your journey home today with your own invitation to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”

Assurance (Part 4)

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

There’s one more point I’d like to make about the verses above. It’s my favorite point. And it’s found in the phrase, “Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” Another translation, which I feel is more accurate reads, “Let us hold fast our confession.”

What is our faith? What is our confession? Basically I said it in the last three blogs – grace finds us, grace carries us and grace will lead us home. From beginning to middle to end, God’s grace is there. Our confession is that we can do nothing without God. We can’t get ourselves in the race without grace. We can’t run the race without grace. And we sure can’t win the race without grace. We need Jesus from start to finish.

That’s our confession. It’s also our assurance. Who would be silly enough to trust in themselves? I’m disqualified before I even put my running shoes on. I would never be fit enough or good enough to make it to heaven. But Jesus was, and because he’s fully aware of my weaknesses, he offers his victory to me by grace through the faith that I have in his ability to take me to the finish line. My inability is my confession. His ability is my assurance.

Assurance (Part 3)

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Have you noticed that we’ve been going backwards in theses verses? We started with the end – heaven. Through Jesus, we’re going to make it to a glorious finish line. Then we progressed backwards to the middle – Jesus runs the race with us. And now, we’re back at the beginning – the throne of grace.

Just when we thought our failings would disqualify us from the race, God brought us to the starting line of grace. Just when we thought that the gunfire we heard was aimed at us for all of our sin, we found out it was the starting gun of grace. Just when we thought Jesus would leave us in the dust, where he found us, he called to us, “Come on! Run with me. You’re not out of the race. You’ve been chosen to be my teammate. Let’s get going – grace is on our side.”

In our moment of need, grace was there. At the start of the race, in the middle and at the end – grace will carry us through.

Assurance (Part 2)

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Through these verses we know the ending – Jesus, you and I make it to the finish line. We win the race. Heaven’s gates are opened for us and we pass right through them.

But we know more than the ending, we know the middle. We know how the race is run – with Jesus as our running partner. He’s there the whole time. He’ll never leave our side. He’ll show us how to run and how to win. After all he did both. He even knows exactly what we need and when we need it, because he’s been through everything we’ve been through and will ever go through.

Our assurance is more than just knowing that it all ends well, we also know that through it all we have Jesus. When we win, we have him. When we run, we have him.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Assurance (Part 1)

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Do yourself a favor, don’t skim over the verses above. Read them slowly. Read them with understanding. Read them with the purpose of being radically inspired by them. I’m going to take a few days over them.

In these verses we see Jesus in two locations. First in heaven, then on earth. Although, chronologically those two locations should be reversed. Why does the writer start with heaven? Because he wants to give you assurance. Like the assurance you get when you jump to the end of the book because the story is so shocking that you’ve got to know, before you continue reading, that it ends well.

“Jesus has gone through the heavens” it says. In other words, he made it. Through every obstacle. Through every difficulty. Through every doubt. No matter how shocking they seemed. He made it. That’s how it ends for him. And for you. Dwell on this – and let your faith rise – through Jesus, your story ends well.

The Find

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Some people say we didn’t find God, he found us. That’s true. I believe that. But what about this verse? It tells me something of God’s ways.

I see a child playing hide and seek, searching behind every tree and in every bush for a hiding father. The father’s not lost. He knows exactly where he is and where the child is. He’s waiting. Anxious to be found. Desperate to see the look on his child’s face when he finally discovers what he’s been looking for.

The child searches and grows tired. The father rustles the leaves in his hiding place, drawing the child’s attention. He comes closer, looking more intently. But he’s frustrated. He can only see bushes.

And then the father stands and laughs. “You found me,” he bellows.

“I found you! I found you!” yells the child joyfully.

They embrace.

Which one needed to be found? Which one benefited from the searching? Perhaps, both.

The Toothless Lion Versus The Lion of Judah

“Satan is a roaring lion,” my friend, Gary Welsh, said on Sunday. “Remember that. He’s a roaring lion… but he’s got no teeth!”

What does a little dog with a little bite do? He barks profusely. Why? Because that’s all he’s got. The only real power that little dog has over you is the power you give to it. It’s the same with Satan. He roars because that’s all he’s got. But if you look closer, you’ll see that he’s toothless.

Of course, if you stick your head in his mouth, I imagine he can still cause you some pain. So don’t put your head in his mouth. Instead, walk away. Have no fear. Because you have the Lion of Judah who walks with you. He does have teeth – teeth big enough to devour a toothless lion.

“Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed’” (Revelation 5:5).

Amazing Love

“God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:8, The Message).

God’s love wasn’t earned. He loved us first – before we did anything.

You earned your paycheck this month. You earned your degree. You may have earned some brownie points for doing the dishes. You did the hard work and got rewarded. But you never earned God’s love. You got it before you ever lifted a finger.

If you had earned it, then you might have reason to fear losing his love. You might have grounds to wonder if it’s really that special after all – seeing as how it’s for sell. You might have cause to question how much love your deeds earned you. Were you good enough to get all of God’s love or just good enough to earn some of it?

People who believe that God’s love is conditional or that God’s love can be earned or that God’s love can be lost will never know their self-worth. Because they don’t know just how much they are truly loved and how that will never change.

God’s love is amazing. And it’s yours.

No Time To Write

Forgive me for not posting a blog yesterday or today. My writing time floated away in the aftermath of our house flood.

I will post again next week. Have a great weekend.

Drew

Rainbows In Floods

I’m afraid you won’t get much from me today. I’m drained.

Our house flooded last night in one of our famous South African Summer storms. It only took 20 minutes of rain to block my outside drainage pipes with mud and force the water into my bedroom and lounge. We were standing in nearly ankle deep water.

Naturally I thought of Noah and his flood as I waded through my house. Where’s my rainbow, I asked? God, is there any promise in this, I wondered? The world is safe from a flood, but I guess my house isn’t. But then, it came – my own rainbow of promise.

The phone rang. It was a friend with a question. I told him about my situation, and he became a friend with an answer. “I’ve got a heavy duty wet-vac,” he said. “It sucks the water up.”

“Incredible,” I replied. “It’s exactly what I need.”

“Only thing” he said, “It’s an American one. It needs a transformer to transform the power from 110v to 220v and needs more than 300 wattage power. I don’t have one.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “Can I borrow it anyway?”

Then I phoned another friend. “Sorry, I have to cancel our meeting tonight.” I told him what was happening and about my transformerless wet-vac.

“I’ve got a friend who might have a transformer,” he replied.

Within an hour, my two friends had brought me exactly what I needed. Who knew they would have a wet-vac and a transformer? I didn’t. I never would have thought to call them. But God knew. Because he’s a God who sends rainbows in floods. Hope in discouragement. Answers to cries for help.

In Jeremiah 33:3 God said, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” – like where to find a wet-vac.