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Jump Start # 145

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 145 

John 7:19 “So they were saying to Him, ‘Where is Your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.’” 

  We have been looking at God this week through the Scriptures. We’ve seen Isaiah’s vision and  John’s vision of the glorious God on the throne. We’ve taken a look at Moses’ request to see the glory of God. The prophet Isaiah declared that there is no one like God. Now we come to Jesus. To see Jesus was to see God.

  Paul declared that Jesus was equal to God (Phil. 2). John opened his gospel with the proclamation that Jesus was not only with God, but that He was God. The Colossians were told that Jesus is the fullness of the godhead in bodily form. To see Jesus was to see God.

  What does that mean? God is a spirit, yet Jesus had a human form to Him. Jesus was so tall. Jesus had a tone to His voice. Jesus had a certain hair color and eye color. Is that God? No. That was Jesus in a human form.

  What did Jesus show? He revealed that God loves all. Jesus was in Samaria. Jesus went to the homes of tax collectors. He revealed that God’s word is absolute. Jesus submitted Himself to the will of the Father. In the garden He prayed, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” Jesus showed that God is holy. Jesus never had to apologize. Jesus never spoke out of turn. Jesus never lost his cool and did things he later regretted. Jesus never sinned.  Jesus showed that God is interested in our spiritual well being. He wants us to be righteous and holy. God is more concerned about what happens in us rather than what happens to us.

  The simple carpenter from Galilee was God. This is how Heaven chose to display God. He didn’t use loud thunderous voices that would scare us. He didn’t overpower us. But through words and lessons like no one ever taught, He showed that He was God. Through compassion of healing what could not be healed, He showed that He was God. Through righteous living when no one could be righteous, He showed He was God.

  God wants you to come to Him. He wants you to love Him and obey Him. He wants you not to run from Him in fear, but run to Him. He wants to forgive you. He wants to help you. But understand, He is God. It is His way, not yours. It is about Him, not about you. We are the ones who sinned, not God. He has every right to be through with us. He could walk away and we be on our own. But He doesn’t. He loves you too much for that. He wants you to spend forever with Him in Heaven. So much He wants that, He was compelled to send Jesus, to come as a man, and suffer and die to pay the price to justify and appease your sins. What an enormous cost. Why? And for who? You and I.

  God wants you to know Him. God wants you to know His will. God wants you to talk to Him through prayer often. This is God. Through His Son He calls you to repent of your sins and be baptized for the remission of your sins. Through His Son He left an example for you to follow. Through His Son He wants to change your life.

  This is God. Amazing! Powerful! Just! Merciful! Loving! Holy! Awesome is our God!

Roger

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Jump Start # 144

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 144 

Isaiah 40:18 “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?”

  We continue our study of looking at God from various passages. In our verse today, Isaiah asks a great question—who is like God? This thought is repeated in Isaiah. In 40:25, “To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal, says the Holy One.” And in 46:5, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God.”

  In Isaiah’s day, the thought was intended to show that the idols and false gods that Israel was running to was really nothing. These gods were fake. They had no life. A craftsman carved images out of a tree and the nation fell down and worshipped that man made image. If you follow the thoughts presented in Isaiah 40 you will find some of the most beautiful and powerful concepts of God. His creative work, His power, His nature are all described in wonderful words. The prophet declares, “The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary.”

  There is no one like God. There is nothing as Holy as God. There is nothing as powerful as God. There is no one as good and merciful as God. There is nothing as just as God. God is. He told Moses that His name was “I Am.” I AM God!

  The apostles grasped this in John 6. When Jesus stopped feeding the disciples many starting leaving Jesus. The Lord asked the apostles, “are you also leaving?” Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go for salvation.” In Acts Peter preached, “There is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” There is no one but God.

  Most of us understand that in theory. It is the practice that trips us up. So often God is the last one we go to. We’ll take our problems to family, friends, counselors and a host of other people, even listening to the advice of strangers on TV or the radio before we bow in prayer and give it to God. A hymn declares, “take it to the Lord in prayer…”Jesus said, “at all times you ought to pray and not lose heart.” Peter said, “cast all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.” It was that same Peter, who years before in a boat in the midst of a storm, woke Jesus up declaring frantically, “Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?” He learned. God cares. He learned. There is no one like the Lord.

  God is not like man. He doesn’t act like we act, think like we think nor respond the way we respond. He is God. He doesn’t forget the promises He makes. He doesn’t change His mind. He forgives and lets go. He blesses when we do not deserve it. He thinks of us when we do not think of Him. He never gives up on you. He chases you to get you to come back to Him.

  Church services are not just a nice thing to do, nor a place where good people are, it is where one connects with the living God. The modern church in far too many places have left God and is interested in thrilling man and pleasing man and doing what man wants. It’s not about us, it’s about God. God ought to fill our hearts and our minds. We ought to want to praise Him, follow Him, obey Him and honor Him. Great is our God, the Psalmist would declare.

  Once you have met God through faith, you will never meet anyone else that is like Him!

Roger

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Jump Start # 143

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 143 

Exodus 32:18 “Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory.’”

  No other person in the Bible had more personal encounters with God than Moses did. It started when God spoke directly to Moses through the burning bush. Moses spent 40 days on the mountain with God as he received the 10 commandments. Moses was the means God used to speak to Israel. Through Moses, God turned the Nile river into blood, cast the plagues upon Egypt and parted the Red Sea. God spoke often to Moses.

  Here in this passage, Moses wanted to see God’s glory. God responds by saying, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live.” God tells Moses to face a rock and God’s glory will pass by. As this is happening, God will cover Moses with His hand. Then God will remove His hand and Moses shall see His backside. We are not given any descriptions as to what Moses saw or felt when all this happened. We also remember that when Moses came down from the mountain that his face shone. He had to put a veil on his head to cover conceal it.

  The apostle John declared concerning Jesus,  “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father…” John has reference to the transfiguration. There the clothes and the face of Jesus shone as bright as the sun. Jesus was showing the disciples what “God looks like.”

  There is something in Moses’ request that tugs on each of our hearts. We are dual creatures—having a spiritual side and a physical side. We know by faith and evidence that God is. We see the results of God all about us. But there is something about using our senses to verify what our faith knows. This may be why the pagans had statues and images of their gods. Idolatry became a replacement for the god it was to represent. The image was worshipped as a god. God would have no part with this. His commandments forbade making any images of Him, as if we could. The Bible leaves us with no physical descriptions of Jesus. The actual books of the Bible, written in the prophets and apostles handwriting no longer exist. Ours is a system of faith. Paul said, we walk by faith and not by sight. Jesus said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.

  Faith and trust go together. Ours is not a blind faith. It is proven. Our faith is not based upon personal encounters, but founded upon the word of God. In Romans we read, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The more we spend with the word of God, the deeper our faith grows. Without the word of God our faith suffers, becomes superficial and fails.

  Moses declared, “Show me…” Can you believe and can you know without having seen God? God wants you to. This week we having been looking at passages, some of them visions, in which God allowed His prophets and apostles to see Him. They encountered. They revealed what happened. We know it’s true just as we know anything. God wants us to believe His word and the testimony of His witnesses. We don’t need a personal encounter nor a personal testimony because God has already given us what we need to build our faith. Our faith rests in the revealed word of God and not some modern book about the author’s personal testimony about God. Our faith is sure, because the word is sure. Our faith will withstand the storms, because God’s word has withstood the storms.

  Moses said, “Show me…” We can say, “He has! Through His word, He has!”

Roger

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Jump Start # 142

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 142 

Revelation 4:1-3 “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in Heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in Heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.”

  We are looking this week at images of God. Here in John’s vision of Heaven he sees God sitting on the throne in Heaven. Space won’t allow us to list this entire chapter, but similar to Isaiah’s vision of God it is one of Holiness and Glory. If you get a chance today, take a look at this chapter, it’s only 11 verses long.

  There are several remarkable things here. First, John sees a door opened in Heaven. That very concept invites him to see what is there. A closed door, or a locked door would prohibit any viewing and we would be left to guessing. But the door is opened. What John sees first, is the throne and one sitting on the throne. This is the central image of Heaven. Throughout this chapter and into the next chapter we read about angels, elders, and heavenly creatures. Their place is around the throne. They give glory to the one on the throne. The throne and the one on the throne is the foremost priority here.

  It is interesting that John doesn’t talk about the golden streets, or the “land of cloudless day” or “the roses that do not fade” but the one on the throne. Heaven is about God. Heaven is God’s house. It is not our fantasy island where all of our dreams and wishes come true. That is vain and materialistic in thinking. Heaven is not golf courses, lakes to fish in, malls to shop in, amusement parks to enjoy—that is taking our world up there. Heaven is not about us. It is about God.

  John never calls God “God” in this chapter. He is defined in radiance and beauty. Again, like Isaiah, this vision does not show God as an old man. Holiness and splendor are the concepts. John sees God in relationship to very costly stones—Jasper and Sardius. Jasper is a form of quartz that could be brown, yellow, green or gray in color. Sardius is a variety of chalcedony and typically transparent red in color. One must remember in visions, like Revelation, Ezekiel and other places, that colors, stones, numbers are used to “represent” things. God is not a rock. God is not a stone. God is living and powerful. From these colors, lessons could be made to connect to the character of God. Around the throne John saw a green rainbow. Our rainbows are not one color. Again, this is a vision. Green is the color of growing things. A green yard, or green leaves on a tree is a good sign. A brown yard is bad news. The rainbow takes us to Noah and the promises of God. God is a God of promises. But more than one who makes promises, God is one who fulfills and keeps His promises.

  Later in Revelation four God is praised by the Heavenly host who declare, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty…” Language very similar to what Isaiah heard in chapter 6 of his book. Those around God recognize who and what God is. He is Holy. He is the God of Heaven and Earth.

  God is not a Jeanie who grants my every wish. He is God. It is His will, not my will that is foremost. Jesus understood this in His garden prayer when He said, “Thy will be done.” Glorious and wonderful is the image of God that we are getting through these visions. God is not mean. He is not a tyrant. He is not out of touch. How we view God affects our relationship with Him and it affects how we respond to Him. Great is our God. God is so good, we sing. There is no one like God!

Roger

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Jump Start # 141

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 141 

Ecclesiastes 7:5 “It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools.” 

  Our passage for today is found in the midst of Solomon’s comparisons. He doesn’t leave it up to us to determine the course we should follow, rather, with each comparison Solomon tells us which one is better. The word “better” is found seven times in chapter 7. These are more than comparisons, they are opposites in our thinking. We would not typically think that going the funeral home is better than going to a party, but Solomon does. We would not think that rebuke is better than laughter, but Solomon does. In many ways, Solomon is looking at superficial things compared to the lessons that change our lives. Good ointment, feasting, laughter, beginnings are not the things that give us the depth and reflection that death, rebuke, having a good name and the conclusions do.

  Our verse contrasts listening. Two things are listened to. One is better than the other. Listening to rebuke from a wise man is better than listening to the songs of fools. This passage is layered with many contrasts: rebuke vs. songs; wise vs. fools; singular (wise man) vs. plural (fools). Songs are fun. We have I-tunes, and I-pods that play our favorite songs. Kids learn at an early age to sing songs. Singing is a huge part of worship to God. But, rather we like to admit it or not, our favorite song is flattery! We love people to love us. We like to hear what a good job we’ve done. We like to be appreciated. This is the song of fools. Foolish because flattery and foolishness go together. It is vain and often self seeking.

  Rebuke, on the other hand, stings. It hurts, whether it comes from the pulpit, from our parents, our mates, the boss or a neighbor. We tend to get defensive when people rebuke us. Here in this passage it is more than rebuke vs. flattery, it is the source that matters. The wise man tells you rebuke to improve you, help you and strengthen you. He does this because he cares and loves you. It is difficult for him to say it as it is for you to listen to it. We tend to get defensive when rebuke comes. We are quick to find an excuse and a reason to justify our behavior. When we do that, we don’t really “listen” to what is said. The listening here is just as important as what we are listening to. The wise wants to improve your life. He wants you to be a better parent, a stronger Christian, a caring mate. He sees things in you that can be better. He has become wise because he walks with God. He has learned from experience. He has tasted rebuke for other wise people in his life. His helping you will not only make you a better person but it will enable you to help others.

  There is a silent application in this verse as well. We become wise when we listen to the rebuke of the wise. We become foolish when we reject what the wise say or we listen to the songs of fools.

  No one longs to be rebuked. Sometimes it is justified. Sometimes not. Sometimes it comes from those who care and want to help. Sometimes it comes from critics and cranks who simply want to run your life. We all need others to help us. We are not perfect. Paul told Timothy the preacher to “reprove, rebuke and exhort.” Rebuking sermons are not the audiences favorite. Some preachers only preach those kind of sermons. That wasn’t Paul’s recommendation.

  When someone rebukes you– consider, are they wise or a fool? Listen to what they say. Be honest. If it is true, change. Be better. If it is not true, let it go.

Roger