The Living Lord

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I had the opportunity to preach a message this morning in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. John describes for us not a baby in a manger or a Man of Sorrows on the Cross, but rather the Living Lord. It reads like this:

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. –Revelation 1:12-16 (NASB)

Did that sound like a babe in a manger or the Man of Sorrows? Not in the least! It sounds like what John saw was the fierce and judging Jesus Christ that is going to return at some point to gather His people and to judge those who have not believed in Him. But we also know that judgment begins with the house of God (cf. 1 Peter 4:17). Thus, Jesus tells John the apostle to write down seven letters to seven different churches and every indication from at least five of those letters there was going to be a quick and swift “cleansing of the house.”

Yet, when John the apostle turns to see “the voice” that is speaking to him, he falls at the feet of Jesus Christ. And even more interesting, when John falls at the feet of Jesus Christ as a dead man, Jesus Christ reaches down and touches John with His right hand. It is a compassionate touch, a merciful one. He touches John and tells him not to be afraid. He has just seen the terrible sight of the Living Lord. I mean that the sight of the Living Lord is not terrible in a negative sense, but that it is a terrifying scene for John the apostle. It would be just as terrible for us if we saw Him in this way.

Another example of this picture being seen is Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel is taken in the Spirit of the Lord to the very heart of the throne room of God. What he saw there was terrifying to him and he, too, fell as a dead man. When God told Ezekiel to stand to his feet, he writes that he could not move but the Spirit of the Lord raised him up on his feet. After being raised up to his feet, God told Ezekiel what it was that he would do. He was going to preach to a rebellious house, to Israel. He was going to face the hard of heart and the hard of face Israelites, God’s people, and he was going to tell them about the judgment that was headed their way for their rebellion.

Daniel, in chapter 7 of his book, sees the same vision as Ezekiel and John. It was a frightful scene that God revealed to him. But it is a necessary scene. How else would we know what is going to happen lest God reveal it to us?

John then is told to write down what he sees. Everything that Jesus Christ was telling him was something that He was also showing him. This is the testimony of Jesus Christ and He is making it very clear to those who read the Revelation of Jesus Christ that all of the different things mentioned in the book will soon and must soon take place.

Although John is raised up, we need to understand that everything that he sees as the “testimony of Jesus Christ,” the “revelation of Jesus Christ,” is a terrifying thing. He is coming back for His people and He is coming in vengeance, power, and judgment. It is far greater for us to live for Him than to live apart from Him. We will see in that great and terrible Day of the Lord a separation of sheep and goats, that is, those who have trusted Jesus Christ and those who have not. What John the apostle witnessed he now testifies to us that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. We will either worship and serve Him while we are here or we will do what Paul the apostle said in Philippians 2:5-11, which reads:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. –Philippians 2:5-11 (NASB)

May the Lamb of God receive the reward of His suffering, and when He returns, may He find us faithful.

The Death of a Loved One

Brenda IngramIt is a wretched thing to think about the death of a loved one, but it is inevitable that we will face this travesty. We fight for life constantly. It is because God, the Maker of heaven and earth (and everything else, including us), placed in the hearts and minds of each one of us the idea of life. We do not want to die but because of sin entering into the world death came with it (Romans 5:12). It is going to happen.

My cousin, Brenda, passed away this past week. She suffered with a neuroendocrine cancer. It is a horrible disease. She fought a good fight against the cancer. She endured chemotherapy and embolizations and so forth as the doctors ordered. She knew she was not in good shape. It happened: death reigned in her mortal body. But the beauty of it all is that Brenda only started to live when she passed from this life to the next–and there is a next!

You see, when Brenda was a young girl, she was told that Jesus Christ died according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). She was told that if she believed this with her heart, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confessed with her mouth that Jesus is Lord, she would be saved (Romans 10:9, 10). Brenda believed and she confessed this to be truth revealed. Brenda is now living out John 3:16: “For God so loved Brenda, that if she believed in Jesus, Brenda would have eternal life” [I changed the wording a bit to make the point more clear). There it is! She believed and was given the right to be called a child of God because it was God’s will for her to believe this truth (John 1:12, 13).

Through the years, she has believed this. She’s been through a lot. She had a brain tumor years ago and survived when she was told that she may or may not survive. She’s been a business owner. She’s married to a police officer and all the stress that goes with that. Brenda lived her life with joys and hurts while believing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Yes, the death of a loved one is difficult to fathom. We do not like it. In fact, we hate death. It is because God placed a hunger in all of us for life. I pray that if you have never trusted Jesus Christ like my cousin Brenda did, that today you would do so. She would want it. I know I want it. But you have to believe Jesus Christ and trust Him for salvation.

If you have questions about this post, feel free to contact me on my Contact Us page.

Sufferings Designs: To Show the Lord’s Mercy

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It is an age-old question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Another way of asking the question is, “Why is there suffering in the world?” These questions have plagued man ever since he was cast out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22-24). Suffering exists in the world. You do not have to go very far from where you live to see how people suffer. There are physical afflictions, emotional afflictions and even spiritual afflictions. People are starving for love, food, answers to life’s toughest questions and for peace.

Nevertheless, a question remains unanswered as far as I can see. What is the purpose of suffering? I believe that God has a particular plan for each of us. The Bible teaches us in Psalm 139 that God has everything about our being in His purview. Nothing about us is hidden from His sight because He is the One who has planned all of our days. Read how the psalmist put it:

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:13-16)

It is obvious that the psalmist realized the weight of God knowing him as intimately as He truly does. It makes sense that God knows us equally as well since He is the One who has weaved us in our mother’s wombs and ordained for us all the days that He has written in His book. The psalmist in other words is writing the truth about all of us.

Now if God cares to know us as intimately as He does, then what is His purpose in our suffering? I ask the question this way because it is reasonable to believe that in His book of our days He has written the days of not suffering and our days of suffering just the same. This does not mean that He loves us less; it simply means that God has planned all of our days. It is quite comforting to know that He even thought of us in the days that we suffer as much as He has in the days that we do not suffer.

So for what reason do we suffer? Why do we have to see our loved ones suffer? I believe that the Bible tells us a few things about suffering’s designs. Yes, suffering has a design and its purposes are for us to grow as difficult as that may appear. God affords us the opportunity to suffer so we can in turn go to Him in our deepest and darkest of days. In Him we find comfort and we can have joy even in the midst of pain.

It will be helpful for us to consider a few verses of Scripture to help us understand the idea of suffering. There is no greater place to turn except His Word. However, we are going to go through these verses in a series of writings. I am hoping that all of this will be helpful to you as I am discovering that it is helpful for me as I have a sister who is suffering with cancer. In this first installment on suffering, we will discuss the first design which is to show the Lord’s mercy.

Suffering’s First Design: To Show God’s Mercy

Now this may be hard for us to accept and understand. How can God show mercy in the midst of suffering? After all, if He has numbered our days and if He has planned these days of suffering, how is that showing mercy? The short of it is that He shows mercy to us in the midst of suffering because through the suffering He is present with us, ever working to see us through the “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4).

Isaiah the prophet knew what suffering was all about. After all, God had called him to speak to His people Israel and it was difficult because God’s people were living in sin. Any time we live in sin there is going to be suffering of some sort.

First, the suffering will take its toll on our physical well-being. Read what the psalmist wrote:

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. (Psalm 32:1-4)

Sin causes a physical suffering, especially when our sin is unconfessed. The consequence of sin is a draining of our physical health. Sin has a way of debasing our body, eating away at it as it were.

Secondly, suffering will take its toll on our emotional state. Consider what the psalmist says in the above-mentioned passage: when he kept silent about his sin, he groaned all day long. His unconfessed sin took its toll on his emotional state. He was down and depressed. His soul groaned and growled with despair because of his sin.

Finally, the suffering will take its toll on our spiritual well-being. Notice that the psalmist said that God’s hand was “heavy upon me.” He was burdened. The Lord was not letting what he had done simply fade into his memory. Rather, He was keeping it ever in front of him. He afforded King David to feel the brunt of the consequences deep within his spirit. The separation from God that he was feeling was something that was real.

Nevertheless, David knew the loving mercy of God. Notice what he said in the first two verses of the passage: How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! The Lord shows mercy to those who acknowledge their sin. When one turns to the Lord, He is ready to forgive, He is ready to release and renew. In essence, He is ready to allow the man who has sinned to not have that sin imputed against him any longer. God is willing to forgive and to change the man to where there is no longer any deceit in him.

Therefore, what we are seeing in this passage is that the first design of suffering is to bring man back into a right relationship with God. Suffering is designed to help us return to the Lord when sin has crept into our camp. God is fully aware of our propensity to sin. After all, our natural bent after the fall of man in the Garden is toward sin. When we confess that sin, He is faithful to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us and make us righteous in Himself (1 John 1:9). Now understand this: Just because God forgives us of sin, that does not mean that we will not face consequences to that sin. It just means that He has shown you His mercy by revealing your sin to you and He will show you mercy as you face those consequences.

Are you suffering right now? Ask yourself these questions: Is my suffering caused by some sin in my life? How do I see the Lord’s mercy in revealing my sin to me and by giving me the opportunity to confess and repent of my sin? If my suffering is not due to some sin, how am I recognizing the Lord’s mercy in my suffering? How is He showing me mercy in my suffering?