Alive To God

I’ve been reading a book for the second time since I rediscovered it in the bargain bin: Your God Is Too Small, by J.B. Phillips. What he wrote about Christians and their small love applies to what I’ve been reading in the political news for months.

First, some background. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Who did God love so much? The world. But that’s not what I’ve been reading in the news. The verse has been twisted by Christians to say that God only loves the conservatives, not the liberals. The Republican party, not the Democratic party. And vice versa, for Christians are scattered across the spectrum of political ideology.

Before we can address the theme of the Son of God becoming flesh, we should remind ourselves of why he came to be born here in the first place.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose the way of disobedience and passed that sin on to all of us (Romans 5:12-14). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We were slaves of sin and could neither restrain nor free ourselves.

When God chose to dwell among the children of Abraham in Israel, the Holy One set up a system of animal sacrifices to deal with sinners. When any sinned, breaking the commandments, he or she could bring a prescribed, blemish-free animal to put away the sin (Leviticus 1-7). Man was not blemish-free, so he could not die for another’s sin, not even his own.

We needed a blemish-free man to undo Adam’s sin nature. He needed to be sinless so he could die for the sins of others.

As I was growing up, I didn’t know that I was supposed to feel an emotional love of a father. I was young and full of me, myself, and I. I was busy with different things, doing magic tricks, slot cars, stop-motion clay animation, martial arts, and never far from an open book.

My dad went from owning a Shell service station to being co-owner of a company that designed and built radio-controlled race cars. He designed nitro-powered cars in 1:8 scale, designed an RC engine that other engine manufacturers borrowed. He managed the race team, going around the world for the larger events, including World Championship events. He loved cars.

Me–not so much. We had few interests that overlapped. He liked giving Christmas presents. I liked receiving them.

One of the pieces of financial wisdom I’ve read again and again is that when you invest your money for retirement, you think long-term.

You don’t yank the money out every time the stock market appears to be sinking and reinvest when it appears to be rising. You ride out the ups and downs, knowing that historically the market has always corrected its course over the long haul.

But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isa. 40:31

How do you wait and renew your strength?

When we think of waiting, we think of an agonizing period of doing nothing. We feel it is a waste of time; there are better things to do than wait. Yet there are times of waiting patiently such as in a doctor’s waiting room or for a signal to turn green and let us go. The expectant mother has a long wait ahead of her while she bears this growing burden and longs for it to be over with.

So how do you wait in such a way to renew your strength?

Psalm 5:1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

This word meditation is better translated as groaning. David is groaning in his praying. Something is weighing on him. Sometimes we can groan without being able to put a finger on what’s wrong. It seems to be the case in this psalm. It’s not clear to me what he’s groaning about here.

When we ask the Lord God to hear us as David did here, we have an excellent chance of being heard. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again. He took care of that one issue that separated us from God: sin. When we are convicted of sin, we may come boldly to the throne of God for deliverance.

There is another person in scripture who groaned in His prayers, isn’t there? Jesus groaned in Gethsemane when faced with the weight of the cross before Him. He went forward with His mind and will strengthened to go through with it.

If you wonder whether God hears your prayers, come to Him through Jesus. Honor Jesus. Worship Him. Be thankful for Jesus. Welcome Him into your life again. King Jesus will hold out the scepter for you to advance.

God has blessed His people with every spiritual blessing in Christ. To get a handle on how great this is, let’s briefly backtrack to the Old Testament laws and the Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount.

The OT laws were pretty straightforward. They were not impossible to keep. You did not have to be spiritual to keep them. Do not murder. When you build a rooftop, put a fence around it so people don’t fall off. No kidnapping. When you sin, bring the best from the flock to the priests and sacrifice it and your sin will be covered. Keep this feast on this day of this month. The laws are straightforward and mostly about what to do and not to do.

But then Jesus comes along and upsets the applecart (and the moneychangers’ tables). The Jews were pretty situated around their laws and doing their best with them and the many extra traditions added by the scribes and Pharisees.