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December
18 : You're Covered - Romans 8:26-35
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Bad things happen.
When they do happen, one of the most commonly quoted verses among Christians is Romans 8:28. You may know it by heart. It’s the verse about all things working together for good for those who love God (or in some translations, God works all things together for the good of those who love him). It’s verse that, in my opinion, is sometimes tossed around at inappropriate moments by people who mean to be encouraging but aren’t quite sure what to say. Regardless of that, it is a true and wonderful promise that applies in a most practical way to your life and mine.
The two verses just before (Romans 8:26-27) are about how the Holy Spirit promises to step in to help our prayers when we have a deep hurt or longing, but can’t quite get it into the right words. If we can’t, the Spirit will take our struggling prayer and turn it into a fitting prayer that the Father willingly receives. Or when we have a difficult problem and just don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit offers to take our unarticulated request and transmit it to the Father without words—our prayer need conveyed to the Father by a divine communication too deep for words.
Then verse 34 tell us that Jesus himself, the One who came to earth in human flesh at Christmas, lived among us for 33 years, died, rose to life, and returned to heaven, now intercedes with the Father on our behalf. Just think a moment about Jesus being your personal advocate in the throne room of heaven at every moment needed.
Now consider this. Bad things happen to you, and to those you care about. Dreams die. Good things that are expected, fail to materialize. You pray, or question, or cry out to God, or are silent before God, or plead constantly with him. The Holy Spirit takes your cry, or your struggling silence, and translates it into a prayer that matters to the Father. Meanwhile Jesus also brings your situation to the Father’s attention, whether you do or not. You’re covered.
No wonder Romans 8:28 says we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, by one means or another, immediately or later. It’s a sure thing because all the persons of the Trinity are continually attentive and active on our behalf—on your behalf. And the best part of all? God knows what is good, even if it doesn’t always match our limited perception or expectation. We may not get the resolution we thought we wanted, or at the time we felt it ought to come, but we’ve got an ironclad guarantee that it will work out for good. See you Sunday.
November
20 : No Fishing - Romans 8:1-17
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here for this lesson in PDF format
My mother was once pulled over by a police officer in Columbia, South Carolina, for turning left at an intersection. She hadn’t noticed a sign that said No Left Turn 4 - 6 PM. She went to court. After hearing details, the judge announced, “You are clearly guilty of violating South Carolina law and of the infraction with which you have been charged. I am sentencing you to three days incarceration.” Mother could hardly believe what she was hearing, until the judge continued, “The penalty is suspended, and the case is dismissed. You are free to go.”
For months after that, my father had fun telling people that his wife had been sentenced to jail. I thought about that incident recently while I was reading up for our study in Romans 8. Last week we explored the latter part of Romans 7 and rolled on over into that glorious and hard-to-believe statement in Romans 8:1 –
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Read that again. Pause to marvel at it.
Many people like to illustrate that verse by using a courtroom context, and I have often read or heard writers and speakers say that if you are in Christ Jesus, God has declared you “Not guilty.” But that’s not true because you are guilty, and so am I, just as my mother was in fact guilty of making an illegal left turn. That’s why the judge found her guilty. God is a God of truth and justice, and it would be incredibly untruthful for him to declare us not guilty of sin.
We are guilty, and God determines the appropriate punishment. The message of the Gospel is that God metes out the punishment on the Son, and having done so, he dismisses the charge against us and destroys the files. He does this every day if necessary, and he does it willingly (I love this home-drawn cartoon by a blogger named Kara—it’s not church-talk, but it captures the Gospel dead on). Corrie ten Boom used to say that God drops our sin into the deepest part of the sea (Micah 7:19), then posts a No Fishing sign.
Most Christians fully understand that sinners need the Gospel of grace for redemption. But after the free gift of salvation, many of us have a tendency to let grace recede into the background as we approach the Christian life in terms of rule-following and score-keeping and merit-earning, seeing God as keeping a balance sheet on us. Think a moment. Haven’t you ever thought of God giving you grace generously but proportionate to what you deserve? Yet this is not so.
"The grace that comes to us in Jesus Christ is not measured. This grace refuses to allow itself to be tethered to our innate sense of fairness, reciprocity, and balancing of the scales. It is defiant…
"However much we may laud grace with our lips, our hearts are so thoroughly law-marinated that the Christian life must be, at core, one of continually bathing our hearts and minds in gospel grace. We are addicted to law. Conforming our lives to a moral framework, playing by the rules, meeting a minimum standard—this feels normal. And it is how we naturally medicate that deep sense of inadequacy within."
– Dane Ortlund from his new book, Defiant Grace
Did you catch the line up there about the core of the Christian life—the center of Christian living is not what we accomplish for God, how much we give back to him, or how successful we are in obeying. All of that is good, but we stay anchored to the core by “continually bathing our hearts and minds in gospel grace.”
That’s what this series of lessons in our God Chasers class is all about. Many of us, much of the time, try to do the Christian life as a long term self-improvement project. We try – sincerely and with good motive – to figure out how to measure and manage our Christian growth. I love what Dane Ortlund says about this:
"Grace feels risky. Rule-keeping breeds a sense of manageability; grace feels like moral vertigo.... The Jesus of the Gospels defies our domesticated, play-by-the-rules morality."
Don’t skim past this, please:
"It is time to enjoy grace anew. Not the decaffeinated grace that pats us on the hand, ignores our deepest rebellions, and doesn’t change us, but the high-octane grace that takes our conscience by the scruff of the neck and breathes new life into us with a pardon so scandalous that we cannot help but be changed.
"It’s time to blow aside the hazy cloud of condemnation that hangs over us throughout the day with the strong wind of gospel grace. “You are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). Jesus is real, grace is defiant, life is short. For many of us the time has come to abandon once and for all our play-it-safe, toe-dabbling Christianity and dive in. It is time, as Robert Farrar Capon put it, to get drunk on grace. Two hundred-proof, defiant grace."
We’ll go back to Romans 8:1 this Sunday and launch from there into the chapter. It’s wonderful!
Tom
November
13 : "I do not understand my own actions" - Romans
7:15-25
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here for this lesson in PDF format
Over the last few Sundays, we have referred several times to Scripture from Romans 8. The chapter includes powerful glimpses of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in action, providing unique and amazing insight into the inner dynamic of God. Romans 8 also has one of the most wonderful guarantees imaginable – “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It has verses of courage and comfort quoted by President George Bush when he addressed the nation from the National Cathedral in Washington three days after 9/11. It offers the much-quoted (and frequently misapplied) words “We know that God works all things together for good. …” The chapter also has some astounding reassurances about praying for the right thing.
We’re going to spend a couple of weeks in Romans 8, but we can’t be effective in studying that chapter without starting in Romans 7. Take a look at the passage and join me in class Sunday.
Tom
BIBLE PASSAGE — I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
October
30 : Love Finishes Well - Acts 20: 17-38
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here for this lesson in PDF format
I’ve always liked the 20th chapter of the Book of Acts, although perhaps for the wrong reasons. It’s the chapter that includes the story of Eutychus, a guy who made it into the Bible because he fell asleep in church. He went to evening service one Sunday in the seacoast town of Troas to hear a famous visiting preacher named Paul. It was a warm evening and the service ran long because Paul had a lot to say — the Bible says that Paul “prolonged his speech until midnight.” The meeting was in a crowded upstairs room, and Eutychus was sitting on a windowsill. He dozed off and fell out the window.
People who ran down to help found him unconscious and apparently lifeless. All’s well that ends well—you can read the rest of the story yourself, but I’ve always thought it was a tough way to get your name into the Bible. And I’ve always thought that the Holy Spirit must have a sense of humor to include in the Bible that little story of a long-winded preacher and a kid who dozed off during the sermon.
For the final week in our series on core values, the text assigned to us is from that same chapter in Acts, but not about Eutychus; we’re studying the next story in that chapter. And as I’ve dug into the second half of Acts 20 in preparation for this study, I am realizing how my amusement over the Eutychus story has distracted me at times from the real meat of the chapter.
From verse 17 on, we have Paul delivering a farewell message to the leaders of the church at Ephesus, and he covers a lot of interesting ground. For example, he quotes one of Jesus’ beatitudes that is found nowhere else in the New Testament: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” That verse is frequently used in churches to launch stewardship pledge drives, but I’m fascinated with the idea that Jesus is letting us in on a wonderful insight about how the Father thinks, what blesses the Father.
Paul’s farewell message to the Ephesian Christian leaders also includes an often quoted, and often misused, declaration. Paul states that it is essential to teach “the whole counsel of God”— everything the Bible says about God and about serving him, not just our favorite parts. There are myriad examples of failing to teach the whole; perhaps the easiest to cite is the tendency to emphasize the love of God while avoiding saying much about God’s justice, or vice versa.
Paul’s warning to teach “the whole counsel of God” is sometimes misused by single-minded Christians with a bee in their bonnet about one doctrine or another, or who have an obsession about some particular life-application that has taken on supreme importance in their thinking. They turn the verse on its head by quoting it as a weapon against preachers and teachers and writers who fail to mention whatever happens to be the critic’s #1 personal biblical insight.
Another well-quoted warning in Paul’s farewell sermon to the Ephesians is the famous line about “fierce wolves” who come into a church with false doctrines and a negative spirit, capable of drawing believers away from Truth and even destroying the flock. That is common to this day.
Paul’s message also suggests an almost-never-preached-about insight into how the Apostles and the early church tended to view the purpose of Christian giving. From Paul’s good-bye talk with the Ephesian Christians and from other places in the New Testament, we sense that in the eyes of the early church, the primary reason for Christian giving— the first purpose of the church budget—was to take care of the brothers and sisters who needed help.
But our main focus in class this Sunday will be Paul’s insight into his purpose and our own purpose in life, his life goal that is our life goal. I don’t know about you, but I have come to recognize that life is shorter than I realized when I was young, and it’s getting shorter every year. One of my deepest desires is to live the years left to me, whether many or few, in a way that enables me to finish well. Nearly every day, almost every morning as I pray, one of the things I ask the Lord is to help me finish well.
Paul talks about that in verse 24. Read it, please (read all of the chapter beginning with verse 17). Do keep in mind, however, that I am not likely to lead us into a study of this verse in a traditional or expected way. When I study Scripture, I’m always looking for God. So I plan to take us into this verse in a reverse gear because in this case, a reverse approach brings out what, for me, are Paul’s wonderfully refreshing insights about God and his way of thinking, loving, and doing.
I’ll explain more about what I mean, and why, in class. See you Sunday.
Tom
October
23 : Dark Riddles - Psalm 78
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here for this lesson in PDF format
Our core value for this week is God’s plan for families, and our text is Psalm 78. This core value has many facets, such as marriage, intimacy, parenting, the role of extended family, singleness, fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, and so on. All highlight key parts of God’s plan for families.
However, in Psalm 78 there is one central, stripped-down, above-all-else aspect to God’s plan for family, a design intended for the full span of human history.
God has spoken to certain past generations, unmistakably and unambiguously. Through the years people have said to me (and I myself have thought this), “What would it be like to live in a generation when God revealed himself directly, audibly, dramatically, even visibly?” For example, God shared a meal with Abraham and afterward took a walk with him. God appeared visibly to Jacob at Bethel. God spoke out loud in a thunderous voice from Mount Sinai. God showed Himself on the throne of heaven to Isaiah. Generations later, God even sent his Son.
But it clearly is not his plan to reveal Himself in such direct and dramatic ways to each new generation down through history. That is the assigned role of families. Above and beyond all the other core values that are captured by the word “family,” the family is God’s method for passing knowledge about Himself from one generation to the next.
We need to be careful not to overly constrict the meaning of “family.” In America we tend to talk and think about family as the nuclear family – mother, hopefully father, and kids living at home. But in the biblical sense, family is the extended family, encompassing many relatives and extended to past and future generations. Every one of us has the lifelong, God-designed responsibility and privilege of revealing the things of God to our children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins, and other family.
Psalm 78 is a very long psalm, and we will focus most of our attention Sunday morning on the first eight verses. Verses 2-3 say something that to me seems unusual and unexpected:
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
things that we have heard and known
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from our children.Dark sayings? The Hebrew word can also be translated “riddle” or “unsolved riddle.” Why would we transmit unresolved riddles to our children? And what are the unresolved riddles that God expects us to think about and teach to our children? We’ll explore that as a main part of our study in class, but I’ll tell you right now what I think.
When you read the rest of this long, 72-verse psalm, it turns out to be a recitation of many times in Israel’s history when the people rebelled against God or drifted away from God, and all the times that God, after expressing his deep anger and hurt and disappointment, forgave them and invited them back.
I believe the “dark saying” of Psalm 78, the great unresolved riddle, is this:
How could people who walked through the Red Sea on dry land and who heard God’s own voice at Mount Sinai, soon become apathetic and turn away from God? How is that possible? How could people who were saved time and again from military invaders by dramatic miracles of God, grow cold toward God within a single generation? How can that cycle have been repeated again and again down through human history? It is indeed a dark riddle, and it continues. Look around at recent history. Who can explain the cycle even today?
But there’s another great unresolved riddle woven throughout Psalm 78 and throughout the Bible. Why would God, when ignored and rejected, decide again and again to turn and forgive and heal and restore? Why does he not walk away forever from the dark, ever-repeating cycle of human sinfulness? The greatest unresolved mystery of the cosmos is the mercy and forgiveness and love of the Creator.
October
16 : Expectations, our best efforts, and is suffering ever fragrant to
God?
John 12:1-11, Philippians 3:10-11
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here for this lesson in PDF format
This is complicated. Though very, very real, it’s a deep mystery. I personally haven’t figured it out, but I’m pursuing it and invite you to help me explore what for me is fresh insight into an age-old question.
Why does God allow his children to suffer, and what should you and I do with suffering, pain, loss, grief, loneliness, hurt, or rejection?
If you won’t be in class on Sunday, sorry, you won’t get much preview here because I don’t quite know how to put in writing the things that have been working through my thoughts as I have studied this week’s lesson. Maybe after those who are in class this Sunday help me sort it out, I’ll be better able to express it in writing.
Let me tell you how I got to this point. We are in a five-week series on the core values of our congregation and of the Christian life. This week’s value is titled “Expect – He desires our greatest effort.” That’s a title developed by committee, and I probably would have phrased it differently, but essentially this core value is the understanding that God desires your greatest effort and my greatest effort – in truth, we owe him no less than our greatest effort – and at the same time we understand that our efforts are of no value except through his eyes of grace.
Chris Thompson has been supplying teachers with ideas and background notes on each week’s core value, and he included a comment that just grabbed my attention and has percolated inside me all week.
Although God desires and takes pleasure in our greatest effort, we have nothing in and of ourselves to offer a Holy God. Giving our best in our own strength is not fragrant to him. Chris included this observation in his notes: “We can only offer our best to the Lord when it is something which comes out of suffering, death, or resurrection.”
What does that mean?
Well, I first thought Dr. Thompson had veered of onto another topic, a different core value. But as I dug deeply into the assigned Scripture text (John 12:1-11, you can read it for yourself before class), I began to encounter something that stirs me, something I’m still trying to articulate. You can help me try to unwrap it in class. If you are experiencing suffering at any level, or have experienced suffering that led you to ask God “Why?”, or if you have ever said “I guess God has a plan for allowing this pain, but I don’t know what it is,” then you will want to participate in our exploration.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
“…[My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, so that by any means possible I will attain resurrection from among the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).
Notice the phrase “fellowship of His sufferings” in there. Chris Thompson didn’t develop this part of the topic very far in his notes, he just mentioned it briefly and I’ve been running with it. But consider his final observation:
We too are permitted to have fellowship with His sufferings. But soon this opportunity will pass from us forever.
Think about that. I’ll see you Sunday morning.
October
9 : Worship - Psalm 100 and other passages
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here for this lesson in PDF format
Worship hour, worship choruses, worship style, worship choir, worship leader, worship team, contemporary worship, traditional worship, worship minister – they’re familiar terms in churches today, but not one of those phrases is found in the New Testament.
“Worship service,” our everyday name for Sunday gatherings in churches across America, is never mentioned in the New Testament. “Worship music” is a staple for church services across America – and it’s wonderful – but the New Testament does not link music to worship, or worship to music. Remember those great worship passages in Revelation, from which we get some of our most powerful worship lyrics (for example, “Holy, Holy, Holy” or “You are Worthy”)? According to John’s vision, all but one of them were spoken, or joyfully shouted, not sung.
My point is that, understood biblically, “worship” is not primarily music and not intended uniquely for Sunday church meetings, even though both are very effective vehicles for worship.
Worship is pursuing God, desiring His presence, actively seeking to know him better, deliberately trying to adopt his way of thinking, and being diligent about staying in touch.
Worship is anything you or I say or sing intended to bring God pleasure.
Worship is any heart-felt admiration or gratitude that we feel about God or express to God.
Worship is any action, in any context, that we take with the intention of pleasing Him.
Worship is any attitude of ours that brings God pleasure, anywhere, anytime, in any setting.
Let’s pursue this more deeply on Sunday morning.
Tom
October
2 : What if I'd rather have high fructose corn syrup? - Psalm
19:7-14
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here for this lesson in PDF format
After we launched our fall study of Romans, the church leadership has asked all adult Bible study groups to take the five weeks of October to examine our congregation’s core values. The pastor will preach each Sunday on the same core value we study in class.
I was pretty excited about our start in Romans – our class had some deeply meaningful studies in the early going. But I’m also pleased for the opportunity to be studying the basic values of church and life, and I’m especially looking forward this week to exploring Psalm 19 and the core value “His Word is Everything.”
The Bible identifies only a few things that last forever. There may be more that the Bible doesn’t mention, but we do know for sure that three things continue forever, beyond all time. One is God Himself. The Second is the human soul, you. The Third is the Word of God.
That makes God and His word the only anchor that matters to you. Everything else is fleeting. A hundred years from now, nothing else will matter to you.
I’ve had a fun object lesson in the back of my mind for some time that I wanted to use when teaching Psalm 19, but our class hasn’t had that passage on our schedule in years. Unexpectedly, it’s on this week.
Please read Psalm 19 ahead of time, and especially note verses 7-14. Come to class prepared to tell me if you prefer Pepsi or Coke, or if neither, to name your favorite store-bought soft drink. I’ll see you Sunday.
Tom
September
25: The Power of the Gospel for Believers (like you and me) - Romans
1:15-18
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here for this lesson in PDF format
There is something in the first chapter of Romans that intrigues me. Paul begins his letter by clearly stating that he is writing to believers, like you and me.
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus … to all those in Rome who are loved by God
and called to be his saints” (Romans 1:1 & 7).He goes on to say he wants to harvest some fruit in their lives by preaching the Gospel to them (verses 13 &15). What intrigues me is that Paul isn’t talking primarily about preaching the Gospel to unbelievers, the people we usually think are the ones who need to hear the Gospel, but instead he is talking about preaching the Gospel for believers.
Tullian Tchividjian is a young Florida pastor with a difficult-to-pronounce name who was called two years ago to succeed D. James Kennedy, the famous longtime pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale. In the last couple of years, Tchividjian has become impassioned over the realization that the power of the Gospel is meant not only for getting sinners saved, but for every believer’s everyday life. He writes and speaks about it everywhere and has become widely quoted on the subject. For example:
• The gospel doesn't simply ignite the Christian life; it's the fuel that keeps Christians going and growing every day.
• The gospel never starts with what we need to do; it always begins with what God has already done; to get it backwards is to miss the Gospel
• The gospel is the good news that God rescues sinners. And since both non-Christians and Christians are sinners, we both need the gospel.
• In the gospel, God comes after us because we need him, not because he needs us. Only the gospel can free us to revel in our insignificance.
• Mt. Sinai says, “You must do.” Mt. Calvary says, “Because you couldn’t, Jesus did.” Don't run to the wrong mountain for your hiding place.In the first chapter of Romans we find these very familiar words: “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” But too often we quote just that snippet, without letting the words flow out of their deeper context, and so we miss the wonder of God’s Gospel for us, the Gospel’s power for our lives today, and tomorrow, and each day forward.
Let’s explore this, and revel in it, on Sunday morning.
Tom
September
18: Living in the Power of the Gospel - Romans
1:1-17
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here for this lesson in PDF format
Paul’s letter to the Romans has had more influence in the world than any other letter in history. We sometimes call it the “Book” of Romans, but it really is a letter, warm, personal, intimate, insightful, and loving. It’s the longest of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, but could fit on a single newspaper page and be read straight through in 30 or 40 minutes.
The letter discusses and answers some of the biggest questions of human life and destiny. It greatly influenced the development of the early church and was a catalyst for the Reformation led by Martin Luther. It has anchored the Church’s theology for twenty centuries and still remains very up-to-date in 2011 — there are paragraphs beginning right from chapter one that sound as though they were written about us and our world today.
It is important to remember that the letter to the Romans, though composed from the mind of Paul and written in his own style and way of thinking, was inspired by the Holy Spirit. That means two things for us. First, what the letter reveals about God and His ways and purposes, is the real thing, ultimate reality. If we want to know God and His intentions toward us, this letter is basic, essential, and exciting. Second, God continues to infuse this letter with His Spirit even today — it is alive for anyone seeking God. When I mentioned to one of our class members last week that we were about to begin a study in Romans, he said: “Studying Romans caused a revival in my life.”
In many ways the letter to the Romans offers the best and most complete explanation of the Gospel that we have – the Gospel not only for salvation, as amazing as that is, but also the Gospel for living and thriving in our day-to-day lives.
Read the first 17 verses before Sunday. When we begin to peel back the layers of meaning, those 17 verses are so rich that we cannot possibly enjoy them adequately in an abbreviated class study time. If you can’t be in your seat this Sunday by 9:15, we’ll go ahead and start without you, but come on in as soon as you can.
Tom
September 11: Solemn Assembly
As you know, all Sunday morning classes at Charlotte First Baptist Church will meet together in the church sanctuary this Sunday for what is called a Solemn Assembly, an event that begins at 9:00 AM and will include both the Sunday School hour and the worship hour.
A "solemn assembly" is mentioned eight or nine times in the Bible (some translations say "sacred assembly"). For example, see Joel 1:14 and Joel 2:15. In Old Testament times, solemn assemblies lasted all day, or even days. If you aren't familiar with the concept, click here for a PDF of a small booklet you are welcome to read or download.
September 4 :Getting Our Feet Wet - Romans
Our new Bible study for the fall months will be in Romans. As you know, Sunday after next is 9/11 and all Sunday morning Bible study classes will meet together in the sanctuary that day. As a result, our chapter-by-chapter study in Romans will begin September 18. Meanwhile, this Sunday in class we will get our feet wet in Romans by exploring a broader Christian life topic from the epistle, not limited to the first chapter.
August
28: A Vivid Glimpse Into God's Heart -
Lamentations 3
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
The last time our class studied in the little Old Testament book of Lamentations was almost exactly 10 years ago, on the Sundays after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Someone brought up verses from Lamentations and we went there to explore them.
The prophet Jeremiah composed the poetry of Lamentations during the dreadful aftermath of a devastating attack on Jerusalem, launched from what is today known as Iraq. A significant part of the city’s population died, either from starvation or from the appalling cruelty of the attackers. Left in the ruins of their homeland, many who survived wished they hadn’t.
Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger who wasted away (Lamentations 4:9).
With their daughters raped, their friends and neighbors dead, their leaders led off as hostages, their homes in rubble as though struck by a magnitude 8 earthquake, their vineyards and farms and storehouses laid waste, and their nation essentially terminated, the few remaining survivors lived with the deepest imaginable grief.
In the midst of all this, Jeremiah wrote from the depths of his heart what we today call the book Lamentations — five poems of overwhelming pain and deep-rooted hope in God.
It’s a part of the Bible that is not easy to read, which is why we so rarely read it.
Yet it is real life. Here’s why. The Spirit-inspired poetry in Lamentations is one of the few places in the Bible that give us a glimpse into how God feels about our suffering. Right along with the oppressive reality of evil and the crushing loss that humans often experience, we encounter some of the sweetest words God has ever given us about life and about himself.
Jeremiah’s hard-to-read lament cradles the most uplifting encouragement we can find this side of heaven. We should not allow ten years to go by again before looking into Lamentations in our class because for God Chasers (see the theme and purpose of our class in the verse at the top of this web page), seeking a vivid glimpse into God’s heart is what we’re all about.
Tom
August
21: Forgiveness Forever -
Jeremiah 31:31-34
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here for this lesson in PDF format
The phrase “New Testament” is simply a King James English way of saying “New Covenant.” In 208 AD, the great Christian philosopher Tertullian, writing in Latin, called the Mosaic law the vestus testamentum and the Gospel the novum testamentum, and those Latin words evolved into the Shakespearean English of the 1600s when the KJV was translated. If the Bible were being translated for the first time into English today, we would probably call the part from Genesis to Malachi the Old Covenant and the part from Matthew to Revelation the New Covenant.
Jesus declared the new covenant when he instituted the Lord’s Supper the night before he was crucified (or by Jewish reckoning, the same day he was crucified, because the day began at 6:00 PM). The Bible says “he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood …’” (I Corinthians 11:25 — if you look it up in the King James Bible, Jesus says “this cup is the new testament in my blood …”).
Jesus was citing Jeremiah. Prior to Jesus’ solemn declaration in the hours before he went to the Cross, the only place in the Bible that uses the phrase “new covenant” is Jeremiah 31:31. It was written there as a prophecy and a promise:“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant …”
In what many consider to be among the most wonderful words in his prophetic writings, Jeremiah goes on to describe some features of the future new covenant:
• individual, personal relationships with God
• a community of God and his people
• his words spoken to our hearts
• the possibility of in-depth, intimate knowledge of God
• everyone given equal access to God
• forgiveness freely offered … foreverSix hundred years after Jeremiah gave his early sketch of God’s plans for a new covenant, Jesus took the steps necessary to usher in this incredible new way of relating to God, declaring the new covenant to be in effect by means of his own spilled blood.
After Jesus poured out his blood on the Cross, after his death and resurrection, everything written in the Bible from then on is to help us understand how the new arrangement works, how to live life freely and fully under the new covenant.
When we took one of our detours during our study of Jeremiah, we missed the week that we were to have explored this wonderful prophecy. Sunday, we’ll go back to Jeremiah 31:31-34.
August
14: Sunday Double Feature -
Jeremiah 35, Jeremiah 33:1-3
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Last week we detoured out of our studies in Jeremiah to examine a prayer in the book of Daniel that is based on Jeremiah’s writings. To catch up from our detour, our class will explore two separate topics from Jeremiah this Sunday, both of them worthy of our attention.
1. Jeremiah’s Wine-Tasting Party
When I was in high school, a Bible teacher spent considerable time helping my friends and me understand the dangers of drinking alcoholic beverages, and I am grateful he did. But he occasionally over stretched things to make his point. For example, he had us read a Bible story about a wine-tasting event hosted by the prophet Jeremiah who invited a family clan known as the Rechabites (pronounced REK-uh-bights) as his guests of honor. It’s an unusual and intriguing Bible story, but even as a teen I knew as soon as I read it that my Bible teacher was wrong – the Rechabite story is not about God’s view of alcohol.
However, the Holy Spirit made sure the wine-tasting party was included in the Bible, so what is its biblical point? On Sunday I’m going to reverse roles and ask you to consider that question and tell me. Read the narrative in the 35th chapter of Jeremiah, then come help us uncover how this unique Bible story applies to us today.
2. How to get in on God’s family secrets
Usually when we make a prayer request, we are asking God to do something, to take some action. We generally think of an answer to prayer as when God makes something happen or prevents something from happening.
But there’s another whole category of answers to prayer that we may not give enough thought to. In Jeremiah 33, we encounter this offer from God, this invitation:
Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it—the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
The universe is full of mystery and God is full of mystery, yet God wants His children to know things, hidden things, amazing things – especially things about Himself. But He doesn’t just go around dumping knowledge and secrets on people. He likes to be asked. Do you want to know some of the hidden things of God? Do you want to acquire wisdom? He invites you to ask.
August
7 : Your Most Deeply-Felt Prayer Requests -
Daniel 9:1-23, with Jeremiah 29
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
What are your biggest and most deeply-felt prayer requests?
As you know, I often pray for prayer—for more prayer, more effective pray, and more answers to prayer among God Chasers. I want your prayers to be answered. I want you, along with me, to learn to identify the desires within us that resonate with the Father, and then to pray those desires and requests in a way that draws the warmth of His attention.
And I want us to become more alert to God’s answers, even when the answers come packaged—as they sometimes do—in different wrapping paper than we were expecting.
When you come to class this Sunday, please have in mind
one or two of your personal deepest-desire intercessions. Our lesson will be about shaping and praying those requests. I want you to experience God’s answer.
Two weeks ago we studied the passage in Jeremiah that includes this famous assurance:
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
Last Sunday we followed the biblical trail of that assurance from the writings of Jeremiah into the writings of Daniel. We saw how the Word of God through Jeremiah impacted the prayers of Daniel nearly seven decades later, stirring him to pray a powerful, God-centered confession of sin along with a deeply-felt intercession. We saw the warmth with which God received that prayer.
I asked you to come last Sunday morning with one of your personal deepest-desire prayers in mind, but I was too optimistic about how much we would cover in one class session. We delved into confession but ran out of time before we got very far in uncovering what it was about Daniel’s prayer that made his words resonate so deeply with God.
Let’s pick that up this Sunday, and let’s apply what we learn to your own specific, deepest-felt requests. I can’t wait to hear, over the coming weeks and months, how God responds to what you ask Him.
Tom
August
28: A Vivid Glimpse Into God's Heart -
Lamentations 3
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
The last time our class studied in the little Old Testament book of Lamentations was almost exactly 10 years ago, on the Sundays after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Someone brought up verses from Lamentations and we went there to explore them.
The prophet Jeremiah composed the poetry of Lamentations during the dreadful aftermath of a devastating attack on Jerusalem, launched from what is today known as Iraq. A significant part of the city’s population died, either from starvation or from the appalling cruelty of the attackers. Left in the ruins of their homeland, many who survived wished they hadn’t.
Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger who wasted away (Lamentations 4:9).
In the midst of all this, Jeremiah wrote from the depths of his heart what we today call the book Lamentations — five poems of overwhelming pain and deep-rooted hope in God.
It’s a part of the Bible that is not easy to read, which is why we so rarely read it.
Yet it is real life. Here’s why. The Spirit-inspired poetry in Lamentations is one of the few places in the Bible that give us a glimpse into how God feels about our suffering. Right along with the oppressive reality of evil and the crushing loss that humans often experience, we encounter some of the sweetest words God has ever given us about life and about himself.
Jeremiah’s hard-to-read lament cradles the most uplifting encouragement we can find this side of heaven. We should not allow ten years to go by again before looking into Lamentations in our class because for God Chasers (see the theme and purpose of our class in the verse at the top of this web page), seeking a vivid glimpse into God’s heart is what we’re all about.
Tom
August
21: Forgiveness Forever -
Jeremiah 31:31-34
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
The phrase “New Testament” is simply a King James English way of saying “New Covenant.” In 208 AD, the great Christian philosopher Tertullian, writing in Latin, called the Mosaic law the vestus testamentum and the Gospel the novum testamentum, and those Latin words evolved into the Shakespearean English of the 1600s when the KJV was translated. If the Bible were being translated for the first time into English today, we would probably call the part from Genesis to Malachi the Old Covenant and the part from Matthew to Revelation the New Covenant.
Jesus declared the new covenant when he instituted the Lord’s Supper the night before he was crucified (or by Jewish reckoning, the same day he was crucified, because the day began at 6:00 PM). The Bible says “he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood …’” (I Corinthians 11:25 — if you look it up in the King James Bible, Jesus says “this cup is the new testament in my blood …”).
Jesus was citing Jeremiah. Prior to Jesus’ solemn declaration in the hours before he went to the Cross, the only place in the Bible that uses the phrase “new covenant” is Jeremiah 31:31. It was written there as a prophecy and a promise:“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant …”
In what many consider to be among the most wonderful words in his prophetic writings, Jeremiah goes on to describe some features of the future new covenant:
• individual, personal relationships with God
• a community of God and his people
• his words spoken to our hearts
• the possibility of in-depth, intimate knowledge of God
• everyone given equal access to God
• forgiveness freely offered … foreverSix hundred years after Jeremiah gave his early sketch of God’s plans for a new covenant, Jesus took the steps necessary to usher in this incredible new way of relating to God, declaring the new covenant to be in effect by means of his own spilled blood.
After Jesus poured out his blood on the Cross, after his death and resurrection, everything written in the Bible from then on is to help us understand how the new arrangement works, how to live life freely and fully under the new covenant.
When we took one of our detours during our study of Jeremiah, we missed the week that we were to have explored this wonderful prophecy. Sunday, we’ll go back to Jeremiah 31:31-34.
August
14: Sunday Double Feature -
Jeremiah 35, Jeremiah 33:1-3
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Last week we detoured out of our studies in Jeremiah to examine a prayer in the book of Daniel that is based on Jeremiah’s writings. To catch up from our detour, our class will explore two separate topics from Jeremiah this Sunday, both of them worthy of our attention.
1. Jeremiah’s Wine-Tasting Party
When I was in high school, a Bible teacher spent considerable time helping my friends and me understand the dangers of drinking alcoholic beverages, and I am grateful he did. But he occasionally over stretched things to make his point. For example, he had us read a Bible story about a wine-tasting event hosted by the prophet Jeremiah who invited a family clan known as the Rechabites (pronounced REK-uh-bights) as his guests of honor. It’s an unusual and intriguing Bible story, but even as a teen I knew as soon as I read it that my Bible teacher was wrong – the Rechabite story is not about God’s view of alcohol.
However, the Holy Spirit made sure the wine-tasting party was included in the Bible, so what is its biblical point? On Sunday I’m going to reverse roles and ask you to consider that question and tell me. Read the narrative in the 35th chapter of Jeremiah, then come help us uncover how this unique Bible story applies to us today.
2. How to get in on God’s family secrets
Usually when we make a prayer request, we are asking God to do something, to take some action. We generally think of an answer to prayer as when God makes something happen or prevents something from happening.
But there’s another whole category of answers to prayer that we may not give enough thought to. In Jeremiah 33, we encounter this offer from God, this invitation:
Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it—the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
The universe is full of mystery and God is full of mystery, yet God wants His children to know things, hidden things, amazing things – especially things about Himself. But He doesn’t just go around dumping knowledge and secrets on people. He likes to be asked. Do you want to know some of the hidden things of God? Do you want to acquire wisdom? He invites you to ask.
August
7 : Your Most Deeply-Felt Prayer Requests -
Daniel 9:1-23, with Jeremiah 29
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
What are your biggest and most deeply-felt prayer requests?
As you know, I often pray for prayer—for more prayer, more effective pray, and more answers to prayer among God Chasers. I want your prayers to be answered. I want you, along with me, to learn to identify the desires within us that resonate with the Father, and then to pray those desires and requests in a way that draws the warmth of His attention.
When you come to class this Sunday, please have in mind
one or two of your personal deepest-desire intercessions. Our lesson will be about shaping and praying those requests. I want you to experience God’s answer.
Two weeks ago we studied the passage in Jeremiah that includes this famous assurance:
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
I asked you to come last Sunday morning with one of your personal deepest-desire prayers in mind, but I was too optimistic about how much we would cover in one class session. We delved into confession but ran out of time before we got very far in uncovering what it was about Daniel’s prayer that made his words resonate so deeply with God.
Let’s pick that up this Sunday, and let’s apply what we learn to your own specific, deepest-felt requests. I can’t wait to hear, over the coming weeks and months, how God responds to what you ask Him.
Tom
July
31 : The Rest of the Story-
Daniel 9:1-23, with Jeremiah
A
breathtaking and practical lesson on prayer
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Tuesday I met a couple of men for supper, both of whom had been in class last Sunday. One arrived at the restaurant wearing a T-shirt imprinted with these words:
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.I think he wore the shirt to show me he had been listening—that’s the verse we studied in class last week. Or more correctly, we studied the passage which includes that verse.
Ever since Sunday, I have been thinking about the first person who claimed this wonderful promise. The words of Jeremiah 29:11 were part of an assurance originally given to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Several decades later, one of those exiles was rereading God’s word sent through Jeremiah when he noticed something that stirred him to the depths of his soul. The exile was Daniel, and he was studying Jeremiah during his daily prayer time. It dawned on him that the fulfillment of Jeremiah 29 was near. God had told the exiles 70 years, and that time was almost up.
Daniel turned the promise into a prayer—one of the most extraordinary prayers recorded in the Bible. And the way in which God responded to Daniel’s prayer was even more extraordinary.
Let’s take a detour out of the book of Jeremiah this week to examine the rest of the story, to see what came of God’s great promise to the exiles in Jeremiah 29. We want to peel open some powerful insights about God, and about prayer, that are embedded into Daniel’s part of this story.
It will be a very hands-on, practical study. Here’s what I’m asking you to do before Sunday.
Identify either a promise from God’s Word that is special to you, or identify your biggest and most deeply-felt prayer request. Bring one or the other (or both) to class. You won’t have to reveal anything out loud unless you want to, but do me this favor — please have a very specific Bible promise or a specific deeply-felt big prayer request in your mind before you arrive in class.
One more thing. People run late for all sorts of reasons, and I understand. You know that we welcome you to take a seat anytime you can get there. But we plan to address something truly big and wonderful this Sunday—how to pray a prayer that God responds to. For best results, you’ll want to make yourself available for as much of the class hour as you possibly can, starting at a quarter past nine. I myself have become filled with awe and joy at what I am learning and feeling as I prepare for this study. I think you might feel the same on Sunday
July 24 : Taking The Whole Package- Jeremiah 29:11
In the God Chasers Class this Sunday, we come to the chapter that includes what many people consider their favorite verse from Jeremiah.
"I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
The verse is a wonderful assurance. What has always intrigued me is how few of us who quote that verse have ever given much attention to its context. Let me just give you one example.
To the people who first heard or read these words from Jeremiah, God was promising hope for a future many years later -- in their case 70 years later. In its context, the promise is not for right now. When we read Jeremiah's words leading up to this promise, we realize that God was not encouraging people to simply wait for a better future, he was telling the original readers to settle into the circumstances in which they found themselves, to live in the present, and to pray for peace and blessing within their current situation. That's hugely important. We cannot claim the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 without taking the whole package. On Sunday we want to examine how well you and I are doing at that.
And there's more to the promise in Jeremiah 29 than we typically quote, some wonderful assurances we tend to overlook when we zero in on that one familiar verse. Some of those assurances apply to you and me right now, this week. Let's explore them in class.
July
17 : Isn't That What It Means To Know Me? -
Jeremiah 22:16
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
I’ll never forget visiting with a pastor in his study at a church in New England several years ago, when the pastor began to weep over a verse in Jeremiah. His reaction was unexpected even to him, I think.
We weren’t talking about Jeremiah, or even about theology. We were talking about hunger in America and about the economic conditions that make hunger very real even in a country like ours where food is abundant. As we chatted, the pastor mentioned a verse in Jeremiah 22 and suddenly his voice choked up and his eyes filled with tears.
For several years he had been deeply pursuing what it means to know God—not how to be saved, or the Christian-life formula things we usually cite, but how he could know God in ways that mattered most to God. You can imagine that he had my attention as we talked, because his quest was similar to my own life-pursuit and the basic goal of our class (see our theme verse up top).
He told me that one day a year or so earlier, during a time when he was reading in Jeremiah for daily devotions, he prayed as usual for fresh insight into knowing God and immediately found himself caught up in Jeremiah 22:15-16, where the prophet is declaring God’s word to the young king:“Why did your father, Josiah, reign so
long? Because he was just and right in all
his dealings. That is why God blessed him.
He made sure that justice and help were
given to the poor and needy, and everything
went well for him. Isn't that what it
means to know me?” asks the LORD.This verse offers God’s own answer to the question about knowing God. The translation is especially clear in the Holman Bible and the New Living Translation. I’ve kept the words posted at eye-level on my office cubicle wall ever since that visit in New England. Of course, this passage is not God’s only answer to the question. Knowing God can never be one dimensional or even ten-dimensional—God is too large and mysterious and wonderful for that. There are many other important answers in the Bible about what it means to know him.
But this answer in Jeremiah 22 so captured my friend’s heart that he still felt the emotion a year later just talking about it. To tell the truth, I had never really noticed the passage before that day. I knew quite well, as you do, that God wants his people to care for the needy, feed the hungry, and seek justice for those who are treated unfairly. He says so all through the Bible.
Speaking through Jeremiah, however, God suggests that taking up these causes is not only an exercise in obedience and caring on our part, but also a very good way to get to know him, to feel his heart, to sense his passion, to touch the core of who he is.
There’s something profound and exciting about that. It’s deep truth wrapped in a Person rather than a formula. I suspect the significance may be even deeper than anything I’ve yet wrapped my mind around.
Our summer study brings us to Jeremiah 22 this week. I don’t have verses 15-16 all figured out, but I think they tie in closely with a pair of verses from earlier in Jeremiah. See if you agree with me:Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let
not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in
his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands
and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love,
justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:23-24I hope you noticed that last line. I want to understand and know the Lord by pursuing the things that delight him. I think you do too. We’ll explore much more of this on Sunday.
July
3 : "Woe is me, my mother..."- Lament,
Mystery, Security, and Joy in Jeremiah 15
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
“Woe is me, my mother …” That’s how Jeremiah starts out his complaint, or rather lament.
There’s a fine line between lament and complaining. Sometimes they can be intertwined, as they are in parts of Jeremiah’s writing. Complaining is often unhealthy and unhelpful. Lament can be good for the soul. Parents often tell children to “Stop complaining,” and God got really ticked off at the people of Israel for all their complaining after He led them out of slavery in Egypt. God challenges or rebukes a complainer, but He accepts, even encourages, an honest lament. We have examples from Job, David, Jeremiah, and many others.
Some of us – maybe a number of us – in the God Chasers class would feel better and connect with God more intimately if we could express our lament to Him, but we are reluctant to do so for fear of being seen as complaining.
We will start our class on Sunday exploring the difference.
And while doing so, we will examine the prophet Jeremiah’s lament in Jeremiah’s 15:10-21, and God’s response to it. It’s in the same passage we studied last week, but there’s more we do not want to miss. We’ll uncover mystery (about God), security (security for you rooted in the mystery of God), and joy (sprouting from honest lament).
May I be so bold as to say that you probably need this lesson? I know I do. See you Sunday.
Tom
June 5 : Why God Likes You - Jeremiah
In the opening to Jeremiah, God says that he knew you before you were in the womb. This is often quoted on Choose Life Sunday, but think about it from a different perspective. Think about God and you. God thought you up, you personally. He planned you so thoroughly that by the time you were conceived, he already knew your characteristics, your tendencies, your weaknesses, and your preferences. How old are you right now? Add nine months to that. Even before then, before you began to be nurtured in the womb, God has known why he likes you. And he still does!
This Sunday we will start our summer series in the book of Jeremiah. I love studying Jeremiah because he is so human, and so honest and direct with God. Our first week will not be an overview or general introduction -- we're plunging right into things that matter. As always, our first goal is to gain more insight into God, and secondly to see how that connects with us and our lives today. But in this case, we will also explore how our amazing God connected with us before we began life.
April
24: Surprise! - Psalm 16,
Acts 2:22-32
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
I’ve been studying, praying, and thinking a lot about Easter – and about resurrection – this week. Three special things have caught my attention. Each one is about God and affects you.
First, God loves surprises.
Second, the most momentous events in life sometimes occur with no fanfare.
Third, how will we recognize people after we are resurrected?
The third one might be the one you find most special, because it points to something wonderful about Jesus and at the same time applies to each of us individually right now, in our lives as we are living them today. It’s an insight I’ve never really considered before, but now that the Holy Spirit has allowed me to see it, I can’t stop thinking about it.
We’ll explore all three items on Sunday morning (try to be on time, we have a lot to cover in this Easter Bible study, and all of it is exciting). I’ll preview just the first of the three here.
The resurrection of Jesus seems to have taken the disciples, the Jewish rabbis, the Pharisees, and pretty much everybody else by complete surprise. It apparently took Satan by surprise. Even those who knew the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah, and who believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, did not watch for resurrection. It was the last thing anyone expected.
There is really very little in Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah’s resurrection. We can find prophecies about the birth of the Promised One, his servant attitude, his healing ministry, his mission to give his life as a ransom, and remarkably graphic prophetic descriptions of the agony that came later to be known as Good Friday. But there is extremely little in Old Testament prophecy about his resurrection.
Why? As to God’s great plan and purposes for the cosmos and for human history, I don’t know why some events are clearly prophesied and others not.
But as to God’s nature and personality, I get it immediately. He loves to plan surprises. He delights to do the unexpected. He takes pleasure in orchestrating things in such a way that when it all comes together, we respond, “Wow! I had no idea!!” Easter is the ultimate surprise, the most astonishing and successful surprise in human history (so far, anyway). In centuries past, churches often celebrated the Sunday after Easter with fun and laughter in commemoration of God’s happy laughing after he pulled it off, God’s pleasure as the entire universe exclaimed, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming.”
God delights to do the unexpected, or to do the expected in unexpected ways, in our lives today. And try to imagine what is in store for us through eternity as we dwell with a loving God who finds joy in planning surprises.
See you Sunday.
Tom
April
10: My Prayer for You - Philippians
1:3-11
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Thanking God for you
Partnership in the Gospel
Finishing well
God won’t stop halfway
Abounding love
Depth of insight
Discerning the best things
Blameless (because of Christ)
Fruit-filled (because of Christ)
GloryThis prayer for you is both the preview for Sunday and the topic of our study:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. … And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
– Philippians 1:3-11
April
3 : Made in the Image of God - Genesis
1:26-27
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
A small spider emerged from the corner and walked across in front of me one evening as I studied for this week’s lesson. I like spiders outside, I love to examine their intricate webs, but indoor spiders do not sit well with Cathie. Our study is about being made in the image of God. The spider, however, was not, and a second or two later a part of God’s creation ceased to exist.
There is a vast gulf of difference between God’s creatures like a spider or mosquito or salmon or beef cattle, and the one creature about whom God said:
“Let us make man in our image.”
A grand and frustrating thing about this week’s study is that being made in the image of God means something absolutely wonderful, but it’s hard to articulate what that is. There are all sorts of sermons, books, and articles that try to explain what it means to be created in God’s image; most of them are profound, and many of them are probably right. But every time I hear or read someone’s dig-deep explanation, I end up feeling that the explanation is incomplete. There must be more.
Think about it. You are created in the image of God. Whatever that means is deeper and greater and more marvelous than anything our language can express or even that our earth-bound minds can fully conceive. It was never about an elephant, a chimpanzee, or your pet, it was about you that God said:
“Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. …
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”This week concludes our series on places in the Bible where we overhear the persons of the Trinity communicating with each other, snippets of conversation within the inner dynamic of God. In the first chapter of Genesis, we cannot help but notice that God (in the singular) unilaterally creates all things until he gets to the finale. At that point we overhear him consulting on a mutual plan for the final act of creation. Who is the “us?” With whom is he consulting?
Some would say we are overhearing a conversation God had with his angels. But that’s not likely because you are not created in the image of angels.
Some have said that God is using the royal we, a custom of some monarchs to refer to themselves in the plural. There are several problems with that interpretation, one of which is that there was no tradition of the royal we in Israeli antiquity. In addition, if God were using what some have labeled the “plurality of majesty,” why would he not have continued to create by command, instead of expressing the language of consultation? He had just been saying “Let there be light, let there be …” etc. He spoke that way six times. We would expect, if for some reason God then decided to use the royal plural for the final act, he would have simply commanded: “Let there be man in our image.” Instead he ceased to issue those creation commands, switching to the language of mutual planning and a collective decision to carry out a joint creation—“Let us make man in our image.”
Who was the “us?” Genesis does not say. At the time Genesis was written, God did not reveal any details. Only in retrospect, only because we live after Jesus Christ came, can we suggest an explanation. I will not be dogmatic about what God meant to convey about himself when he said “us” in Genesis 1:26, but there is one explanation that fits our study series, and it could well be the appropriate explanation.
As for you and me, what does it mean to be made in the image of God? That remains a magnificent mystery, both knowable and unknowable. We do have some splendid hints about the knowable parts. We’ll explore those hints, and celebrate them, in class on Sunday.
Whatever it means to be made in God’s image, we begin with God. See you Sunday.
Tom
March
27 : My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me?
-quoted
by David, Jesus, and probably you in a time of anguish
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Christians are not immune from being human.
It is human to experience loss, frustration, rejection, and bafflement. It is human to feel grief, pain, anger, or loneliness. It is human to feel, at times, abandoned. It is human to hurt. It is also human to ask why.
Would you pause long enough to place yourself somewhere into those last sentences?
One of the most profound things about God the Son is that He chose to become authentically human. He experienced all of those things. But being authentically human in God’s world does not just mean that we have experienced some bad times. If that alone measured authenticity before God, we’d all score 100, along with every other person who ever lived.
Our study this week is from Psalm 22, a prayer that Jesus quoted – shouted – from the cross. Jesus chose words from David’s psalm to speak to the Father, raw, hurting, lonely, emotional words. Keep in mind that the relationship within the Trinity, the three-in-one union within the heart of God, is the most intimate and fundamental relationship in all the cosmos. When God-the-Son shouts “Why?” to God-the-One, when the Beloved Son cries out in anguish and grief at his sense of abandonment, we are amazed that we are aloud to overhear. The full breadth of human hurt and pain is concentrated on the Cross in one man in one moment—the most searing moment of God-the-Son’s eternal existence. If ever there was a time when we would expect a shield of privacy to protect the agonized plea from God in human flesh to God enthroned in Heaven, it would be at this moment.
Instead, you and I have the glorious and distressing privilege of overhearing exactly what God-on-the Cross said to God-in-charge-of-everything.
Where are you? Why don’t you answer?
I’m as low as a man can go, and I don’t see you anywhere around.
Don’t you care I’m being mocked? Don’t you see I’m treated like a worm?
Don’t you hear my groans? Why are you letting this happen?
Why aren’t you helping me?
It seems astounding to hear the Beloved Son say such things to the Father, out loud for anyone to hear. We are taken aback by this pain-saturated prayer, and we become awed as we catch a glimpse of the depth and intensity inside the most powerful and loving relationship that has ever existed.
It is important to remember that what Jesus said was not new, not a uniquely divine utterance, but words composed a thousand years before by his own human ancestor David, words every one of us think at one time or another. And long before David, Job expressed something very similar (Job 23), asking very bluntly, “Where is God?”
1Then Job answered and said:
2 “Today also my complaint is bitter;
my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his seat!
4 I would lay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments. …
8 "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I do not perceive him.”Make careful note of this. Neither Job nor David – and certainly not Jesus – doubted the reality of God, the integrity of God, or the ultimate love of God.
Nor, I suspect, have you, even in your most lonesome or heart-rending moments. But Job, David, and Jesus refused to fake or suppress their true feelings. They made no attempt to validate their spiritual maturity or prop up their faith by pretending everything was OK.
Here is the central point of our study. Total honesty before God is the deepest expression of faith in Him, the only way to be authentically human in God’s world, the only path to spiritual wholeness, and the only way to find healing for our deepest hurts.[A]
Because Jesus practiced transparent honesty toward God without hesitation, we know that it is not merely a good guideline for living, but a fundamental principle of God-relationship.
Let’s take it even a step further. The book of Psalms is a book of praise (in Hebrew, the word “psalm” is the word for “praise”). From a biblical perspective, every psalm is a prayer of praise to God. In our Christian culture today, we have come to associate praise with music, festive singing, perhaps clapping or hands raised in the air, choirs and solos and praise teams, and shouts of “Praise the Lord” or “Hallelujah.” All of that is part of praise, but it is not all there is to praise. The book of Psalms provides four kinds of authentic praise:
• praising God for who He is and what He does
• thanksgiving
• confession
• lamentYes, lament addressed to God is at its root, praise. Some laments in the Psalms are very strongly worded. Some are despairing. Some are angry. Some even accuse God. Every one of them is in the Bible, inspired words given to us by the Holy Spirit as a model and pattern for our own praise.
Praise is as natural to the Christian life as breathing. Joyful praise to God and genuine expressions of thanksgiving must never be given a backseat. Utter frankness in confessing our sin to God is essential.
But there is something else.
When one’s nephew is killed by an inattentive driver,
when a desperately-needed job opportunity does not materialize,
when a spouse makes verbal abuse a habit,
when one’s son or brother dies under inexplicable circumstances,
when financial resources are exhausted,
when one’s spouse of many decades goes to heaven,
when the doctor says “terminal cancer,”
when chronic physical pain becomes unbearable,
when the future seems frightening,
when loneliness overwhelms,
when a care-giver cannot get help or relief,
when bi-polar is a fact of life,
when the memories of something awful will not go away,
in every unjoyful circumstance of life we must remember that buck-naked honesty—no pretentions, no fake spiritual veneer, no calling a spade a rose—is as integral to authentic God-relationship as any joyful praise songs.
This not a call to dump intense, negative emotions all over everyone else. This is about honesty before God. God is honored by our honest spiritual feelings honestly expressed to Him because … well … because intense feelings and expressive honesty are integral to who God is. God is drawn to an honest heart no matter how unattractive the honesty seems to us.
There is so much more for us to explore from Psalm 22. See you Sunday.
Tom
NOTE [A]: I am indebted to Dennis Bratcher, especially a sermon he preached in Oklahoma City on the second anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal building, for helping to nurture and frame my exploration of Psalm 22.
March
20 : "Keep them from the evil one..."
- John 17
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
This week, I’m asking you to lead the way in our class lesson.
Before we conclude our current series about overhearing within-the-Trinity communication, we have three more Bible passages we want to examine. One is in Genesis (“Let us make mankind in our own image”). One is Matthew 27:46 (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” – quoted from Psalm 22). And one is the entire 17th chapter of John where Jesus talks intimately and frankly to the Father about all sorts of things, including you.
Please read John 17 before Sunday (you might want to read it through a couple of times) and make a note of your own thoughts in response to the questions below. You may find it helpful to click on the PDF link above and print the page so you have a place to jot down your answers. For your convenience, the PDF version also includes the text of John 17.
As you read the chapter, continually remind yourself of the amazing fact that you are hearing God the Son speak to God the Father, themselves One, with God the Son expressing things in human language that in some cases are beyond expressing in human language.
What is one thing about God (whether you are thinking about God-as-One, or individually about the Father, the Son, or the Spirit) that struck you in a fresh way – an insight about God that came alive for you as you read?
Bring your responses to class, because we will use them in our discussion and study. I’ll see you on Sunday morning.
Tom
March 13 : What Jesus Didn't Say to the Father (and more) - John 11-12
In a familiar passage in John 11, Jesus speaks to the Father just before he raises Lazarus from the dead.
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Then in John 12, we find
(1) what Jesus considered saying to the Father, but did not,
(2) what he did say to the Father, and
(3) the Father’s audible reply.27“Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
For a God Chaser — one who constantly seeks to learn more about God’s nature, his thoughts, and his ways — there is much more to these two passages than is apparent at first glance. I'm excited by what I am seeing.
See you Sunday.
Tom
March
6 : The Riddle - Matthew
22:41-46, Psalm 110, Hebrews 7
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Do you enjoy solving riddles?
During the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, his religious antagonists kept pressing him with trick questions meant to entrap him (Mark 11 & 12). Finally, Jesus turned the tables by offering his own trick question, a theological riddle in two parts. The first part of the riddle was easy enough for his critics to answer, but the second part left them silent, unable or unwilling to respond.
It’s fun to hear Jesus beat his critics at their own game (Mark 12:35-37 or Matthew 22:41-46), and the riddle is intriguing in and of itself, but for this Sunday our class’s main interest is where the riddle leads us. We are exploring places in the Bible that allow us to overhear snippets of conversation within/among the Trinity. In his theological riddle, Jesus quotes Psalm 110 in a way that makes it clear the psalm contains words that God-the-One spoke to God-the-Son.
Although the riddle was a challenge to Jesus’ critics, for us it points to plans and promises discussed within the inner fellowship of God, plans and promises that reveal deep and wonderful truths about the persons of the Trinity.
Those truths are rooted in Psalm 110, a psalm that is cited in the New Testament more often than any other. It’s a very cryptic psalm—we will not be able to unravel all its mysteries (I doubt anyone ever has). But there is refreshing beauty in what we can discover about Christ by overhearing the words spoken to him, words exchanged from within the heart of God.
And there can be joy and power for us when we realize how those overheard words affect us.
Be there Sunday as we seek to understand the riddle, uncover the beauty, and catch a glimpse of the marvelous way God planned for all of it to affect you and me.
Tom
February
27:
Gladness
(continued) - Hebrews 1:8-9, Psalm 45:6-7
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
(the PDF has lots more images, be sure to take a look)
While on earth, was Jesus happy? Did he laugh? Tell jokes? Play games with children? Sing? Enjoy dinner with friends? Go fishing for the fun of it? Celebrate? Perhaps dance?
Since early January, we have been looking at places in the Bible where we can find snippets of conversation or communication between the persons of our Trinitarian God (no one can explain the math of a Three-in-One being, but we can experience the relationship, and that’s what is exciting.) Last Sunday, we looked at a place in the Bible where we glimpse the Son expressing almost childlike delight during the process of the Creation, especially delight in the creation of people.
We also looked last Sunday at a joyful incident long after Creation, during Jesus’ time on earth. Both Matthew and Luke recorded the scene. Jesus experienced a sense of exuberant gladness, and as he reveled in the experience, he started talking happily with the Father about how he felt. Scripture shows that the Holy Spirit was also involved in that special moment. The most amazing thing about that incident is that we are allowed a glimpse of the intimate gladness shared within the Trinitarian heart of God. We can do this because the Bible lets us overhear some of what Jesus said to the Father during the delight-filled exchange.
This Sunday we will look at a place in the Bible where we overhear the Father speaking to the Son about the Son’s gladness. What we hear this time is wonderful for two reasons. First, it shows how fully joyful Jesus was (and is). And second, it is wonderful because we overhear God explicitly including us – you and me – in the gift and blessing of gladness that was bestowed on the Son.
I think you will come away from Sunday’s lesson refreshed in spirit, just as I have personally been deeply refreshed in spirit as I have studied and prepared for Sunday. This week’s topic is good for people who are feeling happy, but it’s just as good for people who are mourning or hurting, or for people who are feeling down, befuddled, and pressed from all sides.
See you Sunday.
Tom
February
20:
Gladness
- Luke 10:21-22, Hebrews 1:8-9, Psalm 45:6-7, Proverbs
8:22-31
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
We’ll use the word “gladness” as the title of our study topic this week because, in my opinion, the word “joy” has become almost a technical term for many Christians.
The way a lot of Christians talk about it, joy is something we are supposed to have no matter how bad things are, how disappointed we feel, or how much pain and hurt we are enduring. When we define the word in that spiritualized way, joy has almost nothing to do with being delighted or glad or upbeat or pleased; instead it refers to a state of mind that accepts whatever happens as being from the Lord, an attitude of thankfulness and steady contentment in all circumstances.
That’s good, necessary, and very biblical – but it’s not exactly the concept we want to explore in this study. This week we will celebrate the plain old idea of being filled with happiness, about simply being glad. It is a very godly emotion.
Since early January, we have been looking at places in the Bible where we can find snippets of conversation or communication between the persons of our Trinitarian God (no one can explain the math of a Three-in-One being, but we can experience the relationship, and that is exciting.) On Sunday, we will look at several bits of Scripture where the persons of the Trinity speak to each other about their gladness, even exhilaration.
What makes Jesus glad? What causes him to rejoice? And what fills him with delight?
First off, I’m going to show you an event in the New Testament where Jesus experiences exhilaration and tells the Father about it. What he says to the Father sounds pleasing to our ears as we overhear him, but at the same time his words are cryptic. In class, you can help us try to unravel what Jesus is thinking, to grasp what it is that stirred him to such rejoicing.
Then we will look at something the Father said to the Son about the Son’s gladness— something so important and special that the Holy Spirit recorded it not once, but twice in the Bible. And we’ll discover how the Father’s blessing of gladness on the Son might apply to us and to our own gladness (or lack of).
While exploring these moments of gladness between the Father and the Son, we will observe that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is intimately involved in all of it. The Holy Spirit is apparently the one who saved the sound bites of God conversation and left them for us to find. But like the person who doesn’t appear in a family photograph because he was the one snapping the picture, we don’t have a record of the Holy Spirit’s words in these exchanges even though it is obvious that he is a participant.
Finally in class on Sunday, I want to take you back to a passage I love, a place in the Bible that poetically describes the relationship between the Father and the Son during Creation, and their delight in what they were doing. If you’ve ever wondered whether our God really likes people, or just puts up with us, you want to experience this brief video clip that the Holy Spirit tucked into Scripture for us, a vignette of the Father and Son’s interaction while creating the inhabited world. It will leave you glad!
February
13 :
Ask
- Psalm 2:8, John 14:12, and John 16:24
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Have you ever wondered why prayer is so central, so integral, to God’s way of working in the world and to our relationship with him? Why did he design the world and life to work that way? Why would the Almighty One of the universe prefer to act in response to prayer instead of acting unilaterally? Why does he so love to hear his people not only worship, but ask?
Sunday I’d like our class to explore an idea many of us never think much about—prayer from the perspective of the Trinity. Some years ago I read a remark about prayer by Haddon Robinson, a famous professor of preaching (who once preached at Charlotte First Baptist Church … I vividly remember his sermon to this day). His remark was that we will never be able to enter completely into the heart of prayer until we enter into the three-in-one relationship of God. Prayer at its fullest is participation in the inner dynamic of the Trinity.
That’s heavy stuff, and Robinson didn’t explain it further, at least not in the article I was reading. But the thought has never left me; I have considered it many times over the past decade. It was when I began watching/listening for those special opportunities to overhear God, listening in on snippets of conversation between the Father and the Son and the Spirit, that I realized Robinson’s idea is not as heavy or difficult as it might seem.
On the contrary, it introduces several wonderful concepts. Here are two.
First, prayer is not merely a system God created for humans to get what they need, it is a natural part of who God is. On Sunday I’d like to show you what I mean by that. If your goal is the same as our theme verse up at the top of this page, you’ll find this discovery exciting.
And second, we have an incredible invitation to participate actively (by prayer) in the central relationship of the cosmos—we are invited to literally become part of the action that runs the universe. Most of us, most of the time, don’t bother. But if you can think large, you’ll be able to see what I mean on Sunday. And then you can start doing it.
Tom
February
6 :
"Father,
if it is possible, remove thhis cup..."- Luke 22:41-44,
Psalm 102
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at places in the Bible where we are allowed to overhear communication within the heart of God, within the Trinity. For example:
—The Father speaking to the Son at the Son’s baptism and also on the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Peter 1:16-18).
—The Son, before the first Christmas, speaking to the Father about the plans for his incarnation (Hebrews 10:5-10).
—The Son quoting the Father’s tender words to him about his designation as “Son” before all time began (Psalm 2:7-8).
In each case we have discovered that these snippets of God talk, words not directed to us but left for us to hear, reveal extraordinarily wonderful things about God and about how God thinks of and relates to us. This Sunday we will examine a fourth snippet:
—The Father responding to the Son in Gethsemane
You are familiar with the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed in great agony of spirit, “My Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me.” (Stop a moment to think of the last time you prayed a similar prayer, asking God to help you, if possible, avoid something about to happen.) We may think of the Father’s response to Jesus that night as silence, but Luke tells us an angel appeared and strengthened him. I believe that the angel strengthened Jesus by delivering a message from the Father, and incredible as this seems, I believe we can still overhear the words of that very personal message.
Remember how we have discovered in the last three weeks that while Jesus was on earth, the Father mostly communicated with him the same way the Father communicates with you today, by words of Scripture. I will show you why it is likely the angel simply quoted the Father’s words from part of Psalm 102 – words Jesus would have known and recognized from his deep personal knowledge of the Old Testament, affirming words from the Father to the Son that emboldened the Son to proceed with the great plan.
Here’s the best part (that is, the best part for you and me). In the midst of the Son’s distress on the night before his crucifixion, the Father communicated wonderful words of reassurance and security. But the Father’s strong assurance did not stop with the Son. He went on to extend the promise and the security to you and me, and to any person who is with Jesus.
Don’t miss this study! See you Sunday.
Tom
January
23 :
Overhearing
the Father Confer the Title "Son"
2 Samuel 7, Psalm 2, and Hebrews 1
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
It is an astounding thing to be allowed to overhear within-the-Trinity conversation, momentary slices of the inner fellowship within the heart of our three-in-one God.
You and I can read the whole Bible to get the big picture of what God is doing. We know a lot about his plans and his ways. But because God is so big and complex and mysterious and holy and astonishing, we often have trouble just sensing his heart.
I enjoy slipping off the alcove elevator for a few seconds from time to time to overhear a morsel of conversation from within the Trinity — not so that I can overly analyze or systemize it, or neatly explain it in a theological chart, but just to sense God’s heart.
The preacher who authored Hebrews pointed out several overheard snippets. One we will explore this Sunday is from Psalm 2 (quoted in Hebrews 1:5). It is a mysterious fragment of Trinity-conversation from beyond creation and before time, tucked unexpectedly in an alcove of the Psalms, where we hear the Father lovingly confer the title “Son” and then offer to give the Son the nations of the world. It’s a startling glimpse into the heart-purpose behind so much else.
In class last Sunday we overheard a different sliver of divine dialog (Hebrews 10:5-9), a fragment from Psalm 40 that Hebrews reveals to be words spoken by the Son in heaven before the first Christmas, the Son expressing to the Father a willingness to be incarnated in a body, and his desire to bring the Father pleasure by being fully obedient.
Our traditional teaching says that Jesus’ motivation for coming to earth was to save us. That’s very true. But behind that, if we can slip off the elevator near the private quarters in heaven, so to speak, we hear the Son expressing his intention to provide the Father a pleasure that we humans have continually denied him. From the day of Creation, God has always desired to delight in our full obedience.“For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you’” (Jeremiah 7:22-23).
In every part of the Bible, God talks about this. Our obedience is a joy he had in mind when he created man. But from Adam on down, no one ever gave Him that exquisite delight. His disappointment is expressed again and again.
For example:“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (I Samuel 15:22).
So, according to the words of Hebrews 10 that we examined last week, the Son offered himself to become a man and fill up the Father’s joy with one life of total obedience. This was a loving, intimate Trinitarian transaction within God, a private God-dialog, not really for us or about us.
When talking publicly to us, the Father speaks about how he so loved the world that he sent his one and only son so that we would not perish, but have everlasting life. When talking to his followers, Jesus said he came to earth to give his life a ransom for sinners. All of that is central to God’s great purposes and central to his very heart.
But it’s not the only reason. There was more. For those willing to be quiet and listen in wonder, the Holy Spirit left a private recording in Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10:5-9, words spoken by the Son to the Father prior to the first Christmas.Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7)The incarnation (God coming to live in a human body) was a gift from God to man, but it turns out that behind the scenes, it was also a love gift from the Son to the Father: “I come to do your will.” The Son offered to delight the Father by living out the only obedient human life ever lived. Jesus affirms this purpose over and over in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of John.
Few glorious and loving acts ever have a single purpose or motivation. The context in Hebrews reveals that the Son arranged to facilitate another pleasure of the Father’s – forgiveness. By volunteering to come to earth in a human body specially designed by the Father (“… a body you have prepared for me”), and then to live and die in perfect obedience, the Son also made possible a final means of forgiveness.
Our continual human disobedience that so fuels the Father’s displeasure, can now be forgiven and expunged by means of the life and death of the Son who was fully obedient. Through some inexplicable arrangement transacted within the heart of God, the Father’s displeasure over human disobedience is now transformed into the pleasure of forgiveness.
Trying to think through these ideas makes my heart beat faster. I can’t truly understand all that inside-of-God stuff. It’s deep, beyond my human grasp. But I experience joy over any glimpse he allows me of Himself, the exhilaration of overhearing any sliver of intimate conversation he permits me to overhear.
And even as I have often personally fueled the Father’s displeasure by disobeying, I can fuel his pleasure by confessing sins and taking the forgiveness he so enjoys offering. I can do that!
See you Sunday morning.
Tom
January 16 : The Father's Delight - Psalms and Hebrews
It is an unexpected and delightful thing to be allowed to overhear within-the-Trinity conversation, a snippet of the inner fellowship within the heart of our three-in-one God. There are a number of places in the Bible where such snippets pop up, but they are rarely labeled. The author of the book of Hebrews points out several.
For example, our traditional teaching says that Jesus’ motivation for coming to earth was to save us. You’ve heard that often, and it’s very true. But behind that, if we can slip off the elevator for a moment near the private quarters in heaven, so to speak, we overhear the Son expressing his intention to provide the Father a pleasure -- a delight -- that we humans have continually denied him. We discover that within the loving fellowship of the Three-in-one God, Jesus had an additional motivation for coming to live earth, a behind-the-scenes purpose that is beautifully unique to the heart of God.
Of course, there’s nothing secret about this. The Holy Spirit let the secret out a long time ago by leaving bits and pieces in places like the Psalms and by showing the author of Hebrews how to put the pieces together. Join me in rediscovering this all over again on Sunday morning.
January
9 :
Overhearing
God - 2 Peter
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
A Presidential Fishing Tale
In Which a Lost Angler Reveals His White House Bedroom Secret
by Angus Phillips, excerpted from a 1999 Washington Post articleThe oddest thing that happened to me in 25 years of sportswriting was the day I found myself in the bedroom of the president and first lady at 5:15 a.m., uninvited. The light clicked on and there they were, still in their jammies.
Okay, I may not have been actually in the chambers of George and Barbara Bush, but I sure was close, right in the doorway, creeping around after an aged butler who had led me to a place I obviously had no business being. The year was 1990 and the plan was to fish with the president that day for bass in the Potomac. I was early for my 5:30 appointment, and no one at the entrance seemed sure what to do except hand me a pass that basically allowed me to go wherever I wanted.
The butler seemed sleepy. “He must be expecting you in the residence,” he said, and led me on a trek down winding halls and through elegant meeting rooms to a small elevator. Up went the creaky lift to a darkened foyer in the chief executive’s digs. “Follow me,” said the butler, and we crept into a drawing room where the president had left his rods and tackle box leaning against a door jamb, ready for an early start.
Where could he be? My guide led me into the bowels of the place until I stood in front of a pair of double doors. He kept going but something made me stop, and a good thing I did because at that instant a light snapped on in the room into which I peered, and there in a great fluffy bed sat the president of the United States, propped against a pillow alongside his wife.
I about swallowed my gum. “Pssst!” I hissed at the butler. “Let's get out of here!”
We left so quickly I don't know whether the first couple even noticed the intrusion, but the confusion was only beginning. Back at the elevator, my guide scratched his head in puzzlement. "If you're not supposed to be here, I don't know where you should be."
He knocked on a solid metal door and out popped a Secret Service man, whom he asked, “Where do you think this guy should be?” The Secret Service man looked at the pass that hung around my neck with a big letter “A” on it, and said confidently, “He can go wherever he wants.”
The butler decided to go downstairs to check if some reception was planned, and suggested I wait there in the foyer. “But, sir,” I stuttered as he clicked the elevator shut behind him, leaving me alone and unsupervised in the heart of the presidential palace. I swear I am not making any of this up.
The author went on to describe how, while trying to shrink into the shadows, he overhead the president talking. Although he did not reveal what he overheard, it gave him a brief (and positive) glimpse into the president’s ways when not in public. Then he heard footsteps.
It was the president, in monogrammed, sky blue pajamas and fleece-lined leather slippers, and he had in hand a sheaf of papers that he was waving. He was hollering for the just-departed butler and
issuing instructions on what to do with the papers, which for all I know may have been orders to bomb Moscow.But when he came around the corner all he saw was a middle-aged sportswriter in a Batman baseball cap. If he was surprised or concerned, he didn't show it. I guess presidents see a lot of unexpected things, because he sized me up instantly as someone who couldn't do whatever it was that needed to be done with those papers, and he turned on his heel, still waving them overhead. As he strode back to his bedroom, he declared: “Big fish to catch today. Big fish!”
The butler soon reappeared, saying coffee was ready downstairs at the South Entrance. There were lots of Secret Service people there, and about 10 minutes later the president appeared, tackle box and rods in hand. He greeted me as if nothing had happened, which of course, it hadn't.
We had a great day fishing.
OVERHEARING GOD Back in May, 2007, while we were studying 2 Peter, something special came alive to me. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote at the time:
Ever since writing that—and
probably before, though I was less aware of it—I have attuned myself
to watch for the rare, mysterious, marvelous little moments tucked
into Scripture when we get to overhear snippets of personal conversation
between/within the personhood of God. |
January
2 :
Welcome
to 2011
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
[1]
New Year’s Sunday
[2] Our Special Winter Study Series
This Sunday, New Year’s Sunday, we will have a stand-alone lesson in the God Chasers class, not part of a series. Then next Sunday, January 9, we will begin a winter study series that I’ve been looking forward to for some time.
Back in May, 1977, while we were studying II Peter, something special came alive to me. Here’s a short excerpt from the preview I wrote for the class at that time.
The Apostle Peter, near the end of his life (2 Peter 1:12-29), recalled what happened years earlier on the mountain that came to be called the Mount of Transfiguration. What caught my attention from Peter's mention of the story of the Transfiguration is how Peter and his two friends overheard communication within the inner dynamic of God, words between persons of the Trinity. Don’t go too fast here. This is astonishing.
Think about it a minute — you can't get any more basic, any deeper, any more to the root of everything, any more utterly at the core of all relationship and being,
than to be granted a glimpse into the relationship within God, the three-in-one
sovereign creator of the universe.When we are allowed such a glimpse, we do well to gaze (or listen) hard.
Ever since that May (and probably before, though I was less aware of it), I have attuned myself to watch for the rare, mysterious, marvelous little moments tucked into Scripture when we get to overhear snippets of personal conversation between/within the personhood of God.
Some of these seem intentional, things said for the purpose of being overheard, such as when Jesus spoke to the Father moments before he raised Lazarus: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” But others (and these are my favorites) seem to just be there, bits of communication that are a natural part of the relationship between/within the Trinity, not secret but not directed at us, things we overhear the way children overhear their parents in normal home life.
Beginning January 8, our class will begin exploring a number of these revealing bits of God-within-God communication.
Why is a study like this worth getting excited about? Children learn as much about their parents, their heritage, and their family’s way of thinking and doing, from everyday natural overhearing as they do by hearing things parents say directly to the children. Let’s find out if the same is true in God’s family.
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