151. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 3 of 3). Allowing God To Work In And Through Us

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

We need to allow God Himself to work in and through us as we live for Him in today’s world. That’s what Jesus did as the perfect human when He lived and ministered as a human on earth. He attributed the things that He did to His Father working through Him. He also attributed His teaching to His Father, saying that His words had originated with His Heavenly Father.  We look at the origin of the works and miracles He performed and also at the origin of the teaching He taught. Then we examine whether we are meant to be open in the same way to God so that He can do in and through us what He wishes.

 1).  The Works And Miracles Of Jesus

Jesus was obedient to His Heavenly Father during all His life on earth. Paul described that in his famous passage in Philippians 2. He wrote about the humility of Jesus in coming to earth as a servant to eventually die on the cross for sinners. He expressed it as being part of His obedience to His Father. Php 2:6  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So one has to say that Jesus was obedient to His Father for every moment He lived on earth.

St Paul also referred to the obedience of Jesus in Rom 5:18, 19. The obedience mentioned here is His perfect obedience to the will of God throughout His life and leading to His death. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19  For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Jesus did what the Father gave Him to do, in dying for their sins and rising for their justification and acceptance into the family of God.

 How then did Jesus describe His miracles and mighty works? Jesus explained them in John 5:19, 20  as originating with the Father. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. Because He was in perfect union with His Father, He knew His Father’s will. His Father was thus able to show Him what to do in every situation. Jesus was perfectly committed to do the Father’s will at all times, Jn 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. He was committed to doing only the will of God for every moment of His life.

 2).  The Words Jesus Spoke. His Teaching

Jesus taught that the Father gave Him the words to say, Jn 14:10, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. There are three important truths in this passage. Firstly, Jesus’ words came through Him from the Father with the Father’s authority.  Secondly, the Father who indwelt Jesus worked His works through Him. They were the Father’s works, not just Jesus’ works, though He did them. Thirdly, Jesus could do these things because of the intimacy of the relationship He had with the Father. The works He did were evidence of the Father working through Him and also of the close relationship they shared.

Later in the High priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus prayed to His Father saying, Joh 17:7  Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. Jesus’ authority was evident in the way He shared the words of God with His followers. It was also evident in the way He lived and ministered that He had been sent by God.

So there we have the pattern of Jesus as He lived as a human, setting us an example we are to seek to emulate. For every moment of his life as a human, Jesus sought to be in perfect communion with His Heavenly Father.  For every moment of His life He sought to be perfectly committed to doing His Father’s will. He did it perfectly. We will never do it perfectly but that is to be our aim. How then can we seek to fulfil God’s will for us?  Here is the double-barrelled good news! Firstly, He helps us to know His will. Secondly, He motivates and enables us to do it. What a relief!

GOD HELPS US TO KNOW HIS WILL FOR US

God can show us what to do by His Spirit as we present all we are to Him.  Paul wrote, Rom 12:1-2. I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.It may help us to know the deeper meaning to those words. “Spiritual worship” can also be translated as “reasonable service”. Both meanings are true. It is perfectly reasonable to seek to serve Him as the One who gave His life for us. Such service is indeed spiritual worship. The word for “transformed” comes from a Greek word we recognize in English. It comes from the verb of “metamorphosis” meaning the inner change wrought by the renewing of our minds. Such renewed minds make it possible for us to prove what is the will of God. “Prove” is from (dokimazo) which means to test, to prove, and to approve after testing. In other words we put the will of God to the test and then recognize, having done so, that it is good, acceptable and perfect.   It’s as though we are saying to the Lord, “Lord, I’m yours. I offer myself completely to You so that I can know Your will for me.”  But it’s not enough to know the will of God. We have to do it. How? Here is the second part of the double-barrelled good news.

 GOD HELPS US TO DO HIS WILL FOR US

He can motivate us and empower us by His Spirit to do His will. Paul wrote, Phil 2:12-13 work out your salvation for God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. There’s an important point in these verses that can be a blessing to us if we act on it. When Paul writes that we are to “work out” our salvation, he uses a word (katergázomai) which means to “accomplish” or to “carry out a task until it is finished”.  We are to concentrate, to seek to  accomplish, to bring to completion, to make a concerted effort to “work out” in practice what God is working in us by His Spirit. The word he uses for God “working” in us and through us is different. It is the word (energéō) meaning to be operating within or energising us. So the passage can read “Be energised to bring to completion, to work out in practice your salvation. For God Himself is operating within you, motivating you and empowering you to do His will for His good pleasure.”

 So the Christian life is not someone saying, “Lord I want to do this this and that for You, so please help me to do it.” Rather it is learning to live in a close relationship with God our Heavenly Father as Jesus did as a human. It means learning to recognise what God is doing within us as we spend time with Him in reading and meditating on His word and praying to Him. That’s what Jesus meant when He encouraged His followers to abide in Him, John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  As we abide in the Lord we are brought closer to the will of God for us. So our prayer as we seek to do the will of God might be something like this, “Lord, I thank You that You are at work within me. Thank You for showing me what You want me to do. Please motivate and empower me by the power of the Holy Spirit to do what it is You have planned for me to do.”

 The exciting news is that God knows exactly what He wants us to do. He has had it all mapped out from eternity. That’s what St Paul wrote in Eph 2:10    For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  The only other use of the word “prepared beforehand” is in Rom 9:23  in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—. Again what wonderful truths. He has prepared us beforehand for glory as His followers. AND He has prepared beforehand, the works we are meant to do.

So the Christian life is not just about trying to be obedient to God’s laws. It does involve that but is more than that. It is about a deep relationship with God that leads to obedience as we come to know His will. It also means being motivated and empowered to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We live in a world that seems to be intent on self-destruction. It needs to be revived and indeed many people throughout the world are praying for a revival to take place. An early explorer, the Portuguese navigator Pedro De Quiros in about 1606, named this continent of Australia, “La Australia del Espiritu Santo” or literally “The Southland of the Holy Spirit”.Many in Australia are looking for a deeper move of the Holy Spirit than we have ever seen before, so that the land might become what it was prophesied to become all those centuries ago. But unless revival occurs it could follow many other nations into becoming what many are already in the  process of becoming, “Playgrounds For The Powers Of Darkness.” Australia (and every other country) needs people who are totally committed to Him, who know His will for them and who allow the Lord to motivate and empower them to always do what is pleasing to Him.

We sum up these 3 last blogs (which in reality are an adaption of a message given at a Victorious Christian Living Conference at Port Macquarie in NSW Australia on 17 May 2014) we see what needs to happen.

1). We need to get the right focus in life, Not our ourselves or on other people, but of the perfection of Jesus Himself.

2). We need to fulfil our moral and spiritual obligations to God. Jesus His Son died for us so that we might live every moment for Him.

3). We need to allow God to work within us, so that in response to His motivation and empowerment within us, we can accomplish what He wants done in and through us, to His glory.

Our simple prayer for ourselves throughout each day should be something like this, “Lord fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I might know Your good and perfect will for me, and do it in the power of Your Holy Spirit. AMEN.”

Blog No 151. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Friday 23rd  May 2014

Posted in Prayer, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

150. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 2 of 3). Fulfilling Our Obligation To God)  

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

God did something wonderful for us. We need to repay the debt we owe Him.  Paul wrote about this great event in 2Cor 5:15    he (Jesus) died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him, who for their sake died and was raised. The event was very public. It was a day of shame. It was for Jesus who was crucified on a cross on that day. It was also a day of shame for the whole human race whose sins had nailed Him there. Jesus died for us. It wasn’t just anybody who died for us. It was Jesus, the Son of God Himself. The creator of this universe came and allowed some of His creatures to crucify Him.  As the late Dr. Leon Morris, a former Principal of Ridley College expressed it, “Remember that you have been died for, and died for by none other, than the Son of God Himself.”

 For what purpose did Jesus die? Paul tells us, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. He died for us so that we might live for Him. We are to live for Him! For every moment of our lives! Someone who realised that truth was Jim Elliott. He became a Christian and believed that because Jesus had died for him, he should now live for God, no matter what. He expressed his philosophy on life in this challenging statement, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” He had his whole life before Him as he entered Bible College. But he gave up everything to go to South America as a missionary to witness to the Auca Indians. They had been called “savages” who had been untouched by the gospel. Eventually they killed him but God worked through the early efforts of Jim Elliott and then through his widow and other missionaries to bring many of those native people to Christ. When news of his and his friends’ deaths became known, it led to a great impetus in young people applying for the mission field. He lived his short life for Jesus and did not die in vain.

We may never have to go through what he went through. But we do need to have the same total commitment of all we are and have, to be disciples of Christ. As someone wisely said, “No sacrifice we could ever make for Him, would ever be too great”. However the sacrifice we make is a willing sacrifice, of ourselves. As Paul wrote in Romans 12, we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices to do His will. Rom 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  

 We notice in this verse that the appeal to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, is based on the mercies of God and not on the terrors of Hell. The mercy of God was seen in Jesus’ death on the cross for human sinners. (See a previous article 148 on the death of Jesus “for” sinners.) The sacrifice we offer is said to be “holy” and “acceptable” to God. It is “holy” (hagian from hagios = holy or set apart) because it is set apart to God.  It is “acceptable” (euarestos = well pleasing) to Him because He accepts that which is offered to Him in all humility and sincerity.  The final phrase “spiritual worship” represents the Greek phrase (logiken latreian) which can mean both “spiritual worship” and “reasonable service”. Believers in offering themselves see such action as worshipping God in spirit and as being motivated within by the Holy Spirit. They also see it as a logical or reasonable thing to do in serving God, eg., It makes sense that we should do this in response for all He has done for us in Jesus.”

 In presenting our bodies we are presenting all we are and have to Him. We want to do His will, in gratitude for all He has done for us. But how can we learn to know and to do God’s will for us? That will be the theme of the next article in Part 3.

Blog No 150. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Friday 23rd May 2014

Posted in Evangelism, Forgiveness, Healing, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

149. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 1 of 3). We Must Have The Right Focus In Life

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

All true believers want to have more victories in their Christian lives.  But often they are not sure what form victory should take. Victory in what areas of life? A simple definition might help as we look at this important subject. Victorious Christian Living means that we are learning to become more open to all God has for us, in every area of our lives, as we live for Him. This means more victory in the physical realm including physical healing. It means more victory in the emotional realm, including being more healed of all the damage in our lives from the past. It also means coming to know inner peace. It means more victory in the spiritual realm as we come to have peace with God through forgiveness in Jesus and as we gain more victory over the powers of darkness that have been influencing our lives.

Victory involves an understanding of two major truths. The first is that God loves the people He has made.  He wants the best for them. Verses such as John 3:16 remind us of this truth, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It means that God doesn’t want any of us to miss out on what He has for us in Jesus. But if we reject Him, ignore Him or shut Him out of our lives, we can miss out on all the blessings and healings He wants to bring into our lives. We can even miss out on the salvation He has so freely provided for us in Christ Jesus. This is shown in 2 Pet 3:9, Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Repentance means recognising our sin and confessing it to Lord and turning to Him to seek His help to live for Him.

The second truth is that God wants us all to respond to His love, willingly and wholeheartedly. It is true that the Great Commandment is a commandment to love God, Mark 12:30  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. However it is also an invitation to respond to His love by opening our hearts to love Him in every facet of our lives. When we close our hearts to Him, we close ourselves to His love, to His healing grace and to His power. The more we open our hearts to God, the more open we are to receive what He wants to give us. But how do we become more open to Him? By getting the right focus in life.

A).  WE CAN HAVE A WRONG FOCUS ON LIFE  

i). We can focus on OURSELVES

Many people are egocentric. They think that the world revolves around them. Especially young people. We saw that in our own family a couple of weeks ago. Our 5 year old grandson Charlie was running in a school cross country race. Well “running” might be too graphic a term to describe what He was doing. “Sauntering” might be a better description. Or “loitering with no intent”. However towards the end of the race he suddenly ran flat out to the finish line. His mother was amazed at the change in his pace and asked him why he had begun to run so fast. His reply showed all the egocentrism of youth. He replied, “Didn’t you hear all the people cheering for me as I ran?” (Well Charlie, sorry to disappoint you but the cheering wasn’t all for you. There were other kids in the race as well. They were being cheered on by their parents and wider family.) But for Charlie all the cheering was for him!

It’s not just children who are egocentric. We all need to be reminded that the world doesn’t revolve around us. Life isn’t just about us. There is no real joy or fulfilment in living only for ourselves and making ourselves the centre of our universe.

ii). We can focus on OTHERS. We can begin to compare or contrast ourselves with other people. But there are two dangers in focussing on other people and comparing ourselves with them.

  1. We may think we are SUPERIOR. Pride and arrogance can enter in when we compare ourselves favourably with others. That was the point of Jesus’ story in the Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  You can recall what took place, Luke 18:11    The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers … .’ He wasn’t praying. He was talking to himself. He was reminding himself how good and dedicated he was to God. But his focus wasn’t on God. His focus came on the tax collector as he remarked, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

By contrast the tax-collector went into the temple to pray to God for God’s mercy on him. Luke 18:13  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ What was the reality as Jesus saw it? Jesus applied the parable by saying, Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man (the tax-collector) went down to his house justified, rather than the other. The tax collector had the right focus, on God.

 b. We may think we are INFERIOR.  That was a temptation that could have come to the apostle Paul. He had established the church in Corinth but later on some false teachers had come in who suggested they were superior to Paul. He called them “Super apostles”. He declared that he was not at all inferior to them, 2 Cor 12:11  … For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. His humble attitude is seen in 1 Cor 15:10, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Paul wasn’t going to be made to feel inferior. He knew that God’s grace had been given to him to be an apostle and to minister faithfully among them. He had already done so.

Someone might say, But didn’t Paul encourage others to look sideways to him as an example to follow. It is true that he did write to the Corinthians, 1Cor 11:1  Imitate me. (ie, look at me and follow my example.) But he added, “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.” He was saying that the only true pattern to follow in Christian living is Christ Himself. If Paul was imitating Christ, then he could be a pattern to follow. But if Paul wasn’t a good pattern, then people should not follow him. The standard to aim at is Perfection.

But how can you seek to live a perfect life? By focussing on Jesus as the Perfect Pattern for living, and striving to live in the same way He did.

B).  The RIGHT FOCUS. FOCUSSING ON JESUS. Aiming At God’s Perfection 

Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 5:48  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Some folk have a difficulty with the word “perfect” and prefer another possible meaning, “mature”.  They are much happier with a command to be “mature” than to be “perfect.” However to translate the word as “mature” in this passage leads to a nonsensical statement, You therefore must be (mature), as your heavenly Father is (mature).  God is not “mature”. He is “perfect”. Jesus’ command here was certainly to a greater maturity but it was to be based on nothing less than the perfection of GodHimself.

That was the pattern Jesus lived by as a human.  He sought at all times to be in perfect communion with His Heavenly Father. He sought to perfectly fulfil His Father’s will for Him. That is to be our aim or goal in life as well. To be as perfect as we can be, by the grace of God.  Even though we know we can never reach perfection! The apostle John reminded us of our imperfections in 1Jn 1:8, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Those who think they are perfect are deceived. Everyone needs forgiveness and cleansing. St Paul said of himself, that though he aimed at perfection he knew he wasn’t perfect. Phil 3:12.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  As we saw in 1 Cor 11:1, Paul was seeking to imitate Christ and he encouraged his fellow believers to do the same. Jesus aimed at being perfect, not just more mature. Thus the goal we aim at is perfection, even though we know we will never achieve it.

 There have been those who mistakenly thought they were perfect. I read the stories of two individuals who felt they had arrived at sinless perfection. The first was a student at a theological college. He was very sincere and very devout. One day he approached the Principal of the theological college and told him, “Sir, I believe that I have arrived at a state of sinless perfection! The Principal was a very wise man. He simply replied, “That’s wonderful to hear! But I am surprised that none of the staff and none of the other students have noticed it yet!” The student had to reassess his own life.

The second story is told of a minister who used to go around the country preaching. In his presentation he would try to get people to understand that no one is perfect and everyone needs to be forgiven by God. To show this graphically he would say to the congregations, “Stand up if you think you have reached a stage of sinless perfection”. No one had ever stood up as he asked that question in various congregations.  But on this occasion a man stood up. There was a stunned silence. The preacher and the congregation stared at him. What sort of person was he to be perfect or think he was perfect? Suddenly his wife began giggling and then burst out laughing. Loudly! Very loudly! Others joined in! He sat down highly embarrassed. He too would have to reassess his life if people did not recognise his perfection (as he saw it).

What does it mean to try to be perfect in every area of life? To be the perfect husband? To be the perfect father? To be the perfect neighbour? To preach the perfect sermon? To be the perfect servant of God? (Remembering that none of us will ever achieve perfection in any area of life.)

It means:-

  • Asking the Lord to help us to be the best that we can be, in every situation. Then we do the very best we can, with His help.
  • Thanking Him for the grace He gave us, to do what we did in that situation.
  • Asking Him to forgive us for not being more open to receive more of His grace and help.
  • Asking Him for His ongoing grace to do better in future situations.

It also means not compromising in any area of life,  but giving Him all of what we are and have, to His glory. (That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross! He gave His life so that we might have life!) In the next article we will look at the implications of His perfect death for us. But in the meantime, it’s time to adjust our focus from the horizontal to the vertical; from the imperfect to the Only perfect One, Jesus Himself.

Blog No 149. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Thursday 22nd May 2014

Posted in Healing, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

148. The Inescapability Of Good Friday For Humans (Part 2 Of 2)

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

Good Friday. Jesus died on a cross. A long time ago. So what! This is probably how many people regard Good Friday in today’s world. How could someone’s death so long ago have any relevance to the modern man or woman? They might be surprised to know that they were in fact involved in the events of the first Good Friday. They might be even more surprised to know that their eternal destiny depends on how they respond to the news of the events on that day.

In the previous article we looked at how the preposition (huper) meaning “for” or “on behalf of” was used in the Gospels to portray the death of Jesus on a cross “for” sinners. We now look to see how the word (for = huper) was used in the rest of the New Testament in helping ascertain the meaning of Good Friday.

The Use Of The Word (Huper = “For” Or “For The Sake Of”) In The New Testament (Not Including The Gospels which are covered in the previous article No.147)

 1). What St Paul Wrote About The Death Of Jesus (Huper) For Us

The preposition (huper) means “for” or “for the sake of” as well as meaning “above” or “beyond”. In this article we will look at who or what the death of Jesus was “for”. (Pardon the bad English). For what purpose did He die on a cross on that first Good Friday? We will identify the word (huper) by bracketing in bold letters the word used to translate it in each passage. My prayer is that as we read through these verses the Holy Spirit who inspired each and every one of them would make them come alive to us. Only then can we see the relevance of Good Friday. Only then can we see that it was our sins that nailed Him to the tree. Only then can we realise that His blood was shed for us. Only then can we really thank Him with real understanding for His amazing love in sending Jesus. May He bless you as you read through these verses showing what Jesus did for you and me on the cross on that first Good Friday.

Romans 5:7. For one will scarcely die (for) a righteous person–though perhaps (for) a good person one would dare even to die– 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died (for) us. Here is the gospel message in a nutshell. God in His grace and love sent Jesus to die for us (on our behalf). He didn’t wait until we were better people before He came. It was while we were still sinners He came to die for us. Good Friday brought the demonstration of the love and mercy of God in the death of Jesus towards those who didn’t deserve His love.

 Rom 8:32. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up (for) us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Paul is making an important point. If God gave His Son to die for us, (the greatest gift He could ever give) then of course He is motivated to bring us the lesser gifts (by comparison) we need in life. Paul had already in Romans shown that Jesus’ death (described by the same word paradidomi = give up or deliver) was for human sin, Rom 4:25  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

 Rom 14:15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one (for) whom Christ died. Sometimes there are those who are strong in faith who are not affected by the scruples of others. But Paul reminds such people that they have to take into account the weaker brethren. Why? Because Christ loved them enough to die for them. If He was willing to love them unto death, then those strong in the faith had to consider the scruples and feelings of those who were weaker but also loved by Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified (for) you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Paul had to deal with divisions in the church in Corinth. Some were forming parties like the Paul party and the Cephas party. Paul would have none of it. Christ could not be divided. It was Jesus Himself who had been crucified for them, not Paul or Cephas.

 1 Cor 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (“[for] us” is added in some variant readings). His sacrifice on the cross on that first Good Friday for Corinthian and other sinners demanded that they respond by living lives characterised by sincerity and truth, 5:8.

 1 Cor 11:24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is (for) you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Paul here recalls the actions and words of Jesus at the Last Supper. He told them that He was giving His body for them. As we saw in the previous article, Peter understood that to mean that Jesus was going to bear the sins of the world in His own body on the cross. Peter expressed it in 1Peter 2:24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. Jesus at the Last Supper told His followers that was about to die for them. He did. Peter reminded his readers what His death for sin should mean for them.

.1 Cor 15:3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died (for) our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. In unambiguous language Paul declares that the purpose of Jesus’ death was to bear human sin. This was to fulfil Scriptural prophecies. He bore human sin as we have seen, for sinners.

2 Cor 5:15, …  he died (for) all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who (for) their sake died and was raised. It is interesting to note that Paul used the preposition “huper” twice in this verse. The first in the phrase he died for all. He saw that a human response was needed,  that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him. Jesus died for them so that they might live for Him.The second use was in the phrase, “for him who for their sake died and was raised. Paul combined here the death of Jesus for sinners with the victory of His resurrection.

Galatians 1:4.   who gave himself (for) our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. A new concept is introduced in this verse. Paul used the usual truth that Jesus died for sinners, but here Paul sees another dimension to His death. Through His death He delivered us from the present evil age. One might say that He delivered sinners from the penalty of their sins by bearing the penalty Himself on the cross. But He also delivered them from the power of sin through His death.  He gave the reason for that in stating what happened on the cross in Col 2:14  by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Forgiveness from sin and freedom from evil powers became available to the people of God through His death on the cross. Sin’s penalty was cancelled and evil powers were disarmed through His death.

 Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself (for) me. Paul explained His new life as a dying to what He once was and allowing Christ within him to express His life through him. He was now living by faith in the One who had given Himself in love for him through His death. We note here that the same word is used (paradidomi) for God the Father “handing over” or “delivering” His Son, and Jesus “handing over” or “giving” Himself.)

 Gal 3:13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse (for) us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— There is some similarity here with the previous verse above from Galatians in that Jesus’ death brought freedom. Jesus in His death bore the curse of the law. What was the curse of the law? Paul tells us in a previous verse in Galatians 3, 10  For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” The law promised life to those who obeyed it. But it pronounced a curse upon those who failed to obey it perfectly. However Jesus bore that curse in His death and so released His people from the curse. He bore the curse for (in the place of) those who deserved to bear it.

 Ephesians 5:2. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up (for) us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Again we have the combination of the love of Jesus leading to His willingness to give Himself up for sinners. Love and sacrifice – for us. The human response needed was to live in love in the same way that Jesus had loved us in His sacrificial death.

Eph 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up (for) her. As an example of the love that husbands should have for their wives, Paul paints a big picture. They are to love their wives in the same way Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Here is sacrificial love in the extreme. (Incidentally another use of “paradidomi” for Jesus handing over Himself.)

1Thessalonians 5:9.  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10  who died (for) us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Here is another gospel in a nutshell similar to John 3:16. People were perishing but God in His love gave His Son to die for them so that they wouldn’t perish but have eternal life in His presence.

1Timothy 2:5.  For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6  who gave himself as a ransom (for) all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Paul introduces another concept to explain the necessity of Jesus’ death. He gave Himself as a ransom to set people free. Ransom involves freedom coming from the payment of a price. The price that was paid was the blood of Jesus in His death. We are not told to whom any ransom was paid and it is fruitless to speculate. Paul was simply stating that people needed to be set free and Jesus did it for them by His death.

 Titus 2:14. (Jesus)gave himself (for) us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. In this passage Jesus is said to have given Himself (again didomi is used for “given”) to redeem people from lawlessness. His self-giving was obviously, as in other places, through His death for sinners. But the new word in this context is the word to “redeem”. Surprisingly this word is only found three times in the New Testament, here and in Luke 24:21 But we had hoped that he was the one to (redeem) Israel and in Gal 4:5,  to (redeem) those who were under the law. Common to all these references is the thought of liberation, being set free by Jesus’ death, to be able to live as one should.

2).  What the writer to the Hebrews said about Jesus’ death (hyper) for us

Hebrews 2:9  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death (for) everyone. Jesus was born, to die. He became incarnate so that He might fulfil the role of the Messiah, to die for the people. To die for His fellow humans. His death was an exhibition of the grace and love of God.

 Heb 6:19  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20  where Jesus has gone as a forerunner (on our behalf), having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Thayer,defines the word “forerunner” as “one who comes in advance to a place where the rest are to follow”. Jesus has opened the way for His people to enter into the presence of God through His death. The writer to Hebrews put it like this, Heb 9:24  For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. … 9:26…  he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. But why did He sacrifice Himself? For whose benefit? The answer comes in verse 28, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. As He sacrificed Himself He was bearing the sins of humankind and not His own sins, for He had none. He died for us to enable us to enter into God’s presence.

 Heb 7:27.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first (for his own sins) and then for those of the people, since he did this once (for) all when he offered up himself. The first Good Friday marked the day when Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. It was a once for all offering. It meant that His death was sufficient to take away the sins of the world. Sin had been died for. Humans had been died for. No other sacrifice for sin would ever be necessary. As the writer added later, His one sacrifice secured an eternal redemption, Heb 9:12  He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

 Heb 10:12.  But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice (for) sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. As in the previous reference, the emphasis is on the once for all (single) sacrifice for sins.  But again this question arises. For whom did He die? The writer gives the answer just two verses later, Heb 10:14  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. His death on Good Friday brought God’s plan of redemption to a close. The sacrifice to take away all sins forever had now been made. As the commentator in the Bible Knowledge Commentary put it so concisely, “The sanctified” have a status in God’s presence that is “perfect” (cf. Heb_11:40; Heb_12:23) in the sense that they approach Him with the full acceptance gained through the death of Christ (cf. Heb_10:19-22).

 3).  What St Peter wrote about the death of Jesus (huper) for us

1Peter 2:21  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered (for) you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. In this passage Peter has been encouraging his readers to “hang on” as they endured persecution. He gave as an example of how to behave, the way Jesus faced persecution and suffering. But he reminded them that the suffering Jesus endured, was for his readers. He suffered for them, for their sake. The crucifixion on that first Good Friday was the climax of His suffering, as He bore the sin of the world and endured the mocking and spite of His enemies.

1Pet 3:18  For Christ also suffered once (for) sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. The observers of the crucifixion may not have realised the import of what was taking place on that first Good Friday. Many had seen crucifixions before. But perhaps few had any idea of the significance of Jesus crying out on the cross, John 19:30, “It is finished!” By this single offering of Himself He had fulfilled God’s plan of salvation. His work was finished. Sin had been died for. He, the righteous one, had died for the salvation of the unrighteous.

 1Pet 4:1 Since therefore Christ suffered (“[for] us” added in some variants) in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Though “for us” is not found in some of the best manuscripts, such a reading would fit into this Epistle and indeed into the whole New Testament teaching that Jesus died for sinners.

 4).  What St John wrote about the death of Christ (for =huper) us

1John 3:16  By this we know love, that he laid down his life (for) us, and we ought to lay down our lives (for) the brothers. John as the apostle of love recognised the love of God in action in the death of Jesus. He describes Jesus’ death as the voluntary laying down of His life. As Jesus said in the Gospels about His life, John 10:18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” John issued a challenge to his readers. Such self-giving love on the part of Jesus should be the motivation for His followers to live self-giving lives towards one another.

 SUMMING UP:-

When you put together all the scriptural references to the death of Jesus as being “for (huper) us”, we can see that there is an immense body of material that clearly shows us why Good Friday is significant in the church Calendar. It is significant in the church year because it was significant in the mind and purpose of God. He had a plan for bringing guilty sinners back into fellowship with Himself. Jesus fulfilled it by His death on that first Good Friday. Jesus, the agent of God in creation, came into the creation He had made, and died for the sins of His creatures.

We might consider that the verses we have looked at in the last two articles show that Jesus died as our substitute and suffered the death we should have died. Or we might see His death as being representative in that He died for humankind. But none of us can ignore what He did. We were involved in His death. In answer to the words of the hymn “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” we may not have been there physically on that first Good Friday but our sins were! Our sins did nail Him to the cross.  However the good news of the Gospel message is that we can receive freely His gift of forgiveness and eternal life. How? By accepting Him and all He has done for us in His death and resurrection.  Amazing love! Or in the words of Amazing Grace, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.” Praise God for the Good News about Good Friday! Praise God even more for a wonderful Saviour Who died so that we might live!

Blog No.148. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Wednesday 16th April 2014

Just a reminder: Amazon Kindle books authored by Jim Holbeck:  

1. The Searching And Knowing God Who Loves And Cares: Reflections on Psalm 139. 
2. The Godly Reward for True Humility. Studies in St Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians.
Website. Click on :-  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=holbeck
Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Bible verses. Comments, Evangelism, Forgiveness, Healing, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

147. The Inescapability Of Good Friday For Every Human. (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

“You have been died for! And died for by none other than the Son of God Himself!” I still remember those words ringing out in the Chapel at Ridley (Theological) College in Melbourne, Australia. The preacher was the late Dr Leon Morris, arguably one of the finest New Testament scholars Australia has produced. He had returned to Australia at short notice from a distinguished research position in England to head up Ridley College at a time when the Principal and Vice-Principal had recently resigned. The previous Chapel had been an old Army hut converted (an appropriate word for a theological college) into a place of worship. But these words rang out in the beautiful new Chapel which he had helped design. They were words that gained one’s deepest attention and remain firmly lodged in one’s memory even now almost 50 years later. Leon Morris’ words were based on what the Bible teaches about the events on Good Friday.

In this blog we will look at many of the passages in the Gospels where the death of Jesus is described as being “for us” or “on our behalf” using the preposition “huper”. There are  many other passages elsewhere  in the New Testament where the preposition (huper) is also used to describe Jesus’ death for us. However we will look at them in a later article. As we look at all these references we need to remember that we are looking solely at verses containing the preposition (huper).

The Death Of Jesus (For = Huper) People In The Gospels

(The occurrences of “for” (huper) are bracketed in (Bold) in the following verses).

  1.  What Jesus Said About His Own Death (For = huper) His People.  During His ministry on earth He often spoke about His coming death. The following are some of the passages where this is mentioned.

John 6:51. Jesus described Himself as living bread, “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give (for) the life of the world is my flesh.” He was replying to the question in Jn 6:28, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” He told His hearers that they needed to believe in Him. They wanted a sign from Him. They asked whether He could do a sign like the sign of bringing manna from heaven. He told them that He would do a greater sign. He would give bread from heaven that would enable those who ate it, to live forever. Jn 6:49  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. Then in words that must have shocked His hearers He added those words from our text, Jn 6:51  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give (for) the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus’ death for sinners who could not have life apart from Him, would bring His life to the world, to those who believed in Him. In brief, in words reminiscent of John 3:16, He died for sinful humans so that they might have eternal life through faith in Him.

John 10:11. Here Jesus described Himself as “the good shepherd.”  The good shepherd lays down his life (for) the sheep. He repeated this in Jn 10:15, “…  I lay down my life (for) the sheep.” His explanation of this saying followed in verses 27 to 30, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30  I and the Father are one.” His giving of His life (through His death) for lost sheep, would bring eternal life to those who entrusted their lives to Him in faith. Jesus was to die for His sheep, to bring them eternal life.

John 15:13. The same theme of Jesus laying down His life through death occurs in this verse as well. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life (for) his friends. His death would be for His friends. His friends would be those who believed in Him as shown in their willingness to obey Him, 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. Jesus’ death on the cross was not an unforeseen tragedy. Rather it was an expression of the love of God for humans as Jesus willingly died for them.

 John 17:19. And (for) their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. Though Jesus does not specifically mention His death in this verse, the context shows that it is implied. His consecrating Himself was to fulfil the will of His Father for Him. God’s will involved Him dying for His friends.  Jesus expressed His desire that those who believed in Him would be with Him in glory,  Jn 17:24  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. His death “for their sake” would make it possible for them to be with Him in glory.

 Lk 22:19, 20. The scene is Jesus at the Last Supper.  Luke records, And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given (for) you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out (for) you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus was referring to His imminent death. His body was to be “given” for the sake of His disciples. Peter understood that as Jesus bearing the sins of His people in His body as He was crucified, 1Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

 His blood was to be “poured out” for their sake as well. It would inaugurate a new covenant in His blood in which forgiveness would be available through His death for sinners. The writer to the Hebrews understood it in this way. He combined a derivative of the word for “pour out” (ekchéō) with the word for blood (haima) in Hebrews 9:22 to read,  Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood (haimatekchusia) there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus was foreshadowing before His death, that His death would bring about forgiveness of sins for His people. He was to die for them and for their forgiveness.

2.  What Others Said About The Death Of Jesus (For = huper)  The People

John 11:50. Caiaphas was the High Priest at the time of Jesus’ death. We read in John 11 that Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. While some of the Jews then believed in Him, others went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council. They expressed their fear that many other people would begin to follow Jesus. Their additional fear was that if that were to happen, the Romans might deprive them of their freedom. Caiaphas addressed them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die (for) the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” Jn 11:49-50. John made the comment in writing the gospel that Caiaphas, did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die (for) the nation. 11:51. John added, and not (for) the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 11:52. It was as though Caiaphas as the High Priest had given an accurate prophecy about the death of Jesus without realising the real depth of what he was saying.

 John 18:14. John, in mentioning Caiaphas once again, recorded that, It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die (for) the people. Caiaphas may have thought he was in control of the situation and that getting rid of Jesus would solve the problem that had arisen with Jesus’ growing popularity. However his lips prophesied what was shortly to happen to Jesus in the plan and purpose of God, even though his heart was filled with evil intent towards Jesus. (God often over-rules in the pronouncements of humans.) Caiapahas was right in what he said. He was wrong in his attitude to Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus was about to die in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, and ironically of Caiaphas’ unwitting prophecy. Caiaphas saw that it was “expedient” that the one person, Jesus, should die for the people (lest the Romans destroy their freedom). He didn’t realise that it was not only expedient, but also absolutely necessary for Jesus to die if anyone was ever to be forgiven of any sin.

Good Fridays always bring back to me the memory of those words of Dr Leon Morris as they rang out across the Ridley College Chapel on that particular occasion almost 50 years ago, “You have been died for! And died for by none other than the Son of God Himself!” It is a truth that one cannot escape. It’s no use someone saying, “I’m an atheist. I don’t believe that nonsense!” Jesus’s blood was shed for such a person because no human could ever be forgiven of any sin, were it not for the shed blood of Jesus. It’s no use another person saying, “I belong to another religion so it doesn’t apply to me!” Not one sin of any person ever born could ever be forgiven apart from the death of Jesus. Continuing to reject Him as the only Saviour of the world, means being rejected by Him at the end of time. In His love He has warned us of that dire possibility. But as we live in this world, He wants us to receive Him and to receive all the blessings that are to be found in Him. Such blessings include forgiveness of all sin and a new life in Him. He doesn’t want us to miss out on all He is offering in Himself through His death for (huper) us and through His resurrection.

What an incredible privilege to “have been died for” by someone who loved us. In Australia in a few days’ time on Anzac Day we remember all those men and women who gave their lives in war to protect our freedom. We are so grateful that they were willing to die for us as they served King or Queen and country. But what a mind-blowing thought it is to realise that the Person who died for us almost 2000 years ago to enable us to have forgiveness of sins and eternal life, was “none other than the Son of God Himself.” As we will see in the next article, his death “for us” (huper), logically demands our response, as St Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:15  and he died (for) all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who (for) their sake died and was raised.

 A PRAYER

“Lord Jesus, I thank You that You came to earth to die for sinners. I confess that I am one of those sinners. Because You died for me on the cross, I see the need to live for You. I receive You into my life as my Saviour from sin and as the Lord and Master of my life from this moment on. I ask You to motivate and empower me by your Spirit, to live for You for the rest of my life. AMEN.

Blog No.147. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 14th April 2014

Posted in Bible verses. Comments, Forgiveness, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

146. Praying To Bring About A Better World. Psalm 139:23-24

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

What a different world it would be! If world and church leaders had prayed sincerely “Search me O God!” This is the prayer of King David at the end of Psalm 139. In recent blogs we have looked at this Psalm and its relevance for today. We discovered for example that God is the God who searches everything and everyone and nothing is hidden from Him. He knows all about us. When for example, people say they are atheists, He knows why they think that. He knows when the deception took place in their lives. He has a description for them in His word. He declared through King David in Psalm 14:1 and in Psalm 53:1, The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Their foolishness is described in the following verses, Psalm 14:2  The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Corruption is indeed a characteristic of leadership in many nations today. It is always a temptation to those in positions of power to misuse their power for personal gain.

 When leaders do not seek after God for wisdom in how to lead, they inevitably bring difficulties to the people they are meant to lead. That is one of the meanings of Psalm 14:4, Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD? That was a strange expression, to eat up my people. We see its meaning in verses such as Isaiah 3:14-15, and Proverbs 30:14. (See Note 1 below) The leaders among God’s people had misused their power and had made life very difficult for His people. The leaders were responsible and were accountable to Him.

God was saying through David in Psalm 14 that those who reject Him are fools. They make foolish decisions that impact negatively upon the people under their care. One could look at many national leaders in today’s world, even among the western nations, and say that is true of them. Unfortunately one could also look at some church leaders who have led their people away from God’s revealed truth and brought spiritual famine and financial poverty to them. Often through unwise decisions contrary to God’s revealed will.

What a difference it would make for world and church leaders to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and to pray those words in Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (See Note 2 below.) If they did pray in this way, He would do some searching. He would do some revealing to them of what He saw. He would make it possible for people to recognise their sins, to repent of them and to turn to Him for forgiveness and for wisdom. What blessings would flow to those under their care if leaders turned to the Lord for the wisdom they need. Until they do, nations and churches suffer. Immensely! Unnecessarily! God is not glorified by the foolish decisions of foolish leaders who rely on their own wisdom and not on God’s.

For those who would like to know more about the meaning of Psalm 139 for today, I have two ways for you to obtain this information. In my previous articles (blogs) I have concentrated on this Psalm in articles numbered 139 to 145. So you can find them in previous blogs on this site. Since then I have put much of the content of these articles in a Kindle eBook. It is called “The Searching God Who Knows And Cares.” This can be downloaded inexpensively onto any Kindle application on a computer, iPad, Kindle, or Android tablet. It is found in the Amazon Kindle store. While talking about the need for humility you might also like to look at another Kindle eBook I published recently in the Kindle Store which is based on the Epistle to the Philippians. It is called, “The Godly Response To True Humility”. It has an outline and teaching on the whole epistle. It has also some real-life stories for encouragement. It too is inexpensive to download. The connection between them is that humble people are open to God’s scrutiny and correction. The proud who have no time for God have disqualified themselves from receiving His wisdom.

Just a reminder though. It is not only leaders who need to humble themselves to pray the prayer in Psalm 139. We all need to pray it. Otherwise we will miss out on His blessing. So too will all those whom God wants to bless through us. So don’t be selfish. Pray the prayer and see what God does for you and then through you to His glory.

Psalm 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

 Note 1. Isaiah 3:14-15, The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of hosts. The elders and princes of the nation had violated their responsibilities for personal gain. God’s people had been robbed! By their leaders! God knew!

Proverbs 30:14 There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind. The leaders had despoiled and tried to destroy the people. God knew!

Note 2. We see in verse 24 that “grievous” (otseb) has other meanings such as “lawlessness”, “iniquity”, “hurtful”, offensive, “wicked”, “worship of false gods”. Another translation puts it simply, “anything in my life You don’t like.”

Blog No 146. Jim Holbeck. Posted Sunday 16th March 2014

 

Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Prayer, Studies in Psalm 139 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

145. Applying The Truths Of Psalm 139 In Counselling Situations. Series No.7 of 7

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

What the young woman said alarmed me. I had not met her before. As she sat down at the beginning of a time of Prayer Ministry with me she said simply, “I’ve come to be healed from my counselling!” A short time later it became obvious why she had come to get healing. She had been to a professional secular counsellor who had been inappropriate in his counselling approach. He had asked her probing questions of increasing depth. She felt that information was being dragged out of her almost against her will. She thought she had come to share her thoughts on her problem while the professional counsellor listened quietly. But it was not like that at all. At the end of the counselling session she felt a sense of being emotionally abused and vowed never to return to the same man for a second “bout”. 

This happened about the same time as I read of a counsellor being taken to court for what a counselee saw as emotional damage coming from her appointment with him. It was said in court that he had wrongly identified what he thought was her problem. He had shared his opinion that he thought she had been abused as a child. As she acted on what he said, it had subsequently caused great damage to her mental health, and to her marriage and family. No abuse was ever found to have happened. He had got it wrong. Terribly wrong!  Many people suffered as a result.

What insights do we find in Psalm 139 regarding counselling? What less damaging approach to counselling can we discover through reading this psalm? There are a number of truths to consider that we looked at in the previous article.

1).        God Knows Everything About Every Human Situation. When someone comes to us for help they do not know all the details of the situation they want to share with us. They may come with all sorts of misunderstandings about their situation. They may think that they have understood the motives behind another person’s words or actions. However they may be totally wrong. Often words which have been said as an encouragement have been taken by those who have a deep sense of rejection, as being critical or down-putting or demeaning.

I once spoke to a man who had worked hard with a number of us all day in the heat of summer to clean out a parish hall. I tried to express my gratitude and thanks for all his efforts by saying as he lay down on a pew, “You’re having a well-deserved rest!”  But he and his wife, who had both known incredible rejection earlier in life, later obviously talked about the day. It seems his rejection fed her rejection which fed his rejection and so on.  They later told my wife that they were upset with me. Why? In the wife’s words, “On Saturday your husband called my husband a bludger!”

Nothing could have been further from the truth. My words of affirmation and thanks were filtered through their combined screens of negativity and came out as the words the wife uttered.  People are often guilty of gross misunderstanding. The words we hear in counselling situations may have only some relevance to the real truth. But for the sake of those seeking our help, they need to be accepted as truth until proved otherwise. I tried to encourage those involved in praying for others to listen carefully to people as they share their story. Even when it seemed to be way out. The world is so twisted in its values and practices that the “way-out” things we hear, may in fact be true. God knows everything about every situation in the lives of all of us. No matter how much people think they know about their situation, only God knows the real truth. But praise God He does!

2).        We Are Incapable As Humans Of Getting To The Real Truth By “Searching It Out”.  Counselling techniques are varied. All of them should consist of letting the counselee share what they have come to share. To express their need as they see it.  When we seek to ascertain from them more about the problem to try to help them, damage can occur. In the first example I mentioned above, the counsellor’s probing questions made the woman feel “raw” inside, as she expressed it. There is real danger is getting people to go beyond their comfort zone in sharing. They can feel bruised by the questions asked and by the answers drawn out of them. And less likely to share deeply again.

Another danger might come from the types of questions asked. For example, “Were you sexually abused as a child?” might seem to be a reasonable question. But in the minds of some people it sows the seed that the possibility might have occurred. Their reasoning may be like this. “This counsellor is the expert in these things. He surely would not have asked the question if he didn’t think it had happened. Though I have no memory of it, perhaps it did!”

Yet another danger may come when the counsellor seeks to add “helpful” information to what the counselee has shared. For example one person shared with a counsellor that they sometimes had flash-backs to their childhood. Part of the memories involved the person as a child being on an altar with people moving around the altar chanting. It may or may not have happened. But the counsellor unwisely said, “Oh, I’ve read about that. This is actually what they do.” Then he went on to explain in great detail what he had read of such practices. He fed in information which may not have been true of her situation at all. What he said could have been seen as a subtle form of brain-washing or a form of mind-control. A lively imagination in the counselee may have been fertilised with seeds that were not true. We cannot always understand ourselves, much less other people. As Jeremiah wrote, Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? But Jeremiah answered his own question in the next verse, Jer 17:10  “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Only the Lord can search and discern accurately.

 3).        We Can Invite The Lord To Do The Searching And The Revealing In A Counselling Situation. Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!  What a difference it makes when we invite the Lord to do the searching. This is so individually, as we invite Him to search us and to reveal what He sees. This then enables us to seek to remove, with His help, all the barriers to receiving His grace, love and direction. But it also helpful in counselling situations. Especially so where the counselee and the counsellor are both looking to the Lord for Him to do the searching and the revealing of the problems. Because He knows each and every one of them. None are hidden from Him.  He knows the time, the place, the people, the damage inflicted. AND He knows the healing that is necessary and how to bring it.

One amusing illustration. I had been teaching at a seminar on the need to be open to God and to trust Him. One of the women present had been having a real tussle with the Lord because she had so many unanswered questions. She would go so far but then would come the “But!”  One of things I mentioned was that God could speak to us in all sorts of ways, even by printed signs if necessary, to attract our attention. As they drove back into the caravan park where she and her friends were staying, the first sign she saw as they entered the caravan park was “Put your butts in here.” (Meaning of course cigarette butts.) But it struck her deeply that now was the time for her to get rid of all her “buts” and to really trust God. She did! Wonderfully!

4).        He Is Able To Reveal Appropriately What We Need To Know About Our Human Situations. This is the great value of the truth in Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24. When God searches us in answer to our prayers, it seems that He reveals only as much as we can handle for that moment. Then as we are healed of that, we become more open to receive more healing. His ministry as The Only True Perfect Counsellor will always be appropriate.  The two stories at the beginning are illustrations of inappropriate counselling.

A very experienced professional counsellor told me of a counselling appointment she attended when she was learning to be a psychologist.  She said that the male counsellor probed into his female client’s life with deeper and deeper questions. Eventually he told her he felt that she had been sexually abused earlier in her life. When he shared that with the woman, she became distraught. The male counsellor seemed to be unable to console her. My friend as now a senior counsellor thought that it was almost criminal for the man to leave a client at that point with nowhere to go.  The male counsellor was doing the searching, and not the Lord.

I once had an amazingly successful counselling appointment. But you need to know what happened. A world-renowned academic professor missed out on being the head of a University department. He should have been offered the job. He was perhaps the world’s leading expert in his field and very competent. But a female academic with nowhere near his qualifications nor his experience nor his world renown was appointed over him. The man’s wife became extremely angry because of the injustice done to her husband. I heard that she was going around bad-mouthing the university in her disappointment and disgust. Many others were disgusted as well. Then came the day when I saw her coming unannounced to my office. Her walk showed that she was very upset! One could almost see the steam coming out of her ears and nostrils! I did a quick arrow prayer to God which in translation said, “HELP Lord! This is beyond me!” She came in and sat down obviously severely distraught and angry.

I suggested that we might pray before we discussed why she had come. Soon after I began to pray I heard a sudden exhalation of breath. I thought, “She’s exasperated already. She must want to get on with it.” I finished the prayer fearing what I would see when I looked up. To my utter shock I saw that she was smiling at me, looking quite composed. She said gently, “My whole attitude has been wrong hasn’t it? Thank you so much for your help.” With that she got up and left. But she was changed from that moment to become the fun-loving, positive person she had always been.  It seemed that during the prayer God had searched her, had revealed to her what her problem was and she had responded instantly in repentance and faith. My contribution? To bring us both before the Lord in prayer. He took over as THE counsellor and healed her. My words of deep insightful counsel? Zero! The whole “successful counselling episode” took less than 5 minutes!

As we came before the Lord in counselling situations we were praying the prayer of openness in verses 23 and 24. Praying that God would search and reveal what He saw to be the problems in individual’s lives. Often the people we were counselling were given by the Lord as they prayed, a scripture verse or a biblical phrase that was very significant to them. Others received flash-backs to some incident in the past that they did not realise to that moment had impacted them deeply. Others had wonderful pictures in their minds of the Lord doing deep healing things in their lives. At other times the person doing the counselling had a scripture he or she felt led to share, to see if it was significant to the person. Most times it was deeply significant. Or it could have been a word of knowledge given to the counsellor that was sensitively introduced into the sharing time. Or a question to ask that was significant to the person.

I had been listening to a woman share with me for about an hour in a counselling situation. There appeared to be nothing significant in what she said. She had shared that she was having trouble disciplining a Grade 5 class she taught at school. I began to wonder why she had come to see me. In the quietness it was as though the Lord put this thought in my mind, “Ask her about her father.” It didn’t seem to be appropriate to do so at that moment because her conversation had been in a different direction altogether. When it seems to be appropriate to do so I said to her, “Tell me about your relationship with your father.” I wasn’t prepared for what was to happen. Immediately she burst out with great emotion, “When I was fifteen he raped me!” I knew then why she had come to see me. Much healing followed. But it needed the right question to facilitate the solution. It wasn’t a question I would have naturally thought of in such circumstances.

There are dozens of other examples I could give, but time does not permit. Suffice it to say that  God is highly motivated to answer our prayers for Him to search us. He wants the best for us.  He wants us to be whole people. He knows exactly what it takes for each individual to be healed, made whole, and equipped to serve Him in His world.

The Challenge To Us Today. What a blessing it might be to the church and the community if we allowed THE COUNSELLOR do His ministry in people’s lives. He can do it as we look to Him for the answers we cannot humanly find for ourselves. What might happen if we prayed individually for ourselves the prayer in verses 23, 24. We might be the more healed as the Lord shows us what we need to bring to Him for healing. What might happen if we prayed that prayer in our counselling situations and encouraged our counselees to pray it as well. I don’t really know what would happen. But what I think might happen would be a lot more healing taking place than is taking place today.

My encouragement is that we pray the prayer and act on whatever the Lord shows us, to our benefit and to His glory. Psalm 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Blog No.145. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Tuesday 25th February 2014 

Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Bible verses. Comments, Studies in Psalm 139 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

144. Using The Truths Of Psalm 139 In Counselling Situations. Series No.6 of 7

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

As we have seen in previous blogs, this Psalm has a wonderful outline of many of the attributes of YHWH, the Judeo–Christian God. We have seen these attributes in verses 1 to 6, the Omniscience of God. (He knows all things).  In verses 7 to 12 King David introduces us to the Omnipresence of God (He can be experienced everywhere). Following that in verses 13 to 18, comes the Omnipotence of God (He can do all things He purposes to do). Having portrayed God in this way, David then prays to Him as the One who can search him, who can know him, who can show him what He sees in him, and who can lead him in God’s way. The relevance of the truths in these verses can be seen in counselling situations. The following are some of those truths.

1).        God Alone Knows Everything There Is To Know About Every Human. (His Omniscience). His knowledge of people is one hundred percent detailed and accurate. He knows everything there is to know about every individual, their past, their present and their future.  It makes such a difference to people who have suffered abuse for example, for them to realise that God knows the whole situation. He knows the name of perpetrators. He knows the degree of abuse that took place. He knows the physical, emotional and spiritual damage that took place. He also knows how to bring the necessary healing to those who were abused. However Satan, who loathes and detests humans who are made in the image of God, will try to turn these truths against Him. He will put it into the minds of the abused to accuse God of allowing things to take place that brought such damage. He will suggest that God is not loving, and was powerless to help. But God knows and cares about our human situations. He knows about us. We will see more clearly in the next blog how we can receive healing of the things of the past which may be known to nobody but God Himself.

There are other people who have been seriously misunderstood and it seems that no one will believe them. How wonderful it is for such people to know that God knows every thought of every heart. He knows the words that were said and the actions that were committed in every situation. But He also understands the motivation behind every thought and action. God is never mocked. He never misunderstands. He never gets it wrong. In counselling situations we frequently see how much damage is done when people are falsely accused. It can be soul-destroying. It can lead to disintegration of marriages and families. It is also soul-destroying for those who have suffered abuse, who have eventually shared what happened, only to be disbelieved, sometimes even by their own parents.  We will have more to say about that in the next blog.

2).        God Alone Can Be There For Every Person. (His Omnipresence).   There are some circumstances in life when many of us feel isolated and alone. There are other times when for some reason or other we are made to feel isolated. Often when we have been misunderstood.  Many of us in ministry have experienced times when we felt that people’s attitudes to us had changed to some degree. In one case we discovered subsequently that one individual had voiced his criticisms widely. When it was eventually shown that the criticisms were of no substance, the support returned. But it still hurt and did damage for a time. However some people are subjected to the pain of being misunderstood for years or even decades.  Praise God He can bring healing to such hurts even when the misunderstanding continues.

It is true for believers that they are never alone. God’s eye is on them continuously.  They are never out of His vision or His thoughts. In fact it is impossible for any of us to escape from His presence, as verses 7-12 put it, 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8  If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10  even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

As I put it in one of the previous blogs David considered every dimension he could, to consider if he could escape from God. But he realised that God was in the vertical dimension, between the heavens and Sheol, the depths of the earth. He was in the horizontal dimension, in the east and the west and all places between. Even the darkness couldn’t hide David from the sight of God.  Probably based on Psalm 139, Francis Thompson’s poem, “ The Hound of Heaven” is a great description of the omnipresence of God. He describes God as a hound pursuing its prey, that is people, “ I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; / I fled Him, down the arches of the years; / I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways /  Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears /   I hid from Him, and under running laughter. /  Up vistaed hopes I sped;  /  And shot, precipitated, /  Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,  / From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. /  But with unhurrying chase, /   And unperturbèd pace,  /  Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,  /  They beat—and a Voice beat /  More instant than the Feet— /  ‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me’. 

Thompson describes the moment when the person running from God, realises he cannot escape as God declares to him, “Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, / Save Me, save only Me? / All which I took from thee I did but take, / Not for thy harms,/  But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms./ All which thy child’s mistake / Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: /Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’ I have ministered to dozens of people over the years who had this same sort of experience of the presence of God and who surrendered their lives to Him, the inescapable One.  The realisation dawned on such folk that God was wooing them and pursuing them in love, not to cause them harm. The fleeing was over. In various ways they had taken hold of God’s outstretched hand and had come home to Him.

A man who had a similar experience was the late CS Lewis. In his book “Surprised by Joy” he gave this description of the time he met the inescapable One. “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” Lewis discovered that God cannot be avoided. He is everywhere. He is especially there for those who seek Him. Why? Because they are open to experience His presence and His healing power in their lives.

3).        God Alone Knows The Full Circumstances Of Every Situation Of Every Person.  In verses 13 to 18, King David spoke of God’s omnipotence, the fact that He can do what He purposes to do.  He purposed to create a universe. He purposed to create humans to live in His  universe. He purposed to create a man called David whom He would eventually anoint to be King. David in these verses reflects on his own creation as a human.  Psa 139:13  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. David sees that he was a creation by God. As we saw in an earlier blog, the circumstances of human conception are varied. Sometimes they are the result of a mutual act of love. Others are not like that at all. They may have been the result of an ugly power encounter in which one person was overpowered by another. But the important thing to note is that the child to be born is not “ugly”. God fashions that child in the womb as much as He does the child conceived in genuine love.

In fact the next verse affirms that, Psa 139:14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. David saw himself as part of the wonderful works of God. Many see that each human birth is a miracle from God, a touch of His handiwork.  Sometimes horrible circumstances may lead to conception! But God’s love and care are seen in the way He puts each part in place in the human body. How wonderful to be able to remind people whose conception was in horrible situations that God took over and fashioned them individually. They are His, by creation.

 God’s care is seen also in the growing process, Psa 139:15  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance. His purpose for each individual was established before they were born. As the verse continues, in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. It raises the question as to whether we can miss out on God’s plan and purpose for our lives. There are some who come for counselling who feel that they have missed out on God’s purpose for their lives because of their sinful past. But God alone knows His purposes for us.

So it is good to be able to say to such people, that God has a plan for the remainder of their lives. They can enter into that plan if they give themselves completely to Him. No wonder David adds, 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. A lifetime of contemplating God, would never be enough to fully grasp the totality and the immensity of His thoughts and purposes.

 David is amazed at the plans and purposes of God. He knows they are far beyond his comprehension. But he is grateful for that which God has revealed to him. He is dedicated to doing God’s will for the rest of his life. That explains those “strange” verses from verse 19 to 22. What David is in essence saying is that he will never side with the enemies of God, against God. If they remain God’s enemies then they will be David’s enemies as well. He will be faithful to God.  Psa 139:21  Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.  We will see in the next blog that because Jesus has given us His Holy Spirit to indwell us, there is the possibility of loving our enemies. But as with the example of David, never siding with them against God!

In the final verses 23,24, David turns what he has been saying about God into prayer. God is the One who searches everyone. So David asks Him to search Him and to know him. He wants to be open to God so that God can heal him and lead him in the everlasting way, God’s way.

So these are the truths that can be helpful to know and to share in counselling situations. They are reality in a world of unreality. But how do we go to apply these truths in counselling situations, or when we are trying to encourage others to reach out to God for healing. That is the subject of our next blog. It is extremely important and encouraging to be able to try to apply these wonderful, releasing, healing truths to those who need them. Like you and me!

Blog No.144. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 24th February 2014

Posted in Forgiveness, Studies in Psalm 139 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

143. A Prayer Of Openness To God. Psalm 139:23-24. Series No.5 of 7

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

“I’m so glad that when I asked the Lord to search my life that He did it with a candle and not a searchlight!” That was the way one person put it. She had prayed the prayer of openness to God in Psalm 139:23-24, asking God to search her life. She wanted Him to show her things that He saw as needing attention. The prayer was answered. She later reflected on what had happened. She realised that God could have shown her a lot more than He had at the time. He had progressively shown more as time when went on, in an ongoing answer to her prayer. What He revealed was never too much for her to handle at any one time.

King David wanted to be right with God. In Psalm 139 he declared the attributes of the God whom he served, YHWH. As we saw in previous articles, he outlined the Omniscience of God (God knows all things). Then he wrote on the Omnipresence of God (God can be experienced by His people everywhere). Then he described the Omnipotence of God (God can do all that He purposes to do). These are the subjects of previous blogs. This is the God whom David worships. In the light of those attributes, David turns those truths into prayer to his God.

Verse 23.  Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

It is interesting to note the wording David uses in the prayer. He turns the statements in verse 1 about God into a prayer. Psalm 139:1, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!”

In the prayer in verse 23 he asks God, Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” In both the Hebrew text and in the Greek Septuagint text, the words for “search” and “know” are the same as those in verse 1. It’s as though David is saying, “Lord, You are the God who searches and knows. I invite You to search me and know me.” He wants to be the man of God that he is meant to be. He can’t see himself as God sees him, so He asks God to do the searching.

The word for “search” is “chaqar”. This has the meaning to examine, probe, ascertain, to do a thorough search. David has already affirmed that God searches, so why is he asking God to do what He does anyway? The answer is that David wants God to do the search and then to let him know the result of the search.  He wants to see himself as God sees him so that he knows what he needs to change in his life.

Similarly in verse 23 he asks God to “try” him and to “know” his thoughts. “Thoughts” comes from the Hebrew “sarappim” which is also translated as “anxious” thoughts.  Support for this comes from the Greek text where the word is “καρδιαν” = “heart”. The heart was seen as the seat of desires and feelings. Again David is asking God to reveal to him what he sees in David’s inner-most being, especially in his thought-life.

Verse 24.  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

What does David mean by a “grievous” way? The word “otseb” has a variety of meanings. It can mean pain, sorrow or even an idol. The focus appears to be on the grief David would cause to God by his wrong behaviour. In the Greek Septuagint text the word is “ἀνομία” (anomia) which can mean lawless, hurtful, grievous, wicked, offensive, way of iniquity. Some folk think that David is writing about the pain he might receive if he was resistant to God. But in this context David seems to be saying that he wants God to show him anything in his life that was offensive to Him.  His ultimate aim is to be led by God in the way everlasting (God’s way). Here is the mark of a person who really wants to be open to God by being set free from the negative, and positively walking in His ways. David was seeking to be the leader God wanted him to be in the terms Samuel told Saul, 1Sam 13:14  But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out ‘a man after his own heart’, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”  The only way David could become a man after God’s own heart would be to allow God to share His heart with David. That was the motivation behind his prayer. It needed also a willingness to change. David was willing.

On a personal level. Would we be game to let God shine the searchlight of His purity and His love into our hearts? Would we be willing to let Him share with us how He sees us? Would we be willing to change the things in our lives that are grievous to Him? Would we be willing for Him to make us willing to be totally open to Him? Why not pray the prayer and see what God does in your life, to your benefit and to His glory.

Blog No.143. Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Sunday 23rd February 2014.

Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Bible verses. Comments, Forgiveness, Prayer, Studies in Psalm 139 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

142. The Omnipotent God. He Can Do All Things. He Made Us. Psalm 139:13‑18. Series No.4 of 7

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Jim Holbeck

What does it mean for God to be described as “Omnipotent.” A simple definition could be “He can do all things.” That is true provided we remember that He cannot act contrary to His nature. Paul wrote in 2 Tim 2:13  if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. He is utterly dependable for that is His nature. So a more accurate definition for His omnipotence might be,  He can do everything He purposes to do.

What then are some of the things God can do or has done as the Omnipotent One? And what are the implications of this for the human race? These verses show us that He cannot be ignored or be seen as irrelevant. But this is not to be seen as threatening in any way. Rather the verses show us that God is concerned with the life of every individual. The truths in these verses have brought meaning and deep comfort to millions through the ages. They are deeply personal. We now examine these truths.

1).  God Made Us As Part Of His Wonderful Creation.  {13} For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. God is saying through King David (the writer of the Psalm) that every person is an individual creation made by God Himself. He created us and knit us together in our mother’s womb. The Creator of all things reminds us that we as individual humans are part of His eternal plan. As I loved to say to people at teaching seminars, “You can say of yourself ‘I am a person of eternal significance. God meant me to be!’”  It was amazing to see the responses. Some smiled at being reminded of a familiar truth. Others looked shocked. Others looked a little perplexed or confused. But later on as people grasped the truth, there was often very deep inner healing that took place that blew the minds of some of the participants. They could not believe they could be changed so quickly and healed so deeply.

At our teaching seminars there were often those who had been told the following things about themselves as they grew older as children, “You were not a planned baby!” “You were a mistake!” “You were an abortion gone wrong!” and many other hurtful things that had affected some of those who heard them quite adversely all their lives. As they were acquainted with the truth of verse 13, many began to realise for the first time in their lives that they were meant to be on planet earth. They were a “planned” person. There was a purpose for them being on earth after all. They didn’t have to hide in the shadows as a “nobody”. They were a “somebody” that God had planned to be part of His creation.

I would sometimes say to participants, “When did you become significant to God? Was it when you were born, or baptised, or confirmed, or when you gave your life to Jesus, or when you asked Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit, or when you fully surrendered your life to God? There would be various answers. Then I would introduce the truths found in Ephesians 1:3-4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will… . Many were amazed to know that they were in the mind and purpose of God before the world was made. Chosen before they were born, to be beloved children of God. People of eternal significance indeed!

 2).        God Made Us As Wonderful Parts Of His Wonderful Creation. {14} I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. How do you and I go on the mirror test? Can we honestly look in a mirror and say to ourselves, “Hey, I appreciate you!” Or do we come out with less flattering words like “ugly, too fat, skinny, unattractive, mousy, ears too big, nose too large, mouth too big, rotten complexion etc.”? Or as we gaze at our reflection are we thinking of the words that others used to describe us. Words spoken to us 20, 30 or even 50 years ago that were meant to hurt us then,  and still hurt us today as we think of them. Often!

However the more we affirm the truth of verse 14, the more it becomes a part of us. We can begin by saying. “Thank You Lord for making me the way I am. Help me to appreciate me more and more.” By the grace of God none of us will ever go on to a narcissistic state where the focus moves off God and thanking Him for who we are, to becoming besotted with our reflection, focussed on our appearance  and forgetful of the God who made us.

3).        God Has His Eye On Us Throughout Our Lives. {15} My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, {16} your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  God is conscious of all the different stages of growth. He should be as the Creator of all things! He knew the moment of our conception. The circumstances for some people might have been a mutual act of love. The circumstances for many others might have been something far from desirable. But in both cases the child was desirable! God wove us together in our mother’s womb. Nothing was ever hidden from Him. But He also knows the days ordained for us.

In a world in which God has given humans free-will, bad things can happen. Innocent children are sometimes subjected to behaviour that is not glorifying to God. Nor is it helpful for the children involved. Often it is downright damaging and destructive. The privilege of having children as a gift from God also involves the responsibility of caring for them and bringing them up in His love. All too often the responsibility is not taken up by adults in caring roles, and the innocent suffer. It was never in the purpose of God for bad things to happen to innocent children. However He knows everything that was ever said to us and done to us that was contrary to His will. He even knows about the unspoken attitudes adopted to us which may have hurt as much as spoken words.  He knows exactly the damage that was caused to us. He also knows how to bring the healing that He knows we need. By His healing grace and by His grace alone, victims can become victors in life. That is not an abstract theory. It is a reality seen in the lives of hundreds of people who grasped these truths in Psalm 139. His care is never-ending.

 4).        God Should Be Praised For His Plans And Purposes For Us In His Creation.  God is our Creator.  He made us for Himself.  He made us for a purpose. In the light of this great love, what is meant to be our response to Him? For King David, the experience of God’s love made him committed to serve God throughout His life.  That would happen in two ways.

Firstly, he would be forever singing the praises of God. {17-18} How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! {18} Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Earlier in the Psalm David had written of the Omniscience of God, the fact that He knows all things. In these later verses he has expressed a more personal view of God’s knowledge especially His knowledge of David’s life in the womb.  God not only knows about his birth but he knows the full extent of David’s life. No wonder David finds it difficult to comprehend such detailed intimate knowledge. If he were to try to measure God’s thoughts he could not because they would outnumber of grains of sand in the world. If he went to sleep thinking about the immensity of God’s thoughts he would wake up still pondering the imponderable in the presence of God.  Job also expressed the impossibility of understanding God, Job 11:7  “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?  God in His grace and love has revealed these aspects of His character. We are privileged to know them and to experience them.

 Secondly, he would never side with God’s enemies. {19-22}. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! {20} They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. {21} Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? {22} I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

We need to note the context of these verses. David is not speaking about the bad time his enemies are giving him. Rather he is upset for the glory of God. How dare God’s enemies speak evil of Him! Note the “You” meaning God, in these verses. If they have made them themselves the implacable enemies of God then they will remain enemies, not friends, of David. David says that he will never side with God’s enemies. The verses are a strong declaration of David’s loyalty towards God. They are not the ravings of hating, unforgiving person.

What a powerful Psalm is Psalm 139. It is as relevant today as it was when David wrote it. The reason being of course that God is immutable, He does not change. He remains the God who knows everything. He is present for His people everywhere. He is the all-powerful God who has a plan and purpose for each and every one of us. God used Jeremiah to bring us the same message of His love and care. In Jeremiah 29:11-14,  God speaks to His people, “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. 12  When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. 13  When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, 14  I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” … (The Message Translation.)

Planned people! Planned for a purpose by a loving Almighty God! To become His children!

Blog No.142.   Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Monday 17th February 2014

Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Bible verses. Comments, Forgiveness, Healing, Prayer, Studies in Psalm 139 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment