James 1:17-27

If you want to genuinely grow in spiritual maturity, it is not enough to simply be instructed by the Word of God. You may love going to church or listening to Christian radio programs. You might talk about everything you hear and assume you’re growing because your knowledge is increasing. However, if you don’t actually grow closer to God by allowing His Word to change you from the inside out, your head will merely continue to fill with information. You might even sound like a godly person who is admired for the ability to quote chapter and verse. But if you don’t take the next step and allow God to touch others’ lives through you, you’re missing the point.

Spiritual growth is the result of practicing the truth you receive from God. He wants you to give away what He gives you–that is, by loving and serving others and sharing the truth of the gospel. Our example is Jesus, who said that He did not come to be served, but to serve even the lowest outcasts in His society (Matt. 20:28). He could have exalted Himself and spent all His time preaching and teaching. Instead, Jesus did only the Father’s will, which was to reveal His heart of love to a broken world. The Lord sacrificially involved Himself in people’s lives, and He calls us to follow in His footsteps.

God’s plan is to reach the world through you. If that weren’t the case, He would have taken you to heaven as soon as you were saved. But you are here for a purpose–to live out Christ’s life alongside hurting people who desperately need to experience His love

Several years ago, I drove across the country with my brother. He was moving, and I flew out to help him drive back east after living several years in the Pacific Northwest. We decided to take our time in order to meander down the West Coast. The beauty of the coastal lands of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California has to be seen to be believed. Lush greens from the grasses and towering trees spill over into the gorgeous blues of the Pacific Ocean. On most days, as well, a canopy of cornflower blue-sky sheltered us.

What a contrast awaited us when we turned our car towards the Southeast and came to Death Valley in the Mojave Desert. The lush greens of the coastlands were now shades of brown and tan. What green was there consisted of the sparse Joshua trees and cacti. As far as the eye could see an ocean of sand, dust, and tumbleweeds stretched on and on. Yet, as day gave way to night and we continued to drive through this desert sea, lights began to appear in the distance. A city was ahead—a city that was built in the middle of the desert.

Here, in this desiccated land, developers envisioned the oasis that has become modern-day Las Vegas. And even though the city is synonymous with gambling, ever-expanding development has turned it into playground for adults akin to Disneyland. The city has become a mecca for fine dining, great entertainment, and deluxe hotels. Regardless of how one feels about Las Vegas, when one compares the surrounding desert landscape with this vibrant city, the creative imaginations that envisioned it never fail to amaze.

How could anyone have envisioned a thriving city in the desert? How is it that a lush oasis was imagined when the only landscape was a sea of brown desolation? I asked myself both these questions as my brother and I approached the city lights—and as we left it—back into the vast spaces of emptiness in the desert.

In the ministry of Jesus, those who sought to follow him as disciples, curious onlookers, or hesitating skeptics were invited see the world in a whole new manner. Just as the first developers of the city of Las Vegas saw possibility beyond a desert land, so Jesus encouraged those around him to see their world differently, and to envision the kingdom of God breaking in around them in creative and imaginative ways. He often concluded his teaching stories with the exhortation, “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear…” which is simply another way of inviting his listeners to new understanding. He invites those with eyes to see, to see beyond simple presentation to potentiality.

But the realm into which Jesus extended an invitation to enter was a topsy-turvy world by the standards of what was expected—both of the Messiah and of his kingdom. Those who awaited the Messiah narrowly envisioned a political and military leader who would expel the Roman government and reestablish the nation of Israel. They expected a Messiah who would clear their land of sinners, of the immoral, and of all those who were seen to upset the social order.

Jesus would shatter all of these expectations and in so doing highlight a lack of theological imagination. This is illustrated in the Passion narratives of Mark’s gospel where Jesus tells his followers that he will be crucified.(1) After the disciple Peter’s bold statement,  “You are the Messiah,” Jesus issues an exhortation not to tell anyone who he is. He then tells his followers that the Messiah would suffer and die. Peter began to rebuke Jesus. His protestation is perfectly warranted given his vision of Messianic identity and function. But, Jesus turns and rebukes him—even calling him by the name “Satan” because he opposes this new Messianic vision.

Later on, even after telling his followers that he would be tortured and killed, James and John come to him asking to sit on his right and left hand in his Messianic kingdom. Jesus upends their expectations of glory by telling them that “even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

It is easy to see how the first followers of Jesus couldn’t envision anything different than the world they knew, that familiar terrain around them that only seemed to offer one possibility. The cultivation of imagination and vision seems as much a discipline as it is part and parcel of a creative spirit. All too often, the same narrow vision overtakes us. Instead of seeing a vibrant city or oasis, we see only sand and dust. We quench the imagination of what could be because we inhabit a world that seduces us toward a tunnel-vision that only sees the realm of our own needs and interests.

Yet, how does a person envision lush possibilities in the midst of life’s vast desert experiences? Upon hearing that their friend, their mentor, and the one they believed to be the Messiah would be crucified, how could anyone following Jesus have foreseen the resurrection? Indeed, like the disciples, one might start out to see a world of opportunity, but the circumstances of life often conspire to hinder vision and crush imagination.

Still, just like those who envisioned a thriving city in a landscape of dusty sand, we are encouraged to take another look—to look long and hard at the desert landscape of our lives—and to imagine new life. Whether we are active followers of Jesus or seekers after him, his life and ministry invite us to expand our vision for what could be, to create oases in the desert, and to enter into the challenging new reality he offers.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

(1) See Mark 8:31-35; 9:30-37; 10:32-45

Morning   “The love of Christ which passeth knowledge.”

Ephesians 3:19

The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its

faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found

which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children

of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water,

and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface,

while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,

“O love, thou fathomless abyss!”

for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can attain

unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must

understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation upon

the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ?

When he was enthroned in the highest heavens he was very God of very God; by him

were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld

the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded him;

the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the

foot of his throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures, God over

all, blessed forever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on the

other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was something, to be a

man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer, these were much for

him who was the Son of God; but to suffer such unparalleled agony–to endure a

death of shame and desertion by his Father, this is a depth of condescending

love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom. Herein is love!

and truly it is love that “passeth knowledge.” O let this love fill our hearts

with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical manifestations of its power.

 

Evening   “I will accept you with your sweet savour.”

Ezekiel 20:41

The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether

we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal

fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured the

law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure

setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured

with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at

length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters,

and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel

wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two

things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his

dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our

God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of

preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing

power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his

righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved!

Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in

him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be

accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you

cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins,

Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you,

in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are

always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father’s heart.

Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the

Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of

your praise go up also.

 

She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’

Matthew 15:27

This woman gained comfort in her misery by thinking great thoughts of Christ.

The Master had talked about the children’s bread. “Now,” she argued, “since You are the Master of the table of grace, I know that You are a generous housekeeper, and there is sure to be plenty of bread on Your table. There will be such an abundance for the children that there will be crumbs to throw on the floor for the dogs, and the children will fare none the worse because the dogs are fed.” She thought Him one who kept so fine a table that all that she needed would only be a crumb in comparison; yet remember, what she wanted was to have the devil cast out of her daughter. It was a very great thing to her, but she had such a high esteem of Christ that she said, “It is nothing to Him; it is but a crumb for Christ to give.”

This is the royal road to comfort. Great thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair; but great thoughts of Christ will guide you into the haven of peace. “My sins are many, but oh, it is nothing to Jesus to take them all away. The weight of my guilt presses me down as a giant’s foot would crush a worm, but it is no more than a grain of dust to Him, because He has already borne its curse in His own body on the tree. It will be only a small thing for Him to give me full remission, although it will be an infinite blessing for me to receive it.” The woman opens her needy soul very wide, expecting great things of Jesus, and He fills it with His love.

Dear reader, do the same. She won the victory by believing in Him. Her case is an instance of prevailing faith; and if we would conquer like her, we must imitate her tactics.

The family reading plan for March 27, 2012

Proverbs 14 | Philippians 1