For the honor of His name (4)

Don't you love this topic? So far we've seen in this blog series that God brings honor to His own name by renewing our strength, guiding us along the right path, forgiving our sins, and rescuing us from danger.

Our response therefore should be thankfulness for His love and compassion, readiness to share our testimony, willingness to receive His forgiveness and to forgive others, and trusting Him to lead us to safety!

Let's take a look at Isaiah 48:9. When we read that scripture in context we notice that God is kind of mad at His people because they were disobedient, stubborn, unfaithful and what more. And then He says: Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.

Well, isn't that interesting? God honors His own name by being patient and by extending grace to the Israelites. 👉He is true to His nature as a good, good Father. Of course, we see the same thing in the New Testament... for God does not change, He is patient and He does not want anyone to perish.

Isn't it fair to say that when we extend grace to someone, when we hold back anger, and when we are patient, we bring honor to His name as well?

For the honor of His name (2)

Glad you are joining me for this new blog series 'For the honor of His name'.

We saw in the previous post that God renews our strength and guides us along right paths (Psalm 23:3) which brings honor to His name. So in a sense, His goodness and kindness bring honor to His own name.

This is a concept we can find throughout the Bible. Let's take a good look at Psalm 25:11 where it is written: For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.

Think about that, the forgiveness of sins brings honor to God's name. When Jesus took that task upon Himself, He did so to bring honor to His Father's name. When He died on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world, it was an act of obedience.

And He was honored for it. Philippians 2:8-10 says, He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

We are forgiven for the honor of His name. When people refuse His forgiveness, they basically dishonor His name. I would say, that is a thought which needs some further contemplation!

The good armor (3)

Being encircled (girded) by truth, what a nice thought from my previous blog. We can survive in a world full of lies when we are protected by the truth!

Let's continue to read about the spiritual armor as described in Ephesians 6. Verse 14 speaks about a breastplate of  RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Now, in general, most of us don't walk around in medieval clothing items anymore, but I think the idea of our righteousness being able to take a beating (attack) is quite clear.

The Bible says that no one is righteous by nature, not one! (Romans 3:10). Only God is righteous. Jesus is also called the Righteous One. Why? 👉Because He came to earth to present His righteousness in exchange for our failures and mistakes, for our sins.

Righteous means as much as: good, virtuous, upright, worthy, ethical, principled, moral, high-minded, just, honest, innocent, faultless, sinless, uncorrupted, pure, noble... well, you get the idea, it ain't about us! Within Christianity, as well as in all major world religions, we can see people trying to achieve some form of righteousness by working hard and following all kinds of rules. But then again, the more people try, the more they feel like failing.

This is exactly why Jesus' offer is so crucial. Our sins in exchange for His righteousness. What a deal! He offers forgiveness for our iniquities and thereby declares us righteous. 💓That righteousness (knowing that we are forgiven!) is our armor; it protects our whole being. In Romans 3:221-2 it says:  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. 

Not because of good deeds, but because of faith we are declared righteous before God. This eliminates guilt, shame, failure, fear, and judgment. Knowing that we are forgiven... we should wear it like impenetrable armor. If you have made the choice for Jesus, don't let anyone tell you that things are not right between you and God. This is an area where many spiritual battles take place.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Wisdom and truth are lacking on both sides

Surely, you must have some thoughts about the current protests and riots in the USA, Marja…

Well, yes. Or maybe, no. I don’t know, whether I should even write about events that make no sense at all, to begin with. 

Things have been labeled (without a second thought) racism, a battle between black and white. But you know what, now that you are asking... here's my two cents worth:

I don’t think it is.

This is not about being black or white at all. This is ultimately about good and evil. About darkness and light. As a white person, I am utterly ashamed about the lack of grace the officers showed. On the other hand, if I were a black person, I would be utterly ashamed of the way my brothers and sisters have been responding. Where does that leave us?

👉Wisdom and truth are lacking on both ‘sides’. We all fall short and that, exactly that, makes us all equal.

We need God! We need His mercy and forgiveness. We do not need more hatred or revenge. We need His love!

Give me a J

In my Bible alphabet blog series J stands for Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth as a man. His birth was announced by an angel who visited his mother Mary: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus (Luke 1:31).

Now, the angel of course did not speak to Mary in English. The name Jesus is therefore derived from the Hebrew Yeshua which means the Lord is salvation.

When Jesus was about thirty years old, he moved from Nazareth to Capernaum (the remains of that town can still be found in Israel) and from that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17).

During His earthly sojourn Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. In John 5:19 it is written like this, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. So, what did Jesus do? He traveled around, talked about the Kingdom, testified about the truth, forgave people their sins, healed those who were sick and even raised people, who had died prematurely, from the dead.

Jesus came to earth to set mankind free from sin by giving His life, His blood (Revelation 1: 5). He was tortured, crucified and killed. After three days He rose from the grave. He not only overcame sin but also death!

If this is true, why (why, why) then is our world still so full of sin, destruction, sorrow and death? Because every human being must use his or her free will to make a conscious dicision to believe in Jesus and so receive forgiveness, victory and freedom. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5: 5).

Restored relationships (5)

Reconciliation: end of conflict, restoration of friendly relations, reunion, bringing together (again), restoration of peace...

Restored relationship is really the simple meaning of the word reconciliation and it is the foundation of the Christian faith. The restored relationship between God and mankind is the first and most important level of reconciliation and certainly the most beautiful one. A second level that I want to mention on this blog is the reconciliation between God and His people Israel.

We have already seen in this series that a healthy relationship between God, the Creator of the Universe, and all mankind is possible as a result of the blood of Jesus that flowed once and for all when He was crucified. Colossians 1:19-20 describes it like this: For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [that is Jesus/Yeshua/Isa], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross

Blood, that has a negative sound to it, but biblically speaking life is in the blood. Without blood there is no life, even scientists know this :) Keep that thought...

Thousands of years ago God decided to dedicate one nation to be His very own, to set them apart. This is what holy means: to be set apart. Many people today reject this thought and are in disagreement with God (not a good place to be!) But whether people like it or not, it is still a fact. Leviticus 20:24-26 says: you are to be holy to Me, because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

God did not choose Israel because they were so wonderful and so great, on the contrary, it was the smallest nation of all at that time! But He loved them and He had made promises to their ancestors, Deuteronomy 7:7-8: The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers....

It made God sad that they disobeyed Him all the time, for example by worshiping other gods and by neglecting His laws. He wanted to keep a healthy relationship with them, but sin kept defiling their friendship. So He set up a system for reconciliation: blood had to flow (the offering of animals) for the forgiveness of the sins of the people, with an annual summit called the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).

In most world religions we still see this: blood has to flow (whether animals or people) in other to please the gods... which we think is horrible. But, wait a minute, wasn't blood offering God's idea? What exactly did He had in mind when he set up the system for reconciliation? Let's take a closer look at that in the next blog.

Born again ABC (5)

In the previous blogs on the subject of being born again, we have seen that the Bible clearly speaks about two different kind of births. The spiritual birth is not the same as the natural birth. But, why is it necessary for a human to be born again, or: to become spiritually alive?

The fact that we need to become spiritually alive, implicates that by nature we are spiritually 'dead'. In Colossians 2:13 we can read: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. The Bible speaks about living people who are 'dead' because of their sins.

Being not physically, but spiritually 'dead' means there is a barrier between man and God. Ephesians 2:1 (Good News translation) says it like this, In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. Sin stands between God and mankind and makes us spiritually dead for communication with Him. I always had trouble accepting this, I used to believe in the goodness of mankind. But one look at today's headlines tells me the opposite is true.

It is easy to see this in little children, we must teach them to do GOOD, the bad comes naturally. Every human being is born with a sinful nature. Kind David wrote: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5). This is why we all need to be born again! This is why we need to accept the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers, and turn our back to sin.

There is so much more to be said about the born again experience, about the new life that we can receive, but the most important thing is to admit that we need it! Why not accept what He wants to give us (Ephesians 2:5): to be alive with Christ! That acceptance is the most important decision we can make in our entire life.

Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart. For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal (1 Peter 1:22-23)

Measure

The Bible is a fascinating book, I don't have to tell you that :) But what I want to tell you is, that it is important to read a translation that you can understand! As far as I know there are no 'good' or 'bad' translations; just make sure you read one you can relate to.

As I wrote in my previous post, I am reading through the gospel of Luke at the moment and, quite unavoidable, I arrived at chapter six. Now there are two things possible at the beginning of such a chapter: read through it quickly or stop and meditate on the lessons Jesus is teaching here. This is not theology or theory, but practical Christianity for our every day life. I quote verse 37 and 38: Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Ouch, strong words, especially the last sentence.The first question that enters my mind and that I would like to share with you is: which measure do I use? In a negative and a positive sense. Jesus uses examples of both: judging and condemning, but also forgiving and giving. Whatever the case, we set the measure with which we will be measured...

• Am I critical, judgemental, or unkind towards others? If so, such an attitude towards others will come  back into my own life.
• Am I forgiving and generous (time, talents, money, love, etc.) towards others? If so, such an attitude towards others will come back into my own life.

What a great responsibility to realize that we are the ones setting the measure that others will use towards us. It would have been much easier if God took care of all that, so we wouldn't have to change our bitterness, stinginess or unforgiveness. The words of Jesus are simple but not easy, they imply responsibility but also a challenge.

I don't know about you, but I don't want people to judge me or criticize me. I want others to forgive me and share their blessings with me. My wish is the measure that I need to use for others.

If we desire a different harvest, we must make a beginning with sowing different seeds.

Maintaining our freedom (5)

In this series we are looking at biblical freedom as through a magnifying glass; the freedom that Jesus promises us. This is not the freedom to do or say whatever we want, but freedom from sin, guilt, shame and legalism, but also the freedom to choose. This freedom is a gift from God, but it is our responsibility to hold on to that freedom. Galatians 5:1 says It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Stand firm, then! How do we do that? In the previous post I mentioned that holy living is an important key in order to maintain our freedom. Purposely choosing to obey the Holy Spirit and not our own will. If we practice this more and more, we will experience true freedom, because where the Spirit is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3;17). Another important key to keep our freedom is the receiving and giving of forgiveness and the confession of our sins.

Jesus has set us free from sin, guilt and shame, yet, we often feel burdened. We allow the enemy to enslave us again, sometimes without realizing this. Quite often our feelings of guilt or shame can grow so big that they become a real burden. This is the stick the enemy uses to hit us with, He wants to keep us feeling insignificant and guilty, so we are afraid to go to God. It is therefore very important that we absolutely know that we are forgiven. The next step is that we need to forgive others as well. If we refuse to do so we will be burdened again with a yoke of slavery. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15).

Besides forgiveness there is also the confession of our sins, not necessarily to God, but to each other. Sin, forgiveness, healing, confession and deliverance... somehow they are all connected to each other. We don't need to understand everything in order to believe it. To be honest, I have enough questions of my own... But, let us take a closer look at James 5:14-16, Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 

In these verses we can find wonderful keys that will enable us to stand firm, in order to keep our freedom. We can, yes, we must, forgive each other. And if we confess our sins to each other and pray... we will get well. Wow, that is awesome, who doesn't want that? I wonder why we don't practice this more often, in the church, but also in our small groups at home. We can take action today:

• Do you truly believe Jesus has totally forgiven you? Say it
• Are there people in your life you need to forgive? Give it
• Is there a person you can confess your sins to? Do it
• Pray together with that person. Ask it

PS: Is it truly possible to experience freedom from diseases and ailments and to stand firm? Did Jesus die for this too? We will talk about this in the next post.

The road to recovery...

The road to recovery begins here...

Do it!