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!

Teach me (2)

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

I love that verse (Psalm 90:12)! In order to grow in wisdom, the cry of our hearts must be 'teach me!' This basically means admitting that we do not have the answers to all of today's issues and problems.

Society today expects us to have strong opinions, to take sides, to understand complicated matters, and to know the politically 'correct' responses to every occurring problem.

Despite all the drama and confusion in our world today, many people do not believe the Bible could be relevant and useful in order to keep us on the right path. But what was written two thousand years ago has eternal value. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 👉God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

This earth could be filled with good, benevolent works (which would make it a much better place if you ask me) if we would be open to the instructions the Bible gives us. We need to be taught to do right, because human nature wants to do wrong.

Just look at little children... we often regard them as innocent, but parents have to teach children to do right, while the wrong things come naturally (being jealous, selfish, disobedient, etc.). This is because we are born with a sinful nature, in desperate need of forgiveness and change!

What if we would fill up on spiritual truth instead of earthly knowledge? What if...?

Restored relationships (2)

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

In the previous blog post I wrote: 'reconciliation basically means restored relationship and that is really the heart of God, the foundation of the Christian faith.'

Often we have (without being aware of it) developed  our own image of God. Some see God as an angry man who sees every mistake and never gives a compliment. Others see God as holy and out of reach. And again, others might see Him as a good old fellow who loves everyone and doesn't judge...

If we want to get to know God better it is important to talk with Him, listen to Him and read His Word. We cannot expect pastors and professors to do that for us. In the same way as we cannot leave it up to others to get to know our lover, friend, child, partner a little better. We must invest time in the relationship!

The Bible clearly states where and how the relationship between mankind and God (the Creator) went wrong. God decided to make mankind according to His image and likeness, thus a living soul with a free will. The first people used that free will to go their own way and to NOT listen to God... well, nothing new under the horizon so far... many people are still doing that today!

The relationship between God and mankind has been distorted ever since. Which, by the way, does not mean that God isn't communicating with people, He does so all the time. But sin (going our own way) stands in the way of a healthy relationship with Him. That is why many people have a love-hate relationship with God. As long as everything is okay, many people believe He is kind of out there, but the moment things go wrong, He gets the blame. Even people who do not believe in God feel deep down inside that He must exist... but are too scared to admit it.

Sin stands in the way of a healthy relationship with God and this often results in feelings of guilt, shame, anger or fear. Well, that is not the way we want to have relationship, right? Not on a human level, not on a godly level. And this is exactly where reconciliation comes around the corner. God offers us restoration of the relationship with Him. In Colossians 1:20 (GNT) it is described like this:

Through the Son [that is Jesus, Yeshua, Isa], then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.

God has offered us peace. The question is how we answer His peace proposal.

Do we keep fighting and struggling... insisting in going our own way? Or do we accept His peace offering?

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)

Maintaining our freedom (4)

In the previous blogposts we have taken a closer look at biblical freedom. It is God's will that Christians should live in freedom. We are no longer slaves and we should not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery... by nothing and by no one. Freedom does not mean we can say and do whatever we want (that would be anarchy), but biblical freedom means being free from sin, shame and guilt (and many psychological and physical problems that are often the result of this). That kind of freedom is only available through grace and our faith  in Jesus Christ.

Biblical freedom is also the freedom to choose. 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. It is somehow possible to become enslaved again. 2 Peter 2:19 clearly states that a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. Let's ask ourselves what has mastered us: worries, depression, sickness, addiction? We are meant to live in freedom; to not be a slave of anything or anyone. The apostle Paul gives us the key: stand firm then. In other words: protect your freedom, stand in the gap for your freedom, because the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Let me put it this way: the freedom Jesus offers us is a gift, maintaining that freedom is our responsibility. For that purpose God has created us with a free will, we must do our best to make choices in order to maintain our freedom.

Making the right choices actually means to live a 'holy life'. When I was younger I thought that people who lived so called holy lives were boring; we used to make fun of them. Thank God I have learned that holy living means I have to make choices: one time for Jesus and after that every day... I must choose to do what my old nature wants (also called 'the flesh') or what the Holy Spirit wants. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer and talks to every believer, but quite often we are not so trained in listening. We need to silence many other voices (radio, television, news paper, thoughts, talking etc.) to hear Him. We must learn to listen in silence.

In order to stand firm we must make the choice to live a holy life, this choice is two-fold:

• We must purposely separate ourselves from sin, and
• we must purposely seek fellowship with God

Separation from sin means: not doing what everyone else is doing, saying no when we need to, never acting without thinking, but asking for guidance and listening. Seeking a closer fellowship with God can be trough our heart (prayer), our soul (music, worship), our mind (studying the Word) and our strength (service). In order to stand firm and to keep our freedom, we need to make the right choices, every day!

In the next post we will take a closer look at freedom from guilt and shame.

Baptism unraveled (3)

In my previous post I described how we can become a member of the Body of Christ, the universal church of believers, through one baptism. That one baptism is also called rebirth. The Bible also speaks about a doctrine of baptisms (Hebrews 6:1-2). I believe that out of that one (most important) baptism, other baptisms will follow. Let's take a look at the baptism in water.

In Old Testament times the Jewish ritual of ceremonial washing was quite common. Because of continual sinning, people needed to be cleansed again and again. In the New Testament John the Baptist announced a new form of ritual cleasing: the water baptism as a sign that people had truly turned their backs to sin. He called on the people to seriously repent from their sinful life and to be baptized. He did no longer use the ceremonial wash basins, as was the Jewish custom, but he went to a place where there was plenty of water. John 3:23 says about it, Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.

Jesus came to John as well, to be baptized, which is a crazy idea of course, because Jesus was without sin. He did not need to repent, let alone to be baptized for the washing away of His sins. Yet, Jesus persuaded John to go ahead and do the will of God, Jesus answered, “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do.” Then John agreed (Matthew 3:15, CEV). I love that, Jesus sets the example for all of us and humbles Himself. He could have said: 'dear John, I don't need any baptism'. Who could have contradicted Him? But He purposely decided to be obedient and do the will of His Father.

We can read how years later this new form of baptism (ritual washing) is being continued by the disciples. Paul challenged the people of his time, And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name (Acts 22:16). Here, we see again the principle of washing away sins. Through Jesus our sins are forgiven, through water baptism our sins are being washed away. That is why the apostle Peter says we should not look at baptism as a ritual cleansing of dirt, but as a pledge of a clear conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21). Personally I do know a lot of people that have seriously given their life to Christ, they have turned away from their old life, but they still have a guilty conscience which keeps them from feeling truly free. Often it turns out they have not been baptized, which symbolically would wash away their sins. They know their sins have been forgiven, and yet they carry them around.

In the New Testament we can read many scriptures about water baptism and as I have written in my first post, the arguing about baptism (at what age it should take place and how much water should be used) has resulted in many church splits and family feuds. Personally the words of the Lord Jesus were enough to convince me not to join that discussion: 'we must do all that God wants us to do.' The New King James translations says, It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. If you are in doubt about the water baptism, would you please take some time to think about Jesus' words?

Apart from the baptism in water there is something as the baptism in/with the Holy Spirit, which I will discuss in the next post in this series. I hope you will read and think with me!

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8)