No More Condemnation (2)

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” – Romans 8:1-2 (NIV 2010)

Leviticus probably ranks high up there for some of us as one of the most legalistic books of the Bible filled with ‘the law of sin and death’. Yet when we approach it with the light that grace brings we find even here the shadows of ‘the law of the Spirit of life’ in operation as we see very clearly God’s eternal answer for man’s guilt in passages like Leviticus 5:1-13.

It starts by saying: ‘If a person sins…- even though he is unaware of it, he has become unclean and is guilty’ (vs. 1-2). Man’s guilt comes from sinning against God. Man has offended his Creator and because of his vital link with God, the disconnection that sin produces leaves a weight upon man’s soul. This is why the problem of guilt is too deep to be resolved by man-made solutions.

So what is God’s solution for guilt? In verse 5 we read ‘he must confess in what way he has sinned’. The first step towards freedom from guilt is not to deny your sin or try to justify yourself. It is to agree with God by confessing your sin. Confessing our sin is taking sides with God against ourselves. Think of a court-room where you stand guilty of your sins before the righteous demands of God. Now imagine that at the same time you also have the opportunity to be your own advocate – to defend yourself. But instead of being your own advocate by defending yourself, you become God’s advocate by defending his verdict on you and declaring yourself guilty. That is what we do when we confess our sins – we take sides with God. ‘Let God be true and every man a liar’. (Romans 3:4 NIV)

Our problem today is that we are often not willing to take sides with God against ourselves. We would rather hide or excuse our sins hoping that it will make the guilt go away. Confession of sin is not just what our mouth says but what our heart is saying. This is the powerful first step to deliverance.

‘If we claim we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ – 1 John 1:8-9 (NIV)

Immediately we take sides with God, we receive forgiveness on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ. This is so aptly illustrated in David’s example when he sinned in 2 Samuel 12:13. Confronted with the conviction of God, David takes side with God against himself;

‘Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die’.

Notice that God’s immediate response through Nathan was forgiveness. God took away the sin and freed David from his guilt.

In verse 6 of Leviticus 5, we read ‘and the priest shall make atonement for him (the guilty one) for all his sins’. Can you see that God provides a way out of sin and guilt! Essentially God was saying bring this and do that and your guilt with be taken care of. He comes as the Great Physician to deal with the sin-sick heart. Even in the Old Testament God provides a way out from guilt for helpless men. God provided these sacrifices to make a way out of guilt. God was not in need of their goats or bulls, he was providing a way out of guilt. And those sacrifices were pointing to the Perfect Sacrifice to come – the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And there is no sin that he does not take away. Yes God’s will is that we live free from sin, but if we sin there is forgiveness and cleansing.

‘My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” – 1 John 2:1-2 (NIV).

In verse 13 of Leviticus 5 God says, ‘and he will be forgiven’. That is the goal of God – to provide a way out of sin and guilt. Listen, it is not God’s desire that any man should live in guilt. Once he has forgiven you, he has forgotten it. It is finished. What he forgives, he removes; it does not exist again.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us” – Psalm 103:11-12 (NIV 2010)

Picture the court-room again: You have sided with God and declared yourself guilty. Then God, whose righteous judgement had declared you guilty and worthy of punishment, now takes sides with you – not to say you are not guilty but taking your guilt upon himself! He steps forward and provides a Way out. He steps forward through Jesus and pays the price. You are free, there is no more condemnation! Let it sink in – God has forgiven and forgotten. He calls you now to leave the past behind, and to go on and grow into Christlikeness.

Oct 2011 Prayer Bulletin

Micah 7:7 says “Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.”

Please download the Oct 2011 Prayer Bulletin here.

Beloved, Greetings! Attached is CAPRO SA Prayer Bulletin for October 2011.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us last month. Last night we rounded up the three-day teaching conference at MUT in Durban and we were humbled by the way God changed lives. And we know it was because people were praying.

Prayer is simply looking to God. It is man’s clear expression of dependence on God and  our confess that we need divine intervention. And indeed it secures God’s help. Your prayers have been doing this for us. As you pause daily for a few minutes to look to God with these requests, He is using it to take the gospel to those who have never heard. God hears. God answers! So please pray for us this month. All we are asking for is a minute or two of your time daily to lift up this items.

It is meant to be printed out and folded into four so it can easily be inserted into one’s Bible to use at quiet time. Please feel free to forward it to those believers on your mailing list.

And let us all individually use it to pray in our family altar and quiet time too. As I said before I am really excited about the possibilities of what your prayer can do.

Thank you so much for your partnership

Blessings!
Chim

No More Condemnation

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” – Romans 8:1-2 (NIV 2010)

It is difficult to imagine the amount of guilt and condemnation that many live under, and I am not talking of unbelievers here, for a man without Christ is guilty whether he feels it or not. But I am referring to those of us who have experienced the new birth and are alive to God. For many of us, when we came to the Lord, we accepted that we are forgiven and our past is written off, but after years of the reality of falling short of expectations (both man’s and God’s), we become laden again with guilt.

A brother once told me how difficult he found many parts of the Old Testament (OT) to be, because he often felt condemned by the God of the OT who seemed to be out to judge every sin. Yet the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament. He hasn’t changed. He is and has always been the same loving and gracious One. The problem is, that when a man is struggling with guilt, everything, even the smallest rebuke, can reinforce condemnation. O how we need a fresh revelation of God’s love for us! The man who has a revelation of God’s love for him begins to see even God’s rebukes, corrections and disciplines as evidence of his love and acceptance.

‘And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” – Hebrews 12:5-6 (NIV 2010)

I don’t know what you have faced or are facing that makes you feel condemned by God. Know this: God does not condemn you. He accepts you as his son. Yet part of the manifestation of God’s love and acceptance for us is his rebuke. So we shouldn’t lose heart when he rebukes us.

God rebukes those he loves. That is why many Christian leaders are missing it in our day when they equate every form of rebuke with condemnation. God rebukes us in love and we can rebuke each other in love.

The problem is not whether we rebuke or praise each other. Our problem is because we are not free from guilt, so we filter everything through ‘the law of sin and death’ (‘I have sinned so I am condemned’). Because of this we are unable to enjoy the liberty of the fresh vision that ‘the law of the Spirit of life’ offers us in Christ (‘I have sinned but Christ gives me new life – new beginnings!’). Our problem is internal – it is guilt. That is why in the next few weeks I want to explore how to deal with guilt. And to buttress my point that the God of the OT is love, I will be taking my first text from one of the books my friend found condemning in the Old Testament.

I want to encourage you this week to be honest with yourself and ask ‘Do I experience constant guilt?’ Then tell it to God and ask him to teach you how to move from living by ‘the law of sin and death’ to living by ‘the law of the Spirit of life’.

A shoot will come up from that stump

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse…” Isaiah 11:1

This verse in Isaiah is the beautiful prophecy of the glorious coming of the Messiah, the Shoot of Jesse, our Lord Jesus Christ. What struck me here is that it says he will be as a shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse – not from the tree of Jesse but from the stump. The dictionary defines a stump as ‘the base of a tree trunk and its roots, after the tree has fallen or been felled’. This glorious shoot is going to come up from something that has fallen – a failure.

I find this very encouraging to my heart and I pray it encourages yours too for this is the way of our God – he knows how to bring something glorious out of a total mess. A stump always results from blows to a tree that cause it to fall. This is very much like us. Many of us have come through issues in life either as a result of our own fault or that of others that has left stumps in some areas of our lives. And it hurts to look at that stump and think of the tree it will never become. But hear what the Lord is saying to you today: “a shoot will come up from that stump”.

I don’t know where the stump lies in your life but I urge you to receive this word from God. You do not need to know how God will do it, I only believe God is asking you to hand over that stump and indeed your entire life to him, and “a shoot will come up from that stump”. A while ago I read the book “Me, Myself & Bob” – the gripping story of how Phil Vischer (creator of VeggieTales) watched his dream begin to grow and then was suddenly cut down into a stump. I was disturbed, but God was saying to me “a shoot will come up from that stump” too, because through it all Phil has come to a place where he has submitted the stump to God and is focused on walking with God. God specialises in giving us beauty for our ashes. He might not do it the way we imagined, but he will bring beauty out of that stump.

I urge you not to let your “Why, Lord?” or your feelings of guilt stand in the way. Don’t allow bitterness or unforgiveness to hinder you. God wants to bring out something gloriously beautiful from the stumps of our lives. Let’s believe him and co-operate with him by yielding to him and seeking only him.  I don’t know where your stump may lie – whether in your marriage, ministry, job, children or vision, but what I know God is saying to you is this: a shoot will spring up from your stump. Will you believe it?

Risky Love

“Men who have hazarded their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ”  Acts 15:26 (KJV)

As we read of the lives of God’s people in the Bible and in Church history, there are some who stand out – whose actions must appear either extremely heroic or else downright crazy. These were men and women who despised the very visible risks and dangers before them in their bid to be true to God and to his call on their lives. They all seem to have said, like Esther, “If I perish, I perish!”

In the 1950s there were five very promising young men in the USA who had all the opportunities and resources to stay home and make “something” of their lives. But instead they decided to follow God’s call upon their lives to go out to reach a small headhunting  tribe – the Auca Indians of South America – who had never heard of Christ. They all knew the risks involved – that there was a strong possibility that they could be killed; yet they went, and they were all killed even before they had the opportunity to preach to them. But through their death many of the Aucas today know Jesus Christ.

Like his Master, Mark’s life was short – 35 years and the carnal man like Judas would ask, “To what purpose is this waste?” (Matt 26:8 – KJV) . But the explanation Jesus the Lord gave, was, “for she loved much.” (Luke 7:47 – NIV) Now, we must understand that it is well pleasing to God when men “love not their lives unto death” for his sake. It is to our shame that we know very little of this kind of love in this age of the “bless me, bless me” gospel. But God seeks lovers – those who love much. Not in word alone, but in deed.

Let’s look now at four attributes of men with this kind of love, as portrayed in the lives of three of David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23 verses 13 to 17.

We are told first of all that these men “came to David”(v.13). They sought first fellowship and intimacy with the king. Men with this kind of love for the Lord are not primarily ambitious adventurers seeking to accomplish great feats. No, their first and all-consuming desire is, “that I may know him”. So they draw near. Any risk-taking or venture that does not spring from  intimacy with God  cannot please God.

Secondly, it was when they came close enough to David that those men were able to hear his longing – his heart-cry (v.15). Many of us today are unable to hear God’s heart-cry because we are too far from him. Too many unnecessary things have drawn our hearts away – “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things”. So many do not know God’s program for their lives, nor for their generation. Others have abandoned their initial calling and vision.

Thirdly, it comes as a sharp contrast to most of us today the way these men responded immediately to the king’s longing (v.16). (Note: David never requested his men to go on that dangerous mission.) Remember in Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah heard God telling of a need, to which he personally responded.  These men were not “specifically” called to do something. They could have felt ’not fully persuaded‘ that it was they who should do the work. Or they could have spent time deliberating on whether or not the task at hand was within ’their calling‘, as we often do today.

But love is much simpler. All that matters to a lover is the desire of the one he loves. The immediate reply of the lover is “Here I am, send me”. The lover starts to move in the direction of the Lord’s longing and trusts that the Lord would redirect him if the work were not for him.

Today we do the opposite. When we hear God’s longing or call we stay put or continue to move in the opposite direction hoping that God will not disturb us (most of the times he doesn’t seem to!). A brother who was well acquainted with the needs of the mission fields, told me it was more advisable (he must have meant safer) for one to go on pursuing his plans and leave God to direct if he wants one in the mission field. I told him that I felt it would be more pleasing to God if those who hear of the unreached would begin to head out to meet these needs, trusting God to redirect them if he has some other plan for them. Can’t God do that?

It’s the hardness of our hearts that makes us so cautious in responding to God’s heart’s desires. We are afraid of the consequences of God’s call on our lives. Yet “there is no fear in love”.

Lastly we see that they counted their Master’s desire more important than their safety, comfort, ambitions, or even their  own lives(v.16). They despised the risks and accomplished the task. Today we are taught that the more faith we have, the more our comfort will increase. We have learnt to love our lives. Yet these men “went in jeopardy of their lives” (v.17).

The heart-cry of God today is that all “the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14 – NIV). There are still many ethnic groups or peoples unreached with the gospel today in Africa and all around the world. Researchers tell us that there are over 6,900 such remaining unreached ethnic groups. And God calls “whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” He calls us to leave our comfort zone and go out to quench his thirst. If we love him we will earnestly seek to find out from him (even with fasting and praying), how we can be involved in praying, going and giving of our resources.

Jim Elliot, one of the five men who was killed, said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. Jesus said “He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” John 12:25 (KJV)

Do you love him as much as that?

A Sacrifice of Praise

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name” – Heb. 13:15 (NIV)

Praise becomes a sacrifice (costly) when we offer it to God in the midst of the contrary situations of life. It doesn’t really take much to praise God when things are fine or not too bad. But it is much harder to keep on praising God when our hopes are dashed and we are surrounded by troubles. Surely it is much easier at such times to blame rather than praise God. Yet learning to offer costly praise is crucial if we want to see God’s victory.

In Hebrew 13: 15 the Bible says that what we are doing by such a sacrifice is confessing his name. What that means is that as we continue to praise God even when all seems hopeless, we are confessing all that God is, over our situation. We are confessing that he is love, even though it looks as if he has abandoned us. We are confessing that he is all-wise despite the confusion that faces us. We are confessing his almighty power, even though our situation may look impossible. The bible says, “with such sacrifices God is pleased”(Heb.13: 16 – NIV), and it causes him to act mightily on our behalf.

That was what happened to Paul and Silas. They had been shamefully beaten by the people they had gone to help, and when they found themselves faced with a night of hopelessness in prison, they CHOSE to offer a sacrifice of praise. Their minds may have rebelled against it, but they decided not to miss the opportunity to offer God a sacrifice. We know how this their sacrifice went up as a sweet smelling savour to God, and provoked him to come down and shake their prison.

This kind of praise has very little to do with our emotions. God does not look at our feelings but rather at our willingness to praise him in spite of how we may be feeling. This kind of offering is one that comes from our heart and our will, but it must be expressed through our lips. Not only does it bring God’s intervention, but also the repeated offering of this kind of sacrifice builds character into us. So let’s not waste the opportunity that the troubles of life offer us. Let us offer unto God a sacrifice of praise!

In concluding here is a chorus from a song by Larnelle Harris:

“When praise demands a sacrifice,
I’d worship even then.
Surrendering the dearest things in life;
And if devotion cost me all,
He’d find me faithful to his call
When praise demands a sacrifice”

When God Brings Laughter

“Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah what he had promised…Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me'”.  Genesis 21:1& 6 (NIV)

It is very encouraging to read here that God ‘was gracious to Sarah’. Just think, it was the same Sarah who doubted and laughed, whom God now visited for good! Our God is gracious. In as much as he longs to see strong faith develop in us, he does not disown us when it becomes a struggle for us to keep on believing.

Sarah had laughed the year before when the angels reaffirmed God’s promise that this aged woman would bear a son, and that it would be within a year (Genesis 18:9-15). Now I can relate to Sarah’s disbelief. After over two decades of hoping against hope, it had become hard for Sarah not to doubt. It was not that she could no longer believe. It was just that she could no longer help doubting.

Beloved, God understands the weariness that comes to our soul from waiting and struggling to keep holding onto his promises to us. But he is gracious. He does not abandon us when we struggle with believing. Listen:

“If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” 2 Tim 2:13 (NIV)

Sarah said God had brought her laughter. She had been used to people laughing all around her. But it was never with her but at her. For years she had endured the jeers of men because of her obvious barrenness and it seemed at one point that things would never change. But we serve a gracious God who knows how to bring us laughter!

“And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” ‘ Gen 21:7 (NIV)

Who would have believed that Sarah’s case could ever have changed? But our God is gracious. He delights to bring us laughter!

Does your situation look impossible? Have you come to the point where it seems foolish to keep on believing that God’s promise to you will ever come to pass? Has it become a struggle for you to believe? Listen, don’t despair, our God is gracious. God has not forgotten you. At the right time he will bring laughter to you too. He knows how to make impossibilities possible. He will cause men to laugh with you too.

Part 3: Now show me your glory

“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,
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Part 2: Now show me your glory

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”’  Exodus 33:18 (NIV)

A man can know about God by looking at creation, but it takes divine revelation to know God. Unless God reveals himself to us there is no way we can know him. Yet God is eager to reveal himself to the man who seeks him. As we said last week, Moses’ hunger for God led him to ask for and to receive a revelation of God. Here is how the Bible records God’s response to Moses’ request:

“And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord! the Lord! a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth,

“Keeping mercy and loving-kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation” – Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV)

Divine revelation is another thing often misunderstood among us. We are often awed by the Bible teacher with a fresh insight into God’s Word, and we say he has revelation. Yet divine revelation is much more than acquiring insight, information or knowledge. For example the fact that I can understand and explain what God revealed to Moses in this passage does not guarantee that I have a revelation of God.

Divine revelation is what Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ASV);

‘But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit’

Paul is saying that as we behold (look at) God’s glory we are changed. As a man receives a revelation of God’s glory a transformation happens in him. He is being changed into the very glory he is beholding (or seeing). A revelation of God does something to a man. It is not just enlightenment that he gets, he gets a deposit of the very thing that is revealed to him. So when God revealed his glory to Moses, Moses did not just receive knowledge, he received a deposit of God. That was why his face was glowing when he came down from the mountain. Revelation rubs something off on us. So the test of a man’s depth of revelation is not how much he can explain truth, but how much of that truth has rubbed off on him. May the Lord help us understand this, so that we may not be content with pursuing anything less than a true revelation of God.

Simply put, true revelation works a transformation in the life of the recipient. And in the light of this truth, before we go on to examine the meaning of what God revealed to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7 next week, I want to encourage you to go through the text prayerfully.  Find a place you can be alone, acknowledge your desperate need to taste God and ask God for a revelation of the truth he revealed to Moses. You may need to do this several times this week and it is worth it.

I believe this was what David did. You cannot read Psalm 103 without coming to that conclusion. David must have gone aside with God and received a personal revelation of God through Exodus 34:6-7. You see him expanding on it in this Psalm, but beyond his exposition, you see the manifestation of that glory in his life. David knew more than most men about the loving kindness of God. So I encourage you to go through Exodus 34:6-7 prayerfully yourself until something of God rubs off on you.

“And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord! the Lord! a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth,

“Keeping mercy and loving-kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation” – Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV)

Now show me your glory

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”’  Exodus 33:18 (NIV)

If you want to know the heart of a man, listen to what he requests in prayer. And I am not talking about his public prayers for it is difficult for a man to be naked in public. But if we could eavesdrop on what a man prays for when he is alone with God, then we can have a peep into his heart’s pursuit. That is the privilege we have in this passage in seeing Moses’ heart from his prayer.

One cannot help but wonder at this request:

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”’

Think of the audacity of this request! Why did a man dare to ask for such a thing? Where did he learn that from? Indeed such things are only learnt in the school of God for those with hungry hearts. That’s why one cannot but marvel at the heart behind this prayer. Notice that this request comes immediately after God had said, in the preceding verse, that Moses’ earlier request that his Presence should go with them, was granted. That should have been enough to satisfy any ordinary man – God was guaranteeing that he would go with Moses and his people and was going to distinguish them from all other nations. But that was not enough for this ‘man after God’s heart’ – he longed for much more than anything God could give him – he longed for God himself hence the cry:

“Now show me your glory”

In these days when the most spiritual among us are waiting for what will drop from God’s hands, may the Lord grant us hearts that cry, “Now show me your glory!” It is not a matter of saying these specific words to the Lord, for there are many who use these words, but the Lord knows that they are not asking for the same thing that Moses was . They do not understand what the glory of God is. ‘God’s glory’ is one of those terms that is used much by Christians, but so often not fully understood.

What did God understand Moses to be requesting when he said, ‘Show me your glory’? We can tell from his response:

‘And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”’ vs 19 & 20 (NIV)

Let me rephrase God’s response to Moses: ‘You cannot see all of me. You can only see a part of me since no mortal can see me in my totality and continue to live here on earth.’ So God understood that Moses was asking to see God in his fullness. Just like the glory of a man is the man in his fullness, void of any impediment, so too the glory of God is God in his fullness – God as he is without anything to veil him from us. The glory of God is, God in his essence – it is God himself. So what Moses was asking for here was not what God can give, but God himself!

Of course, as the Lord goes on to say here, this is beyond what any finite mind can see, yet notice that God does not deny him his request, but rather grants Moses as much of himself as Moses could bear. God is pleased for a man to seek his glory, and those who seek like Moses did, are never disappointed by God, for God wants to reveal his glory to those who long for it.

So this was the prayer of Moses – the cry of his heart – ‘O Lord, reveal yourself to me as you are. Show me who you are. I want to know you. Intimacy with you is what I long for.’

I pray that the Lord will grant me, and you, a heart-cry like that.