Yesterday my message to Discovery Church was about hope; specifically about the hope found in Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. For some reason that subject is still rattling around in my head today, but from a slightly different perspective. As I was out for my morning excursion with Glenn and Cliff, it dawned on me that the message from Paul is more than a message of hope. It is a message of assurance. Faith, as defined in Hebrews 1:1, is “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” All the blessings and promises found in Ephesians (and to be exact, throughout the whole Bible) are the substance of – the reality of – what we hope for. They are, according to Watchman Nee, scriptural fact because we are in Christ. That means we have now moved beyond hope. Now we are resting in the blessed assurance of God’s truth.
I remember visiting my aunt Mildred in a nursing home a few days before she died. Mildred was my favorite aunt. She was kind, gentle, always smiling, always with encouraging words to share, and to me she was the perfect lady. She loved church, and it seemed to me that she was always there to attend services; to teach Sunday school; to volunteer or sometimes to clean. Whenever she could be of service, she was the first to step up.
I also remember our last conversation together, and I remember her being totally distraught. I asked if there was anything I could do, and she finally said to me in a weak, frail voice, “Danny, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I haven’t been good enough to get into heaven.” Now bear in mind, this was way before I was a believer, but I do remember becoming a bit nervous knowing I had nothing of any substance to share. “Oh, you’ll get in. You’re the best Christian I know.” (To be totally honest, I have no idea what that meant to me at the time.) But my point of sharing this story is the sadness of someone being that close to drawing their last breath, and not having any real assurance of what lies ahead.
Unfortunately that scenario is not unique. Many people spend their whole life in churches that keeps the focus on sin, and being a sinner. The message Sunday after Sunday is “you’d better watch out; you’d better be good because if you make God mad…He will punish you.” The message is about trying harder and harder to measure up to God’s standard based on your own effort, but when people fall by the wayside and feel like they’re “just not making it”, they are told, “you just don’t have enough faith.” Where is the hope in that message?
If you sit in a church that preaches the gospel of grace week after week and encourages you to develop a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ, consider yourself blessed. As I have mentioned in previous postings, there are two Biblical principles that I believe are the underpinning of everything written in God’s word. Those two principles are: God is love and God wants a relationship with each and every one of us…an eternal relationship. The enormity of those two truths are mind-boggling, to say the least, as we struggle to grasp them through our own finite thinking. But bear in mind that God knew we would struggle in our limited ability to grasp such majestic principles, that is why he spoke through the prophet Isaiah, 55:8-9, stating, “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, as far as the east is from the west, my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.” God also knew that in order for us to develop a relationship with him, he would have to reveal himself to us so we could come to know him. He chose to reveal himself to us through His word, The Holy Bible.
Since God is love; and since he wants a relationship with us; and since he has chosen a way to reveal himself to us, his desire is for us to experience His truth. That’s what the Word of God is…God’s Truth. (the term “word” comes from the original Greek word, “logos”, meaning logic, rational thinking or “the truth”.) Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. The source of everything we need to know about God is found in The Holy Bible, or the “living word” as it is sometimes called.
Every word spoken by the prophets or written by scribes was inspired by God. 2 Peter 1:21-22 states “…you must understand that no prophecy or scripture ever came about from the prophets themselves or because they wanted to prophesy. It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak the word of God.” 2 Timothy 3:16 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.” 1 Chronicles 28:9 states: “And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.” The highlighted part of that verse is a promise from God, and like almost all promises it begins with the first two words, “if you”. God’s promise to us is, “if we seek Him, we will find Him.”
As we continue to develop a relationship with God, the more we will experience the truth of His Word coming alive in our life. As one of my favorite Christian authors, Neal Anderson states, “you cannot have faith in something you don’t know anything about.” So as the truth of His word begins to manifest itself in our life, the more a solid foundation of faith develops. That foundation of faith – or truth – now determines how we are going to live our life, and with those choices comes a peace and serenity never before experienced.
I wish my aunt Mildred would have experienced that. I wish she would have known the truth of the gospel of grace; that when she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior she became a new creation in Christ; that she immediately was grafted into God’s family based on what Christ did for her at the cross, not anything she did or didn’t do. I wish she could have accepted that truth as scriptural fact; that the price for any sins she may have committed was already paid 2013 years ago. I wish she would have known that because of her decision to accept God’s gift of grace, she was assured eternal life with God, with Jesus and with all other believers.
Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 3:14,17-18, “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan (God’s gift of grace; his salvation package), I fall to my knees and pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. “…I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love really is” As we continue to develop that understanding, we also rest in our assurance that we are building our life on the truth of God’s word; that as His children we are heir to “all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm” (Eph. 1:3); to the same blessings Abraham received because of his faith (Gal. 3;9) and to all the other promises in the Bible…and they are numerous.
The fact is, God wants to bless us. In Eph. 2:10 we are referred to as God’s masterpiece. In Genesis we were referred to as his proudest creation; now we are his masterpiece. Why?…because now we are in Christ. We are no longer slaves to our sin nature. Now we are filled with the Holy Spirit (whose purpose is to empower us to fulfill God’s plan), so now we can become the person God created us to be.
As you can see, God’s plan for us is not only about what happens to us after we die, (which no doubt is comforting, and I wish my aunt would have had that assurance), but it is also about how to experience the blessings of his Kingdom on Earth right now; the same kingdom Jesus referred to when he taught his disciples to pray, “…Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done…” (Matt. 6:10) This is way beyond hope. This is the assurance that only comes from knowing and experiencing the Word of God as the truth, and nothing but the truth! Thank you God.
My question to you is: are you experiencing God’s truth coming alive in your life? If so, how?
May God bless ya, and feel free to respond with your thoughts. (click this title above at the top of the list of postings.)
Dan Presgrave, (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
Knocked my socks off with kneodelgw!