The Finality of Judgment

And He said to me “It is done!” Rev 21:6a

“Sir, just a reminder, all sales are final. There will be no refunds, exchanges or returns.” These words of the sales clerk set me doubting my judgment about the “good deals” that I thought I had picked up. Somehow the idea about a decision (that in this country at least) I have come to accept as temporary, made me uncomfortable when I realized that my decision was irreversible. There was finality to it. There is something about the human mind that abhors finality. Finality implies that there is a finish point, a point of no return, a point where one has to live with the choices one has made. It is a place where one must relinquish control.

In the fascinating book of Revelation, as John gets a glimpse into the end of all history, he hears the words of ultimate finality – “It is done!” It is final! There is no reversing of decisions. There is no time to change our minds. The validity of the phrase “there is always tomorrow” has ended. All humanity must now trust in the judgments made, decisions taken, and relinquish control.

John had once heard another cry of finality. It was the dying words of the Son of God as John stood at the foot of the cross – “It is finished”. Now, the aged John, exiled in the island of Patamos, hears another cry of finality from the resurrected Son of God. “It is done!” There was a finality of salvation, and there is a finality of judgment! The Bible is unique in this aspect that all of what it suggests, all the actions that it commands, and all of its message revolves around these two inexorable cries. “It is finished” and “It is done!”. All of the Old Testament culminates in the first, all of the New, looks to the second. The first was an assurance to all humanity of the love and mercy of God, the second will resound as the cry of the justice and judgment of God. Those who look at the cross and hear the Savior cry “It is finished”, and submit to its finality will not fear, nor have to second guess their decision at the sound of “It is done!”

It is interesting that even in that harsh finality of judgment, the verse betrays the love that sounds it, for the verse ends with the words “I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” May I implore you to cast your anchor in the first finality, the finality that salvation was provided by a loving God who sacrificed His own Son that we may live, so that the words, “It is done!” may become a sound of joy. And if you have already cast your anchor in the Savior, then let us “Establish our hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand” and live in this light of finality.

Danesh Manik

The Rich Fool

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21

This parable has a very perturbing quality about it because of the picture it paints of this shrewd, successful and a visionary farmer. It is too real. It seems uncomfortably close to our own thoughts. Had it not been for verse 21, we might have not found very much fault with this apparently very respectable successful farmer.

But the Lord uses words that He expressly prohibits us under a penalty to use against each other. “Thou Fool” says the Lord about him. Surely the Lord does not call him a fool for merely being rich. Yes the Bible warns of the dangers of wealth, but I don’t see it putting a premium on poverty. Nor does the Lord call him a fool for dishonest gain. “The ground yielded plentifully” it says. And, surely the Lord is not calling him a fool because he wants to save for the future. The Lord spoke of stewardship, He told His disciples to even gather the leftovers after He fed the five thousand. So why, does the Lord call this successful rich farmer a fool?

I suspect the answer is found not in this man’s doing but in this man’s thinking. This man thinks as if God does not exist. No matter what his creed or personal theology, he is a practical atheist! He uses the pronouns I, My, Mine over nine times in two thoughts – this is the grammar of atheism, and therefore the vocabulary of a fool. In a sentence, he lives without a sense of obligation. Specifically without a sense of obligation to God. Actually he lives without a sense of obligation to anyone but himself. He has come to this mistaken yet very popular belief that he is a man of his own making. He is his own master! He deserves his rights, his freedom. His thoughts think very richly towards himself, but not richly toward God.

Of all the subtle dangers of the desensitization of the human heart, I think the one that does the greatest harm is the subtle erosion of this sense of obligation to the Creator. We have confused possession with ownership. Pride, lack of thankfulness, and eventually discontent take the place. One of the distinctions of humanity that seperates us from animals is this sense of obligation to the Creator, that wonder of the created universe that so marvelously sustains us.

In his book Folk Psalms of Faith, Ray Stedman tells of an experience H.A. Ironside had in a crowded restaurant. Just as Ironside was about to begin his meal, a man approached and asked if he could join him. Ironside invited his to have a seat. Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer. When he opened his eyes, the other man asked, “Do you have a headache?” Ironside replied, “No, I don’t.” The other man asked, “Well, is there something wrong with your food?” Ironside replied, “No, I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat.”
The man said, “Oh, you’re one of those, are you? Well, I want you to know I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don’t have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in!” Ironside said, “Yes, you’re just like my dog. That’s what he does too!”

I pray that God restores to us today that sense of obligation, that richness toward God!

1. Ray Stedman, Folk Psalms of Faith.

Can God Trust You?

“… many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not entrust himself unto them, because he knew all men” John 2:23,24It is interesting that at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, we find that “many believed in His name.” They put their trust in Him when they were convinced by the supernatural events, by the miracles that they saw. They believed! Believers often think of “trusting in God” as the pinnacle of spiritual maturity. The more one trusts God, the more faith one has, and therefore one is more spiritually mature. But it is interesting that John points out that while they believed, Jesus did not commit himself to them. It is interesting to note that John uses the same word he uses for “they believed” in the following “entrust” or “commit”. While it is absolutely crucial to put your trust in God for without faith it is impossible to please God, it is only the beginning. The starting question may be “Do you trust God?”, but the real question is “Can God trust you?”

Jesus could not trust them because “he knew all men”. He knew the fickleness of the heart. He knew that as the temporary effects of a supernatural event faded away in the days to come, as the life in all its monotony, and trials and triumphs would present itself, the “belief” would relegate itself to a corner of their mind, and they would continue to live life as they had done before they “believed in His name.” Jesus could not trust in their consistency and conformity of life to their belief. The cornerstone of genuine trust is consistency. By seeing the miracles, they believed in Him, but they merely believed in His ability. Unshakeable trust requires believing in His immutability. It is because God is immutable, it is because He is unchangeable, it is because He is consistent, we can put our trust in Him. Unless the Gospel permeates more than our mind, and brings about a life of consistency that can be trusted, God cannot reciprocate our trust. Our trust in Jesus leads to a life that can be trusted by Jesus.

You can, with the same certainity of the saints of all the ages, trust in the immutability of Jesus, in the consistency of His grace and love today. But the real question is can Jesus trust you today? Can He count on your faithfulness today? Can He trust that you will respond to offences with forgiveness today? Can He trust your heart, your mind, your actions, and your thoughts to be consistent to His will today? Can He entrust Himself to you? Jesus was never interested in anyone’s opinion of Him, but their obedience to Him!

Danesh

Apple of His Eye

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15

Yesterday, I mentioned how this magnificent declaration resounds of God’s redemptive character (To read yesterday’s devotional, click here). But I see yet another wonderful revelation of God’s character in this “Proto-Evangel”. I not only see God’s intervening redemption for the fall, but God’s intensely personal identification with the fallen. God makes the deception perpetrated against man as a personal matter. He takes up the cause of the rebellious man as a father takes up the cause of his child, even when the child is at fault. God puts himself between man and the serpent, and declares “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.”

Those whom He made in his image, he does not abandon the moment they shatter that image. The consequences of this shattering are real, painful, long, and costly, but in the midst of it stands God, taking up the cause of the fallen man, and taking on the real and brutal brunt of the fall. When all things justify His distance, we find Him that He is close by.

There is a book of the Bible that is my favorite, and in that book there is a chapter that I love the most, and in that chapter there is a portion of the verse that never fails to give me encouragement. It is the beginning of verse 36 in chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. It starts with the words, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God?..” If you read the whole story you realize the impact of these words. This man born blind has experienced the greatest event in his life. Jesus, in passing by, has performed the greatest miracle – the man can now see! This has raised the curiosity of friends, the irk of the religious authorities, the distancing of his own family. Alone he struggles to face this abandonment of family, and the questions of the religious authorities, while trying to make sense of who this Jesus really is. Ultimately he is cast out of the last society he knew as his own, with nothing but the miracle of sight to console him, and the faint understanding of the Man who healed him. And at that moment we read that Jesus hears he has been cast out and, in the midst of a personal peril (as the last part of chapter 8 suggests) goes and finds him! In the midst of the crisis of a complete abandonment, Jesus looks for him and finds him, and makes this a personal matter. In the subsequent verses we read the perhaps some of the most direct words of condemnation to the proud pharisees found in the Gospels – “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” Yet, once again, He has taken up the cause of the outcast, and made it a personal matter.

Providing redemption from the fall is an act of the loving God, but personally identifying with the fallen is an act of the loving Father. Brother, Sister, do you feel abandoned? betrayed? under the chastening hand of the Lord? Then can I remind you to take courage, and revel in that limitless grace. If you are a child of God , then you can be assured that the loving Father takes up your cause as a personal matter.

“For thus says the Lord of hosts…. for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. ” Zechariah 2:8Danesh Manik

The blessing in a curse

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15

In the very first book of the Bible, at the very outset, after the first human rebellion, we encounter this declaration that theologians call the “Proto-Evangel”, or the “First Gospel”. A statement that does not make sense unless understood in the light of the Cross. Through the ages, it has cheered the hearts of Christians who have seen that the “Cross” was the bruising of the heel, and it was a gateway to the ultimate triumph of God, and their salvation.

But there is another thing that is very significant. This verse occurs right in the centre of a series of curses. The three parties to the rebellion are facing God – the serpent, Eve, and Adam; And God addresses them in that order. The serpent is cursed, but before the punitive action is announced against humanity for their great rebellion, God puts a promise of a glorious redemptive blessing! God’s work, even His disciplinary work, is towards a redemptive purpose! Before the effects of the descent of man are enumerated, the blueprint of the stairway of his ascent is deliberated!

Even in His curse there lies a blessing. I think King David understood this better than anyone else and therefore said, “Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” 2 Samuel 24:14. In contrast, a skeptic commenting on sufferings of Job writes, “Christians have been tricked into loving [God] because they believe this God-king, can do anything he wants to do, call it good, and then demand that his subjects worship him. But I say no. This God is merely bigger than us, if he exists, and that’s all. He’s the biggest boy on the block. He can push us around, cause us to suffer, and punish us all he wants to. But I will not be tricked into loving and/or worshipping this bully.” 1

At the center of a heart that can genuinely trust God in all things is the unshakeable understanding that God’s work is always redemptive. All the questions like “why God, why me?” are put to rest if we can only catch a glimpse of the redemptive character of God. Throughout the pages of the Old Testament we see a faint glimpse of this until its fullness is strikingly revealed in the pages of the Gospel, as Jesus cries out on the cross, “It is finished”.

Jesus’ death and resurrection is the final testament to God’s redemptive character, and unless we grasp this shining truth, we will never be able to trust God completely.

Danesh

References
John Loftus, “Why Trust God?” on debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com

The Faithful Friend

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.” John 15:15

The alleged dying words of Aristotle, ironically the philosopher who wrote some of the most original reflections on friendship, were “O my friends, there is no friend.” Aristotle did not know Jesus.Jesus in his parting address to his disciples in John 15 says some of the most cheering words a heart can hear. “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.” And, what a friend He is! Earlier He says, that “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends.” Facing death is most we can do for our friends, but we are destined to die one day or another. But Jesus died when He did not have to. Here was a true friendship. David lamented that “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. (Psalm 41:9, KJV)”. Friends on earth are a great blessing, but a true and faithful friend like Jesus there never was. By elevating us to friends, Jesus invites us to a greater level of intimacy. To our masters we may only be so free, we may only reveal so much, but a friend is a confidante. With a true friend I can reveal my innermost feelings, my deepest struggles, my strangest thoughts.

Have you taken up the offer of friendship from Jesus? In Him you will find a true and an everlasting friend. Joseph Scriven, an Irishman, lost his fiancé on the night before his wedding when she drowned. He then moved to Canada, and became a servant to the underprivileged and physically challenged. He lost another fiancé to illness and death there. All his life, he faced difficulties, and in the midst of it all he found that there was a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and penned one of the perennially favorite hymns.

O What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and grief’s to bear
….
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer

O my friends, there is indeed a Friend. His name is Jesus!
Danesh

Bible references from New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982

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The good man in Hell

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32

In his book, “Letters to a Young Lawyer”, Alan Dershowitz, the controversial ex-Harvard Law School professor, argues, “For most people, the question why be good–as distinguished from merely law abiding–is a simple one. Because God commands it, because the Bible requires it, because good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.”1 Starting there, he forms an hypothesis that “being good because it is what God desires is actually the same as being a “calculating hypocrite”. He says, “..any god worth believing in would prefer an honest agnostic to a calculating hypocrite.” 1

I am not familiar with all that informs Mr. Dershowitz’s worldview, but I am convinced of one thing that he is wrong about. The Bible (and the only one to do so) does not posit that “good people go to Heaven, and bad people go to Hell”. In fact it does exactly the reverse. It is one of the most fascinating paradoxes of the Christian faith. In answering the Pharisees why he was hanging around the “bad people”, Jesus answers that it is because the sick who need the physician, not the healthy. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus is saying that it is precisely the people who think that they are good are the ones doomed to an eternal hell. The Bible actually condemns the “good man” to Hell, and sends the “bad man” (who recognizes his badness and who runs to God for mercy) to Heaven.

In another instance Jesus gives an example of two men going to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9). One, a religious leader, a fine example of the “good” man, and the other a despised tax collector, which even we have a hard time disagreeing, a fine specimen of a “bad” man. The religious leader very happily is grateful for being so “good” and not “bad” as this other fellow, while the tax collector can hardly look up, and feels that he is really “bad”. Jesus passes the verdict, and says that the “bad” man came out of that worship service justified rather than the “good” man.

Any religion, any philosophy, any worldview that starts with the essential goodness of man is doomed to ultimately elevating man to be God. It is not surprising that Mr. Dershowitz ends up with a conclusion that “The true hero–the truly good person–is the believer who risks an eternity in hell by refusing an unjust demand by God” 1 Suddenly God is “unjust” because we decide what is “just”. God has now to adapt his goodness to our standard. Man is god, and God must now redeem himself! No wonder the Lord said, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” It is only at the Cross we find an answer. It is at the cross we find the essential goodness of God redeeming the essential sinfulness of man. It is where repentant bad men & women find true Goodness and true Life! It is where the justice and love of God meet to offer eternal life to an undeserving humanity. The Christian Cross is the eternal symbol of a Good God dying for a man gone bad, and all the “lost” who find their way to the cross find salvation. May you find your way today!

Danesh

1. from “Letters to a Young Lawyer. © 2001, by Alan Dershowitz”
All Bible references from New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982

The Significance of the Intangible.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.” Rev 20:11,12

Is it not quite sobering to think that on that last and final day we call the Great White Throne Judgement, “heaven and earth fled away”, but “books were opened”. What seemed of great significance to humanity vanished, but what seemed insignificant was retained. What seemed tangible fled away, what was intangible was preserved. What we can see, touch, feel, and own – the matter vanished, but the thoughts, the actions, the decisions with moral ramifications were recorded for eternity, and echoed before all humanity. Imagine this! The significant scientific development in the theory of relativity by Einstein was irrelevant, as all of humanity stood suspended before the Great White Throne. The discovery of electricity paled into insignificance at the brilliance of that Throne. The invention of the telephone and the microphone as the great enabler of communication became obsolete as books were opened, and contents communicated in some great supernatural way. The kind words, the cruel words, the harsh act, the gossiping act of the past long forgotten was now vividly recollected while the great building, the dream house, the valuable possession “fled away”. If there is anything we learn from this glimpse into the final hour of all human history, it has to be this: that our intangible moral decisions are the most significant decisions we will ever make, and the tangible achievements that we can point out to are destined for insignificance. I pray we ask God to stamp this day of the Great White Throne indelibly in our minds, so we will never be tempted to have this myopic perspective of life. In the economy of eternity, it is this intangible that is so significant!
Danesh

The Frustrated Enemy

The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country….The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. Exodus 12:33-36

God asked Moses to speak to Pharaoh to ” Let my people go”. In response, Pharaoh increased the burden on the Israelites. When they cried out and Moses came before God, asking him a question, which would be on top of our minds when situation seems to worsen as a result of prayer – Why God, why?’. The Lord God Almighty had only one answer for Moses, ” Know that I am Jehovah”. The Lord wants us to know, today, that in all this He is Jehovah, – Shalom, Nissi, Jireh, Roohi, Makadesh, Rapha – He is El Shaddai, all- powerful God.

What happened ahead is most exciting. There came a time, when the same Egyptians who would not let the Israelites go, gave them there very own jewelry just because they wanted to see the Israelites go! The time is coming when it will not be that we have to ask the enemy to let us go, that we have to ask for deliverance from the attacks, but the counter offensive would be so powerful in prayer, that the enemy would not only allow us to go, but would restore seven fold, and it will be this same enemy, who would cry out like the Egyptians, Take what you want, but PLEASE GO! There is coming a time where, we do not have to cry for deliverance, but the enemy is so very suffocated by our prayers that he says, whatever it takes, Just Go. More than us, the enemy is interested in our leaving, our situation changing. Let us just remember God Almighty’s answer to Moses, ‘Know I am Jehovah’.

Let us today with one mind claim God’s word, “Not even a hoof will be left behind in Egypt”. I believe that the Lord wants to encourage each of us today, whatever our situation may be, what ever the level of physical attack may be on us, as we worship our El Shaddai God, we will not be tired asking the enemy to leave, but enjoy our prayer, as we see the enemy being so tormented by the prayer, that the enemy says, “Enough, I cannot bear it any more, Take what you want, just leave !” I pray that the word of God will indeed be Spirit and Life to each of us, and we will shout a shout of victory in our personal lives.
If we ask our heavenly Father for bread He does not give us a stone!

Kamal Manik,
Associate,
Jesus For Indians Ministry