July 29 Esight, 2007

“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”—Matthew 11:30Last week I had the privilege of speaking each evening at the Redwood Campmeeting in the Northern California Conference. Each night we pursued a deeply intimate encounter with God and His character of Love. One evening after my meeting, I had the opportunity to meet a dear sister who will remain nameless, but she will forever stand out in my memory. The reason is that her statements and questions summed up what I have found too many of us feel.

She came to me quite emotional and said, “I’ve been listening to you each night, and I don’t understand! I have been a Christian for the last 15 years, and not only have I never heard the things you are sharing before, but I have never experienced the things you speak of either . It’s like I’m hearing the Gospel for the first time! My walk with Jesus has been hard! I’m barely hanging on.” She couldn’t understand why she had such a hard time being a Christian when Jesus said His yoke is easy. The more we talked, the more I began to understand why her experience had been so hard. She had a focus similar to the one the disciples had in the beginning of their walk with Jesus.

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” (John 6:28)

The disciples’ focus was on their own “doing.” In their misplaced emphasis on themselves, they had missed what Jesus’ mission was primarily about. The Apostle John wrote, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18) Ever since the time of the Garden of Eden, humanity has had the wrong picture of God. The fall of the human race was rooted in deception concerning God’s character. Jesus came to reveal or “explain” to us what the Father is truly like. Just as our fall came through believing the serpent’s misrepresentation of the Father, our redemption is deeply grounded in believing the truth concerning our Heavenly Father. Thus God’s primary objective is that we be focused on something much greater than our own doing!

Jesus responded to the disciples’ question, not by telling them what they must do, but by offering them a reorientation concerning what following God was all about.

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe….” (John 6:29)

Christianity is primarily about believing what Jesus stated concerning the character of God. All the “doing” comes as the result of what it is we believe about Him. You see, when we really begin to grasp the truth of what God is, amazement quickly turns into a deep, resonating gratitude and appreciation toward God for what He is. And this gratitude, this heart-level faith begins to change our orientation from our ceaseless self-centeredness to a passionate desire to live only for “Him who loved us.” (See 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15) Then all the “doing” rises out of this desire to love Him back. After that, the “doing” happens naturally and spontaneously.

Are you tired of feeling that following Jesus is so “hard”? Would you like your walk with Him to be “easier”? Are you tired of “doing” it all on your own? I leave you this week with the words of Jesus, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [come to know and believe the truth I am revealing about our Heavenly Father], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

July 8 Esight, 2007

The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.—Psalm 115:16

This past week, as our country celebrated our freedoms, I was contemplating what freedom really is and how we believe as Christians that God, in relation to Him and each other, has given us freedom universally as well.

The heavens are His, but he has given the earth to us. And although God is intimately involved in each of our lives, we human beings are the ones calling the shots down here–maybe not individually, but collectively as a whole. He grants freedom by default, unless we give Him control of certain situations in our lives. And yet this freedom must be understood. The control we give to God applies to us but not always to everyone else involved. Let me explain. We want a world where God won’t make us love Him but will make everyone else love us. We want a world where God won’t control our actions but will control the actions of others around us. What we still have yet to understand is that the abuse of this God-given freedom on our part has caused, whether intentionally or unintentionally, whether directly or indirectly, countless pain in the lives of others, as well as more misplaced blame upon God, than any other misunderstanding that exists.

Everything that happens on this tiny planet falls somewhere on a continuum between Divine control and human freedom depending on how much control those involved have given Him of a certain situation. Sometimes His hands are loose, and sometimes His hands become tied. His will is not always done. He does not always get His way. And yet, we find an interesting characteristic in ourselves as free moral beings when things go wrong. We blame God for things He hasn’t done. We blame Satan for things he hasn’t done. And, in the end, we take credit for things we don’t even have the ability to pull off on our own.

Why would God give us this freedom if it has such potential to go wrong. Without oversimplifying the answer, we must remember that you cannot have the potential for great good without also the potential for the opposite. And secondly, without freedom one cannot experience love. And to love is the purpose for which we were created (see Genesis 1:26 and 1 John 4:8).

And so this week, in the wake of celebrating our national freedoms, let us also keep in mind our universal God-given freedoms. May we remember that evil prevails when good men fail to act and pray the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

*For more on this subject, please listen to To Love and Be Loved, Why Did God Allow This To Happen To Me? and God At War at:

https://renewedheartministries.com/resources.asp?t=sermons

July 1 Esight, 2007

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” —Isaiah 43:2, KJVI would like you to notice the phrase, “Thou shalt not,” in the above passage. What’s most interesting is that in this verse, that phrase is perceived as a promise. Why is this significant? Because this is the exact same phrase used in Exodus 20.

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image . . .

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them . . .

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain . . .

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy . . .

Honour thy father and thy mother . . .

Thou shalt not kill . . .

Thou shalt not commit adultery . . .

Thou shalt not steal . . .

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour . . .

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house,

thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife . . .

(Exodus 20:1-17 KJV)

Why is it then that, when we read the phrase in Exodus 20, we perceive it as a prohibition, if the phrase used in Isaiah is a promise? Could the Ten Commandments actually be ten promises? Absolutely! These were never ten rules God expected us to live up to, but rather ten principled descriptions of how we would live if we could simply encounter God and His great love for us. By encountering His love, that same love is awakened in us, and love is the fulfillment of the law. This is why the Ten Commandments do not begin with the first “Thou shalt not” but the revelation of God’s love for Israel in bringing them out of bondage. It is by believing in His love and His love for us alone that the following principles will manifest in our life. Rather than trying to keep His commands, try focusing on His great love for you this week, and see if that awakens in you the other-centeredness described in those ten holy precepts.

“All His biddings are enablings.” (Ellen White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 333)

“The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side, as from the mercy side.” (Ellen White, Letter 96, 1896.)

“The ten commandments,” “Thou shalt,” and, “Thou shalt not,” are ten promises . . .” (Ellen White, Bible Echo, June 17, 1901 par. 3)