October 14 Esight, 2007

“So through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all.” (Romans 5:18, New American Bible)This week is Part 2 of our two-part devotional. I’d like you to first get a grasp on some very specific words Paul uses in the first five chapters of the Book of Romans. In order to do this, I have shown below the linguistic origin of the words themselves.

The foundation is the word: Right (Dike, Greek).

On this word, there are three words built: Righteous (the adjective Dikaios), Righteously (the adverb Dikaios), and Righteousness (the noun Dikaiosune).

Then from the adjective Righteous (Dikaios) is built the verb Rightify (or more properly, justify, Dikaioo).

And then upon this verb Rightify (Dikaioo) are built two more Greek nouns: a Decision (Dikaioma) and Acquittal (Diakosis).

Why take the time to trace all these words out? Watch what all this reveals: When Paul uses the verb above Rightify (or more properly, justify), he is referring to a psychological and emotional “making righteous” of the one who has believed. It is a very real experience of one going from a sense of guilt and shame to peace (Romans 5:1), from an overwhelming feeling of condemnation to justification. This is where a person allows God to remove the life-crushing load of guilt from their past mistakes that they’ve been under in their conscience. Before one will ever be set free behaviorally, they must first be set free psychologically and emotionally. But what’s interesting is that this very real experience occurs via faith. But what is this faith built upon? Or rather, what is the person believing that causes them to experience this cleansing of their conscience from sin’s guilt and shame (Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 3:21)?

This is where the amazing news comes in. The answer is found in Romans 5:16-19.

Just as Adam’s sin brought mortality or death upon all of us (see last week’s devotional), from Jesus’ death on Calvary, “The free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.” (Verse 16), This word “justification” is Dikaioma. It’s a decision that God has made concerning every person. And this decision is a gift given to all. What is this decision? Paul goes on to say that this decision is a “gift of righteousness” (Verse 17). But what is the decision? The answer is to be found in Verse 18: “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” The word here for justification is Diakosis or Acquittal. God has made a decision regarding every man, woman, and child—and that decision is acquittal, charges have been dropped! He has “canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). There two definitions for Acquittal: One is that a person who is not truly guilt is found innocent and is therefore acquitted. This definition does not apply to us. The other definition is where the prosecuting part simply drops the charges thus the defendant goes free. What Romans 5 is saying is that God has dropped all charges against us. He has relinquished all rights to repayment and has simply forgiven. He has ripped the charges up and nailed them to the cross!

Yet, this decision is a gift. And like any gift, although it has been given to every person, it can be accepted or rejected. His hope is that you receive it (Verse 16) and let this gift of forgiveness remove our guilt and shame and make us psychologically and emotionally righteous (Verse 19).

But before you rush off to go about your week, I’d like you to consider the fact that we are not innocent. We are guilty; the charges have simply been dropped. And as in all cases where the person who has been wronged lets the offending party off the hook, it costs them something to do so. They must choose to rise above the violation and willingly bear whatever loss the offending party inflicted. The forgiver always pays a price to drop the so-called charges. What I would like you to ponder this week is the question of the ages. It is the question that reveals forever what type of a God we worship. The answer to this question wins us at a heart level and truly changes our lives. The question is, “What did it cost God, the one we have wronged, to let us off the hook, to drop the charges, to forgive, to acquit every person who had ever sinned against Him?” The answer can only be found in closing moments of Calvary. Take time to ponder those closing scenes this week, dear reader, and allow them to reveal to your heart what is truly in God’s heart toward you. Having loved you, He loved you till the end.

October 7 Esight, 2007

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men—Romans 5:12.Or as Paul states a few verses later, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men . . .” (Romans 5:18). Throughout Christian history, many crazy ideas have existed about God, based on a misunderstanding of what these verses seem to be saying concerning our relationship to Adam and his original sin. This week I’d like you to ponder what I believe these verses are truly saying to us. This is Part 1 of a two-part devotional, so please don’t miss next week’s.

You see, Adam was created with conditional immortality—immortality that he lost through the fall. “Immortality, promised to man on condition of obedience, had been forfeited by transgression” (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 533). Moses shares with us the same picture: “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.’” Man became mortal. Over and over again in the scriptures, the contrast is made between “mortal man” (Psalm 146:3) and God, who “alone possesses immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16). But what does this mean for us?

“Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess” (White, p. 533).

This means that Adam could not pass on what he himself did not have. Thus we are born mortal, destined to die. So why spend time pointing out the obvious? Because we have failed to realize what this means to us. Even if we could live a perfect life, never sinning by even so much as a thought, we would still die. We still would not live forever. We are born having a date with death, and no amount of obedience can make us what we are not. This mortality we got from our predecessors Adam and Eve.

I remember sharing this one day in a class I was teaching, and one of the students could not take it any longer. He finally stood up and blurted out to the rest of the class, “If that’s true . . . then . . . then . . . then, there’s nothing I can do to save myself.” I looked back at him, grinned, and said, “flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you.” Follow carefully.

“Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; and there could have been no hope for the fallen race, had not God, by the sacrifice of his Son, brought immortality within their reach . . . only through Christ can immortality be obtained” (White, p. 533).

There is only one way we can have immortality, and that is to come into possession of the One who alone is Immortal! And praise God, that “One” has been given to the world!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave [to each person in the world] His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This week, why don’t you take some time to thank Him for that marvelous gift?

September 30 Esight, 2007

In the next few weeks I will be conducting once again our Life Unlimited series which is a gospel centered evangelistic series offered by RHM. I would like to share with you this week some thoughts that are currently on my heart. I am convinced that our evangelism needs to—first and foremost—introduce people to God and His love for them. Through answering their questions and meeting their needs, we need to not only show them His love, but also lead them into deeper and more personal experiences with that love. This is what changes lives. Our Adventist message was never intended to simply spread intellectual, doctrinal facts. This may produce members that are convinced, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are converted. Conversion happens as we encounter God’s love for us, as we “perceive with [our] hearts.”(John 12:40) Then the miracle of the new birth takes place, through which we “no longer live for ourselves, but for Him”(2 Corinthians 5:15) who loved us and gave His life for us. Our message is to be centered in helping others “see” what God is truly like; and nothing in my life has contributed more to my understanding of God’s love than the truths of the Adventist message. It’s powerful! It’s heart-awakening! It’s life-changing!

Our understanding of the Sabbath teaches us how to “rest” in God’s love. (Hebrews 4:9)

Our understanding of the nature of man teaches not only what happens when we die, but more importantly what happened when Christ “tasted death for us all.” (Hebrews 2:9)

Our understanding of mortality and immortality, points back to the Gospel, through which life and immortality have been brought to light. (2 Timothy 1:10, NLT) For as “in Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Our understanding of the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), reveals that God did not send Jesus to save us from Himself, but rather to “save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

Our understanding of the fate of the lost reconciles the Bible’s teachings on hell with God’s claims to be a God of love.

Our understanding of free will, the Great Controversy, and the cross continues to balance how God could love us so passionately, and yet still cannot guarantee that we will never suffer pain.

All of these truths piece together like a giant puzzle where a picture of a God whose chief attribute is love mysteriously emerges, overwhelming our hearts, answering the questions that prevented our hearts from trusting in His love, and setting us free run in the expanse of His goodness and mercy, to love Him the way He is in love with us. (This may not be the context that introduced you to the Adventist message, but this is the intended purpose of our teachings.)

A wise author wrote, “The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,—the Son of God uplifted on the cross. This is to be the foundation of every discourse given by our ministers.” (Gospel Workers, pg. 315) “Of all professing Christians, Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in uplifting Christ before the world. The proclamation of the third angel’s message calls for the presentation of the Sabbath truth. This truth, with others included in the message, is to be proclaimed; but the great center of attraction, Christ Jesus, must not be left out . . . The sinner must be led to look to Calvary . . . believing in His mercy.” (Gospel Workers, pg. 156)

Thirty years ago a woman had a child out of wedlock. She was told by her pastor that both she and her bastard son were destined to burn in hell with no hope of eternal salvation. This woman came to me after the seventh meeting of my series in Clarksburg. That night’s topic had been God’s prevenient forgiveness for us. She told me, with tears streaming down her face, how she (for the first time in those thirty long years) truly felt God’s forgiveness and she now believed that both she and her son could go to heaven. We prayed right there and changed that “could” into a “would.”

Dear fellow Adventist, this is what we are to be about! Not just changing people’s minds, but changing their hearts! “Those who wait for the Bridegroom’s coming are to say to the people, ‘Behold your God.’ The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love.” (Christ Object Lessons, pg. 415)

September 16 Esight, 2007

Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation through faith in His blood.—Romans 3:24-25The term “propitiation” has caused much consternation throughout the years of Christian history. A misapplication of this term has conjured up pictures of a bloodthirsty God needing to be appeased. This picture of God has rightly been resisted and even rejected by some, and yet, the Bible does use the terms “propitiation” and “appeasement.” If these terms are not to be applied to the idea of appeasing the anger of a vengeful God, how are we to understand them? Let us begin by first looking at what these terms actually mean.

Propitiation – a gift given with the intent to appease wrath, conciliate, or win the favor of somebody or something; to appease one offended and render him/her favorable.

Appease – to pacify somebody, especially by acceding to demands, to satisfy or relieve something, especially a physical appetite, to make quiet, to calm, to reduce to a state of peace, to still, or to pacify, as to appease the tumult of the ocean or of the passions or to appease hunger or thirst.

We have wrongly assumed that what was needed to be appeased was an angry God, and thus, Christ’s sacrifice was a propitiation to God calming His anger. But I would like you to consider the above verse with which we began. Propitiation only occurs through faith. This would mean that 1. God is angry and 2. He is not appeased until we believe in Christ’s sacrifice. Then and only then would His anger toward us end. However, this would mean that even Christ’s sacrifice does not quench His anger toward us, not until we believe in that sacrifice. Is God really harboring ill feelings toward us until we believe? On the contrary, the Bible states that God so loved this world that He gave Christ as a propitiation. God could not possibly be the One being appeased because He is the One giving the propitiation, not receiving it.

“God is not a man; He does not cherish enmity, nor harbor a feeling of revenge. It is not because God has an angry feeling in His heart against a sinner that he asks forgiveness, but because the sinner has something in his heart. God is all right, the man is all wrong; therefore God forgives the man, that he also may be all right” (Waggoner, 1894).

Then, what is it that is being appeased? Remember our definition. A propitiation does not have to be offered to “someone,” but it can also be given to conciliate “something.”

You see, when we sin, this sin begins to cause our conscience psychological and emotional torment in our conscience. If we are not released from this torment, one day, we will enter into the presence of God, and this torment will not lessen, but intensify. Looking into the eyes of God we would see all that He is while simultaneously understanding how out of harmony we are with what we see in Him. This disharmony would produce such a state of guilt and shame that if we were left alone to bear this, it would crush out our life. This is why the presence of God is lethal to sinners. It drives home the full realization of our own sin along with the guilt and shame of our sin, and it is this guilt and shame that we are unable to bear. It is this same guilt and shame from our sin that crushed out the life of Christ.

“Calvary alone can reveal the terrible enormity of sin. If we had to bear our own guilt, it would crush us (Ellen White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings p. 116)

“The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the Sinless One has taken our place. ‘The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ Isa. 53:6. He has borne the burden of our guilt.” (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages p. 328)

You see just as the condemnation we feel in our conscience is the condemnation caused by our sin, justification is what we experience in our conscience as a result of our acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice in our place. God is not an angry God needing to be appeased; rather, we have a tormented conscience demanding restitution, which needs to be appeased. The condemnation we feel as a result of our sin is not that which is transpiring in God’s heart toward us, but that which is transpiring in our conscience toward ourselves. If we were to bear the full weight of this guilt and shame, it would destroy us! Thus, justification is not where God’s attitude is changed toward us, but instead, it is where our conscience is cleansed of the condemnation we brought on ourselves through our sin. It is where we, in our conscience, are brought from a state of guilt and shame, to peace and forgiveness as a result of receiving the sacrifice of Christ in our place. We pass from a state of feeling condemned to feeling at peace or rather justified. Therefore, the ideas of propitiation and appeasement need not fill our hearts with fear of an angry God. Instead, these terms should inspire within our hearts deep resounding gratitude toward the One who would not leave us to suffer the fate of being crushed by the guilt of what we have done, but instead gave Himself in the person of His Son as a propitiation to appease our guilty conscience demanding restitution. (Have you ever been plagued by a guilty conscience before?) Praise God for His self-sacrificing love! In the following passages, please picture God, not as angry and needing to be appeased, but as giving Himself in our place as the only way to save us from the life-crushing guilt and shame we set in motion in our conscience through our sin.

“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have a Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

God is not the enemy, sin is!

God is not the one we should be afraid of, sin is!

God is not the one Jesus came to save us from, sin is! (See Matthew 1:21).

“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result . . . and the sure result is ruin and death” (Ellen White, Selected Messages Vol.1 p. 235)

“He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest” (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages p. 328)

The only question for you this week, dear reader, is will you let Him? Why don’t you let Him cleanse you of the shame and guilt of your past mistakes right now.

(For more on this topic, please listen to The Eyes of A King from our Extravagant Love series located on our “sermons/downloads” page under the resource section at http://www.renewedheartministries.com).

September 2 Esight, 2007

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. — Ephesians 4:32Recently, I met a dear soul struggling to forgive someone who had wronged them. They were quite bothered, feeling quite mistakenly that if they could not forgive, God would not forgive them. I believe this is a gross misinterpretation of Jesus’ comments on this subject. In all actuality, we cannot possibly forgive until we first encounter how much we have been forgiven. Then, and only then, can we forgive the way we’ve been forgiven, as the above verse indicates.

You see, as we look at the basic definition of forgiveness, it is when the one who received loss inflicted upon them against their will now rises above that violation and willingly bears that sin, so the one who wronged them may go free. This, my friend, is exactly what we see transpiring at the cross. Consider the following:

“Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14, emphasis added)

“Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19, emphasis added)

“The sin is against God, and if he is willing to forgive it, he has the right to do so. No unbeliever would deny the right of a man to overlook a trespass against him. But God does not simply overlook the trespass; He gives His life as a forfeit.” (E.J. Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pg.7)

Could it be that the reason so many struggle to find forgiveness toward others in their heart is that we have failed to realize how freely we ourselves have been forgiven? This week, rather than striving to forgive those that have wronged you, try striving to believe how freely God has forgiven you. Let God show you what Calvary was all about and allow that forgiveness from Him to awaken in you forgiveness toward others.

“Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Colossians 3:13)

(For more on this subject, please download the sermon The Awakening)

August 26 Esight, 2007

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD Your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments—Exodus 20:5-6I have come across countless souls who have shared this verse with me as one that causes them much frustration in trying to view God as a God of love. I would remind you that every action, whether good or bad, has an intrinsic result, for good or for ill. What God seems to be saying here is that if the Israelites chase after other gods, that decision would not only hurt them, but also adversely affect their children. The question lies in whether these adverse results are inherent to the worship of idols or whether they are artificially imposed by God. To be honest, the scope of this devotional does not permit us to answer this question adequately. However, I would like to share a thought that may shed light on this issue. Whether or not there are inherently negative consequences to chasing after other gods is obvious to me. There are. What God seems to be saying indirectly is that although these adverse results will be passed down, He will only permit them to be passed down as far as third and in some instances fourth generations. He, in His mercy, limits the damage our ancestors have done to us as well as the damage we can do to our descendants.

What is truly amazing is what He states next: “But [I will] show[-] loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” What makes this statement jump out is captured in the following passage:

“There is in the Hebrew text of this passage no word indicating ‘generation,’ which is supplied by the translators. It is most evident, however, that it is the word required by the sense, and attention is called to it only to point out the fact that the construction is the same as in the next clause, where the word ‘generation’ is not expressed, but where it belongs as surely as in the first. Some have hastily supposed that the ‘thousands’ refers only to individuals, and so have erroneously concluded that God’s chastisements outlast His mercy. Not so. He visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, but shows mercy unto unnumbered thousands of generations of them that love Him and keep His commandments. His wrath is soon appeased, while His mercy flows on to eternity. Other versions than the English state it very plainly.” (E.J.Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant p.310)

Therefore, the decisions we make today will impact those who come after us just as surely as we are bearing the results of the decisions made by those who have come before us. This is unfair I will agree, but the Bible never states that what free moral agents do to one other is always fair. It only states that what God does will always be fair. Nonetheless, praise God, for He will not let those unfair negative results run on endlessly. He will only permit them to run to the third or fourth generation. Notice the alternative. If we, today, allow His love for us to awaken, in our hearts, love for Him and if we follow the principles of His love in all our dealings, the inherent positive results of that kind of life will not only affect the third and fourth generations, but also set in motion blessings upon blessings to the thousand thousandth generation that come afterward. Of course, time will not last that long, but the point seems to be that the positive inherent chain of events we set in motion by submitting to God’s principles of love will continue throughout eternity, positively affecting those who enter the scene after us.

“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner . . . and the sure result is ruin and death” (Ellen White, Selected Messages Vol. 1 p. 235).

“For whoever desires to love life and see good days. . .let him turn away from evil and do good” (1 Peter 3:10-11).

This week, thank God that His mercy covers our mistakes. Beyond that, why not set in motion a chain of blessings to the countless generations that come after you by living a life of other-centered love?

August 19 Esight, 2007

By the opening of your hand, every living thing has its desire in full measure.—Psalms 145:16C.S. Lewis is reported to have said, “If I find in myself longings and desire for which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only probable explanation is that I must have been made for a different world.” Have you ever felt a vague longing for something more than you were presently experiencing, but then found yourself at a loss to put your finger on exactly what it was you wanted? You are not alone.

What we are truly longing for is not more of this world’s wares, but to drink deeply of the soul-quenching love we were created for. (For more on this topic, please download To Love and Be Loved from https://renewedheartministries.com/resources.asp?t=sermons.)

Haggai describes God and His love for us as the “desired of all nations.” “‘ …the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Haggai 2:7). David said that from God’s hand every one of us finds every one of our desires fully satisfied.

Yet, there must be a word of caution. An encounter with God, as the majority of Christianity portrays Him today, will not accomplish this satisfaction of the soul. On the contrary, we must experience God as Jesus came to reveal Him. It is only in experiencing the truth of what He really is that we stand in awe. To experience God as He is in Christ leaves us standing in the presence of love beyond description. In each of us, there will begin to be an awakening of deep resonance. Something inside us will begin to whisper, “This, this is what I’ve always been searching for.” We will begin to sense that this encounter, this love, is what we were made for. We will collapse into the embrace of His perfect love, while every fiber of our being says in harmony, “He truly is beautiful if we can just see Him as He truly is.”

Is your heart thirsty for more than this world can give, dear friend? Would you like to experience this deep, soul-quenching love? Embark on a quest of discovery. Make the goal of discovering the truth of God’s character, as seen through Jesus, your paramount goal in life. Then, and only then, will everything else pale in comparison.

“You who in heart long for something better than this world can give, recognize this longing as the voice of God to your soul.” (Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 28)

“Through influences seen and unseen, our Saviour is constantly at work to attract the minds of men from the unsatisfying pleasures of sin to the infinite blessings that may be theirs in Him. To all these souls, who are vainly seeking to drink from the broken cisterns of this world, the divine message is addressed, ‘Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ Revelations 22:17.” (Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 28)

August 5 Esight, 2007

. . . where sin abounds, Grace much more abounds.—Romans 5:20Jesus stated that when He, the Comforter, would come, the first thing He would do is convict the world of sin (John 16:8). I don’t know whether this has ever struck any of you as a contradiction. As for me, I used to wonder how He can be convicting us of sin at the same time as He is the comforter. I believe the key to the secret lies in the story of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well in John 4.

Jesus offered her living water. Elsewhere we have shown in the Scriptures that this living water is the heart-quenching unconditional love of God that, once received, becomes a well, springing up inside us toward others. But before she could receive this living water, she first had to come to a realization of her own past mistakes while simultaneously realizing God’s unchanging, noncondemning love for her in spite of her past mistakes (for more on this topic, download Windows to His Soul, coming soon to the sermons/downloads page at http://www.renewedheartministries.com)

You see, in order for one to experience just how unconditional God’s love is, one must first realize his or her own sinfulness. Let me explain further.

The Bible never uses the phrase “unconditional love,” yet the concept is everywhere in the Scriptures. Instead of the phrase unconditional love, the Bible uses the word Grace. You see, Grace (or unmerited favor, as some define it) is still love, but it’s love when that love is not deserved. When humanity sinned, God’s love for us did not change. It simply became unmerited or undeserved. God continued to love us, but now it was in spite of our sin. His affection toward us never lessened along with His continued desire to help, bless, and save us. The angels are not the recipients of God’s grace, for they have never sinned. God simply loves them. God loves we who have sinned just as much as He does the angels, but we call the love He shows us Grace, because by our actions we should have forfeited His love, yet He loves us still the same. Paul tried to communicate this in his famous statement to the believers in Rome:

“… where sin abounds Grace does much more abound” (Romans 5:20).

John sought to communicate this truth in I John 2:1: “If any man sin we have a [comforter] along side the Father.”

Some will say, “Wait, the verse states that Jesus is our advocate, not our comforter.” Yet the word translated as “advocate” is parakletos. It is used five times in the New Testament and only in this verse was it translated as advocate. Everywhere else it was translated as comforter (AV). Jesus hints at this when He says to His disciples that when He departs, He will ask “the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16, emphasis added). This brings us back to our original question. How is it that when the Holy Spirit comes as a comforter, His first job will be to “convict the world concerning sin”? (John 16:8). Ask yourself, why is He doing this? The Holy Spirit was given to usher in the fullness of our encounter with God and His love that Jesus began. Thus, as Jesus sought to have the woman at the well encounter God’s much more abounding grace in spite of her sin, the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish this encounter for every person in the world! In order for the world to see God’s much more abounding grace, it must also see its sin along side God’s amazing grace which undeservedly much more abounds.

“No matter how greatly sin abounds, in that very place grace superabounds . . . the greater and more hideous and deadly sin is seen to be, the more is God’s superabounding grace magnified.” (E.J. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant p. 290)

“In the matchless gift of his Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace, as real as the air which circulates around the globe” (Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 72).

The question for you this week is, will you choose to breathe it?

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