An Eternal Promise

 

Once my family and I were on the way to the Sacramento Airport, my son, Eric, and I was flying to Argentina. As we got close to the airport, we found the freeway closed due to an accident, and traffic was at a standstill. I immediately called the control tower and was directed to detour the traffic. As I exited the freeway, people started following until there was a long line of cars trailing us. However, as the road became narrow, we had to weave in and out of side streets, and many of the followers turned back. Some dropped off only a mile or two before arriving at the airport. I was utterly blind about where we were, but being in contact with the tower directing me to the airport gave me confidence. The same is true of this life. Sometimes God leads us down curvy paths that don’t make sense, but if we are obedient, we later find out he knows what he is doing.

Christ made an incredible pledge to his disciples before he went to the cross. Knowing he was leaving them, he wanted to encourage them with a promise. Here it is: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known so that the love you have for me may be in them and that I may be in them” (John 17:26).

Jesus made an eternal promise to always make himself known to his disciples. Jesus makes himself available to those who want to know him better. That is like a spiritual GPS that guides us through the complexities of life. Knowing Jesus better should be our number 1 priority in life.

Helping people with OCD (of which we all have some) is all about reminding them about their priorities. They often feel compelled to organize something or put something right. However, I try to remind them that it is more critical for them to put people above their obsession. Give attention to your marriage, spend time with your kids and love your brothers and sisters because, in the end, this is what matters.

We all need to be reminded of our priorities, and our number one priority is to stay close to Jesus. If we do, he will guide us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The world may seem chaotic and hopeless at times, but we are never without hope if we know the creator God.

Seeing the World

 

There are two dangers for the Christian when it comes to relating to the world: The first is that he will detach himself from the world. The second is that he will assimilate to the world, and there will be no distinction between him and the world. The Christian attitude should not be one of conformity to the world. Jesus prayed: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:15-16).

Today the temptation to conform is probably as great as it has ever been, especially with all the criticism Christianity receives. The result of conformity to the world is assimilation. There will be no difference between the church and the world system in time. Paul writes: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom 12:2).

Christ prayed that we would succumb to neither isolation nor assimilation. We have to choose whether we will isolate and detach ourselves from the world or become part of the world or make the world our mission.

Christ prayed that his followers would neither isolate nor assimilate but share the good news with the world. This is not easy; that is why we see so many Christians detached from the world, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, we can share the Gospel with this world.

This morning a hummingbird flew into my garage. With the garage door open, there was a space of 16 feet by 8 feet, but it could not find its way out. It kept flying above the door where it encountered no opening. It flew all around the garage, repeating the same pattern. It was wearing itself. I tried to help it find its way, but it only flew its frustrating pattern, bringing it no freedom. The bird would fall to the floor out of exhaustion, only to get up and try again. No matter how much I wanted to help it see the opening, it could not find its way to the open air. Finally, I threw a rag over the tiny bird, carried it outside, let it go, and off it went into a high tree to rest.

The whole thing reminded me of how much God wants us to connect to the world around us so we can share Jesus with them, but we follow our ingrained routine. Not until the Holy Spirit wraps us in his presence and carries us outside can we really see the world.

 

What a Prayer!

  

Before Jesus left the Upper Room on the night of the Last Supper, he prayed thus: “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). We sometimes get a fleeting glance of God’s glory in a beautiful sunset or a beautiful majestic mountain vista; but, really we have no idea what God’s glory looks like in its totality.

Jesus was the explanation of God. We have never seen God; no one has, but all we have to do is look at Jesus, and we will see what the Father looks like having never seen him. In the last hours with his disciples, Christ prayed that he and his Father would be glorified on the cross. It was a request that Jesus would faithfully fulfill his mission. Jesus had already glorified the Father by completing the work the Father gave him, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). But now the ultimate glory would be manifest as God demonstrated his unlimited and unconditional love as he poured his wrath on his beloved son for our sin.

Ultimately, we see God’s love for us in the extravagant cost he paid for our redemption. If Jesus had stopped short of the cross, that would have shown there was a place to which God was not prepared to go for us. The cross demonstrates that there is no limit to God’s love.

 We would not have known this without the cross! God, who created the universe, saw his son hanging on the cross, covered with the disdain of those who put him there. The ugliness of the cross comes from the fact that the world’s sins were placed upon him. 

Jesus prayed this prayer because he was going to war—war against sin—our sin! John the Baptist had prophesied this moment: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).