GOD wants to know YOU

  

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:9

Vicar.  A word you know; a word that I know.  But, do we actually know what it means?  Many may answer that vicar means priest or minister - as in the leader of a church.  The sobering truth is that it actually means something quite different...

Priest is fairly close, but in the sense of "one who stands between".  Vicar is a shortened version of the word vicarious, which means "serving instead of someone or something else".  It can be argued that vicar is a good word since we often experience GOD through our church leaders, we experience worship and teaching through their gifting.

I WILL ANSWER

'Call to me and I will answer you.  I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.'

Jer 33:3

I love this verse for two reasons:


Firstly - the assurance that GOD will answer us.  As Christians we often find it hard to believe that GOD will answer our every call - especially when we haven't quite lived up to our end of the 'bargain'.  It's this mindset that limits what GOD is able to do through us because we live with a 'law' mindset.  In the Old Testament you had to pay a price in order to have your transgressions absolved and be able to plead with GOD.

Jesus' death and resurrection changed all of that - so why, then, do we still think in the same way?  I believe that it's because we listen to the Devil when he tells us that we're not good enough.  It takes very little for us to believe that GOD won't take note of our call because we don't deserve His attention.

I AM REDEEMED

  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are mine."

Isaiah 43:1 (NKJV)

(This is part 3 - click here for part 1, part 2)

Redemption is a very special word that is used quite specifically in the bible…  it has to do with slavery.  If someone is redeemed, it means that they used to be a slave – but are no longer.  Redemption is a ‘buyback’, or a swapping of an equivalent or better slave for another and setting that one free.  Does it sound like anything else in the Bible?  The cross!  But here we are reading it in Deutero-Isaiah – nearly 650 years before Christ even came, let alone died on the cross.  That means that all along, GOD’s design has been for us to have an identity and purpose that is linked to redemption.  An identity that says “I was a slave. I am now released.  I am not bound.”

In order to know what we were slaves to, we need to remember that until Jesus died on the cross and rose again, as our Lord and Saviour, we were bound and living in bondage to Sin.  Christ’s death on the cross had nothing to do with forgiveness, it had to do with salvation – with GRACE; with redemption.  GOD always offered forgiveness to His people, so that was nothing new.  The issue was the old covenant, it was a law that we could never fulfill in its entirety, only Christ could fulfill it.  That’s what happened in His finished work on the cross - GRACE.  In order for the law to be fulfilled, a life had to be given - GRACE.  The human race was stuck in the condition of Sin – that’s what we needed saving from; and GOD’s alternative - GRACE.

Often we think that salvation is an event that happens, and WHAMMO – we’re saved.  I like to think of it like this:  Living in Sin is like drowning in the ocean; we can swim, but the distance to shore is just too great for us to swim it alone.  We need a lifeguard to save us, one who knows the currents, swells, squalls and waves.  One who is a seasoned swimmer.  Now, the lifeguard swims out to us, but we still have to swim to shore, with Him.  Just because the lifeguard has reached out, doesn’t mean that the journey of being saved is over.  It’s the same with our walk with salvation in Christ – it’s a journey.

Until Jesus Christ cut loose those bonds, we were slaves to Sin.  We lived differently.  We spoke differently.  We looked different.  Change is noticed by differences, growth and newness and this happens a little more everyday.  Some changes may be radical, but others will be hard and we will have to work through them everyday.  All of this begins with us embracing our identity as REDEEMED!  Before – people would look at us and see us alone.  Now, when they see us, they should see our lifeguard too – what a challenge!

People need to see the change in our lives, they need to see that we are no longer bound if we are going to live with purpose.  Worship is proclaiming the majesty of GOD – not just in words, but also by our choices. ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come.’ 2 Cor 5:17.

I believe that we need to be encouraged to know that we do not need to act like slaves – for we are redeemed, we are released – we are not bound to Sin!

Don't be a pharisee...

You're probably thinking "I'm not a pharisee... what are you talking about??!!"... and I guess there's a high probability that you're right, you're probably not a pharisee. But here's where you are like a pharisee, when you look at Christ through the eyes of the law...

It's so easy for us to fall into this trap, we often don't even realise it.  Check this story out:

“On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit of eighteen years.  She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.  When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from you infirmity.”  Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised GOD.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people.  “There are six days for work.  So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites!  Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?  Then should not his woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

[Luke 13:10-17]

I don’t know about you, but I think that if anyone were to believe in Christ, a miracle would do it?  Here we read of the temple leaders, face to face with a beautiful, life changing act of GOD, and they don’t believe!  Why don’t they believe?

It’s important for us to take a look at this because there are times, whether intentional or not, that we find ourselves in the same camp of as these people that Jesus called hypocrites!  Scary, maybe, but true.  We try hard not to, but there are some traps that these non-believer fell into that I know, for myself and I’m sure for you, I’ve found myself in.

I think, initially, the biggest issue facing these temple leaders was this:   They looked at Christ through the eyes of the law/religion.  Join me over the next few articles as we journey through the eyes of a non-believer...