making waves

jesus holds on to the father. christians are called to hold on to jesus.

at the cross, the father poured out his anger out on jesus, so for jesus, there was a sense of abandonment and estrangement from the father. jesus felt far from him. he was left to die. the tension is high but the bond between father and son is not completely broken. it is like a spring being stretched from one end, just to its elastic limit.

in raising jesus from the dead, the father draws jesus near again, as close as he could ever be, "at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." - like a spring being released from its tension to snap back to the other end.

for christians who hold on to jesus, sometimes we find that we miss the way, and go our own way, we decide to leave the presence of the lord. we try to detach our faith in jesus, but it is like a spring being pulled at one end, and Gods love is too big to be escaped from by any conventional means.

""I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God."

the further we pull away, the more it is apparent that the tension is there, and a longing comes to run back, to release the tension made by us like tension made by pulling a spring. a wish is there, for it to be as it once was, near to jesus.

gods love is strong. it is not that we need to keep on proving that it is, in running away, so that we can feel the strength of it coming back. if it is like a spring then the strength is always there, it is always in the potential energy resting in the spring.

i know we will at times all need to come before the throne of grace, but for besetting sin; why should we need to continually test his tension, when there is a much more enjoyable way to be in a relationship with god - much more enjoyable than tensing a spring. we can be near him, and enjoy (even if we only see in part now) the way we shall be with him for eternity.

relationship

i've been thinking about how jesus is able to relate to us. it seems to me that there is a lot to be said about his living days that tell that he went through the things that we have been through. the wandering in the desert for 40 days is an excellent reminder of that he was

"tempted in every way, but was without sin"

However, I imagine that would leave people wondering. Jesus never needed to repent, or ask forgiveness from God, because he never sinned. Does that mean that he is unable to relate with sinners?

I think he definitely does relate with sinners.

Take the cross. There, the sinless one knew what it was like to feel shame, to feel guilty, even to feel sinful, before the father. In carrying all the sins of the world on our behalf, he knows the bitter aftertaste it leaves. He knows the situations that have come about to make all this stuff be pinned onto him. He knows what it is like to be seperated and abandoned by the Father;

"my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?"

He can relate then to the sinner. if anyone has a hang up as to why christians have to bang on about it being a relationship, and why do they have to use such cheese laced terminology, well - the language used came at great personal cost to jesus, willingly, to be able to say that He Relates.

trinitarian love

i got reminded of something the other day on jarvino's blog, about the love the trinity have for each other before the world was formed - and how there are aspects of God's character that can't be expressed when a world like ours isn't created.

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

in just the trinity, nothing is lacking, so nothing needs to be forgiven. there are no enemies.

that means God cannot express his capacity to be able to love his enemies, even the willingness to include those not worthy into the trinitarian love.

in creating the world, God is able to 'demonstrate his love for us'. us? well, us who were sinners. he is able to enact all the parts of his forgiving, merciful personality that was simply not neccesary to do within the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. the world creation allows him a bit of give to say 'this is what i can do' to those who never knew - not that he needed to prove his goodness before the world was made... but don't we live in the good of a god who is like this, would i want it to be unknown? not really =)

mercedes benz

this thought's been in my list of funny things to think about for a while, it's to do with prayer (haha, again!)

so there's an advert that goes a little something like this -



it got me thinking about motives, and prayer as an aid to revealing your own heart attitude (which this prayer does in droves!)

so on with the joke scrutiny..

O Lord, won't you buy me a mercedes Benz

My friends all drive Porsches
if you buy me a mercedes benz, you can justify in me all this jealousy and envy that i'm having

I must make amends
really, only this life matters, so as long as you give me the appearance of looking sorted in this life, and aid me in making an idol of it, i'll consider my prayer answered

I've worked hard all my lifetime
my finest efforts are filthy rags, but it's all ive got to brag about because i don't want to acknowledge the sinfulness of my sin. pfff, mercy. why would anyone need mercy on me to give me blessing?

With no help from my friends
i live life self-sufficiently, i don't actually need anything from anyone. heck, why am i praying to you for? you're cramping my independent style.

So Lord, won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz



So I guess, the prayer draws a lot from the basis of that the person who prays it deserves what they're asking for. In reality no-one can come before the throne of God knowing that they deserve anything. It's allllll mercy. There's bartering to be had in prayer sometimes, like with Abraham, when he tested God's mercy to see if he was willing to spare the smallest amount of people from Sodom's destruction - but that in part was to do with God sharpening Abraham's faith, in being adventurous as to what he can expect God to do. it was necessary for God to bring Abraham into a position where he could find out just how much can he dare to trust God - and the request being answered gave glory to God, in broadcasting to the world his willingness to save mere individuals.

On the other hand, the mercedes benz prayer just gives the not-so-desired effect of making the person look ugly, and if it were answered, the person is now given even more provision for sin. much like in the way the law highlights aspects of sin in our lives (as sean was preaching on only a couple of weeks ago), so do our words, even our words to God.

Whats very interesting, is that the actual request, aside from all the motivations and reasons for it, isn't inherently an evil one.
O Lord, won't you buy me a mercedes Benz
still has the capacity to be a prayer that God is willing to answer, given some circumstances (in theory. blowed if i can think of a practical example of a mercedes benz appearing on my doorstep as a means to give glory to god!).

so one starving man might pray for provision, and why wouldn't they? god wishes to lift up those who are unable to lift themselves up. another man, disillusioned with a materialistic society might pray for blight and suffering to allow the more priveliged to undergo trials, that their faith may be refined or some cases newly discovered. so, the things that each ask for, though counter to each other, have situations and backdrops for why it would be in God's heart to answer both.

so, theres a place for a mercedes benz for someone out there. not me though, i can't drive for starters!