I am currently delving into a deeper understanding of the true meaning of the cross of Christ, how it relates to salvation and how it reveals God's heart.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Good News of Hope

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

For the past several days I have been listening and re-listening to a short series of sermons that I downloaded off the web site of a young pastor that I consider the best presenter of the true Gospel and the real truth about God that I have ever heard. I have a number of his series that I have greatly enjoyed over the past several years, but this 4-sermon collection is the most direct, challenging and clear presentation that continues to flush out deeply embedded lies about God that still remain in my heart. I find myself disturbed, amazed, exhilarated and in tears as the real truth about God overwhelms me again and again. It is a very powerful antidote to the perpetual negative news that surrounds me in this world and gives me refreshing access to the true news, the genuine good news that all of us so desperately need to know and experience.

There are so many things in this series that bring God's goodness into sharp relief and clarify confusing beliefs about God in my mind. I am reminded again that the truth about God is such good news that most people find it nearly impossible to believe, and sometimes this includes even me. We fall back on that old adage that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The real problem is, that may be true in relation to all the deceptions presented to us from this world, but when we use it in relation to the good news of the gospel it becomes an excuse for unbelief and resistance.

Once again, I want to point out that it is very important to know the real meaning of the words being used. When I talk about the gospel here I am not referring to the nebulous collections of doctrines, assertions and teachings muddled together called the gospel by most religious people. I am talking about something far more compelling and life-changing that I am still only coming to understand myself, and what I have been listening to here is bringing intense clarity to that process.

What I want to simply share this morning is a report of my own experience of being filled with joy and peace by this God of hope who is once again applying healing truth to my confused and damaged heart. And knowing the universal principle or law of the mind that what we dwell on we become, I am choosing to fill my mind more and more with all the truth about God that I can find so that as I become more and more enchanted with His beauty, His patience, His kindness and tolerance and humility, that my own spirit will begin to more and more reflect to others the way He relates to me.

I find myself often bemoaning the many faults and weaknesses within myself that I see in my attitudes toward others. I see the bitterness that poisons my feelings toward others and the pride that seems lurking behind every turn. I get so frustrated in wanting to be able to view others differently and to love them unconditionally no matter how hypocritical, repulsive, obnoxious or evil they are to me. But I simply cannot find it within me to produce the kind of love that I know I am supposed to show.

But then I sense in my spirit that trying to love other people who hurt and offend me is not something that is possible by working on it directly as I have supposed for most of my life. Irregardless of the many years of insistent instruction given by religious people of all occupations to the contrary, my heart will never be able to love before it learns to believe and receive love first. I simply cannot give what I don't both believe and have experienced. So if I want to reflect the amazing gentleness of Jesus that has the divine power to transform lives through the presence of His Spirit, then my only hope is to focus all my attention on allowing my picture of God to be corrected so that my reflection to others is not filled with distortions.

Those distortions in my beliefs about what God is like and how He feels about me are so infiltrated throughout all of my thinking that it takes a supernatural power to expose them and replace them with truths. But that sounds all too much like an intellectual project whereas most of the lies are residing at my heart level much more than in my logical thinking. And for my heart to change its assumptions about God I have to emotionally experience those truths first-hand in my own experience. It is simply not effective for changing my heart to acknowledge the true facts about God's character as helpful as that is for a beginning. Sure, wrong facts held in my mind will certainly create obstacles for my heart to change. But what I really need is a complete overhaul of both sides of my brain and especially the experiential beliefs that reside in my fundamental control center that is activated anytime I come under pressure. And that is all primarily located on the right side of my brain which is linked to my heart.

As I have been listening to these presentations over the past few days I can sense my heart coming alive and reaching out in deep hunger for what it inherently knows it was created to experience. I find myself crying out to God, confessing my own unbelief and pleading for cleansing from all my resistance to these radical, fresh revelations of the real truth about Him. I am tired of living my life in the lowlands of depressing and confused views of God's character and attitudes towards me. I can see more clearly that the Word of God confirms all the these wonderful truths that I have missed for so long which only helps to reinforce their impact on my heart. As I take a fresh look at all of the Bible in the light of these “new” truths it comes alive even more in startling ways, sort of like taking ultraviolet light and shining it on objects to reveal unexpected beauties that could not be seen before.

I want to point out here that I am not trying to draw more attention to a messenger of truth than I am to the One he is talking about. I know of others who are also presenting similar themes and they have been and still are wonderful resources for deepening my appreciation and love for the real God. And I also realize that different people are used at different times to target specific areas that need exposing or revising and that it is the Holy Spirit that coordinates all of this effectively. But I also know that when a person has caught the passion of God's heart and allows it to flow through them in ways that are undiluted by their old mistaken views of God, that the power of their message takes on new energy and God is able to work through their ministry in far more effective ways to reach hungry, hurting hearts.

I plan to continue to listen to these talks several more times and allow the Spirit to impress me with the wonderful revelations about God's heart even more deeply. I copied them onto a disc so that I could play them in my van to and from work. I have had them in my computer for about a week or so now and have been listening to them while I eat breakfast or after I get home during supper. I find it so much more energizing and inspiring than the typical fare from the radio and I believe that we are currently entering a time in this world where our daily choices about our mental diet are going to determine the condition and reactions of our spirit very directly and quickly.

I choose to engage as a direct recipient with my God of hope who has promised to fill me with all joy and peace in believing, so that I may abound in hope. I also pray that He will help me let go of all my resistance and fears so that my believing will be genuine, deep and firmly rooted within my heart, replacing all the lies and fears and apprehensions that still cling to my heart like leeches and parasites. I also know that this can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit who has been commissioned to cause me to abound in this hope.

Maranatha.

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