Bringing Sons To Glory

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 2:9-11

Recently I was reminded of a song that is so expressive in its wording and powerful in its imagery that it is becoming one of my "top ten" favorites. Most of my top ten spots are held by the famous hymn writer Charles Wesley. This songwriter however, evokes some of Wesley's words in his famous hymn, "And Can It Be." This newer song is entitled, "The Father's Love," by Stuart Townsend. There are many great phrases that describes the Lord's passion for our salvation, but one caption in the first verse, echoing the roots of its words from Hebrews, says volumes: "Bringing many sons to glory." Before I go on, here is the first verse by Townsend,

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Imagine and involve your mind in the context of this last stanza. Does it impress upon you the awesome love with which we are loved? Satan has a way of turning our heart's attention from the awe of this love, by dangling some worldly fancy. How sad it is to lose ground in relationship to the supreme love of God for some foolish thing or idea that will ultimately betray us. God never stops loving us. But isn't it more than a tragedy to think of all He went through to secure our salvation and for us not to love Him and worship Him? Let's pick apart the phrase and spend a moment exploring the concepts behind the words.

The concept of "Bringing,"
God sent His Son on a precise mission. A mission no one could undertake but Jesus. If you want to put a human parallel to the ministry of Christ you could aptly say that Christ was the Author and top Person of the Divine "Search and Rescue" operation that targeted mankind. Jesus Christ not only came into the world to die for us, but He also promises us that we will be "taken," or "brought" to His eternal home. It is awe inspiring in itself to understand how little we have to do with our own destiny! But the greatest issue of love is found not only in the searching, but the rescue. Searching does no practical good unless the victim of sin is found, and then brought out of his or her desperate surroundings into safety. We may not see it, but all around us are forces of darkness attempting to drag us down and discourage us from looking and helping those outside the fold of God. Let us press onward as He did. Not that we can save anyone, but we are left in the world to be His "search parties" in seeking the unredeemed. What love there is in bringing! A favorite Greek word of mine is "euongolizomai" meaning "the one who is bringing good tidings." This is what and who we are, those who bring. For if nothing good is brought, then nothing can be found to rescue.

The concept of "many sons."
The King James often uses a dual gender meaning in a masculine sense. The verse can be rightly translated as sons or daughters. The emphasis here is on the quantity, "many." Note that not all called to from the search light of the Gospel will desire to be rescued. However Christ is determined and willing that not one should perish, so He plays no favorites either. His chief desire for you and I is that we might desire to be with Him. Christ for sees the end of all things and the condemnation that awaits mankind. Fortunately Heaven's halls will be lined with those who said, "yes" to Christ's saving hand. The fervency of Christ's desire sweeps through the ranks of the living on earth and the dead of the earth in the physical sense. When Christ returns, He first will let his Calling unto the saints take a faster than light stroll through the cemeteries of the world. He will sweep through and not forget to raise anyone who placed their trust in Him. He remembers that prayer of faith said hundreds of years ago or perhaps days ago. He remembers each man, woman and child's name and according to I Thessalonians 4:13-18 they shall all be changed and brought together with those who are living. Speaking of living ones, not one of them who has their faith in Him shall be left on the Earth. The concept of "many sons" will be seen throughout the skies as the once dead of the ages and the living are all united again, just as He said. This is His Joy.

The concept of "to glory."
We discussed glory two weeks ago. It's a subject inexhaustible by the mind of man. Sufficient to say, we know it is the express desire of Christ to clothe us with His glory. To give us all the rights and privileges of the greatest Royal Family that ever reigned. What we shall be in physical form we do not know, but we know from John's first epistle, we shall be like Christ, and that is definitely more awe inspiring than anything we can envision. His Glory is His Home and now it will be ours! No one has come so far as the wretched mess of a sinner who exchanges his or her filth for the most purest robe of righteousness there is. Christ is not stingy. He desires each of us to share with Him. He even desires that we reign with Him! He desires the most ultimate existence that no science fiction author can dream up, nor any philosopher can theorize on. The love is perfected in us. The measure of His goodness is weighed on the scale of our sinfulness. No one commits more sin worthy of death than others, for all have been condemned. But put Christ and His desire for our glory on the scale, and the weight of His love dispels and buries our sin in the grave of "non-remembrance."

When we consider how wretched we are and how merciful He is, it cannot be thought adequately on how loving God is towards us. We see only the earthly disasters, God foresaw the eternal disasters.

Guard against carnality and cynicism. Drifting away from God will dim your sight of this awesome phrase and reality in the Scriptures.

If you know Christ, you are the very target of that Divine power that sought you and bought you from the condemnation of sin. Take some time this week to reflect on the Supreme Sacrifice for your soul. It is most probable that we cannot take it all in of who we were and what God has done. If we could take it all in and have perfect understanding, it may be that salvation through Christ would be an unappreciated favor, not, the most grandest, sophisticated, hope bearing mission that ever was made: Bringing You, bringing me, to Glory.

Father, how we thank You for not exercising Your right to turn away from us in our sins. You turned away from Your Son for us who were no sons or daughters, but became such as we believed on Christ. Thank You for Jesus. Help us not to be religious in our walk with You, but lovingly related and connected to Your heart. Thank you in advance for the home that awaits us with You, and all the saints for all times. In Your Gracious Name, Amen.

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Central Is Never Busy

Scripture Reading: Psalm 69:30-34

In my last post I mentioned I like old things, particularly old hymns and songs that are mostly forgotten. Out of these hymns there are certain phrases that makes wonderful sermon and teaching topics. Cliff Barrows, the choir and song leader for Billy Graham, once remarked that good hymnology makes wonderful theology. Though a lot of songs are not completely theologically structured, they have good references to Biblical principles. The reference we are going to look at today is one of prayer.

The old hymn we're looking at is "The Royal Telephone." by Frederick Lehman 1919.

The lyrics are extremely clever in their analogy to our open line of communication to our Father in Heaven. We as Christians have an always "open line" direct with Heaven at any time or any place in the world. The question is, how often do we use it or take advantage of such a privilege? Let's look at some privileges and one urgent suggestion that we should appreciate about our "connection" to Heaven.

First of all, we have no intermediate operator. It used to be back before even the dial telephones that one would have to call the operator to speak to whoever they wished. Later on there were, and I suppose still are, direct line phones. When I think of such, I am reminded of the "red" phone that you would see in the movies of the 60's era, where some secret service man would pick it up and the call without dialing would go immediately to the Oval Office of the President. This "hot line" is exactly what we have with God. We need no priest, no pastor, not anyone to connect us with God. That is one of the greatest blessings we have over all other false religions. You can talk to God anytime without any interference or anyone listening in. Prayer is a personal matter and is not limited by the greatest joy of the soul to the greatest sorrow of the heart. Direct line always.

Secondly, there are no busy signals. Before the advent of "call waiting." we would be constantly annoyed and upset when the buzzing of a busy signal was heard. This was due to either the phone being off the hook purposely or accidentally, or, the person on the other end talking only to someone else. Maybe today you feel like God hands you a busy signal or has too many voices to listen to. We cannot judge God with human means. We cannot understand how He can listens to millions of voices every second and yet heed and understand each one as if they were singularly it. But He does. God stands open and willing to listen to you the believer. You're not bothering Him. The sum of all the world's urgent needs are but a trifle to His Omnipotence. God has never had more than He can handle. The line is open.

Thirdly, there are no charges to be paid. Ever since there were telephones, there have been monthly fees. Now with cell phones, those fees include roaming and data charges too. It can be expensive if not overwhelming. The Devil would like to discourage us with the lie that because we are not as Holy as God, or, because we did not do a great job in the Christian life yesterday, that God cannot and will not hear us. We have to work our way back and earn His trust and ear. No. Do we sin? Yes we do. Does God forgive? Yes He will. Does God act like a tyrant in keeping us down with earning anything? No He does not.

A completely interesting side note about the lies of Satan. Whenever Satan accuses God of being whatever, fill in the blank, and tries to discredit what God says and promises, Satan is only trying to mask himself, because his discrediting accusations towards God is really and truly the way he acts towards his own children, the unbelievers.

The blood of Jesus Christ takes away our need to pay for our sins and earn confidence with God. God sees us as He sees Christ, pure and blameless. He sees us as we will be apart from the world and these fleshly bodies. The Bible does say that we must repent of our sinful practices to restore our fellowship with God, but that is a far cry from trying to win it back. You are His freely, and He is yours freely.

Fourthly, there are no dropped calls. This sort of correlates with what we just talked about with the difference that God is not in the business of "hanging up" or losing you because of anger or some hostility. Cell phones are notorious for losing a call right in the middle of usually something important. One moment you have a full signal, the next you might as well be in a cave. As you talk to God in prayer you have His full undivided attention. In fact, God delights in us talking to Him. He wants a personal dialogue with us. So He will not drop you or leave you stranded. Once you are connected to Him in Christ through salvation, its like having a heavy anchor chain from His throne to the depths of your world. No element, no trial, no doubt or no sin can sever the connection.

Finally, the urgent warning. Prayer is a privilege, and being constantly connected like a line telephone is a great privilege. However, the greatest tragedy of prayer is that its only seemingly used when disaster strikes. This speaks and smells of deep carnality on the part of the believer. Of course, we can freely and always should turn to God in prayer when a tragedy strikes, there is never any shame in that at all. What I am saying is, prayer is supposed to be a constant connection in the good times as well as bad. We are never in need of more prayer to God for us than when we find ourselves in the times of prosperity and plenty. It is such times that we sort of feel free from depending and thanking God for all we are and have. When times are easy we sort of feel like we can do this thing called "life" on our own with no Divine Assistance. How awful we treat God by not giving Him but a sentence prayer in the fields of plenty, but give Him a screaming scroll in the times of agony. How great His love is! This was case with Israel so often. In fact if the Old Testament could be summed up in one thought it would be that God tried and tried for Israel to acknowledge Him and His love everyday, and the same from them to Him.

Spend every day thanking Him, Praising Him for Who He is towards you, Bless Him with praises of song, and speak to Him words of your love as you hear words of His.

Central Is Never Busy.

Father, help me and all who read this to appreciate this awesome privilege of prayer. We can't fathom its full blessing, but we do know what it is like to feel lonely and cut off by people in the world. Thank you that You do not treat us this way and that we can come to your listening Ear and that You not only desire to hear us, but delight in it as well. We hold the attention of the God of all that is, help us to fully realize this everyday. Thank you for not being too busy to talk to us. In your Name, Amen.

Give and Take Prayers, Part 1 of 2

How much of your personal prayer time is consumed with the "taking" or the asking? Would you say 50% or more? I have to admit when I pray it is 80% my asking that dominates the subject of conversation with the Father. I heard a speaker say that we come to God with a grocery list and go up and down the aisles wanting this, asking this, begging for that. I think that some of that reasoning is OK but not completely accurate.

Some of those folks who complain about us seemingly always coming to God with our lists really have no comprehension of our Father's desire for us to do so. One thing we need to understand is that we cannot understand who God is by judging Him or comparing Him with anything human. When someone comes to us with a long list of topics to discuss, our first reaction is to get tired of hearing all this. Not so with God. We forget our Father's ear. We forget that the very act of us coming to Him with that scroll of a list it showing that we depend on Him. God delights when we depend on Him and not on some other "source." We also tend to forget that He has not only an infinite storehouse of blessings but can sovereignly arrange people, events, actions, etc. to meet our needs.

In defense of that speaker I told you about, a constant running complaining attitude of prayer does not delight God's ears anymore than it would our own. When we pray, it is key to remember that we need to pray "in His will." This simply means that what we ask of Him, it is our desire to have whatever He deems that is best for us rather than having it our own way.

When I think of folks (myself majorly included) who have complained and wanted their own way, I think of Israel. Israel so desired a King they couldn't stand it. God desired the rulers were to be His appointed judges, but after unending complaints they got a King in the person of Saul. Saul was just like any other worldly king, and that was the problem, what they wanted was the very thing that would destroy them, and it did. How much better would we be if we waited on God.

However, briefly back to the point of taking in prayer, look at the butterfly photo above. The bush it is attached to is a "butterfly bush" whose very name is because it attracts and supplies these creatures with good. God is like that bush. He doesn't mind how often we come to take of His Person, Time, Spirit, request needs. He is there for us as the bush is for the butterfly. Not to take Him up on His provisions and good nature is foolishness. Do you have a need today? Sure you do, we all do. Then be glad we have a Heavenly Father WILLING to hear us and being there to help us in place of us making it the best we can on our own.  Remember though, God does not respond to our cravings or will overlook things we desire that is not His best for us. We cannot come and treat Him like an ATM machine--push the right buttons and get what I want.  We should be so glad of this.  We don't always fathom the ends of our own desires, but He does, and answers for our good accordingly.

The Bible says in 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Let's ask Him right now,

Heavenly Father, thank you for desiring to help me. Thank you I can come to you with my needs knowing that none are too great or too small for your heart. Lord, I desire your will in my need today. My need is _________________ and I am asking you to give the wisdom to know what you want and am asking you to provide a solution for me. May I have faith enough to believe you will answer and bring me the help I need. Thank you in your name. Amen.

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