Author: albertvredenburg

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RECONCILIATION BETWEEN PEOPLE

(Matthew 5:23&24) Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

We have been looking at reconciliation between fallen mankind and God.  Since God is holy and righteous, and man is a condemned sinner, there had to be a leveling of position for reconciliation to be possible.  God had a great plan to bring this about.  He sent his only begotten Son.    Jesus gave us the righteousness we needed by paying for our sins on the cross.  Jesus made it possible for us to be reconciled to God.  All we have to do is receive what God has done.

Today let’s explore reconciliation between people.  When it comes to person-to-person reconciliation, we are already on a level playing field with each other because we are all sinners.    In cases between individual, there has to be a change from both sides for reconciliation to occur.  However, in the above verses from Matthew, Jesus tells us to go and initiate the process.

Sometimes just our willingness to go to our brother or sister is enough to begin reconciliation.  Other times when we go to someone they are totally unwilling to work with us.  We can only do our part.  The rest has to be given to prayer.  I’m reminded that only God can truly change our hearts.

The apostle Paul tells us “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).  Reconciliation between us and our fellow humans is important.  The love of God and the love he puts in our hearts for one another should encourages us to seek peace with each other.  Confronting an issue that has come between us and a brother or sister is not always easy, but peace and restored fellowship is the goal that makes the effort worthwhile.

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THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

(2Corinthians 5:17-19) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Last week I wrote about God’s amazing plan to bring us back to what he desired for us from the beginning.  He reconciled us through the sacrifice of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ.  Jesus took our sins upon him and paid the price that we were unable to pay.  So here we are a new creation before God.  He has given us the promise of eternal life – never to be separated from him again.  Can we share a WOW! 

What are we going to do to show our gratitude for this great gift?  We don’t have to do anything to earn this gift because it has already been given.  The Apostle Paul tells us what God wants us to do to show our gratitude.  He has given us the “Ministry of Reconciliation”.  He wants us to tell those we live among: “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” 

Yes, as you think about it, this message is not necessarily going to be received as the good news.  People don’t always believe it, and some simply want to go on sinning.  They are often offended by the message.  Jesus told us to be as wise as serpents, but be as gentle as doves since our ministry is not always effective by using the direct approach.  I have always tried to live in the joy and hope God has given me. I’ve worked to love people, care for them, and pray for them, while waiting for the time to come when their heart is opened to receive the message.  This is how I have approached the ministry of reconciliation, but we are all uniquely gifted by God to share the message in the way he has designed us. 

In loving gratitude, let’s continue to tell of the wonderful, miraculous gift God has given us.  Our sins have been forgiven, and we have eternal life with him available to us.  Thanks be to God that he has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation.

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RECONCILIATION

When I was a young man many years ago, I learned to keep a balance in my check register, and once a month I reconciled that balance so it agreed with what the bank said was my real balance.  For those of you who remember the task of reconciling your checkbook balance with the bank, you may also remember what an arduous task it was at times.  I remember what a great feeling it was when I finally managed to get the balances to match.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans about reconciliation. He said: (Romans 5:6-11) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person 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. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, while we were still God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

So you might say that our checkbook balance was way out of sync with God’s eternal bank.  We were suffering from a great deficit.  Jesus, through his death on the cross, credited to us what we needed to be reconciled.  Now our balance matches the balance God expects from us.  Isn’t that a great feeling?  Thank you Jesus!

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PLEASING GOD

(1Corinthians 5:9 MSG) But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing.  Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions.

A couple of days ago I read the devotional for March 17th from “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. For his words of that day he used the above scripture, and he pointed out that the first aim of every child of God is to please God.  It made me think again of the father child relationship, and yes, it should be the goal of every child to please their father.  But what happens when that is not the child’s goal?  What happens when the child wants to do their own thing against the father’s wishes? 

From the father’s perspective it is painful when a child goes beyond our instructions, steps out on their own, and gets them self in trouble.  You tried to warn them, but they did it anyway.  At first you’re angry with them, but as time passes your love for them causes you to forgive them, and you are always motivated to make a way for them to get through the consequences and be restored.

(Psalm 103:8-13) The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

Our Heavenly Father is the perfect Father.  I imagine that he feels pain when we sin against him, but as this passage from Psalm 103 tells us, he forgives his children and removes our sins from us.  He wants to restore us to himself.  How does he get us through the consequences of our sins?  He sent his only begotten Son to pay the consequences for all of us for all of time.

(Hebrews 11:6) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

I want to please God; I’m a sinner.  I can’t always please him, but I do my best.  When I fall, he is always there to pick me up.  So, faith is the key to pleasing God.  I believe in God, I trust in God, and through faith I know he will always be my Father. 

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FEARING GOD?

 (Ecclesiastes 12:13)  Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

Have you ever wondered about what it actually means to fear God?  Imagine that you got in trouble at school, and your mother had to come and pick you up.  You’d have fear of your mother, but then your mother would say these dreaded words, “wait till your father gets home”.  These words would strike a deeper fear.  Well, if you had a good loving relationship with your father, you might be afraid of what punishment was coming, but you’d also have a hurt in your heart because you had let your father down.  God calls himself our Father, and that helps us understand what the fear of God is like.  For those who didn’t have the perfect father experience, this might present us with a somewhat confused understanding of what it means to fear God.

Last Sunday, our pastor used electricity as an example for fearing God.  Electricity is all around us, and we depend on it greatly.  However we also know that if we stick a fork in an outlet we’re going to get electrocuted.  So we respect electricity and have a healthy fear of it. 

The sun is another power source that we respect and maintain a healthy fear toward.  Not only does the sun provide heat for us, but through the process of photosynthesis it also provides directly or indirectly all the food eaten by us and the other living creatures on the earth.  The sun is a life sustaining power that we can’t live without.  Now put on your bathing suit and go lay in direct summer sunlight for 5 or 6 hours and you will experience another aspect of the sun’s power by developing a painful sun burn.  My worse sun burn was obtained in the tropics in a period of one hour.  The pain was excruciating. I became nauseous and could hardly move.  I definitely have a healthy fear of the sun’s power.

God is the ultimate power and the creator of all other sources of power known to man.  He has power over the physical world and the spiritual world.  Fearing God is an intelligent decision, yet there is so much more to God then raw power.  God is also a being filled with love, patience, kindness, and forgiveness. In my years of knowing God, I’ve come to love him, and I feel very close to him. I desire to please God because he loves me, and I love him. He is like the perfect father to me.  So let me then close with this scripture.

(1 John 4:16-18)  So we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: In this world we are like Jesus.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with judgment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

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THE DEPTHS OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US

(John 3:16) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

(Genesis 2:15-17) The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

(Romans 6:23) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Galatians 4:4&5) But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

In John 3:16 it is stated that God so loved the world.  We are part of the world he loves.  Since we are loved so much, he definitely doesn’t want us to perish.  In the verses from Genesis, we find the warning from God not to eat from the forbidden tree.  Adam ate from the forbidden tree and brought sin and death into our world.  As a result, we all have the sinful nature from our ancestor Adam; therefore, we are all under the sentence of death that Adam received.  This presented a dilemma for God.  He loves us all and wants us to be with him eternally.

God is just, so the sentence of death had to be carried out; but God, who is never surprised by events, saw this coming, and he made a plan to redeem us.  He sent his one and only son.  Jesus came to earth, took our sins upon himself, and paid for them with his death on the cross. He fulfilled the requirements of the law for us all.  Our death sentence was cancelled.  Justice was served, and God’s redemption plan was completed.

God loves us, and he demonstrated the depth of his love for us by sending his one and only Son to the cross.  Through this great and terrible sacrifice, redemption has been accomplished.  I believe that he is now eager for us to come to him.  God has given us opportunity for the eternal life that he always intended for us.

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THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENTS

Matthew 22:37-40 (When Jesus was responding to the question which is the greatest commandment.)

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus in his response gives us the whole of what God expects from his created ones, love God and love our neighbors.  He states that if you follow these two commandments you’ve covered them all.  This sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?    Yet these two commandments highlight our greatest struggles.

I’ve always been unclear about what it means to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind, so I looked through various commentaries, and this is what I’ve surmised.  To love God with all your heart means that God is first and above all others and things in our affections.  Our soul is our very existence, our being.  With all your soul then means that we put our being completely into his hands.  The mind is our intellect, our thought processes. Loving God with all your mind is as proverbs 3:5 indicates: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”  I love adding some clarity to this commandment, and I see great freedom and comfort for us if we could conform to its instruction. But, I also see that following this commandment challenges our basic rebellious nature.

The second commandment is found in Leviticus 19:18.  It says: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”  The history of mankind clearly shows that humans have not followed God’s instructions on this commandment.  It directly confronts our self-centered nature.

Jesus has placed a great challenge before us.  God’s desire for us is represented in these two commandments.  He wants a close loving relationship with us, and he wants us to have a close loving relationship with each other. Imagine how wonderful life will be when God’s desire is fulfilled.  Keep the faith, for now what we can do is work on our part with God’s help. When Jesus returns God’s desire for us will be fulfilled.

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INSTANT LESSONS

John 14:15-17

If you love me keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it never sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Jesus left us his teachings as recorded in the Bible, but that’s not all.  He sent us his Holy Spirit to guide us.  A couple of weeks ago, I had what I call an instant lesson by the Holy Spirit. 

I was borrowing a jack stand from my son Ben, and I explained to him the reason I needed it.  Some guys who didn’t know what they were doing had pushed a grand piano sideways without lifting it, and they broke off one of the legs.  I had volunteered to fix it.

Since I’d worked for ten years with pianos, I was well aware of what would happen if you just push a grand piano sideways.  My explanation to Ben included a belittling assessment of the guys involved in detaching the piano leg. 

Ben and I carried the jack stand over to the car I was driving. He had loaned me the car, so he knew it well.  I opened the trunk to put in the jack stand.  When I went to close the trunk, I did what I usually do, I slammed it down, but it didn’t close.  So I slammed it again. It didn’t close.  Then Ben enlightened me to my error.  He explained that when you slam it down it bounces up causing the latch to miss.  He went on to say the best way is to put it down gently giving the latch time to engage.

Almost immediately, I was aware of the correlation between my unawareness of the way to handle the trunk closing, and the guys who were unaware when trying to move the piano.  My making light of the way the piano was moved was unkind and prideful. 

So, I had an instant lesson.  I should not judge or make fun of others because I know something they don’t know.  There is a lot that I don’t know as with the trunk closing.  I wouldn’t like someone making fun of me because of my lack of knowledge. 

I will try to remember this lesson.  This is not the first time that I’ve encountered this lesson, consequently I’m thankful that the Holy Spirit is patient, and that he will always be with me to help me remember.  I foresee many instant lessons in my future.

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THE LAST WILL BE FIRST, AND THE FIRST WILL BE LAST

In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus gives us an interesting parable.  He tells of workers who were hired at different time during the work day.  Some worked the entire day, and the last ones hired worked only the last hour.  All the workers were paid the same amount regardless of how long they worked.  The ones who came to work last were paid first, and the ones who worked the longest were paid last.

I knew a man who was 82 years old when he came to Jesus.  He was a delightful man who then took pleasure helping out at his church. At the age of 89 the Lord took him home.  I also knew a young man who was diagnosed with aids and shortly thereafter came to the Lord.  Two years later, the Lord took him home.   These two people are now experiencing eternal life in the presence of the Lord.  On the other hand, I have known people who have spent almost their entire long-lives serving the Lord. They are now experiencing eternal life in the presence of the Lord. 

Notice that they have all received the same reward. Those who were saved for a short time and those who were saved for a long time all have eternal life.  The promise of God is eternal life for all who believe.  There was thief on the cross next to Jesus who believed shortly before he died.  He received the same promised reward. 

Jesus often taught us to look at eternal things; however our physical existence is finite, so we tend to see things with that perspective.  Our self-centered nature is another factor in how we look at events in our finite world.  So when we were in school and the teacher directed us to line up in alphabetical order, but she then allowed the last in line to go first.  Those who were used to being first felt cheated.   

In school, we all got to go regardless of who went first.  I think that gratitude comes into play here.  We should be humbly grateful for what is given to us and not envious that someone else got to go first.  In verse 16 of Matthew chapter 20, Jesus ends his parable with these words, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  The Message translation calls this the “Great Reversal”.  Jesus wants us to be thankful for the great gift he has provided for us and to not be concerned about who gets there first.

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GRACE

(Matthew 11:28-30) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I’ve listed below a definition of God’s grace.  This definition describes God’s grace that is given to us.  In our Scripture from Matthew, Jesus is telling us the way to God’s grace.   We first come to him.  Grace is there for us, so all that is necessary is to come to him.  God’s grace is freely given to us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus recognizes that we are weary and burdened from trying to work out life on our own, and he wants to give us rest.  He tells us that it is safe to come to him, for he is gentle and humble in heart.  We can trust him with what he requires of us.  He is not going to smash us with his big hammer or chain us into slave labor to work off our sins.  He simply wants to give us rest for our souls. When we receive his grace, the yoke we take on is easy and light, and it is given to us that we might learn from him.  He gets in that yoke with us to lead and guide us.

We should often remind ourselves that God loves us, that he is merciful to us, and that we who have come to him have found favor with him.  His desire is to build a loving, eternal relationship with each one of us.  We are his children, and he will not abandon us.

Referenced from the Encarta Dictionary:

Grace – The infinite love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown to humankind by God.