Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.”  Matthew 27:39-40

The majority who saw Jesus crucified thought he was weak.  If he had exerted his power by saving himself from the cross, they might have spoken of his strength but we would not have a Savior!  His accuser’s perception of what was weak and was was strong was entirely wrong.  They were living life in the moment.  They were not able to see that the power was in the cross, the thing that looked like it inflicted shame and defeat.

God has appeared feeble to me at various points in my past.  Like those who hurled insults, I have been known to cry out, “If you are God, come and down and change this.”  Yet, the sources of pain that seemed to much to bear tempted me to demand deliverance.  But in the end, they have become the very things through which the power of the cross has been showcased.  Where I was weak, through Christ I am strong.  Where my heart bled, through Christ my scars bear the handiwork of his grace and glory.  The things I thought would destroy me have, in essence, saved me.  All of them have been the doorway that brought me to the end of myself and to the beginning of new life.

We cannot live in the moment, daughter of promise.  Things are not as they appear.  We cannot judge whether or not God is powerful by looking at our present circumstances and setting up a criterion by which God must prove himself.  We need only look back to see that He has already done that.  We need only look ahead to see that he is a King who will rule throughout eternity.  What could be more powerful than the cross and future glory?

Your plan for me is redemptive Lord.  I trust you with my life today.  Amen

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Hebrews 5:8

There is a pregnant moment between an offense and sinful response – whether a thought or a behavior.  The offense happens and then comes the temptation.  Then, a pregnant moment of decision when the heart decides how it will respond.  To ‘learn obedience’ is to learn to handle the pregnant moments within that temptation time period.  That’s where Jesus achieved victory.  That’s where my victory lies.

• He’s a toddler. He’s happily playing with a new wooden toy Joseph carved for him. A sibling or a friend takes it away from him. Mary encourages Jesus to share it. If Jesus were tempted as we are tempted, there is a pregnant moment where Jesus is encouraged by Satan (not His own nature – since He is holy) to hoard it, not share it. He’s like me. Temptation says, “The toy is mine. My father made it for me.” But Jesus chooses to share.
• Jesus is outside playing with his friends and is having a good time. Mary yells from down the street that it’s time to come and help His father with the chores. There is a pregnant moment where He is tempted to ignore His mother’s voice. He’s having too much fun. But Jesus chooses to obey.
• Jesus is a teenager and sees a group of friends plotting to cheat. He speaks up to expose their sin. They turn on Him and He is beaten up and bruised badly. There is a pregnant moment where He is tempted to disown their friendship and find a way to get revenge. Anger is hot and His body is sore from their beatings. Jesus moves through the temptation successfully and chooses a righteous reaction.

None of this was easy for Jesus. None of these pregnant moments are easy for me. As I think of Him in the throes of temptation, having to learn obedience, I am very aware that Jesus is my refuge when my temptations are too great and I fear that I will choose to sin. He knows. He is the perfect confidant. He is the One who lives to pray for me day and night – that I will learn obedience. He, from the inside of me, gives moment-by-moment grace to move successfully through the temptation phase to victory.

Open my eyes to Your struggle with Your humanity. You are a refuge for a soul in distress today. Amen

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Hebrews 4:14

Satan is my accuser. He’s relentless and he doesn’t play fair.

• He tempts me to sin and I buy his idea. I indulge and then he has plenty with which to charge me.
• He reports my sin to God and demands that the sentence of the law for that crime be carried out.
• When Satan comes to accuse me, he meets Jesus, my Priest and Mediator. I picture Jesus dressed like a priest.
• How does Jesus respond to the accusations? He cries, “She’s forgiven! She’s justified!”

Satan accuses me in two places; before the throne and to me directly. If I forget that I am forgiven and justified, and forget about that meeting between Satan and Jesus, I’ll be vulnerable in the presence of condemnation. I have to remember that he will mimic the voice of my conscience. He knows that I want to please Jesus and avoid sin. He knows that I take my conscience seriously ~ so how insidious for him to speak to me in a way that sounds like a guilty conscience. Here are some examples from personal experience.

SATAN’S VOICE	GOD’S VOICE
You should read your Bible more. What kind of a Christian are you?	Come home! I really miss you.
Your prayer life stinks!	I hope you’ll talk with me. I’m the perfect listener and I have so much to tell you.
You failed again? God is so dis- appointed in you.	I paid for your sins; past, present, & future. Today is a clean slate. It’s my gift to you. Live forgiven!

What is my strategy for overcoming the accusations of Satan? The blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony. Rev. 12:10,11  I ask God for a hedge of protection, a blood shield, between me and the accuser.  Then, I speak up and state my status as God’s child.

Oh Jesus, I am forgiven, I’ve been bought with the blood of Christ, I am holy in Your eyes. I say to my enemy, ‘Be gone’! Amen

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.  Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20

The anchor was a very popular icon in the culture of the early church.  Inside the catacombs, there are at least 60+ pictures of them.  As persecuted believers fled there to hide from those who were hunting them down in an attempt to annihilate them, the reminder that Christ was their anchor in the storm gave them strength and comfort. 

The writer of Hebrews says that ‘hope’ is found in the inner sanctuary, behind the curtain of the holies of holies but, in the old covenant, only the high priest was able to go there.  No one else enjoyed the privilege.  No one else felt the wonder of standing in God’s presence.  The hope that He experienced, he hopefully passed on but that would have been second hand. 

There is no comparison strong enough to really capture that but imagine that your best friend went to stand near the Matterhorn, or he stood on the shores of Lake Louise in Alberta.  You’d heard about both places, even seen pictures, but you could only dream of going.  Your friend returns and though you can see how it impacted him as he talks about it, and though your imagination is certainly enlarged, it’s still not the same as if you’d bought a ticket and gone there in person.  The most powerful things in life have to be experienced personally to really get it.      

Jesus coming removed all our limitations. Now, you and I have access that millions before us never had.  I don’t have to hear from someone else what God’s presence is like.  I don’t have to wonder how being near Him would affect me.  I don’t have to hear a priest’s stories and yearn to experience what he experienced.  I can gain the strength I need from God personally.  I can go behind the veil myself, right into His presence, and talk to Him as much as I want.  I can stay there as long as I want and feel the power of His indwelling Spirit filling my spiritual reservoirs.  After a season in prayer, I am energized to face my life.  I know that He is my anchor because I’ve felt the hopelessness of living outside of His presence. 

My anchor. My eyes are on You.  I hold fast.  Amen

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself: I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. Hebrews 6:13 

A person stands in a courtroom and takes an oath.  He has been summoned to be an important witness in a case. Either the prosecution or the defense is counting on him to strengthen their case.  But he will not give his most honest and accurate account without first taking an oath.  He must swear by someone greater than himself, someone by whom all parties present fear and respect.  That is the reason all swearing in ends with, ‘So help me God.’  A person giving testimony is saying that if they stood before God Himself, their account would match what they are about to say.  (Though it is disturbing how many lie under oath.  Getting caught is more about what the law will do to them for perjury rather than displeasing the God they swore by.)

If I am trying to persuade another person of the veracity of my story, I might pick someone we both highly respect and encourage the other person to check out my reputation.  Checks and balances are good for society. God made a promise to Abraham and to underscore His perfect intentions, He swore by Himself.  There was no one greater by whom He could swear.

Does this have anything to do with you and me?  Oh yes.  The next time the circumstances of life beg to disprove one of God’s precious promises, I will remember by whom He swore it.  It is a righteous and holy God that spoke the words.  He is incapable of lying and reneging.  All I need to do is review the covenant God made with Abraham.  Even though the people of Israel were unpredictable when, and in whom, they gave their loyalty, God still continued to keep His promise.  Even though they build a golden calf, His promise was still good.

If Jesus came today in person to where we are, looked us in the eyes and made a vow, we would forever hold it dear and believe it to be irrevocable.  Though we have not seen Him, He has made us promises with our names on each one of them.  No matter my ups and downs, no matter my crises of faith, no matter by lapses in obedience, no matter the degree of my anger against Him at times, no matter how needy, no matter how doubtful, no matter what ~ God’s promises are solid and will prevail.  He swore by Himself.  This is love – unmoved.  This is covenant – unshaken.

You whispered my name and said, ‘I promise.’  I whisper your name and say, ‘I believe.’  Amen

Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.  Hebrews 6:17-18

Since God is my sanctuary, I must do everything to develop my spiritual life.  Why do I need to do this?   Because there are chinks in my armor and the weak spots need strengthening.

I’m willing to do it in the physical realm.  Following surgery, there is physical therapy. In education, a student weak in mathematics sits under a tutor.  A special needs child requires special needs intervention for his area of challenge. Whatever is weak needs concentrated attention.

In the spiritual, the process is the same. If I’ve got an anger problem, I can’t just throw all the responsibility on God to fix it.  “Lord, heal my anger today.”  I’ve got to commit time and attention because all growth is cooperative.  It takes effort to know God and it takes effort to know myself.  I believe that Christian maturity is this ~ Knowing the truth about God, knowing the truth about me, so that the truth about God can impact the truth about me.

I can know a lot about God but little about my own heart. My spiritual life can be comprised of a Christian education without a thought to my inner world.  The result is that I will know a lot but feel little. I will live shut down and my faith is little more than an intellectual distraction rather than something transformative.

Here are some examples.  An extrovert needs to learn to be quiet.  An introvert needs to learn to reach out.  A peace lover needs to learn to be bold with the truth.  A debater needs to learn when to be quiet and pray instead.  A merciful person needs to know when not to offer help and a person with little mercy needs to express compassion.  So, for me, an introvert and a peacemaker, I must learn how Jesus balanced alone-time with people-time.  I must uncover when Jesus attempted to bring peace and when He introduced conflict.  Until I know Jesus, I will not have a mirror.

Moving beyond personality types, there are sins that cripple us.  Why do we tend to self-pity?  Why do we need to control?  Why are we angry?  Why do we brood?  Why do we need attention?  These questions require prayer, reflection, the disclosure of the Holy Spirit, and feedback from people who know us well.

I need change only the Spirit of God can successfully bring about.  But I can’t say, “Change me.”   That’s ludicrous.  I must prepare the ground for His Spirit to move.  On a Sunday morning, a pastor does not ask God to preach his sermon for him.  He does His part to prepare, consecrate his heart, and then he gets to deliver it clothed in God’s power.

God uses the reflection of His Son to show me my own heart.  He shows me what to confess so that I am full of His Spirit.  Resurrection power can be mine with some personal investment.

I lay down my pride.  Amen

I am complete in Him Who is the head over all rule and authority—of every angelic and earthly power  Colossians 2:10

I remember flying from New England to Atlanta some years ago. It was turbulent and way too stressful to think of reading.  Even music didn’t appeal. I finally closed my eyes and said, “Lord, teach me something powerful that I do not know.”   Slowly, God gave me this picture.  I saw the Spirit of God move into my being – like He did when I was 7 yrs. old and I asked Him to be my Savior.  “I am in you and you are in me,” He said.

Then He let me see what that looked like.  I was like a puzzle piece that He set in place inside His heart.  (It was a space only I could fit into.)  I could see the edges of me, but with time, my puzzle piece began to get fuzzy…like the edges were dissolving.  Soon, I was no longer definable. I had melted into the person of Jesus.  We were one. 

This morning on the way to a dentist appointment, I heard Alistair Begg describe the privilege of being ‘in Christ’ another way.  He talked of wrapping up the smallest infant in layers of blankets.  They are tucked round and round the child and the baby is not even seen from across the room.  You know that somewhere in those blankets, there is a baby.

Somewhere in Christ, tucked in the many layers of God, there is you.  There is me.   The more like Him we become, the more blurred the lines.  This is a deviation from Hebrews but something I’m feasting on today.

 

 

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  Hebrews 6:10-11 

‘Sluggish’ is an interesting word and carries the picture of someone dragging their feet.  Do you know anyone who drags their feet on most everything you suggest?  You knew before you mentioned something that you would get resistance.  Nothing you come up with is a great idea.  They see themselves victimized by it somehow.  Now, they might comply but you know they’ll be negative the whole time.  You might say under your breath that it would have been easier to just do it alone.

It’s very humbling to realize that the sluggard can be me. Am I the one dragging my feet where the ideas of God are concerned?  Do the things that excite God excite me?  Does every suggestion from scripture appeal to me or am I the one trying to find excuses to get out of it?  I’ve lived some of my life complying with the commandments of God as if He were unreasonable and I was a victim.  I wanted to do what I wanted to do.    

Paul knew that sluggishness is a temptation.  He said, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9 

What’s the fix for my contrary spirit?  It would appear that I should rise up, give myself a good talking to, and just stop being lazy.  That would be the biggest mistake.  That’s the legalist in me.  I try to talk myself into doing what is right and behave appropriately.  So, what’s wrong with that?  I must realize that this is not a behavioral issue but a heart issue.  God doesn’t want, nor deserve, a whiny child.  He wants a friend/partner who engages with His redemptive plan joyfully.  His ideas are energizing if the Spirit of God is large in me.  If they seem like a drag, my need for quiet time with Jesus has never been greater.  Our love life has been starved by everything else that seemed more appealing.

You don’t need me to do anything.  You invite me. It’s a privilege to be asked.  Fill my heart with joy for every single thing you place in front of me today.  Amen

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:8 

Would you take a minute and read this scripture several times, ever so slowly?  Get past the wordiness in order to achieve some kind of familiarity because what follows won’t be of any benefit without tying it into this verse from Hebrews.  Now take a deep breath.  Let’s jump in.

This scripture is not about believers and unbelievers.  The book of Hebrews was written to believers and this verse describes two children of God who are walking differently from one another.  They are in polarity.  One receives the rains of God’s Spirit, lets it soak in, and is so fruitful that he receives a blessing from His Father.

The other child of God allows thorns and thistles to overtake his life. The weeds (which are sins left to metastasize over time) have taken over his garden to such an extent that he is long past fruitful.  Nothing has been cultivated for some time and the soil has passed fertility.  The only thing to do now is burn it and start over.  God brings about the fires of judgement.  Extreme adversity causes that believer to look up, repent, and return to communion with His Father.  Fruitfulness follows.

This journey from obedience, into waywardness, and then back to obedience is seen over and over again in the life of Israel.  How stunning was their prosperity while under God’s favor.  But then began their slow descent of disobedience into judgement. Along the way, and in His mercy, God’s Spirit called them to turn back and repent.  The more their landscape was ravaged by weeds however, the less they heard Him, and the less they cared that His voice was out of range.

Adversity was brought about by the hand of God.  It was a merciful adversity, a burning that became a shaping agent in their sanctification.  The judgement caused them to turn back.  Their hard hearts were melted by the heat, then by love and mercy, and repentance was once again on their lips.

You will do anything possible to cause Your children to return to You.  Your heavy hand, working behind the fires of captivity, wields the scepter of love.  Through the fire and the smoke, I once discovered the blessing of adversity. Amen