Learning to Serve III

This week we are going to jump to the other side of the cross and listen to the Apostle Paul encourage the Philippians to think like Jesus.  It goes without saying that the early Church understood that their greatest goal was to follow Christ in the way he lived and sacrificed himself, out of love, that others might have eternal life.  Here we see the heart of one of the apostles not just pleading or obligating believers, but directly commanding them to think like Jesus.

How did Jesus think?  What kind of mind does God have?  Obviously, the Father doesn't have a literal mind.  But when the Word became flesh it did so in order to give us a glimpse into that which we cannot see.  In Jesus the mind of God becomes not just visible, but displayed in all its glory through the choices that he made.  Do I make choices like Jesus did?  In particular, Paul seems to be concerned with how the Philippians treat one another.  Where do fights and quarrels among you come from?  When our hearts are transfixed by the desires of this world and when our minds follow in the paths of this world's reasonings and logic, it is then that we have trouble being the "body of Christ."  Thus in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5 we are commanded to lower our thinking so that we can serve like Jesus did.

The Mind of Christ

The mind of Jesus is the mind of God.  Wouldn't it be great to have the thought process of God?  The truth is, it is not that great.  At least in the sense of how we will "feel" about it.  Jesus agonized over going to the cross to the point that he sweat great drops of blood and asked the Father if there was another way.  So having the mind of Christ is no "great" thing in the eyes of this world.  In fact Christ seemed a fool and an evil thing to remove to them.  The first point the apostle points out is the lowliness of Christ's mind.  He had used this term in verse 3 and so Jesus becomes the perfect example.  To have a lowly mind is not a reference to our ability to think.  Rather it is a term that refers to where we are on the scale of pride in regards to our thinking.  Am I high-minded, i.e. full of myself with pride?  Or, am I low-minded, i.e. humble and clear in my thinking about who I am, not far off the ground?  But Jesus didn't JUST have a humble mind.  He did so knowing he was God.  Now just how humble would you be today if you found out you were God?  In verse 6 Paul is not talking about Jesus' claims to be one with God during his ministry.  He is pointing back to that point before he was conceived in Mary.  When he was in heaven with the Father, where he had dwelt throughout eternity past as one with the Father, as God, it is here that he did not think it something to be held on to with white knuckles.  But rather he emptied himself so that he could take on a very low form that of a man.  Here is the irony.   We who are bankrupt think more highly of ourselves than we ought.  It should be easy to humble ourselves and be lowly of mind, but it is difficult.  However, Jesus, who is higher than all creation and should have the greatest difficulty in imagining (much less realizing it) himself as the lowest of all mankind, empties himself of any pride that he would duly hold and takes on the form of a man.  Not a superman, but a scapegoat who will carry off the sins of those who will believe on him.

God's mind is such that he is not so enamored with being God that he can't lower himself in order to save mankind from its destiny of destruction.  We on the other hand are obsessed with being gods.  We are so enamored with the thought of being gods that we will sacrifice everything in order to get it.  But God sacrifices everything in order to save us.  The mind of God is the opposite of ours and is why we killed him when he walked among us.  His thinking shows ours for what it is, evil.

How do I appear before others?  Too often we work hard at creating a high and sophisticated appearance to others.  But Christ made himself lowly that he might serve.  Isn't this what it means to be a Christian?  What antichrist spirit pushes us to believe we can do else and still be his disciples?  In the end we, like Judas, will reach a fork in the road.  It will be the point in which it is revealed who really are the disciples of Jesus and who were merely pretenders.  We must die to trying to be great and instead purposefully choose a lower place and serve others.

Even the plan of salvation is itself the very picture of humility.  The mind that would concoct such a plan that in order to save man from the muck and mire of sin He would descend into the trenches and lift us up.  He became one of us that he might save us.  God became a man not because it is cool to be a man, but because it was the only way to save us from our own hubris.

It was humbling enough of God to take on the form of a man.  But he did so.  It was even further humbling to take on the form of an Israelite.  Even further, he is born to the poor and lives in the rural areas.  But even further yet, he allows himself to be executed as a criminal, which was "proof" in those days that God had cursed you.  The mind of Jesus is a mind that never says, "This is too much!"  The glorious Son of God tortured and executed by blasphemous, demonic, men who don't even deserve to lay eyes upon him, much less whips, this is the mind that says, "Yes, I will do this too."  Not because he thinks he needs to suffer to be made better.  But because it was only through his suffering that we could be healed.  "Yes, I will even do this." 

How often do I pull back from fully loving those who require me to go farther than I am willing to go?  I am not saying they are perfect and deserve you to lower yourself.  I saying that God lowered himself to the lowest place exactly when we didn't deserve it.  We still don't deserve it.  Why would I look at another and say they don't deserve me sacrificing "this much?"  Precisely because I think too highly of myself.

Here is another thing.  Paul points out that Jesus has been "highly exalted."  This to our thinking is the reward.  We are willing to lower ourselves if we can see some way of being exalted out of it.  But woe to those who do not exalt us as highly and as quickly as we think they should.  However, Jesus was already exalted before he became a man.  His exaltation is not some grand starry-eyed rural kid making it big.  He is returning home like a warrior who has been through hell and back, and yet... victorious.  He is home that's all that matters.  Even his exaltation is really a return to what he already had.

Let me challenge you.  Don't you realize that we are merely returning ourselves?  We had perfect communion as the sons of God on earth until we chose our own way.  We have descended from an earlier glory into the depths and depravity of evil.  Mankind is on a path of great evil.  But God shows us that if we will lower ourselves we can help lift others back to the place we were always meant to be....Home...dwelling with God himself without pain, sorrow, hurt, sin, etc....

Let me ask you today, have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and Master of you?  Have you believed in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and that he dwells in heaven today interceding on your behalf?  Do you look forward in earnest expectation that he is going to judge the heavens and the earth and remove the curse off of creation?  Then Learn to serve.  Lower yourself and embrace a love of the truth that God does not think like this world.  And, you will be hated and persecuted when you start thinking like him.

Learning to Serve II

Last week we began looking at this teaching time that Jesus had with his disciples on the night of his betrayal.  Ultimately Jesus loved them, but he did so by teaching them what they needed rather than what they wanted.  Jesus taught them to serve each other.  We left off last week talking about how our pride fights against God's will and plan precisely because it calls us to serve.  Today we will pick it up on John 13:9 and look at how pride can also rear its head in those who say they want to follow God's plan.

Taking Over God's Plan

Peter's first mistake is to let pride steer him away from the will of God.  However, to his credit, he accepts this plan when he is rebuked.  I won't take this away from Peter.  It demonstrates that his heart really does want Jesus, but he lacks understanding.  Thus his need for a teacher : )  Peter very quick drives into the opposite ditch.  If pride can't get us to reject God's plan then it will try to take over God's plan.

Now we can say that Peter's personality goes overboard and he is simply making the point that he really wants to have a part or portion with Jesus.  However it is glaringly obvious that Jesus corrects his 2 responses.  Thus no matter what Peter's heart is Jesus corrects these two responses.  The first is to not let yourself be served by Jesus, the greatest, and the second is to attempt to control how that service is done.  This will clearly put us on the wrong course.  Here is an example:

2 Timothy 4:3-4, "The time will come when they will not endure sound teaching, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn away from truth and be turned aside to fables."

Here is a group of people who are saying they want God's plan by being "Christians" and having "Preachers" but they have taken control of how these things are to serve them.  So much so that they are being deceived and headed in the wrong direction by those things which were supposed to help them.

Peter's attempt to use his logic and reasoning in order to fix or "make better" Jesus' plan is ill-advised.  Of course Jesus will not comply like the false teachers in 2 Timothy.  But the error is corrected nonetheless.

Humility does not begin with serving others.  It has be pointed out that their is much Pride and Condescension in serving others.  "I'm the great one stepping in to help you the weak one."  Thus Jesus doesn't start by having them wash his feet or even take turns washing each other's feet.  He teaches us that humility starts by letting yourself be served by another.  In fact, all of the gospel is designed to first humble a man so that he can walk the way of the Lord.  The way of the Lord is a way of the humble.  If you fall to pride you will not stay on that path no matter how spiritual and godly it looks.  When our self does not want to admit its need is precisely when we need to humble ourselves and be served.

When we are at a point of serving others our serving must not be directed by those we serve.  This runs contrary to contemporary American society.  Jesus didn't take a poll of how the disciples thought he could best serve them.  Talk about a disaster that would have been.  Instead Jesus comes to serve them as directed by his father.  Not all want to be served in the way that the Father sends you to serve.  This is difficult to accept and stay on course.  Parents, of course, should learn this lesson pretty quick.  If you let the kids tell you how to take care of them, it would lead to disaster.

Now when Jesus rebuked Peter's attempt to get Jesus to give him a bath, he talks about the principle of washing.  Once you have washed you only have to wash that part that has gotten dirty.  Then he mentions that one of them isn't clean.  It is here that we recognize that the washing of the feet is not about natural dirt and social customs.  Though Jesus uses these things it is in order to make a spiritual point.  The washing of the feet is a picture of our daily weakness and inattention to righteousness versus Christ's justification and new birth.  The disciples had been justified and reborn and thus were clean (all except Judas).  This demonstrates that salvation is never a matter of actions, words, and works alone.  Those very things must be coming from a heart of faith in Jesus.  Judas at some point did not believe or trust Jesus' leadership.  Thus he was never clean to begin with.  Notice Jesus wants them not to give each other a bath (which he says has spiritually been already done) but rather to help each other rid ourselves of that daily spiritual grime we so easily get on ourselves.  The believer needs to daily wash with looking into God's Word and letting it point out our dirt.  But we also need each other.  God uses fellow believers to keep us honest and dealing with our daily dirt.  How humbling and humiliating.  No wonder most people today don't like to go to church or be "real" with other believers.  They might actually try to "wash my feet."  We all need to daily repent and grow in righteousness and yes God does use his word, but he also uses fellow believers, pastors, teachers, etc...

To balance that last point, if we try to "wash each others feet," without an appropriate sense of our own need for cleansing then we will drive God's sheep into the wilderness.  This is precisely what was happening in Jesus' day when he rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes.  We are not called to meet in a particular building.  We are called to meet with each other weekly and be a help to each other in following Jesus.  Am I really a help or am I a hindrance?  Only a humble person will be able to get any good out of those questions.

Our Obligation to Serve

Jesus gives them the conditional statement in verse 14 that is more powerful precisely because they were all there when the condition was satisfied.  There is no doubt that the master has washed the feet of the disciples.  Therefore there should be no doubt in us that we are obligated to be a help to our brothers and sisters.    We are obligated to serve them in such a way that they are enabled to be clean.  How many times have things been said that stirred up bitterness in anothers heart.  We can justify it in many different ways, but we need to be careful that we are not in disobedience to our Lord's command.

Here is a crux to this issue.  If you declare yourself a disciple of Christ then you are obligating yourself to becoming like him.  If he being great humbled himself how much more should I being humble, humble myself?  The answer is completely, without reservation, joyfully, and purposefully.  You can think of others.  But we have no excuse to not be of God's service to one another.  In other places Jesus commands us to love one another and serve one another.  But here he obligates those who say they are following him to do so by his own actions.

This is the ultimate tool of a teacher: example.  If you are a parent you need to learn this before it is too late.  Your example is the most powerful thing you have with your children.  Yes, you need to tell them things and direct them.  But make sure you are first setting the example.

This picture of Jesus washing feet gives a powerful picture of how best we can serve our fellow man.  Do not pick up the sword and hammer by judging, condemning, and "writing off" others.  Rather pick up the basin and the towel by working to gently clean, improve, and restore each other.

Let me close by pointing out the clincher.  In verse 17 Jesus says that our blessing is tied to doing these things.  Just know that if you refuse to be of service to others you diminish not just your blessing, but how much of a blessing that you can be.  The blessing of God should not be look at like a personal experience of candy or ice cream.  It is rather an atmosphere that we walk in and affects all those who come into contact with us.  It is not a lucky rabbit's foot that keeps us from harm.  Rather, it is a powerful recognition on our part and those who see it that God has his hand on our lives.

Let's give ourselves to learning to serve each other because, if the truth be known, most of us are terrifically terrible at it.  Not because we can't but often because we won't.  God forgive us.

Learning to Serve

Today we are going to look at the passage in John 13 where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.  Of course in the context, Jesus knows that he is soon to be on a cross.  As is normal in situations of separation he seeks to drive home the theme of his ministry and what he is trying to change about the "religion" of his people.  Over the last month we have talked about what it means to grow in becoming like Jesus.  It is precisely in this area of serving that we find the core of Christ's heart.

The ultimate aspect of becoming like Jesus is to realize this:  His heart is love and at the center of that love is serving.  If love were to be pictured as a cavern then it is our tendency to always fear going deeper.  "What if I can't get back?  What if I die and know one comes after me?  What if there is something down here that is dangerous?"  These questions can paralyze or cause us to run in fear and only settle for surface relationships.  But deep down in the depths of the cavern of love, if you are brave of heart, you will come to find that it's heart is service and we are going to see that today in this passage.  Jesus loved us by serving us.  That is the heart of God for mankind.

Jesus Lovingly Served us to the very end

The picture of Jesus on his knees with a basin and towel washing the disciples feet is hard to get away from precisely because it is almost surreal.  What leader serves his followers?  Isn't it supposed to be the other way?  But before we get into this I think we will find it helpful to follow the biblical account.  Now the main point of verse 1 is to let us know that Jesus loved his disciples to the very end.  This "end" is not explicitly spelled out and we can see it going at least 2 ways.  In light of his soon death it clearly emphasizes that he loved them all the way to the end of his life, all the way to the cross.  It is easy when our flesh encounters such resistance and threats to quit.  But Jesus didn't quit and run away, forsaking his disciples.  Rather, he persevered and continued to teach them.  Love never retires.  It continually seeks to help others even when it is under threat.

The second way that this can be seen is not exclusive of the above.  To the end can also have the sense that he loved them to the fullest extent possible.  In other words, Jesus loved them to the full limits possible within himself.  In fact, as God, Jesus shows us that the depths of God's love for us go deeper than we deserve, and deeper than we even desire.  I'll come back to that last statement in a bit.  When we might be tempted to only love so deep Jesus plumbed the very depths of love till he reached rock bottom of that dark cavern.  He held nothing back.  The scriptures tell us that in Jesus God was "lavishing" his love upon mankind.  He poured it out upon us without care of overflow.  Jesus was far more than we deserved and far more than we wanted.  In him love was poured out in exceedingly great amounts.  Notice though the qualifying phrases in verse one.  Jesus did all this knowing that his time to die had come.  He also knew that he was headed to the Father.  Knowing he was just about out of here, Jesus continued to love.  Knowing that he was being rejected by the world and sent back to the Father as a shamed ambassador, he still loved those frail, weak disciples.  Instead of dispising them and their boasting, he rather embraced and loved them because they were his.

Jesus Lovingly Served us with Full Knowledge

 Verse 3 tells us that Jesus knew several things as he approached the cross.  First he knew that all things had been given into his hands.  This phrase should remind us of Matthew 28:19-21.  Jesus told his disciples that all authority had been given to him.  The Scriptures had promised that when the messiah would come he would be given the authority over all things.  This is hinted at in Genesis 3:15.  Here God tells the serpent that the Seed of the Woman would crush his head.  This is a picture of complete domination and ruling.  Joshua did this with his generals when they were taking over the promised land.  He had several kings lay on the ground and had his generals put their feet on the ex-kings' necks.  This picture demonstrates that even your life is under my command.  It represents complete authority to be under the foot of another.  In Psalm 8 is speaks thus about the "son of man," the title Jesus most used for himself.  It says,

"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.  You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet."

 Jesus understood that he had full power over everything on earth and yet he spends that authority by not only going to the cross, but by also washing his disciples' feet, serving.  This just isn't normal.  Those who realize they have absolute power generally use it for themselves.  But Jesus did not do this.

Jesus also understood his divine origin and heavenly destination.  People have tried to figure out when Jesus understood his divinity.  Though the Bible does not give us the details that our curiosity desire at  some point Jesus clearly knew he was from heaven.  He knew he was divine.  This of course is the common lot of dictators, tyrants, and yes we must say Ceasars.  But know one who ever thought of themselves as a god, much less GOD, has acted as Jesus did.   With full faith in his true station as the highest over all creation he kneeled down and washed their feet.  The choices Jesus made are baffling if you truly believe he is what the Bible says he is.

Jesus Lovingly Served them Despite Contrary Influences

I know I skipped verse 2.  However we are going to back to it now.  The Bible tells us that Jesus did all this even as the devil had put it in Judas' heart to betray him.  This points out one of the things in this world that resists the service of love.  Satan hated Jesus and wanted to thwart his purposes.  The thought that killing Jesus would stop him was, of course, wrong.  But it represents a contrary influence none the less.  Satan found a willing accomplice in one of Jesus' disciples, one of those whom he loved to the very end.  Jesus didn't find out about Judas' betrayal after the fact.  Rather, he knew about it in advance and even warned his disciples that one of them would betray him.  There are few things as hurtful as betrayal.  Betrayal has poisonous affects upon love.  It not only tends to neutralize love, but can turn it into some of the most vicious hatred possible.

How often we run into problems that seem to have a supernatural source.  How easy it is to give up and quit serving, quit loving.  It is easier to do a hard thing when those around you are with you in spirit.  But when they actively work to thwart your purposes it can be very damaging.  How did satan find a willing accomplice?  Judas was lured by an expert fisherman.  Satan fishes for men just as much as Jesus.  But he seeks to catch them in order to use them for his own evil ends.  Judas clearly loved money was that the only trigger?  We may never know.  Some have speculated that Jesus' seeming inability to act like a "great leader" may have added to his ability to be turned.  However, it was done satan found fertile ground.  This contrary influence can cause us to give up.  Know this, if you attempt anything for God then the devil will fight against it in one way or another.  In that moment you will be tempted to give up or change direction, and quit loving. 

The second contrary influence came from the human pride that is demonstrated by Peter in verses 6-8.  Peter would not even think of letting Jesus wash his feet.  This may appear on its face to be a humble statement but it really is a statement of pride.  You see Peter is the #2 disciple in Jesus' little band of followers.  If Jesus is the messiah then Peter has a lock on being one of the greatest in the kingdom.  Peter could see himself standing beside Jesus when he had become King of Israel and vanquished the Romans.  He could see himself sitting on a throne only slightly lower than Jesus'.  His flesh, however, viscerally rejects the picture of Jesus washing their feet precisely because he knows what that means for him.  Jesus is inviting them to join him in service, not ruling.  Peter's pride doesn't want to accept it would rather deny Jesus the chance to do so to him.  Oh, friend, hear me when I say this.  None of us can rule with Christ until we have been broken in service along with him.  Service is not exalted in this world.  It is despised and only used to get a foothold to climb higher.  But it should not be so with God's people.  The greatest of us ought to serve the least of us, the most.

May God help you chew on these things.

John 13:1-8 mp3

The Joy and Grief of Christmas

In this time of year we often highlight the joy of Christmas and this is a noble thing.  However, it is important for us to remember the grief that was a part of Christmas as well.  The Bible is filled with a mixture of joy and grief.  All those who walk the path of faith will find it a mixture of joy and grief.  In the midst of this we need to understand, not so much why we have particular grief in our life, but rather, that God too has grieved.  God has also felt the pain of love and been spurned and rejected.  God himself asks us to join him in this mixture of joy and grief and yet promises to bring all grief to an end.

Have you ever asked the question, "Why?"  "Why did this thing happen to me?"  Now turn that question around and put it in God's mind.  I doubt God would consider this question the same way we would, but no doubt he asks the question, why do you reject me?  Why do you persist in embracing that which will kill you and rejecting that which will give you life?  Why do you embrace that which hates you and reject him who truly loves you?  Today we will look at some scriptures to explore this theme.

The Joy and Grief of Creation

In Genesis 1:31 it says, "then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good."  What a statement.  When God was done creating he steps back and recognizes that what he has created is VERY good.  This is a powerful statement.  There is, as of yet, no evil running rampant throughout his creation and his relationship with Adam and Eve is a joyous one.  In Job 38:7 God describes a joyous scene as the angels rejoice when God lays the foundations of the earth.  So creation itself is seen in the Bible of a joyous event.  However in chapter 3 we find that evil enters the creation.  As best we know it begins in the ranks of the highest order of angels.  Lucifer, the light-bearer, is filled with pride and chooses a path other than that of the Lord.  He chooses his own way, selfishness.  He not only causes angels to "fall" into darkness with him, but we find him on the earth tempting God's pet project, man, to rebel.  Man embraces the choice to make his own way.  To find a way other than the one offered by God, to a destination different than the one offered by God.  It is after many generations that Genesis 6:5-6 describes the state of mankind.

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  Now clearly, in light of Luke 14:28f, God had already recognized that if given a choice then man would choose another way.  Before he even laid the foundation of the earth God had already recognized that though he make the universe, very good, it would become not good and would need to be fixed.  Can I do this?  The creation itself is the answer.  God would not have created if He could not overcome the evil that would arise.  Now here is my main point.  God was sorry and grieved in his heart at what the earth and the universe had become.  It hurt and was painful to him.  God is not unfeeling and dispassionate about the things that happen on this earth.  In fact, the argument to be understood is that the emotions we feel are but a shadow or analog of the emotions that God has.  The creation bears the signature marks of the creator.  It cannot be anything in its initial creation but a reflection of himself.  But sin mars that reflection and shatters the mirror.  So that the current reflection brings pain to the heart of God.  In fact the pain is not a mental anguish.  It is at the very core of his being, in his heart.  Now let's move to Christmas.

The Joy and Grief of Christmas

We see this same progression in the life of Mary.  She is a young girl who is visited by an angel one day.  The angels tells her that she is going to be the mother of the messiah and that the baby she would have would be supernaturally conceived in her by the Holy Spirit.  Now imagine the joy of being chosen by the God of the universe to be entrusted with the most precious hope of the world, the messiah or savior.  Man has forever looked for that perfect leader who would rise up and lead us out of the pain and suffering of this world.  The "messiah" was this promised leader.  What a privilege, what amazing joy must have filled her heart.  Not just for personal reasons, but also because she was to live to see the messiah, to see the one who for millennia had been promised.   However, all this joy is counterbalanced by the grief of what all this meant for Mary.  God's plan of a miraculous birth brought the grief to Mary of being thought a liar, a loose woman, an unfaithful fiancee, and her son an outcast.  This social rejection of Mary, her child, and Joseph--once he married her he would be seen as practically confessing the child was his-- was a grief that God knew would be experienced by them.

The family goes on to have great joyful experiences, such as shepherds coming and telling the message and story of the angels.  The wise men who came later and worshipped the child and gave very valuable gifts.  Some speculate that these gifts most likely gave them the financial ability to flee to Egypt and live there for a while.  This great joy is counterbalanced by the grief of Herod's rage.  He tries to kill the child and they flee to Egypt to escape.  However, many little children are killed and now Joseph and Mary live in a foreign land as outcasts.

We see this pattern in Jesus' adult life.  He is quickly embraced by the people and followed by multitudes.  Yet, this is counterbalanced by his rejection by the leaders and eventual crucifixion.  In fact we need to understand that Jesus himself is the visible expression of the grief of God.  So the Christmas story is just as much a story of grief as it is a story of joy.  Let's look at our current situation.

The Joy and Grief of Today

The Bible tells us that as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man.  That means that we will see the world increasingly become a place of wickedness.  It will become more and more dangerous for the righteous.  It may seem strange to us that God has allowed this grief to continue so long and to grow so great.  However, the Bible is clear that though his heart is hurt, he also wants to give more people a chance to repent.  In Romans 8:18-23 the apostle Paul deals with this issue.

^"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. ²³ Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."

God is even more aware of the sufferings in this world than we are.  He is suffering along with us.  But he has promised to bring an end to it and to bring us to an incomparable glory, a glory that is greater than the suffering.  He promises a day when the "sons of God" will be revealed to all the world.  All the groans of ourself and others, even the world itself, only give voice to the groans of the heart of God.

So let me challenge all of us today.  We tend to run from grief.  We need to recognize that grief can bring us closer to God if we will allow it to teach us about the heart of God.  When you allow the Spirit of the LORD to teach you what the heart of God really is, you will be strengthened to weather the storm with your faith in Jesus not only intact, but growing stronger everyday.  Lastly may we recognize that the coming joys of the 2nd Coming, the Resurrection, and the Restoration of all things, are only made sweeter by the griefs of today.

In your grief run to him who is well acquainted with grief, the lowly Jesus whose heart you can trust.