Jesus Journey

As you read in my devotional last week entitled “Jesus,” the only hope for our world that groans in the bondage of sin is the manifestation of the children of God, that is Jesus Christ in us the hope of glory. (Romans 8:17, Colossians 1:27) For God’s glory to manifest in us we must walk the Jesus journey.

The summary of the first thirty years of Jesus’ journey are written in Luke 2:52,

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Jesus is twelve years old and has gone to the temple with his parents, and Luke records in 2:47

“And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.” Though Jesus had revelation knowledge that surpassed the greatest teachers of His day, he spent His first thirty years growing “in wisdom and stature, and favor with God and men.”  We can become so busy with life that we do not allow time in our journey for God to develop His character in us. As we watch the Olympics this week, we will see people who have spent a lifetime of discipline in developing the character and skills necessary to stand for a moment on the world stage. Whatever we do in life, our Jesus journey begins with the disciplines of a Christlike character in us. We do not live according to the values of this world but by the values revealed to us in His Word and developed in us by submission to our heavenly coach, the Holy Spirit.

The next phase of Jesus’ journey is recorded in Luke 3:22, “and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Wherever our journey takes us, the voice of affirmation over our lives must come from heaven. While Jesus grew in favor with man, the affirmation of who he was and what he did came only from the Father. No matter what kind of work we do, our only measure of success and sense of fulfillment can come from God. God’s pleasure with His son did not come from performance, because Jesus’ ministry had not yet begun. God’s pleasure was with Jesus the carpenter who had learned to walk as a son in a love relationship of submission and obedience.

The Jesus journey continues with the test of identity and character in the wilderness in Luke chapter four. The repeated challenge of the enemy was “If you are the son of God,” then prove it. Jesus’ consistent response was “It is written.” Satan constantly tests our identity and our character through success and suffering. He constantly flaunts the world before us, tempting us to measure ourselves by those around us, what we see and what we feel, instead of the Word of God.

The conclusion of Jesus’ journey is in Acts 10:38, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” This can be the testimony of your journey when your identity and life is hidden in Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, you can do good works that God has ordained for you and bring healing to those around you.

Andy Clark

Jesus

Jesus said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to myself.” John 12:23

Last Wednesday, I went to the church of a pastor friend of mine to hear a friend of his with whom he had played college basketball, and both went on to play professional basketball. My friend now pastors a growing church that is bursting at the seams and in the midst of a building program, while his friend has a powerful ministry as a character coach for young men. Both of their successful ministries were birthed out of an encounter with Jesus Christ that radically changed their lives and created in them a passion for Jesus that marked their basketball careers, their lives, and their ministries.

As we look out over our decaying world, our only salvation is a generation that is radically turned on to and passionate about Jesus Christ. Christianity, especially in the West has become too much of a private relationship with Christ. Jesus said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Jesus’ death and resurrection was a very public matter, out front where all could see. Jesus told the Jewish leaders, who arrested him, what I have done and taught has been in the open for everyone to hear. The mark of the early church was a bold and public confession of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)  We become so caught up with building churches, programs and ministries that will attract people that we loose sight of the central attraction to Christianity and that is Jesus Christ. Somehow, lifting up Jesus is not enough of an attraction to appeal to our modern world. We feel this need to compete with the glitz of our modern age and sugar coat Jesus to make him palatable to our day and age. Relational and social evangelism, the trend of our day, is a wonderful thing, but without an open passion for Jesus it cannot stand.

Jesus is the star attraction of Christianity. Yes, there are many who will ridicule, oppose, and persecute the name of Jesus, but without Jesus we have nothing but a vain and empty religion. When we build our lives, reputation, family, work, church, and ministry on an open and public confession of Jesus Christ, He will draw people to himself and build a church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

Philippians 2:9-11says, “Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Ask the Holy Spirit today to help you take Jesus out of the closet and make an open confession so that He can draw all people to himself and glorify God the Father.

Andy Clark

The High Life

Colossians 3:1-4

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

When you are in love with someone, their interests become your interests. We need to be interested in what God is interested in because we love Him, and our life is in Him. We become consumed by what consumes Him. The more heaven gets into you the more it radiates around you.

Colossians says, we are to “seek those things which are above.” To seek means to search for and pursue until you find it. It is not a casual pursuit but a diligent, purposeful, and disciplined pursuit of those things above. We are to “set our mind on things above.” The King James Version says to “set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” The focus of our soul man (mind, will and emotions) must be on things above. When we do that our soul comes into agreement with our spirit causing us to walk out the high life.

Jesus said in John 4:34, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” What is it that really drives your life? In French it is called “votre reson d’etre,” or your purpose of existence. Why do you get up and go to work or school, take care of family, or the myriad of other things that make up your life. If your motivation is anything else except Christ and those things which are above, your “reson de etre” is very fragile and can be taken away at any time. However, if your mind, will, and affections are on things which are above, then “your life is hidden with Christ in God,” a place of ultimate and eternal security. And “when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

In Revelations 4:1 it says, “I (John) looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."  There is a door in heaven standing open for you. It is a door of revelation, a door of glory, a door of provision, a door of healing.

In Genesis 28:10-14, Jacob sees a stairway to heaven with God at the top of the stairs. God promises His blessings on Jacob, and through His descendants all the nations of the earth would be blessed. We too, through Jesus Christ, are given access to heaven and the high life, that we may walk in the blessings of Abraham, and through us all the nations of the earth may be blessed.

Andy Clark

God is in Control

During these days with our economic and political world reeling in uncertainty, we truly need to recognize, believe, and affirm that God owns and controls everything. In I Chronicles 29:11-12, King David stands before the whole assembly of Israel and prays this prayer of affirmation that needs to be a part of the very fabric of our being:

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength.”

In the midst of negative confessions that surround us, like David, we need to publicly confess before family, friends, and coworkers that God is in control, and riches, honor, and power come from Him alone.  It needs to be our affirmation, whether we are struggling or walking in success. This is not some pious, scripted prayer David read, but it came from the depth of his soul. David declared God’s greatness when he was a shepherd boy, when he confronted Goliath, when he was the general of Saul’s army conquering all his enemies, and when he was running from Saul for his life.

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty.” God’s greatness, glory, victory and power are not diminished because of our circumstances or world conditions. We have become so saturated with humanism that we have lost sight of the greatness of our God. We do not possess the strength or ability to rescue ourselves or our society.  No man, government, or army can rescue us from the dilemma that we are in. We do not possess the spiritual character to stop the moral decay that surrounds us, but God does.

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus in Athens before some of the greatest minds of his day and declared, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, …. He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:24-28)

Like David, the greatest king in Israel’s history, a man after God’s own heart, and Paul who brought the Gospel to the world of His day and was constantly awed by God’s grace, we too must stand up in our day and declare before a struggling world that the God we serve is in control. We must not be influenced or intimidated by those who profess themselves to be wise or mighty “because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”(I Corinthians 1:25)

Today, Lord, “we adore you as the one who is over all things. Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength.”

Andy Clark

Making Time

Genesis 14:14-16

“Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.”

Four kings went to fight against five kings, one of whom was the king of Sodom, where Lot lives. The four kings defeated the five kings and conquered Sodom, taking Lot, his family, and all their possessions. Lot is in trouble because he is in the wrong place with the wrong people. Yet, Abram, even though he is totally outnumbered by the armies of four kings, takes his 380 trained servants and goes to rescue Lot, and God gives him a resounding victory.

Because Lot was in the wrong, Abram did not have to go and rescue him. However, Jesus exhorts us to leave the 99 sheep and to go after the one that has strayed away. (Luke 15:4-7) We often are so preoccupied with and protective of the ninety-nine that we fail to go after the one that is lost. Yet, that is exactly where God’s blessings and provision lie. God’s heart is for the lost, and He empowers those who seek the lost. Signs and wonders follow those who are involved with God seeking and saving the lost.

Abraham had a huge enterprise to run. He had 380 trained servants, who I’m sure were not sitting around looking for something to do. Yet, when Abram hears of the need, he drops everything and invests all his resources to rescue Lot. In the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin, there is a total investment of time and energy in finding and rescuing the lost. Jesus said in Matthew 18:11, “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” And again in Luke 15:7 He says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”

God has empowered us by His spirit to reach the lost. Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” God invested His son to reach us when we were lost and in rebellion against Him. He pursued us by His spirit, convicting us of sin, and drawing us to himself. God made time for you and me.

God abundantly blessed Abram because he took of his time and resources to rescue Lot, his family, and all that he had. How much time and resources do we spend in reaching the lost? As we make time for what is important to God, we will come into the blessings of Abraham and be a blessing to the world.

Andy Clark