Ensign: So Once You Know What The Question Is,
All ye inhabitants
of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up
an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE
MOUNTAINS 22 August 2014
Jesus is the answer
For the world today
Above Him there's no other
Jesus is the way.
I hear this song during Bible schools and retreats and, stepping outside my own faith a moment, realize how pat and how easy and almost how naïve that must sound. If Jesus is The Answer, then what's The Question?
Jesus is the answer
For the world today
Above Him there's no other
Jesus is the way.
I hear this song during Bible schools and retreats and, stepping outside my own faith a moment, realize how pat and how easy and almost how naïve that must sound. If Jesus is The Answer, then what's The Question?
"Exactly," said Deep Thought. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means." -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
To raise some extra money my wife and I deliver our local newspaper on an early morning route, and the end of the route brings us to a local church that has had this message on its sign as long as we've driven the route, for about two months now. The sign says
I drove by the sign this morning and it occurred to me as I was really stuck on how to tie this Ensign together that maybe it matters more what the question ISN'T. It's not "Are you righteous?"
Even Paul, the Pharisee's Pharisee (if you don't know what that is, read this as the lawyer's lawyer) would attest to this -- Romans 3:10's "There is none righteous, no, not one:" -- and he's quoting (or it is paraphrasing when you're going from one language to another, as Paul went from Hebrew to Greek, from Psalm 14:3's "There is none that doeth good, no, not one.")
So this also knocks out "are you good" and "are you doing good things" -- but then we come to the question of what is good? Not just following the usual civilized rules against theft, murder, and impertinence (how I once read the Ten Commandments described in a cartoon history and still love it, but I think you'd agree that civilization is impossible without said rules and the penalties for not following them) but also being a great person. Again, what's the standard? More accurately, WHO?
Heck, even Jesus says when the rich young ruler approaches Him (Mark 10:17-22) that HE'S not good, but God alone is! (The rich man says "Good Master" in verse seventeen, only recognizing Jesus as a religious teacher, not as the Son of God -- which for the moment He wasn't advertising anyway.) With all the things Jesus did and said that, even in a cursory reading of the Gospels, we can see and accept ... AH HA, that we accept!
True, twenty centuries distant from the first century world of the Gospels it's easy to be ... skeptical. But not cynical, this is important! Because the second part of the verse where Jesus is telling the disciples (John 14:6) at passover, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." is easy to gloss over. We want God our Father to be nice. We want God our Father to be merciful. Especially to us.
But without accepting Jesus for Who He ultimately is -- the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins that keep us separated from God our Father -- God can't accept us into eternal life with Him. So the question of our "being ready" isn't about being good or doing good things or being righteous or even being all right with Jesus returning (see the prophecy in Zechariah 14 and its fulfillment in Acts 1) because He will. Really, we can only be ready.
And that's what the answer means,
To raise some extra money my wife and I deliver our local newspaper on an early morning route, and the end of the route brings us to a local church that has had this message on its sign as long as we've driven the route, for about two months now. The sign says
Jesus Is Returning
Are You Ready?
I drove by the sign this morning and it occurred to me as I was really stuck on how to tie this Ensign together that maybe it matters more what the question ISN'T. It's not "Are you righteous?"
Even Paul, the Pharisee's Pharisee (if you don't know what that is, read this as the lawyer's lawyer) would attest to this -- Romans 3:10's "There is none righteous, no, not one:" -- and he's quoting (or it is paraphrasing when you're going from one language to another, as Paul went from Hebrew to Greek, from Psalm 14:3's "There is none that doeth good, no, not one.")
So this also knocks out "are you good" and "are you doing good things" -- but then we come to the question of what is good? Not just following the usual civilized rules against theft, murder, and impertinence (how I once read the Ten Commandments described in a cartoon history and still love it, but I think you'd agree that civilization is impossible without said rules and the penalties for not following them) but also being a great person. Again, what's the standard? More accurately, WHO?
Heck, even Jesus says when the rich young ruler approaches Him (Mark 10:17-22) that HE'S not good, but God alone is! (The rich man says "Good Master" in verse seventeen, only recognizing Jesus as a religious teacher, not as the Son of God -- which for the moment He wasn't advertising anyway.) With all the things Jesus did and said that, even in a cursory reading of the Gospels, we can see and accept ... AH HA, that we accept!
True, twenty centuries distant from the first century world of the Gospels it's easy to be ... skeptical. But not cynical, this is important! Because the second part of the verse where Jesus is telling the disciples (John 14:6) at passover, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." is easy to gloss over. We want God our Father to be nice. We want God our Father to be merciful. Especially to us.
But without accepting Jesus for Who He ultimately is -- the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins that keep us separated from God our Father -- God can't accept us into eternal life with Him. So the question of our "being ready" isn't about being good or doing good things or being righteous or even being all right with Jesus returning (see the prophecy in Zechariah 14 and its fulfillment in Acts 1) because He will. Really, we can only be ready.
And that's what the answer means,
David
P.S. I write this
weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address
book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that
I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord,
that we can come to You in prayer and that You provide for all our
needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace
of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for
everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You
for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray
that we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
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