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http://www.basicbiblestudies.com/article450.htmlWhat Does God Think? By: Gord Lang
History is filled with tales of men in their endeavors to understand God. One of the compelling forces behind the fall of mankind was Satan’s empty promise that, by partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, man would become like God. The implied assurance appears to be that man would finally be able to know God’s thoughts and duplicate His deeds. Long after the fall of mankind and the resulting eviction from Eden, mankind continued to strive to attain God’s level – rather than allowing God to reach down to His beloved creation.
The more he tried, the more man failed to understand the mind of God. It wasn’t until the time of the prophet Isaiah that man finally was able to comprehend why he could never attain to God’s stature. As God told the prophet, to be like Him, we would have to think like Him. His ways are in the same proportion to our ways as the heavens are high above the earth. If we could measure the height of the heavens, then we might be able to understand the ways of God, but such knowledge is too great for the human mind to comprehend. When we study the principles that Jesus taught to His disciples, we find that the essence of the problem is that man does not think the way God thinks. In fact, the reason that Jesus’ ministry drew so much negative attention stemmed from the fact that His teaching ran contrary to all of the wisdom that His listeners had previously been taught.
The most central theme of Jesus ministry was the principle that said – if you want to live, you must first die. His whole purpose of coming to earth was that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. But in order for us to experience abundant life, Christ had to die. We see it in nature, Jesus said. Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. It doesn’t do any good sitting in the seed bag. In order to bear fruit it must first be buried for some time. That was the purpose of Jesus’ life in a nutshell. Yes, He came to bring abundant life, but in order to do that, it was necessary for him to die. As His disciples, then, our existence is based on the same principle. If we really want to live, we must first die. Certainly, we are not speaking in a physical sense – for then who would remain to be a witness of God’s eternal love to mankind. But what Jesus went on to explain was the fact that we must die to ourselves. All of our hopes, dreams, and ambitions we must count as dead if we are to be of any use in bearing fruit for the Kingdom of Heaven. The apostle Paul told the first century church – “I am crucified with Christ, still I live... not that it is my life, but Christ lives within me.” Therein is the secret to the successful Christian walk. We must put our natural tendencies to death and strive to achieve the sinless image of God. Again, Paul said – “I die daily”. That’s a good principle to hang onto – if we are going to really live the life that Christ desires of us, it is going to be a daily struggle. Everyday we will have to put our fleshly cravings and responses to death. Only then will we discover abundant, satisfying life in Christ.
Another important theme in Jesus’ ministry was – if you aspire to leadership, you must learn to be a servant. That was probably the most shocking and disappointing principle to many of His followers. After all, wasn’t this the Messiah, the Long-awaited One who would deliver them from the bondage of their enemies? Many of them had left promising careers and positions in order to be among the favored few when this Savior would be made king. Now he was issuing such statements as – the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. A servant-king was unheard of. It was a concept that many could not accept, causing them to drop out of the group and return to their former lifestyles. Even the ones that stayed with him were still having trouble with that concept the night of the Last Supper. After a long walk on a hot, dusty road, John looked at James, who looked at Peter, who looked expectantly at Philip. They couldn’t eat supper with unwashed hands and feet, and the upper room didn’t come with valet service. Who was going to do what needed to be done? To their chagrin, it was Jesus who filled the basin, took the towel and began to gently wash each tired, aching pair of feet. Peter seems to be the only one with enough fortitude to recoil at such an obvious inequity. Peter, if you don’t allow me to do this, then you have no part with me – the words were gentle, but the statement was stunning, and suddenly Peter felt the need for a total cleansing by his Lord. With such a vivid example, they came closer to understanding the statement – he that would be greatest among you, let him become everyone’s servant.
…For judgment I came into this world…that those who see may become blind … Another confusing statement was made by this one who had become their teacher. Now the acuteness of their sight appeared to depend on their becoming blind. Remember when the devil took Jesus to the top of the mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world? Then he said – “all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me”. We shudder at the audacity of such a statement which is in direct opposition to the Word of God that declares “… the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof…” In that moment of time God’s plan of eternal salvation was spared as Jesus became blind to the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. There are many alluring things that pass before our eyes every day, and our spiritual survival depends on our ability to become blind to the pleasures of this life in order to truly see the desirable attributes of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So Jesus introduced another seeming anomaly into the teaching of the kingdom. It wasn’t that his listeners had never experienced hunger - most of them lived a hand-to-mouth existence everyday. They were well acquainted with the reality of hunger and thirst – but for them it was definitely not a blessing. In fact, in the language of the day, what Jesus said was “Happy are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness…” Like most people of our day, they had hungered and thirsted after a lot of things, like food, shelter, clothing, and they had never found happiness in any of those things. But there were those, even in Jesus day, who had a spiritual hunger for the truths and principles that He had come to teach. To those Jesus promised the blessing of fulfillment, or satisfaction. No longer would they be driven from one teacher to another – always seeking, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Within the Kingdom of Heaven they would find fulfillment for all of their spiritual desires.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. With those words Jesus introduced another principle of the kingdom of heaven. Those in his audience that day could again identify with those words more than many who read the verse today. That is because, in respect to the spiritual aspect of man, the word means to be destitute of the wealth of learning and intellectual culture which schools provide. Probably most of his audience had little or no formal education. These were fishermen and farmers who inherited their vocation and lifestyle from their parents. They did not have the means to change their vocation, and, subsequently, their social status in life. No doubt, they were often made to feel inferior by the more wealthy classes of society. In a world where success is measured in monetary terms the idea of being counted among the “poor” is certainly not socially attractive. In a radical move to demonstrate this Kingdom principle, Jesus left the splendor and majesty of his heavenly throne to die a criminal’s death. Though he was rich, Paul tells us, yet for our sakes he became poor. And that is the secret to this particular principle of the kingdom, that by a conscious act of his will, Jesus became poor. It was not by chance or misfortune – it was a decision that he made in obedience to the Father’s desire. We are faced with the same decision – to lay aside everything that the world has to offer in order to be obedient to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. When we do that, we become heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven – joint-heirs with Jesus our Lord, for God chose the poor of this world, James tells us, to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.
If any man thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise. These were the words of the Apostle Paul to the fledgling church at Corinth, but the principle is still relevant to the modern Body of Christ. As was previously stated, the original sin in the Garden of Eden was a result of man’s insatiable desire for knowledge and subsequent wisdom. But if we truly desire Godly wisdom we must become foolish. In this statement God is not giving us license to act or live imprudently. Rather, once again, he is instructing us to make a conscious decision to become foolish in the estimation of those who are worldly wise. As anyone who has been a Believer for any length of time knows, in today’s society this directive doesn’t take much effort or planning. Because the preaching of the cross is, to those who perish, foolishness – anytime one opens their mouth to declare or defend Godly principles, the world is more than willing to apply the label of foolishness to their reputation. To become foolish, we must decide to disregard what the world deems to be wisdom. Only then will we be able to absorb the principles of the kingdom and increase in wisdom and stature in the sight of God and man.
Give, and it shall be given to you… thus Jesus began one of the greatest lessons in spiritual economics. Again, this principle contradicts all of the wisdom of this world as they think of amassing wealth. Still, the principle is vividly, personally, demonstrated by our Father in the most popular scripture verse that is most often the first to be memorized by any biblical student. For God so loved the world that He gave… In order to gain the eternal life of his fallen creation, God first gave His only Son. In the past, this teaching has been especially applied in monetary terms, and certainly that is one particular application. However, in the manner of human thinking we sometimes tend to become focused on one relevant aspect and thereby neglect other important applications. Upon serious reflection, therefore, it becomes evident that the same principle applies, for example, to the area of personal time and energy. How many times have we been hesitant to become involved in too many activities because we do not want to become overloaded? To our amazement, sometimes we find that, if we are willing to invest that time and effort to the furtherance of the Kingdom, we somehow find more than enough time and energy to accomplish our personal goals. The same principle holds true in terms of God-given talents and abilities. When we determine to use them in ministry to others, we find that God increases and fine-tunes those abilities beyond our farthest imaginations.
And so it happens in many areas of our lives, because that is the way of the principles of the Kingdom. So many of these principles are the direct opposite to human wisdom and the teachings of the world. But, because they are spiritually discerned, they stand true when all the wisdom of the world fails. They provide us with anchors to which we can cling when the storms of life rage about us, until the world about us becomes calm once again at the Masters command – “Peace, be still”!
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