Notes of Faith July 14, 2024

Notes of Faith July 14, 2024

What Makes God Happiest?

Enjoying His Signature Joy

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

I was wondering if I had discovered a new world.

Home from college after my freshman year, I was pondering what makes God happy. That spring I had read Desiring God and had my soul turned upside down for good. The book exposed how duty-oriented my approach toward God had been, and in the exposure, God’s Spirit opened the floodgates to delight in him, on the rock-solid foundation of the glory of God — since God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

After a few weeks of catching my breath, now I dared to take up what seemed to be the sequel, called The Pleasures of God (but found it more like the prequel). To that point, I had hardly thought deeply about human happiness. Now I found myself captivated by a theme I had not previously considered: what makes God happy. And I was finding that few things satisfy a human soul like meditating on the satisfactions of God.

Now, it’s one thing to ask, What makes God happy? It’s another to say, What makes him happiest?

Search through Scripture for the pleasures of God, and you’ll find many solid joys. He delights in his created world, and in all he does, and in his own renown. He delights in his people and in choosing them and in doing them good. He also delights in their prayers, and in their personal obedience and in their public acts of justice.

But lay those many divine delights side by side, and ask, What does God enjoy most? What makes him happiest? What is his signature joy? One clear answer emerges.

Ground Zero for God’s Joy

For starters, he is a God who was and is infinitely happy apart from his creation. His created world, and its history, is not the cause of his infinite bliss but its overflow.

At one level, the answer to our question of what makes him happiest is simply, Himself. God is not an idolater; he has no greater joy than God. He is supreme being — infinitely highest in value, glory, beauty, and blessedness (that is, happiness). And before anything else existed through his creative mind and hands, he was fully satisfied in himself. We rightly affirm, in simple terms, that God’s greatest happiness is God himself.

Yet Scripture unfolds even more. God is not only one but three. So, at another level, the answer to our question is, His Son. The eternal Son is ground zero for God’s pleasure, his first and foremost joy. No thing and no one makes the divine Father happy like his divine Son. This Son — eternally begotten, perfectly reflecting all divine excellencies, the full panorama of the Father’s perfections — has fully pleased and delighted his Father from all eternity. And he also entered into history to “add to,” as it were, his Father’s already infinite delight.

Delight in His Eternal Son

Before tracking God’s delight in his Son in time and space, consider God’s first and foremost delight in the eternal Son. Jesus’s baptism, at the outset of his ministry, is a stunning introduction to the world of the Father’s greatest joy. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all use the language of pleasure and delight (Greek eudokeō, “to be well pleased, to take delight”), as in Matthew 3:17:

Behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (also Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22)

At this point, no doubt, the Father is well-pleased with the human life of his divine Son, but here at the inauguration of Jesus’s public ministry, we see back through three decades of sinless humanity, to endless ages of divine perfection. The voice sounds from heaven, echoing the timeless Wisdom personified in Proverbs 8, lines the church has long connected to her Lord:

When he established the heavens, I was there; . . .

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

then I was beside him, like a master workman,

and I was daily his delight. (Proverbs 8:27–30)

There has never been a time when the Son was not, nor when the Son was not his Father’s delight. “God’s pleasure in his Son,” writes John Piper, “is the pleasure he has in the breathtaking panorama of his own perfections reflected back to him in the countenance of Christ” (The Pleasures of God, 174). And long before the Son came as the long-anticipated Messiah, and long before there were even earthly days, the Son was daily his Father’s great joy.

In fact, it was this very delight — Father in his Son, and Son in his Father — that spilled over in the creation of the world and history, with the Father, overflowing with joy in his Son, appointing him heir of all things, and creating the world to give it to him (Hebrews 1:2).

Delight in His Incarnate Son

The Father’s eternal delight in his Son led not only to the gift of creation but also to its glory. That is, the world and its history glorify the Son as both rightful owner and rescuing hero. The Father sent his Son into the created world to be its Lord and Savior. And it pleased him to do this: “In [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things”

(Colossians 1:19–20).

Having sounded the Father’s pleasure at Jesus’s baptism, Matthew also mentions God’s delight in his “servant” as Jesus goes about his ministry of teaching and healing.

Many followed [Jesus], and he healed them all. . . . This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.” (Matthew 12:15–18)

Now the connection with Isaiah is explicit. Jesus also is the long-awaited “servant” of Isaiah 42, the one “in whom [God’s] soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1–4). In fully human flesh and blood, and anointed with the fullness of God’s Spirit, the Son’s human life and ministry make his Father smile with delight. And Jesus knows it, and himself delights in it. He says in John 8:29,

He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

Few joys rival the delight of a son in knowing that he pleases his father. And this Father is God. Such a life as Christ’s is ultimate freedom: delighting to do what delights God.

“Few things satisfy a human soul like meditating on the satisfactions of God.”

Also, the transfiguration underscores the Father’s delight in his incarnate Son. On the mountain with Peter, James, and John, Jesus is transfigured before them: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2). Moses and Elijah appear and are talking with him. Then the voice of God’s delight in his Son again rings out, clarifying who is Lord of, not peer to, Israel’s greatest prophets:

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. (Matthew 17:5)

Peter himself would write in his second epistle of being eyewitness to this majesty. His telling also centers on the Father’s declaration of delight in his Son (2 Peter 1:17–18).

Delight in His Crucified Son

Given this signature divine pleasure — the Father in his Son, infinite in greatness and depth for all eternity, and extended into the world in the incarnate life of Christ — how jarring is it to rehearse the prophecy of Isaiah that “it was the will of the Lord to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10)? And God’s willing here is typically under-translated in our English. Twelve times in Isaiah and throughout the Old Testament, this Hebrew word (ḥā·p̄êṣ) is rendered “delight in” or “take pleasure in.” The unnerving claim in Isaiah 53:10 is that the Father delighted to crush his Son.

How could this be so? How could the Father, whose signature joy is the life of his Son, not only permit but delight in the death of his Son and the horrors of the cross? Elsewhere I’ve answered at greater length, but here let’s capture a few key aspects of this surprising and revealing delight.

For one, the Father does not only delight in the Son’s death. He wills it, yes, and delights in it, yes, but he also looks in righteous anger on his Son’s mistreatment and murder. This is history’s worst miscarriage of justice. No man ever deserved death less than the sinless Son of God. The cross is history’s greatest sin, a violent and horrendous affront by sinners on God himself. In one sense, the Father indeed is righteously furious. Yet still, in it all, he sees his Son’s faith and obedience, and he rejoices. Why?

MANY SAVED

Surely one pleasure he had in view was the rescue, and God-glorifying pleasure, of the “many” whom the Son saves (Isaiah 53:11–12). The cross is good news to the sinner who hears in it the invitation of God’s rescue from eternal misery. At bottom, the good the gospel offers to sinners is the ultimate good of having God himself and sharing in God’s own joy. Such a Father rescues his children not reluctantly but gladly. He delights to save his people.

GLORY VINDICATED

Surely another pleasure God had at the cross was his Son’s love for his Father and his glory. As Piper writes,

The depth of the Son’s suffering was the measure of his love for the Father’s glory. It was the Father’s righteous allegiance to his own name that made recompense for sin necessary. So when the Son willfully took the suffering of that recompense on himself, every footfall on the way to Calvary echoed through the universe with this message: The glory of God is of infinite value! The glory of God is of infinite value! (Pleasures of God, 176)

REDEMPTION ACHIEVED

So too, the Father delighted in the magnitude of his Son’s achievement at the cross. Make no mistake, the cross is an achievement — the single greatest achievement in the history of the world, and one whose full magnitude we have only begun to grasp. We will celebrate it forever in our praises. When God delights in the death of his Son for sinners, he delights in his Son achieving the single greatest feat in history, making the worst Friday to be Good, making the horrible cross to be wonderful.

Which leads, finally, to the pleasure of the Son in being crushed.

SON SATISFIED

Jesus did not go to Golgotha against his will. Certainly, just about everything human in him recoiled from what lay ahead, and yet in the garden, he looked the horror and humiliation in the face, and looked through it to the reward — and “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Even Isaiah foresaw this seven centuries before: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). The Son himself delighted to see his people saved, he delighted to see his Father honored, and, knowing his Father would raise him, he delighted to have his Father reward his achievement with the seat in heaven at his right hand.

So, the Father’s delight in the cross of his Son is not apart from his Son’s own delight in it, nor is it apart from the certainty of his Son’s resurrection.

Our Delight in Jesus

What difference does God’s signature happiness make for us? I close with just two of the many.

First, what greater confirmation could there be for our own signature delight than that of God himself? If the Son — eternal, incarnate, crucified, glorified — is the first and foremost delight of his Father, why would we not train our own best thoughts and longings on him? If Jesus is the focus of God’s foremost delight, how could we dare treat him as worthy of anything less than ours? And how hopeful might we be for truly finding what our souls long for as we take our cues from God himself?

Second, if the Father’s delight in his Son undergirds and leads to the extension of grace to sinners, then how secure might we be in this gospel? God didn’t only accomplish the gospel through his Son, but it pleased him to do so. God delights in the gospel. It makes him happy. In fact, it is an extension of his signature happiness. The happy God is securely happy about his Son dying (and rising) to save us. How secure, then, can we be in this gospel!

Salvation in Christ is not based on a whim or accident. The gospel is not a divine concession. It is a divine delight. God designed it, ordained it, arranged it, and it pleased him to do it. And neither Satan nor sinful man can change that.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org.

Jesus always did what pleased the Father…The pursuit of our lives should be to always do what pleases God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May we know the blessing of God through all we do to please Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 13, 2024

Notes of Faith July 13, 2024

Look-Alikes: The Obedience of Mary Magdalene

“Go to My brethren” .... Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the [resurrected] Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.

John 20:17-18

When a parent tells a child, “Go to the pantry and choose a chocolate treat for yourself,” how much of a test of obedience is involved? Very little, as the assigned task is one the child would delight in. There is no danger or sacrifice involved, no weighing of priorities or inconvenience—all factors which challenge the notion of obedience.

Jesus’ entire earthly life was lived in obedience to God, often (and ultimately) at great cost. He said, “The Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.... Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak” (John 12:49-50). As a disciple of Jesus, Mary Magdalene did the same thing in obeying Jesus. When she encountered the resurrected Jesus, He told her to take a message to the other disciples—and she obeyed instantly. In the midst of questions and confusion, she obeyed her Lord.

Delayed obedience is disobedience. Consider today how you might faithfully obey God regardless of the cost.

Beware of reasoning about God’s Word—obey it.

Oswald Chambers

John 12:49-50

49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. 50 "I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."

Jesus is God the Son. He was sent from God the Father to earth to speak truth from God. Jesus and the Father are One. When we understand the truth of God and the truth of the Scriptures, His Word, we know that God is One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let us daily draw close to the Father, through the grace provided us through believing in Jesus Christ, and the power living within the believer, the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 12, 2024

Notes of Faith July 12, 2024

Safe and Secure

I am the door of the sheep.

John 10:7

Warren Wiersbe explained John 10:1-6 like this: “The middle Eastern sheepfold was very simple: a stone wall, perhaps ten feet high, surrounded it, and an opening served as the door. The shepherds in the village would drive their sheep into the fold at nightfall and leave the porter to stand guard. In the morning each shepherd would call his own sheep, which would recognize their shepherd’s voice and come out of the fold. The porter (or one of the shepherds) would sleep at the opening of the fold and actually become ‘the door.’”1

Jesus said He was the Door. When we are in Him, we have the stone walls of His protective care all around us, and He Himself stands guard to make sure we’re “safe and secure from all alarm,” as we sing in an old Gospel song. Take a deep breath today and remember that you don’t need to be afraid. Jesus, the Door, is your protective Shepherd.

Every day may be a day of blessing, every hour an hour of victory, if but lived in the thought that Jehovah in his might is your shepherd.

J. Wilber Chapman

Rom 8:28-3928 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,

"FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;

WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lor

All things means all things…there is nothing that is occurs out of the sovereign authority and control of God. And there is nothing that can separate us from Him. We must look forward through the trials of this life to see God bringing His perfect plan to completion. Pain, suffering, death, cannot cause fear, but rather draw us closer to the moment when we will be in the physical presence of Jesus! He is with us even now, as the Scripture says, His Spirit dwells within the believer in Him to guide, direct, convict, enable, ensure, comfort and much more. The God who dwells within is the same God who was, who is, and who will always be.

Isa 53:6

All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him. (Jesus)

Believe in Jesus! Have joy and peace eternally and now as well! Listen to and follow the Shepherd who knows and loves His sheep.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 11, 2024

Notes of Faith July 11, 2024

Without Israel, the Messiah would not have come because God chose Israel for that purpose, and He was born at the right time, and He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law also. Not just the Gentiles. Part of the mystery of the Messiah is the reality that He cannot be separated from the nation of Israel. It's not just unbiblical to try and force such a conclusion; It's actually diabolic. Who wants Israel to be wiped out? The devil.

Amir Tsarfati: It's Demonicc

There is a growing mindset today that as long as you believe in Jesus and that He was raised from the dead, the rest of what you believe is of no consequence. You can believe some of the Bible or none of the Bible, or even things outside of the Bible, and still have the expectation of arriving in heaven.

The problems with this thinking are many, and not the least of which is this:

Psalms 138:2

I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

The word of God - penned by 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents over 1,500 years - is magnified above all of His name. What does this mean? Simply put, we could understand it by noting that when a person has a reputation for lying and you hear their name, it is their character that comes to mind. If someone is a gossip, the same is true. This is also true of a thief. The point is that a person’s character creates an association with their name. The nature and character of God is recorded in His word. His name is established by what is written in His word.

Psalms 119:160

The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Remember, among His characteristics, Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). And in John 1:1, He is revealed as “the word” who is God.

If you say you have a relationship with the Lord, you cannot distance yourself from His word. He is the word and the entirety of His word is truth, including this:

Romans 11:25-27

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”

Zion is often used in reference to the whole of Jerusalem where the Lord said His name, eyes, and heart will be perpetually (2 Chronicles 7:6). It can also refer to the hill upon which Jerusalem was built and where the temples stood. The mention of Jacob is a clear reference to the the children of Israel through whom the Deliverer would come. Romans also says that someday, all Israel will be saved.

Since that hasn’t happened, it must be in the future. And if it is yet future, then how can someone say that modern Israel is not the Israel of the Bible? The only way to arrive at that kind of conclusion is to think, “I am a believer in Christ who doesn’t believe all the Bible is true.” How can that even be possible since Jesus is the word and the word establishes the credibility of His name, which is the only name that can save?

Antisemitism is sin. It doesn’t matter what your opinion may be on the war in Gaza. It does not matter what anyone thinks about who was there first simply because the word says this:

Ezekiel 39:27-29

When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Amos 9:15

I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the LORD your God.

It is the devil who is driving the global antisemitism of the day and no Christian, under any circumstances, should ever side with Him.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Believe the truth in God’s Word about His chosen people the Hebrews. God took a Gentile, Abram, and made Him the first of the Hebrews, Abraham, and called Him to believe and follow His commands and blessed him immensely. There are still promises in Scripture to be fulfilled by God toward the Hebrews and God is faithful to fulfill every promise that He makes. This one is more important today than ever, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” We can look at history and see how God has destroyed nations that do not support Israel. He will continue to do so, even the United States of America, if we stop blessing Israel and it’s people.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 10, 2024

Notes of Faith July 10, 2024

Seek the Light

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

Back before we had GPS-enabled maps on our phones and in our cars, people navigated on road trips using paper maps. This was challenging enough during the day, but at least there was light. But at night, road maps were doubly challenging since the interior lights in cars were rarely bright enough to make map reading easy.

Recommended Reading:

2 Timothy 3:16

Light is a critical ingredient when navigating on the road or through life. When we encounter dead-ends, roadblocks, detours, or other challenges when traveling through life, we need the brightest light possible: Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, and His Word. When seeking the guidance and direction we need, we should go first to God in prayer—and then to His Word. The psalmist declared God’s Word to be a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. In that day, tiny oil lamps would only illuminate a path for a short distance. We must trust God to illuminate our next steps, not the entire journey at once.

Trust the God who is Light and His Word if you are in need of direction (2 Timothy 3:16).

No darkness we have who in Jesus abide; the light of the world is Jesus!

P. P. Bliss

John 8:12

12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.

John 9:5

5 "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."

Since Jesus knew that He was returning to the Father, He said,

Matt 5:14

14 "You (believers in Him, His disciples) are the light of the world. (To carry on His work, teaching the truth of God, leading people to the Messiah, the Savior of the world).

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 9, 2024

Notes of Faith July 9, 2024

 One-Name Wonders

Iddo. Junia. Sheerah. Asenath. Jochebed. Priscilla. Zipporah. Aquila. Archippus. Apphia. Onesimus. Nympha. Epaphras.

So many of the phrases I’ve circled in my Bible contain a name. A single name — sometimes with a sentence of explanation, and sometimes these monikers fly solo. Names containing mostly unknown stories and glories, these secondary and tertiary characters in God’s epic love story nestle into the folds of my brain and circle around there.

Did Asenath, daughter of the pagan priest of On and wife of Jacob’s son Joseph, have any inkling of her status as the mother of the two half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and the outsized part they would play in God’s story? Did she know that Ephraim and Manasseh would replace Reuben as the firstborn of the nation? Did she know that Jewish children would be blessed with the words “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh” (Genesis 48:20) still today? Did she understand her rare position as an outsider grafted into the family tree of God’s people?

Which prophecies caused Iddo’s hands to shake as he recorded God’s words and warnings during the reign of Solomon and Jeroboam? Where are his words now?

What kind of city builder was Sheerah? Did she draw up ancient architectural plans?

What kingdom exploits did Nympha participate in?

I truly think on these and so many other names. Perhaps because I have generally played lesser-seen characters onstage and been an understudy, I find these parenthetical people particularly intriguing. In college we were often assigned the task of researching secondary characters, filling in the societal and cultural blanks, deciphering what their motivation might be for their onstage actions, words, and feelings. We tried to ferret out what the author intended to say through these characters. Though this is a far, far lesser metaphor for the same pursuit in the biblical narrative, I think this has always been the source of my bent to lean toward the unknowns, the hidden characters in the pages of Scripture.

God knows every unknown.

That word unknown used to cause my heart to pinch up a bit; how about yours? I’m a word girl to the marrow, but I don’t like this word. The word unknown makes me turn my head away. Unknown things, at least for me, feel shadowy, slightly dangerous, apt to wrap themselves like anchors around my legs and drown me.

Once, while I was visiting with a wise woman at my collegiate church, I received something that forever encapsulated my tendency toward hating the unknowns. After praying and talking with me, she said something akin to, “Allison, I imagine you as a young girl, presented with a beautifully wrapped present from your heavenly Father. But you won’t unwrap it because you’re afraid it contains snakes. But it doesn’t. It contains untold blessings. You stand frozen, looking at it, refusing to unwrap it. Unwrap the present.”

Sometimes I’m still tempted to believe that blessings always come with a billy club. But it’s not true. Scripture declares,

The blessing of the Lord enriches, and He adds no sorrow to it. — Proverbs 10:22 BSB

Slowly, the emotional fog is lifting; I dare to raise a new sail. Yesterday, my Tall Man and I were talking about the things we can’t see (the unknowns), and he said something powerful to me: “You’ve spent your whole life thinking if you can’t see it, it must be all bad. But what if you can’t see it, and it’s all good?”

I thought: I don’t have to know every loop-de-loop, because God does.

You're invited

Up and Up and Up

Recently, my family went on a trip to the mountains of North Carolina, and I thought it would be a dandy idea to walk across the Mile High Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain, America’s highest footbridge. I thought I would lollygag right on across the bridge with plenty of cute family selfies to boot. How high and mighty of me!

I got to the edge of the bridge, started to take the first step, and then accidentally looked down. I pulled back to the platform of safety like a woman who had just been asked to do a triple gainer off a high dive into a pool of molten lava. I was terrified, which was odd to me because I had never, in all my life, struggled with heights — but that day, there was no way I was going to make it across that bridge without adult diapers.

Once I had caught my breath, I looked at my husband, my two sons, and countless others walking calmly across the bridge. After glancing at the safety wires going up to the neck of the bridge, I told myself, You can do it; just don’t look down. I looked at the destination and the objects of my affection — my husband and my sons (Levi, named for the priests, and Luke, a tip-of-the-hat to the beloved doctor of one of the Gospels) — the whole way across. I looked at where I was going and, step by careful step, I traversed it. And heavens, what a view was waiting for me on the other end!

The key to the whole experience was found in looking up, not down to the gorge below. The key was setting my mind on higher things. I could not help but think of Jesus, who set His heart and mind on the joy set before Him as He endured the unendurable.

Excerpted from Seen, Secure, Free by Allison Allen, copyright Allison Allen.

The world presents to us plenty of things to fear and yet God speaks to us over and over, “Fear not”. God created the world that we live in. He created it for Himself, and for you and me! In so doing, He told us to trust Him and to walk with Him forever in intimate relationship. We have failed many times, not trusting, not looking up, frozen, somehow believing that we cannot continue our journey. But God continues to provide the way, truth and life, if we would only come to Him with our fear, our sin, our repentance, even the faith He gives us to believe and trust Him. We can see Him through the eyes of faith and know Him intimately as He walks with us in every moment of our lives. Look, listen, and revel in the glory of His grace, mercy, and love for you. You will be immensely blessed!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 8, 2024

Notes of Faith July 8, 2024

Light of the World

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 8:12

When the Hebrew slaves traveled through the Sinai wilderness, God provided a pillar of cloud to guide them during the day and a pillar of fire to guide them at night (Exodus 13:20-22). The fire in the midst of darkness at night was “to give them light on the road which they should travel” (Nehemiah 9:12).

Jesus reminded the Jews of His day of the need for spiritual light in a spiritually dark world, calling Himself “the light of the world.” The darker the night, the more our need for light. He was reminding them that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Sadly, both in Jesus’ day and in ours, the darkness in this world doesn’t always understand the light of Christ (John 1:3-9). But all who embrace the light of Christ are given the right to become “children of God”

(John 1:12).

Make sure you are a child of God by believing in Christ, by letting His light become the light of your life.

It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.

Augustine

This dark world needs to be awakened to the light of the world Jesus Christ. That is the command that all believers have been given. Take the light everywhere you go that the eyes of the world might be opened to life and that eternal!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 7, 2024

Notes of Faith July 7, 2024

The Happiest Person Alive

Rediscovering Divine Blessedness

Article by Mark Jones

Guest Contributor

The seventeenth-century English poet William Habington said, “He who is good is happy.” Indeed. He who is good and abounds in all good things is happiest and most blessed. And because none is good like God is good, none is blessed like God is blessed.

God’s blessedness or felicity (that is, his enjoyment of the highest good) was not given much attention in the work of the Reformers. Even after the time of the Reformation, blessedness does not receive the type of attention that other attributes do. Interestingly, in the medieval period of church history, two of the most famous theologians, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, gave copious attention to God’s blessedness. Others before the medieval period, like Augustine in the early church, were clearly not unaware of this special attribute of God when they connected the highest good with God’s own felicity and blessedness.

We live in a time when a reacquaintance with God’s blessedness could prove extremely useful for pastors and their flocks. This attribute may also function as an evangelistic tool to a generation of people, young and old, who are decidedly not experiencing true blessedness and joy.

Rediscovering Blessedness

Meditating upon God’s blessedness should, in a certain sense, cause us some holy envy of what God possesses. His attributes, as we conceive of them, involve a perfect union of all that is good. So, for example, his blessedness is an unchangeable blessedness, an eternal blessedness, an infinite blessedness, and so on. God’s delight is chiefly in himself as a fully self-sufficient being who needs nothing because he possesses everything. The apostle Paul speaks of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” and calls God “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 1:11; 6:15).

The idea of blessedness as the union of all good things is not particularly difficult to understand. If we could conceive of a good God who is unable to effect good because he lacks the power to do so, he would not be happy but miserable. Or consider a God both holy and merciful but lacking the wisdom to be both just and the justifier of sinners — he also would be miserable. God is a perfect being insofar as his attributes are not in competition with one another, but instead gloriously harmonize in a way that can only mean he is blessed above all.

Theologians refer to God as a fully actualized being such that he is not just blessed but infinitely blessed. He cannot be more or less blessed than he is. Where unchangeable and infinite holiness, justice, power, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness exist, there must be blessedness.

Blessed Knowledge

God enjoys blessedness because there is no ignorance in him. He knows himself fully. As Stephen Charnock says,

The blessedness of God consists not in the knowledge of anything without him but in the knowledge of himself and his own excellency, as the principle of all things. If, therefore, he did not perfectly know himself and his own happiness, he could not enjoy a happiness. For to be and not to know to be is as if a thing were not. “He is God blessed forever” (Romans 9:5) and therefore forever had a knowledge of himself. (The Existence and Attributes of God, 624)

God is blessed because he fully knows his blessedness. God’s life is “most happy,” as the Reformed theologian Benedict Pictet said. Anyone who understands true happiness will affirm that God is “most happy” since he is “in need of nothing, finds all comfort in himself, and possesses all things; is free from evil, and filled with all good” (Theologia Christiana Benedicti Picteti, 2.4.7).

“Unlike humans, God does not need anything outside of himself to make him happy and blessed.”

Unlike humans, God does not need anything outside of himself to make him happy and blessed. The blessedness in this universe, wherever it may be, is from God and can only be from God. Even the human nature of Christ receives its happiness from the divine essence. As Edward Leigh once said, “The human nature of Christ himself in heaven . . . lives in God, and God in it, in a full dependence on God, and receiving blessed and glorious communications from him” (A Treatise of Divinity, 2:200).

Trinitarian Blessedness

When we say that God is “most blessed” we are affirming that the Father, Son, and Spirit all equally possess this infinite happiness. There is no divine attribute that belongs to one person and not another.

John Owen, who never shied away from his robust Trinitarian theology, speaks of the blessedness of God as the “ineffable [that is, indescribable] mutual inbeing of the three holy persons in the same nature, with the immanent reciprocal actings of the Father and the Son in the eternal love and complacency of the Spirit” (Works of John Owen, 1:325). The reciprocal love between the persons makes them blessed. True love is the ground for true happiness. The one who loves most is most happy.

We worship and serve a most happy God, which should make us happy. We bow before the three persons knowing they are not distressed like the pagan gods but rather full of joy, which is good news for us. God is not just happy but free from all miseries. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God knows his perfect blessedness, which means he also knows he cannot not be blessed. It is impossible for any misery to ever be in God.

Christ’s Blessedness

Affirming God’s blessedness raises an important question for us regarding our Savior, Jesus Christ. We drink from God’s blessedness because Christ drank in our misery as the God-man. God sent his Son to make us happy. But what, then, can we say about Christ’s own felicity, joy, and blessedness?

Was not Christ “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3)? Or was he a man of joy at the same time? While possessing a human nature allows for the experience of real misery, we should also think of our Savior as a man of joy who was always aware of his blessedness. Christ was always joyful and therefore blessed while on earth, even though he was also acquainted with grief.

As one who received the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), he would necessarily have been joyful (Galatians 5:22). As one free from sin, he did not possess the miseries of a sinful nature; rather, he was holy, innocent, and unstained (Hebrews 7:26). He would have been supremely satisfied in his holiness, which he received from the Father through the Spirit. Our Lord also knew that he was doing God’s will (John 4:34; 17:4), which brings joy and blessedness. Even going to the cross, Christ had joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). Knowing that all he was doing would lead to the salvation of his bride would be cause for great felicity. At one time, we read of Jesus rejoicing in the Spirit because the Father had revealed to “little children” the salvation accomplished through defeating the devil (Luke 10:18–21; Hebrews 2:14).

Our Lord was and especially now is a blessed man, the most blessed man.

His Blessedness Is Ours

What does the church gain by recovering blessedness today? There is no denying that we are living in a day when people are lacking joy. Depression is on the rise, and many are coping in unhealthy ways with their miseries.

We believe that God is the fountain of all blessedness and joy. We cannot experience true joy in this life until the triune God becomes our God. We are only as happy or miserable as the God we serve. Blessedness is not only something God is but something he offers, appropriate to our creaturely condition. God has decided to offer the best to us in and through his Son, Jesus Christ, which we can receive by our union with him and the Spirit’s dwelling in our hearts.

George Swinnock wisely states,

Those who serve the flesh as their god are miserable (Romans 16:18; Philippians 3:18) because their god is vile, weak, deceitful, and transitory (Psalm 49:20; 73:25; Isaiah 31:3; Jeremiah 17:9). Similarly, those who prize the world as their god are miserable because their god is vain, troublesome, uncertain, and fleeting (Ecclesiastes 1:2–3; 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31; 1 Timothy 6:9–10). But those who have an interest in this great God are happy: “Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15). (The Blessed and Boundless God, 167)

The Lord Jesus received his happiness from God through the Spirit. We receive our happiness from God, in Christ, through the Spirit. This blessedness is the only blessedness worth having because it comes from an inexhaustible fountain overflowing into our hearts, a joy that will be ours forever.

Many people think that riches or prestige will make them blessed, but those gifts easily turn into curses when God is not put first. And it is hard to put God first when we receive riches and prestige. Unless we receive the greatest gift that God can give — his Son — we cannot receive any blessing well. David understood this in Psalm 16. He speaks of how the lines fell for him in pleasant places (verse 6), but only in the context of enjoying the Lord as his “chosen portion” (verse 5). At God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore (verse 11), which is how one may be truly blessed in this life and the life to come.

And we should not forget who is at God’s right hand now: the exalted Christ. At God’s right hand is his greatest pleasure, his Son, and we are most like the Father when we love what he loves, which is true blessedness.

True happiness can only be found in God. This temporal life has many reasons to be sad, and all have their source in sin, the first sin and spiritual separation of man from God. God has provided life and all that brings true happiness in His Son Jesus the Christ. Know Him…and find true happiness!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 6, 2024

Notes of Faith July 6, 2024

The Surrender of Paul

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Philippians 3:8

The idea of surrender is to choose not to resist and to submit to authority. We think of surrender most readily in military terms, but surrender is also experienced personally.

The most consequential act of surrender in history happened when Jesus chose not to resist His Father’s will for Him to die on a cross: “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). All disciples of Jesus are called to surrender in the same way—to be willing to take up our own cross (Luke 14:27). Paul’s surrender to Christ is the most dramatic in history. Having been the chief persecutor of Christ’s followers, Paul surrendered to Christ beginning with an encounter on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). That act led to a lifetime of surrender in which he gave up everything in order to live for Christ.

If you are a disciple of Christ, contemplate the degree of your surrender to Him and any resistance you feel.

I surrender all, I surrender all; all to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

Judson W. Van de Venter

Phil 2:5-11

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We must surrender to recognize that we are sinners in need of a Savior. There is a God who is higher than any earthly authority and power and is to be worshipped and praised and given thanks for the life we have. Submission is a good thing. If Christ can submit to His Father even to death, we can submit to receive a true life that is offered through believing in Christ. Begin or grow in your relationship with Jesus today. Become more intimate with Him to truly know Him and His love for you. Your choice to submit will bring you the glory of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 5, 2024

Notes of Faith July 5, 2024

Jesus Under Pressure

If you’ve ever had a day in which you’ve been blitzkrieged by demands... if you’ve ever ridden the roller coaster of sorrow and celebration... if you’ve ever wondered if God in heaven can relate to you on earth, then take heart.

Jesus knows how you feel.

In the Gospels, we read of a time when Jesus began the morning by hearing about the death of John the Baptist: His cousin, His forerunner, His coworker, His friend (see Matthew 14:1–13). The man who came closer to understanding Jesus than any other was dead.

Imagine losing the one person who knows you better than anyone else, and you will feel what Jesus was feeling. Reflect on the horror of being told that your dearest friend has just been murdered, and you will relate to Jesus’ sorrow. Consider your reaction if you were told that your best friend had just been decapitated by a people-pleasing, incestuous monarch, and you’ll see how the day began for Christ. His world was beginning to turn upside down.

The emissaries brought more than news of sorrow, however; they brought a warning: The same Herod who took John’s head is interested in Yours.

Listen to how Luke presents the monarch’s madness:

Herod said, ‘I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?’ And he tried to see Him. — Luke 9:9, emphasis added

Something tells me that Herod wanted more than a social visit.

So, with John’s life taken and His own life threatened, Jesus chose to get away for a while. But before He could get away, His disciples arrived. Mark states that the

apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. — Mark 6:30

They returned exuberant. Jesus had commissioned them to proclaim the gospel and authenticate it with miracles.

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. — Mark 6:12–13

In a matter of moments, Jesus’ heart went from the pace of a funeral dirge to the triumphant march of a ticker-tape parade.

Look who followed the disciples to locate Jesus. About five thousand men plus women and children (see Matthew 14:21)! Rivers of people cascaded out of the hills and villages. Some scholars estimate the crowd was as high as twenty-five thousand.6 They swarmed around Jesus, each with one desire: to meet the Man who had empowered the disciples.

What had been a calm morning now buzzed with activity.

So many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. — Mark 6:31

I’ve had people demand my attention. I know what it’s like to have a half-dozen kids wanting different things at the same time. I know the feeling of receiving one call with other people waiting impatiently on other lines. I even know what it’s like to be encircled by a dozen or so people, each making a separate request.

But twenty-five thousand? That’s larger than many cities! No wonder the disciples couldn’t eat. I’m surprised they could breathe!

The morning had been a jungle trail of the unexpected. First, Jesus grieved over the death of a dear friend and relative. Then His life was threatened by Herod. Next, He celebrated the triumphant return of His followers. Then He was nearly suffocated by a brouhaha of humanity. Bereavement... jeopardy... jubilation... bedlam.

Jesus knows how you feel.

Are you beginning to see why I call this the second most stressful day in the life of Christ? And it’s far from over. Jesus decided to take the disciples to a quiet place where they could rest and reflect. He shouted a command over the noise of the crowd:

Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. — Mark 6:31

The thirteen fought their way to the beach and climbed into a boat.

Who would question Jesus’ desire to get away from the people? He just needed a few hours alone. Just a respite. Just a retreat. Time to pray. Time to ponder. Time to weep. A time without crowds or demands. A campfire wreathed with friends. An evening with those He loved. The people could wait until tomorrow.

The people, however, had other ideas.

The crowds learned about it and followed Him. — Luke 9:11

It’s a six-mile walk around the northeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee, so the crowd took a hike. When Jesus got to Bethsaida, his desired retreat had become a roaring arena. “Surprise!”

Add to the list of sorrow, peril, excitement, and bedlam the word interruption. Jesus’ plans were interrupted. What He had in mind for His day and what the people had in mind for His day were two different agendas. What Jesus sought and what Jesus got were not the same.

Sound familiar? Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby? Remember when you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind? Remember when you sought to use your Saturday for leisure but ended up fixing your neighbor’s sink?

Take comfort, friend. It happened to Jesus, too. In fact, this would be a good time to pause and digest this important truth:

Jesus knows how you feel.

Ponder this and use it the next time your world goes from calm to chaos. His pulse has raced. His eyes have grown weary. His heart has grown heavy. He has had to climb out of bed with a sore throat. He has been kept awake late and has gotten up early. He knows how you feel.

You may have trouble believing that. You probably believe that Jesus knows what it means to endure heavy-duty tragedies. You are no doubt convinced that Jesus is acquainted with sorrow and has wrestled with fear. Most people accept that. But can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life? Of your life?

For some reason, that is harder to believe. Perhaps that is why portions of this day are recorded in all the Gospel accounts. No other event, other than the crucifixion, is told by all four Gospel writers. Not Jesus’ baptism. Not His temptation. Not even His birth. But all four writers chronicle this day.

It’s as if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John knew that you would wonder if God understands. And they proclaim their response in four-part harmony: Jesus knows how you feel.

Jesus knows how it feels to endure through stress-filled days.

Jesus faced many interruptions and demands on his time.

Jesus can relate to the hassles and headaches of your life.

Jesus can help you get through your angst-ridden days.

Excerpted from Experiencing the Heart of Jesus by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Read the gospels over and over. Follow the life of Jesus, His leading, His choices, His work, His emotions. Then imitate Him in your own life. Reading the gospels many times will help us learn from the life of Jesus. We were created to be a reflection of Jesus.

Pastor Dale