Hello fellow sojourners! Welcome back to The Saturday Newsletter. This is where you can find prayers, promises, and treasures on the narrow way. Written for the one in need of a drink of living water.
I want to confront my casualness with God. I want to wage war on my apathy.
It is easy to seek Jesus at our own convenience. We follow Him in between our running, our coming and going, making casual glances to the throne. We pray when we need Him. We don’t pray when we don’t. When life is going well we keep Jesus in the back seat, not to direct us, but to be there just in case.
Recently, my heart has been set on building a life in God that is independent of how I feel and what is going around me. I want to drink deep enough in God’s word that even on the worst days, His word does in me what I cannot. I am not sure how to fully do this, but I believe that by God’s grace, He can do it in us.
Enjoy this week’s newsletter. Let’s run together. — Ava
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For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:26-29)
The gospel is for fools. The wisdom of God is foolish to us, just as our wisdom is foolish to God. God chooses the foolish things so no human might boast in the presence of God.
As we read the Bible, it is important to discern what God desires. The process of renewing our mind is “washing ourselves” with God’s word for our thinking to be conformed to His.
God is not known through wisdom (1 Cor. 1:21). Only the Holy Spirit can reveal who God is.
God chooses foolishness because He wants to be God. Our efforts, arguments, and well-spoken gospel presentations will not convert the world to become followers of Jesus. It is only the work of the Holy Spirit, in partnership with man, that will fulfill the Great Commission. Our skill does not bring greater effectiveness to a work only God can do.
The power of the gospel is in its foolishness. In the words of Paul, he proclaimed the gospel not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (1 Cor. 1:17). We stand in the way of the gospel when we focus on our efforts above the cross being the only thing that saves. Our proclamation of the gospel has to accompany obedience to the cross. If we live apart from Christ crucified—how do we proclaim it?
We stumble over the stumbling block when the gospel becomes a work of our own strength. Although we cooperate with Jesus and not have a faith void of works—our righteousness cannot be attained by doing the “right” things. Christ crucified has to be our justification first before we can lead others.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor. 2:1-5)
I believe Paul’s witness was so powerful because He lived crucifying himself daily. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). To preach Christ crucified is to proclaim the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus and gives us grace to follow Him. We demonstrate that God is real when we let God move inside of us. The more we crucify our flesh in our daily lives the greater our witness will be.
It is important to remember that the more crucified we become, the less strength we have to rely on. If we measure results based on our strength, we will call being “crucified” unproductive—when in reality we are leaning more on Jesus and growing in maturity. The power of the cross makes us fools because it makes us weak. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor. 2:6-8)
In the same conversation of sharing the gospel and Christ crucified, Paul elaborates on how to be an effective witness. We are called to impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God. The heart of the New Covenant is to know God. Way before Jesus walked on the scene, Jeremiah prophesied the coming covenant:
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:34)
There is a place in knowing God that can’t be taught by men or contained in our human understanding. Only the Holy Spirit inside of us can give understanding of the things freely given by God. It is impossible to comprehend these truths in our human ability. We need God to bring revelation.
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9)
The things God has prepared for us are incomprehensible treasures of His heart. These treasures have been prepared for us to find. The Holy Spirit helps us understand these things no eye has seen or heard. When Paul regards himself as a “steward of the mysteries of God,” he is talking about these secrets of who Jesus is. Only fools can enter into this mystery because only the weak and lowly can touch the power of Christ crucified.
It is important to mention that when I say fools, I am not referring to someone making unwise decisions. Fools in this context are the ones who are willing to throw their own understanding out in order to be taught the backward wisdom of the kingdom of God.
We boast in ourselves and empty the cross of its power when we think we got this without Jesus’ sacrifice in the middle of every facet of who we are. The cross will interrupt our lives. Especially the more we dig into God, the more we will feel the weight of the crucified life. This is how we mature.
There is nothing more liberating than the cross. I have grown up in the church and am so grateful to have gotten access to the gospel from a young age.
However, I can’t help but look back and feel like I was cheated from real teaching on the cross. I had always heard sermons that “glamorized” or handled lightly the reality of what Jesus suffered. In response, no one talked about the severity of sin—or really cared much about sin. “Jesus already paid the price” so now we live free!
I understand why I was taught that way. No one wants to feel ashamed coming before God—we want to boldly approach the throne of grace! Although I’m sure the intentions were good, I never saw “fruitful” Christianity until I became an adult. I was surrounded by a lot of good people but a lot of lukewarmness and “feel good” preaching of the gospel that didn’t contain much power to save or deliver. A lot of people I knew “prayed the prayer” but still lived with the same chains because the power of the gospel is in the CROSS. The danger of this is that we think the gospel doesn’t work when in reality, we aren’t doing it how Jesus said.
The bloody, gruesome, naked, and humiliating torment of the cross is what sin is. That is what sin does. Sin leads to eternal hell. This horrible reality of being nailed to a torture device—forever. We can only experience the riches of God’s mercy when we have touched the depravity of our sin.
This has freed me from a cheap gospel that enjoys eternal life apart from understanding sin. I have a long way to go in understanding this, proclaiming it, and living it; but I want access to the power of God to save and deliver. I want to see with my own eyes the freedom the disciples saw.
To accompany this message, I wanted to include an excerpt from a book by A.W. Tozer. This is one of the blunt descriptions of the cross that God used to free me from fluffy theology and into what Jesus meant when He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24) The teachings of Jesus are hardcore. I love it.
Check out the excerpt below. You can read the rest of the book here.
If He is to save the man, He must save him from himself. It is the “himself” which has enslaved and corrupted the man. Deliverance comes only by denial of that self. No man in his own strength can shed the chains with which self has bound him, but in the next breath the Lord reveals the source of the power which is to set the soul free: “Let him take up his cross.” The cross has gathered in the course of the years much of beauty and symbolism, but the cross of which Jesus spoke had nothing of beauty in it. It was an instrument of death. Slaying men was its only function. Men did not wear that cross; but that cross wore men. It stood naked until a man was pinned on it, a living man fastened like some grotesque stickpin on its breast to writhe and groan till death stilled and silenced him. That is the cross. Nothing less. And when it is robbed of its tears and blood and pain, it is the cross no longer. “Let him take … his cross,” said Jesus, and in death he will know deliverance from himself. The cross of Christendom is a no-cross, an ecclesiastical symbol. The cross of Christ is a place of death. Let each one be careful which cross he carries. “And follow me.” Now the glory begins to break in upon the soul that has just returned from Calvary. “Follow me” is an invitation, and a challenge, and a promise. The cross has been the end of a life and the beginning of a life. The life that ended there was a life of sin and slavery; the life that began there is a life of holiness and spiritual freedom. — A. W. Tozer, Caleb Sinclair; True Discipleship: Following Our Master To Calvary
PSALM 6
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?
I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
We are in the age of sleepless nights, broken bodies, taunting enemies, and surrounding evil. Sometimes our prayers are more tears than they are words.
It is here in the Psalms, we find words for the despair we face. We get to pray the prayers of the King who went before us. He fought through the same long nights we do so we wouldn’t have to endure them alone.
Our cry meets His in these somber words. We finally have language for our pain—and meet our hope in Christ:
The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea. The Lord accepts my prayer.
This life is not about escaping trials and pain. It was never about this for Jesus. There are many unknown questions about our suffering. But we know for every question, its answer is found in Jesus. The One who was bruised, whipped, scourged, mocked, spat on, and slain is worthy to walk us through our trials. He is strong, unwavering, and from everlasting to everlasting is God (Ps. 90:2).
The Psalms of lament, depression, and sadness are our great hope. They point to the worthiness of Jesus to sustain us and bring comfort that there is a day when death will be swallowed up forever. Let the light of God’s prayers shine through your trials today. Walk with the resurrected Shepherd. He has walked through the valley of the shadow of death and He will bring you through it too.
If you haven’t already, you should watch The Chosen (they have a new season that just came out)! I will say no more - you won’t regret it! It is completely free to watch.
Send us any of your “Jesus” recommendations at intheupcoming@gmail.com. We would love to hear them!
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)