My Last Days: Zach Sobiech

What He Thinks about you.

Have you wondered what God really thinks about you?

Our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be how much we know about how much God knows about us. We struggle with God because we feel so bad about ourselves, and if we know the truth about ourselves, think of how much more God knows us!

Perhaps there is no mystery in the universe so monumental as God dying a death of shame to redeem mankind.

Sometimes we don’t want to pray or read the Bible or think about God because when we look in the mirror, we feel like saying, “You’re a big disappointment” or “You ought to be a lot better by now.”

We’ve all felt that way from time to time, and I imagine that many people reading these words feel that way right now. It’s been a hard week, or a bad month, and now we’re near the end of what seems like a painful year.

I think we run from God rather than to him because we know our own hearts all too well and his barely at all.

I probably don’t need to spend any time convincing you that you are a sinner. You probably know the truth about yourself all too well. But it’s the other side that we need to talk about. We don’t know God’s heart very well.

You probably know the truth about yourself all too well.

That’s where Psalm 103 can help us tremendously. Perhaps no other chapter in the Bible so clearly reveals God’s compassion for his people. 

 He Loves to Help the Needy.

All those who labor for a better world and a more just society and those who stretch out a helping hand–you have to believe this or you can’t go on. The words of James Russell Lowell come to mind:

    Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-

    Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,

    Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

Are you needy? The answer is yes whether you know it or not. You are needy and God is on your side. That’s a great place to start.

He Shows Mercy to Those Who Don’t Deserve It.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8).

Great attributes of God in this verse:

• ·         The Lord is compassionate-He pardons us.
• ·         The Lord is gracious-He gives us what we don’t deserve.
• ·         The Lord is slow to anger-He is patient with us when we fall.
• ·         The Lord abounds in love-He loves us more than we can imagine.

There’s no fishing like fishing in the sea.

There’s no eating like eating at the king’s table.

There’s no love like God’s love.

When he saves, he saves completely.

When he forgives, he forgives all my sins.

When he sets free, we are free forever.

All the world tastes of his sparing mercy,

those who hear the gospel partake of his inviting mercy,the saints live by his saving mercy,are preserved by his upholding mercy,are cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through his infinite and everlasting mercy.

I like that! Six kinds of mercy in just one sentence. That’s plenteous mercy for anyone who needs it.

He Tempers His Wrath.

“He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (vv. 9- 10).

Have you ever known anyone who loved to argue? We all know people who love to keep a quarrel going because they are so angry. God is not like that. He is willing to end the quarrel and welcome us back home. Sometimes the real problem is that we want to keep fighting him.

He’s more ready to forgive than we are to be forgiven!

When we forget to pray, he remembers to feed us.

When we forge to give thanks, he sends us restful sleep.

When we idle in sin, he sends his Holy Spirit to convict us.

When we refuse to give, he keeps on giving still.

When we fall, he lifts us up.

When we disappoint ourselves and others, he still calls us his children.

God even blesses those who don’t believe in him.

 He Forgives All Our Sins.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (vv. 11-12).

My sins can never come back to haunt me again.

Never the twain shall meet. The farther east you go, the farther you are from the west.

That’s the magnitude of God’s love. Here is great good news for all the sinners of the world. When God forgives, he removes our sins, he lifts them up, he takes them away, and he puts them so far away from us that we could never find them if we searched for them for a thousand years. They are gone forever.Even Satan can’t bring them back.

In his sermon on these verses Jim Nicodem says that God has . . .

A long fuse - “slow to anger” (v. 8),

A short memory-"does not harbor his anger forever” (v. 9),

A thick skin-"does not treat us as our sins deserve” (v. 10), and

A great heart-"so great is his love, so far has he removed our sins” (vv. 11-12).

I’m glad we have a God like that He Understands Our Weakness.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13).

When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. 

Earthly fathers-however imperfect-point us upward to our Heavenly Father. When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. Our children learn that we do not worship a god of stone or an empty idol or a remote deity or an impersonal machine in the sky. We serve a Father God who knows our weakness and loves us anyway.

The Great Physician knows our weakness and understands our fears. And when we can’t go on, he carries us on his back.

He Remembers That We Are Dust.

“For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (vv. 14-16).

Here is a truth we all understand, especially in this season of the year. Yesterday’s green leaves soon turn brown. It is an inexorable law of nature that the green leaves of spring end up in a pile on your lawn. Why do the leaves lose their green? There is a scientific explanation having to do with the loss of green chlorophyll, but that simply means the leaves are slowly dying. Their beauty comes from their death. 

Who remembers each leaf? Not the tree. One by one the leaves fall to the ground where they disintegrate and return to the soil from which they came. No one names them or numbers them or even thinks about them.It is the way of nature, the way God arranged the changing of the seasons.

If that’s all there is, if we are here today and gone tomorrow, if that’s the end of the story, then there isn’t much hope. But let me share something with you. If you don’t have anything else to be thankful for this year, here’s something you can hang your hat on. Our hope is not in man or in anything man can do.

Our hope is in the everlasting God!

He Links Us With Eternity By Linking Us With Himself.

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness  with their children’s children- with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (vv. 17-18).

Our hope is in the everlasting God!

There is nothing we can do about our frailty. We come from the hand of our Creator stamped, “Fragile: Handle with care.” We are like the dust devils that blow across the desert. We make a big scene and then suddenly we disappear. Try as we might, we can’t cancel our humanity. Nothing can change what we are. Vitamins and exercise and clean living may slow down the process. Positive thinking may improve our mood. But for all of us, the end is the same:

Ashes to ashes,

Dust to dust.

Psalm 103 offers us one strong ground of comfort that lifts us up above the transitory nature of this life. It is the “but” of verse 17, the blessed “but” that changes everything. That one word offers an eternal contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God, Our mortality and God’s eternity.

There is beauty for ashes.

That one word-that little “but"-stands at the demarcation between this life and the next. Here is our real hope of life that never ends.

God’s tender mercy.

His unfailing love.

His abounding grace.

Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope. And this endless hope is not only to us but to our children’s children.

We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize.

In a transient and passing world where everything fades away, we have the promise that we are linked to the future even after we are gone by the faithfulness of God to our children to our children’s children. This, too, is the mercy of God.

Take Me to the Cross

What is Psalm 103 telling us? We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize. We frail, mortal sinners are rich in the mercy of God.

And we have found that mercy–or rather, that mercy has found us-in the cross of Jesus Christ. During one of Billy Graham sermons told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England.  As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.

Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.”

Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

All that we believe, all that we have, all that we hope for is found in the cross of Christ. Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

Are you weak? So am I.

Are you needy? So am I.

Are you guilty? So am I.

Are you frail? So am I.

Are you like dust? So am I.

And God says to us, his weak, needy, guilty, frail, dusty children, “I know you through and through, and I love you anyway. Come to me. Rest in me. Make me your Rock.” God’s mercy in Christ is more than enough for all of us.

Amen.

Devotion

Recently during one of those evening dates with one of the ladies I really admire, this topic came up. And I could not tire listening to the well of wisdom from her. She has played a critical role in my Christian standing. She would chasten me where I needed it, call me very early in the morning just to tell me to pray, drag me to forums where she is going to minister and be all over my life. Looking back I really appreciate it because now I proudly stand because she made my life was part of her mission. Now to the topic, it is all about Devotion.

Devotions cannot be the only step taken to establish intimacy. They cannot be the only source of growth, and are not an instant path to closeness with God. There is a lot more that goes into a relationship with Him than reading your Bible and praying. Christianity cannot be reduced to a routine. It is so much more. It must be more.

That being said, devotions do serve a purpose.

My years of quiet mornings with God have been the substance of my walk with Him.

When I rededicated my life to Jesus 5 years ago, I had to learn how to be a Christian all over again. Everyone kept talking about reading the Bible and praying, and I decided I should do those things every day. So I did, and have done so for years. I believe my intimacy with the Lord has stemmed from all of those mornings and evenings that I invested into my relationship with Him.

    In the beginning I did it because I was told to.

    There have been seasons in which I did it because it was what I should do.

    Now I do it because it is what I want to do.

It really is not about fulfilling an expectation; it should stem from a heart desiring to see God.

He is found by those who seek Him (Jeremiah 29:13). It really is that simple.

Having a quiet time is not the only way to intimacy, but it is an integral step in the right direction.

I remember being so frustrated as I expressed to the Lord that I had been seeking Him and doing everything I knew to do in order to be closer to Him. I felt like He was not keeping His end of the bargain. I was in a dry season. I could not hear Him speak, and I could not feel His presence no matter how hard I listened, or how thoroughly I sought Him. I questioned the point of all the effort I put into my relationship with Him if He was not going to reciprocate. In spite of my discouragement I kept seeking Him, believing that in time, I would be met by Him.

Years later, I feel as though I am bearing the fruit of my efforts. All those hours spent with Him over the years have contributed to the intimacy I now share with Him. All of those minutes spent reading the Bible have implanted the Truth of His Word in my heart so that Verses randomly come to mind when I advise my friends, or when I am praying. All of those times I poured my heart out to Him showed me what His heart is like. There were times I did not want to do devotions. There were seasons in which I did not want to put out the effort because I was quite sure it would be wasted. Sometimes I did it out of obligation because I knew it was the right thing to do, even if I did not want to do it. My point is this: my efforts were not in vain. I know Him deeply and intimately because I have spent a lot of time with Him. We have had five years of morning tea dates, and they never get old.

Nothing has been wasted. His Word will not return to Him void; it accomplishes what He desires it to.

    “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
 It will not return to Me empty,
 Without accomplishing what I desire,
 And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:11

Every moment spent with Him has been saturated in anointing and blessing, regardless of whether or not I see it.

Our Pain Reminds Us,This is Not Our Home.

I think it's safe to say that this week is heartbreaking for everybody.  As I watched the news unfold, I've felt absolutely helpless. I cried as I thought about the wives whose husbands wouldn't come home that night. For the kids who would never hug their parents again. For friends who never had the chance to say goodbye.

 In the midst of tragedy it is so easy to lose heart and question God's goodness. The question that has been repeating in my head is: why? Lord, WHY did you let this happen?

There is no easy answer as to why these awful things happen. That's where faith comes in. Faith exists where there is no satisfying visible evidence or answer as to why tragedy occurs. We will never understand God's reasoning. If we did, then He would be no better than us, and we know that to be entirely false. His ways are higher than ours

God doesn't rejoice in tragedy. In fact, I think it saddens Him just as much if not more than it saddens us. John 11:35 is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but it speaks volumes. Two short words: Jesus wept. When Jesus heard about Lazarus' death, his heart was broken. I truly believe that just as Jesus did with Lazarus, he also does for us. He cries with us. His heart breaks with ours. He is just as deeply saddened as we are. But in the midst of the sadness and confusion, He brings peace. One of my all time favorite verses is John 16:33- “I have spoken these things to you so that you shall have peace in me. You shall have suffering in the world, but take heart, I have overcome the world." God doesn't promise an easy life, he straight up tells us that we WILL suffer. There is no way around it. We live in a fallen and sinful world that will bring us deep grief.  

That “why” question goes back thousands of years. It was asked in the Old Testament by Job and the writers of the Psalms.But if you’ve never asked why our world is infected with pain and suffering, you will when they strike you with full force or they come to a loved one. And Jesus said they are coming. Unlike some other religious leaders who wrote off pain and suffering as just being illusions, Jesus was honest. He told us the truth. He said in John 16:33, “You will have suffering in this world.” He didn’t say you might – he said it is going to happen.

I cannot stand in the shoes of God and give a complete answer to that question. I don’t have God’s mind. I don’t see with God’s eyes. First Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see

things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
  

We can’t understand everything from our finite perspective. And frankly, the people suffering from the Westgate tragedy don’t need a big theological treatise right now; any intellectual response is going to seem trite and inadequate. What they desperately need now is the very real and comforting presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. 

You might say, “No, he can’t in my circumstance. The harm was too great, the damage was too extreme, the depth of my suffering has been too much. No, in my case there’s no way God can cause any good to emerge.”

But if you doubt God’s promise, listen to what a wise lady said to me , God took the very

worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe — the death of God on the cross — and turned it into the very best thing that has happened in history of universe: the opening up of heaven to all who follow Him. So if God can take the very worst circumstance imaginable and turn it into the very best situation possible, can he not take the negative circumstances of your life and create something good from them?

He can and He will. God can use our suffering to draw us to Himself, to mold and sharpen our character, to influence others for Him – He can draw something good from our pain in a myriad of ways…if we trust and follow Him.

 “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

 

HOLY RAVENOUSNESS

It’s everywhere in our society and churches, yet almost never talked about.
 

We like to say all sins are “equal” in the eyes of God, that there is no scale of less or worse sins, that a white lie or a homicide alike would have been enough to require Christ to die on the cross. We say this in theory, but in practice, we know that a white lie won’t get you kicked off the church leadership or worship team. And a homicide likely will.

In practice, there are some sins that are socially acceptable, even in the Church. There’s one sin in particular that has pervaded our society and churches so silently we hardly give it a second thought, and that is the constant hunt for more over what is enough. Or, in an uglier terminology, what is known as gluttony.

At its simplest, gluttony is the soul’s addiction to excess. It occurs when taste overrules hunger, when want outweighs need. 

All desire for excess stems from a lack of satisfaction. I’m not satisfied with my portion—be it the portion on my plate, in the marriage bed, or in my bank account. Because I’m not satisfied with my portion, I then seek a greater portion. But because every portion is a finite part of a finite whole, I am constantly chasing an excess that can never satisfy.

This is the story of Genesis 3. What was the sin in the Garden of Eden if not a desire for excess? Adam and Eve were given beautiful sights and beautiful tastes in the absence of shame, but what made the garden a paradise was not any of this. It was a paradise because God walked in the cool of the day with them. And yet, Adam and Eve’s downfall was because they deemed even this as not enough. They weren’t content with their portion of paradise, and they reached out—to disastrous consequence—for more.

Like them, we are ravenous beings. We embody bottomless cravings that constantly paw at the next attractive thing. Our appetites are as strong as death, Proverbs 27:20 tells us. We are always on the move for the next thing that can satisfy and slake our restless thirst. This endless pull is the engine of gluttony. It propels our souls ever toward excess.

And yet, the desire for “more” is often misdirected. What we need is a relentless appetite for the divine. We need a holy ravenousness. Our craving souls can turn and become enthralled by a goodness that is found in the presence of an all-glorious God. There is only one infinite source of satisfaction that can satisfy our bottomless cravings.

In pursuit of lesser portions, our tastes have dulled. We’ve become numb to our real hungers, filling them with lesser fare. But when we return to the source, we taste anew.

Psalm 34:8 challenges us to see the difference for ourselves: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I think Paul understood this verse when he told the people at Lystra that God gives food and gladness so that our hearts would turn from vain things and turn to the ultimate satisfaction of who God is (Acts 14:15-17).

Consequently, God has ordained that His goodness can be tasted and seen .First, it means that every finite pleasure and satisfaction is meant to point us toward the infinite pleasure and satisfaction of God. My admiration for a sunset, then, need not stop at that horizon, rather it can curve upward into praise and gratitude. Second, it means that if our desire for "more" is misplaced, then certainly it can be redirected to something good as well.

Do we relish the chance to spend a few more minutes in prayer, hidden away from the world for just one more taste of the divine? When was the last time we lingered long over the pages of an open Bible because we just couldn’t stop admiring the honeyed flavor of an ancient truth? If the Bible is the story of the only infinite good, why do we spend so much of our lives at lesser tables?

 

If only we would feast on an infinite God who offers fullness of life, rather than these lesser tables with the far milder flavors of money, sex, food and power.