Hebrews 12:2 ESV

Dear ICB family,
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Every once in a while a pair of biblical texts are held up side by side, and in the space of a moment their peculiar juxtaposition causes words you've read a hundred times to jump off the page and surge with new meaning. That happened for me this past Sunday when Pastor Neil read John 17:24 in the context of Hebrews 12:2.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." It was the Father's promise of eternal joy that sustained Jesus in the very darkest hours of his life and of human history. 

Then Pastor Neil, asking the question, "What exactly was Jesus looking forward to?", read John 17:24. There Jesus prays, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."

Part of the Son's joy was the knowledge that one day his blood-bought people would be able to see his glory with unveiled faces, as it truly is, in all its splendor, and that thought was so overwhelmingly powerful in his mind that it was enough to convince him to march up Calvary's hill with his face set like flint, willingly stretch out his arms, and die the most horrible death ever conceived by any civilization in the history of mankind. 

And here's the question that pierced me through: Does the thought that one day I will get to see Jesus in all his glory fill me with anywhere near the kind of joy that it afforded Jesus? Does what I find joyful match what Jesus found so joyful that it carried him through the crucifixion? Would such joy sustain me in the face of unbearable loss, unimaginable sacrifice, even death? 

It is meant to. 

I can bow my head in obedience to whatever my Lord may ask of me, just like Jesus bowed his head in obedience to what his Father had asked of him, because of the unshakable confidence that there is "joy unspeakable and full of glory" on the other side (as the old hymn I used to sing at church as a little boy has it; see 1 Peter 1:8).

Do whatever you must to rivet your mind on that truth and hold onto it with all your might. There are a thousand lesser joys that surround you moment by moment in this life. Most of them are good things in and of themselves. But they won't sustain you when you're getting your back whipped, a ring of thorns pressed into your forehead, and your hands driven through with nails. They won't hold out much hope when you get that most dreaded phone call or the oncology report or news on par with the kind that Job received that day in Uz.
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​You're going to need something that brings you even more joy than sunsets, a child's laughter, or your spouse's touch in moments like those. And when Jesus looked around at what he could set his gaze on, he chose to look into the future and, based on the promises of God, set his sights on the reality that one day his people would get to see him in all his glory. With that hope burning within him, he allowed every last ounce of his dignity to be stripped away and every last human comfort to be denied him. The joy of that hope got him through. 

And it's meant to get you through. All the way to the very end in fact. Such a joy is big enough. It's already been tested and has proven its worth. And it's offered to you. If only you would be able to count the hope of one day looking on the risen and glorified Christ with your own eyes as more joyful and longed for than any other joy you could ever imagine.

Grace, peace, and joy to you,

Pastor Eric

In these passages both the grief of God and the joy of heaven are revealed.

Here God weeps for Moab even as he smites her. God is grieved by human sin, and his anger is in opposition to such sin. 

But that grief will not last forever. One day it will give way to the joy of heaven. It is in hope of that joy that Jesus endured the cross.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. Are you able to say that you weep for Moab's modern-day counterparts? 
   
2. Are you able to conceive of a God who smites yet weeps while he does so? If not, how are are this week's passages meant to shape how you view the God we serve?
   
3. What joy is big enough to get you through even your darkest day? What was Jesus' joy that allowed him to endure the cross, and are you clinging to his joy as your own?
   

Isaiah 12:1 NIV

Dear ICB family,

On Sunday Pastor Neil said that the anger of God is not a demonstration of his malice but rather a feature of his love.

That is not how the world around us defines love. The world says if you love someone, you will let that person do whatever he or she wants. Likewise, the world says that love and anger cannot coexist since love would never make a person feel bad.

Yet anyone who has truly loved someone knows that that is categorically untrue on both counts. The father who loves his daughter will not let her eat jelly beans for supper even though she wants to, and the woman who has a dear friend who is about to make a decision that will ruin her life knows exactly what it means both to love a person deeply and be extremely angry with her at the same time.
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​In fact, exactly as Pastor Neil said, love is the motivation up and out of which God's anger grows. Only the father who didn't truly love his daughter would not feel upset at the babysitter who let the daughter eat jelly beans for supper. Only the woman who didn't truly really love her friend would react with a shrug at a decision that would bring disaster upon her.

The Bible paints love as a deep desire for the good of another person accompanied by any and all self-sacrifice needed to achieve that good. What happens when obstacles arise to a beloved one's good? Love produces anger. What happens when what a person wants and what is actually good for that person stand in conflict? Love roots for the person's good. And what happens when achieving another person's good means I must take a hit? Love subjects itself to the hit. Behold the angry, good-seeking, hit-taking love of God. 

And when the obstacles that once stood in the way of the beloved's good are removed, anger is turned away (Isaiah 12:1) while love keeps right on flowing. So it is with God. When God achieves the forgiveness of his people's sins and thereby achieves their good, his love for them no longer requires his anger. His love that produced his anger, however, never ceases.

You're invited to know this love. And, following God's own example, you're invited to take whatever hits might be required so that others might come to know this love too.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric

Isaiah 9:6 KJV

Dear ICB family,

​Human beings were created for wonder. Just like we were designed to hunger for food, we were designed with an insatiable itch to behold greatness. It's what causes people to pack 100,000 strong into mega sports stadiums and watch elite athletes compete against one another. It's what drives others to concerts to hear fine orchestras or to see their favorite group in person. 

Our urge to behold wonder causes some to climb mountains, some to design faster race cars, and others to watch ice skating competitions. We pile into theaters to take in the latest, greatest, most expensive blockbusters with the most mind-bending CGI and the most well-known actors, and we take vacations to the Grand Canyon to simply stare at the beauty of it all.
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​In short, we love to stand in awe of amazing things outside ourselves. In fact, it seems we just can't get enough.

And in those moments in which we forget about ourselves completely, in which all our attention is off ourselves and riveted on the beauty and greatness that exists outside the confines of our own beings, we feel most alive. 

God is the biggest, greatest, most awesome being that exists. Imagine the power that can call matter and energy into being from nothing. Imagine the creativity that can think up every form of life on the planet. Imagine the mind that can organize and manage the collision of every atom in the universe so that his will is done on both the smallest and the most expansive scale.

There is no one like him. And this great God of ours—truly a God of wonder—has called us to behold him. In other words, he's called us to feel the most alive that a human being is capable of feeling. The question is, Are we looking?
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​Imagine you were bedridden in a room with a single window overlooking the Alps. On three sides of the room there are solid walls, but on one side there's a window that allows you to look out and behold wonder. Wouldn't you be thankful for that window? Maybe you'd really like to be able to leave the room, go outside, and see the Alps for yourself. Maybe from the window there are views that lie outside your field of vision, and you long to see more. Nevertheless, would you change that window for anything?
 
We have just such a window. It's called the Bible. Through it we catch glimpses of the greatest wonder in existence. It's there in its pages that the God of the universe has revealed himself for to behold him. But are we looking?

Come, press your nose up against the glass, and let your heart take its fill of wonder.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric

Behold our God!

God is our wonder.
He is our counselor. 
He is our mighty God.
He is our everlasting Father.
He is our prince of peace.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion:

1. When was the last time you stood in awe of God? What caused that sense of awe?
2. Which of these descriptions of the coming Messiah do you most need to hear right now in your life? Why?
3. In light of the broader context of Isaiah, how do we know that the person about whom Isaiah was writing in Isaiah 9

Isaiah 6:7 NIV

Dear ICB family,

In Isaiah 59 the prophet swings from judgment to salvation, from the bad news to the good news of the gospel, from accusation to redemption.
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What happens to a person who has a vision of God high and exalted? That person is immediately made aware of his own uncleanness. That was what happened with Isaiah. God's response to that uncleanness was to make Isaiah clean and then commission him into his service. This is the great God we serve, and we invite you to worship him with us.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. How does Isaiah's reaction to his vision of God compare with other biblical characters' reactions to their visions of God?
2. Where do we see the hope of the gospel in Isaiah 6?
3. What do you make of God's commission to Isaiah, especially of how he commands Isaiah to tell the people to hear but not understand and to see but not perceive?