Jesus

Thirsty

/ brianhilton9 / 1 Comment

In northern Chile rests a place so dry, that it has been used by NASA to test instruments for future Mars missions. Mars on earth is the Atacama Desert, also known as the driest place on earth. A small number of organisms can live within its expanse, but certain parts are completely uninhabitable.

It almost never rains in the Atacama. Some researchers believe that there was not any “significant” rainfall between 1570 to 1971. In other words, if you thought your hands were dry after all that hand washing to prevent COVID-19, this desert puts the definition of dry into perspective.

Here in Pennsylvania, we live in what is classified as a humid continental climate with hot humid summers and cold winters. Seldom is our soil arid. In fact, I think we here in Southeastern PA must have received about ten times the amount of rainfall this past week than the Atacama has in decades!

This area is one with streams of fresh, natural spring water travelling through blossoming, early-spring banks. Fishing is one of my favorite springtime activities and while I love the thrill of getting a hit on my line, it’s a great excuse to spend an afternoon outside soaking in the beauty of creation.

When streams run dry, however, life itself is not far behind. Those living near the Atacama know this well. It will only be a matter of days till the living beings that once depended on the water source shrivel up just like the cracked soil where life giving water once flowed.

During certain seasons of our lives, a similar dehydration takes place deep within us. Where vigorous life once dwelled now sits a dusty pile of bones. The things we once looked to for significance and pleasure disappear.

In this time of uncertain quarantine, most of our lives have drastically changed. We’re scared. We’re frustrated. We’re bored! In all of it, there is an overwhelming sense of drought. People are literally dying around us. Jobs are being lost. The greenery of our lives is being replaced with brown decay. It’s starting to feel like we’re in the middle of the Atacama.

But it’s in the driest times that we can sometimes see the clearest. We see what really matters and what our real needs are when the things we once thought we needed no longer exist. As things evaporate, our thirst intensifies, and along with it, the search to quench our parched soul.

King David of ancient Israel knew this quest well.

 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1

On multiple occasions in scripture including this specific verse, David writes of a cotton-mouth soul. The focus of his searching does not change amidst the shifting circumstances of his writing. He thirsts for God and that thirst leads him to seek God “earnestly.” Just like a dehydrated person seeking water.

But why? Why did David seek God in this way? Undoubtedly, David experienced equal to, if not more than the amount of grief and “dehydration” that every human being throughout history has faced. What made Him seek God and why does it matter for us?

David’s description of God here contains a truth that is easy to overlook but too profound to ignore. Hundreds of years later, this truth would be shared with a large group of Israelites, Samaritans and other people groups who in hearing it were polarized.

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’” John 7:37

Jesus Christ, a carpenter from Galilee, was not offering the people at the feast free Dixie cups of water on a hot day. He spoke in the same metaphoric vein as David. Yet here, Jesus proclaimed to be the God David thirsted for all those years ago. By equating himself with water, Jesus said that apart from knowing Him, all men were dead and as dry as a desert.

Sandwiched between these numerous statements (see references below!) were miracles that also fulfilled prophecies about the one God would send to make an atonement for sins. Jesus matched the description during every stage of His life. Yet tragically, as Jesus tells the crowd in John 6:36 “But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.”

Was it just Jesus’ miracles that made Him water to those who believe in Him?

No.

What makes Jesus indispensable is that He is the only one who can pay the penalty for our sins. We can’t right our wrongs before God. We can’t ignore Him and make the price for our sins go away saying He doesn’t exist. Each one of us needs Jesus more than we need our next glass of water.

When we recognize that we are indeed a sinner deserving hell for our rebellion against God, then we can truly begin to understand why Jesus is like water to us. It was His death that satisfied God’s required payment for our sin.

“For our sake He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin (Jesus), so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

In every calamity, many are brought to a place of deep despair. Blind hope that things will soon get back to normal offers fake refreshment that we can see through. Real security is knowing that whether the worst case scenario happens or not, my soul’s needs are covered.

So, whether you’re feeling like your world is the Atacama or a luscious green meadow right now, I pray that you’ll drink deeply of the water only Jesus provides through His death and resurrection. It’s virus proof. It’s war proof. It’s even death proof.

 

Scripture References:

Isaiah 55:1 – “Come everyone who thirsts…”

John 7:37 – “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…”

John 6:35 – “Whoever believes in me shall never thirst…”

Psalm 42:2 – “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…”

Psalm 63:1 – “My soul thirsts for you…”

Psalm 143:6 – “My soul thirst for you like a parched land…”

John 4:13 – “Whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst again…”

Revelation 21:6 – “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment…”

Revelation 22:16 – “Let the one who is thirsty come…”

Because I Said So

/ brianhilton9 / 1 Comment

No child enjoys hearing these four words. They form a sentence that sends the son or daughter spiraling into a flurry of frustration, no matter the situation.

“Because I said so.”

I remember hearing these words and hating them. They made it impossible to get what I wanted. My plans didn’t prevail because a higher authority said otherwise. If I went ahead and ignored those four powerful words, I knew I could expect some sort of painful discipline.

It’s no mystery that when we’re told we can’t do something, that becomes the thing we want to do the most. But to be told we can’t do something because a certain someone said so? That’s where things get ugly.

We don’t like that because it shifts our perceived authority over our lives to someone else. It makes us feel enslaved and oppressed. We rebel and throw tantrums to try and take back some semblance of control, no matter how self-destructive.

At 25 years old, I seldom hear those words anymore but am still tempted to throw those same tantrums. It seems our world has a great way of mutely cutting us off with a wagging finger saying, “Because I said so.” How we long for the day when we can freely declare “Because I said so” and go about our business with no outside interference. Some believe that they have a self-governing life where all their decisions are made with those four simple words.

It shouldn’t take long, however, to see that we are not in control. One untimely diagnosis, one stolen credit card, one little spark catching your house on fire can all derail life as we know it. The reality of our powerlessness really tends to sneak up on us in the catastrophes. It shouldn’t have to, though.

Consider the fact that you must pay taxes. If you don’t, you’ll be thrown in prison. Does anyone really want to pay taxes? Or, take your emotions for example. Can you control how you feel? Look at something as simple as breathing. Is there a fresh air supply for your every moment because you said there would be?

What we say often doesn’t go. Even if it did, I’m not so sure we’d love the destination. I find that my way is often a way to more losses than wins.

This is why I’ve been becoming more and more okay with the truth that virtually nothing is “because I, Brian Hilton, said so.” Of course, I’m not saying that we have no ability to make decisions, but I am saying that there is one who can say those four words with no room for anyone’s rebuttal.

A lot of people don’t like that idea, which is what turns people off to God. Many have an understanding of God that is similar to their view of tyrannical dictatorships. He’s restrictive, harsh and doesn’t serve our best interests.

But if I may ask respectfully, what is the source of that understanding? Because when I open up the Bible, I see that God saves me from myself. When I look at my life, I see that I have no good thing apart from Him. When I look at my heart, I see that the only reason I can have any hope or joy at all in this life is because He says so.

Consider Romans 8:31-32 which says,

“…If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will he not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”

When we know God and walk with Him, we can’t lose. It is that fear of loss or being kept from something good that fuels our rebellion of His authority. But shown here, God’s absolute authority over all things is our best-case scenario.

However, it’s clarified that this is true “if God is for us.” This naturally begs the question – how do we get God to be for us? The answer to that is found in verse 32 as the author, Paul the Apostle, notes that God did not “spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all.” Why and how would God give up His Son?

The “why” is found many places throughout scripture, but pretty profoundly in the oft-quoted John 3:16 which reads,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

It’s because God loved the world that he gave His only Son. A decision prompted by love for us and the desire for our ultimate good, not some sort of power trip.

The “how” of God’s giving up of His son is well described earlier in Romans. Consider Romans 3:25-26:

“God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

So, God’s love for the world motivated him to offer His son, Jesus, as a “sacrifice of atonement” which in turn “justifies…through faith,” sinners. Every one of us falls in this “sinner” category. Evidence of sin can be found in our natural position against God. Again, we want to be the ones to say, “because I said so.”

Thankfully, we are not in authority. God is. We deserve to be judged for our sins, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we have an atonement because God said and did so. We simply must believe in Jesus and turn away from our plans, to His.

This is where I’ve found a new love for this phrase. No longer does it matter what others say about us, or even what we say about ourselves. Remember, if God is for us, who can be against us? What He says about us is what goes – and He says I’m forgiven in Jesus through faith. He says I’m His child. He says I have all that I need in Him.

While our feelings might not always grasp this due to the inevitable hardships we will still face in this life, I’m thankful for the firm foundation that what God says goes. This brings freedom, security, and true comfort that isn’t shaken by circumstance.

There’s nothing that can rival the joy I partake in considering a clamoring voice listing all my inadequacies, flaws, past, present and future sins questioning God on how I could be saved. In a calm yet firm voice, God says through Jesus –

“Because I said so.”

 

Scripture References:

Isaiah 50:8-9 – “…Behold the LORD God helps me; who will declare me guilty”

Romans 8:31-39 – “…if God is for us, who can be against us?”

1 Corinthians 4:3-4 – “…I don’t even judge myself…it is the LORD who judges me…”

Daniel 3:6 – “…we have no need to answer you in this matter…”

1 John 4:4 – “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world…”

Romans 8:28 – “…all things work together for good for those who are called…”

Psalm 118:6 – “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Revelation 12:10-11 – “…the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down…”

Forgive

/ brianhilton9 / 1 Comment

In 2011, Belgian-born Australian songwriter Gotye released a single that would change his life forever. The song was first released in Australia and New Zealand, but eventually became a global hit. Soaring up national charts, Gotye’s song nestled atop the Billboard Hot 100 list before winning two Grammys. Today, the song has been purchased over 13 million times making it one of the best-selling digital singles of all time.

The popularity of this song is intriguing, yet all the more when you listen to the lyrics.

“But you didn’t have to cut me off

Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing

And I don’t even need your love

But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough

No, you didn’t have to stoop so low

Have your friends collect your records and then change your number

I guess that I don’t need that though

Now you’re just somebody that I used to know”

“Somebody That I Used to Know” is a song you likely have heard, even if you don’t realize it. It’s a catchy tune that has filled the radio airwaves ever since it’s genesis in 2011. Clearly, people like it, and while I acknowledge that you can like a song for the tune, I have a hard time believing that’s the only reason people hit the play arrow.

The clear, poignant words “now you’re just somebody that I used to know” perfectly describe the words that rest on the tip of our heart’s tongue when we’ve been wronged by another. I realize this is a break-up song, but the tempting sentiment remains the same across all broken relationships.

The temptation is to “ghost” that person. Tell yourself that they mean nothing to you – that they are merely someone you used to know.

The irony is that while you’re doing that, you can’t stop thinking about that person and their action. It is here where bitterness with all its decay begins to call your heart home.

It’s a losing game, but one at which we’re all superstars.

Everyone has been “screwed over” as the song puts it – or at least feels they’ve been at one time or another. Sometimes our grievances against others are justified and sometimes they aren’t. Either way, our urge in those moments isn’t exactly forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard. Continually passing up an opportunity to seek retribution for an offense seems unjust. Cancelling that debt is loss.

I’m convinced that genuine, heartfelt forgiveness is impossible for us to hand out until we have received it ourselves. Chances are that most people reading this have never been in prison or, more specifically, on death row. I’d like you to try and imagine you are for a moment.

Sitting in your cell, torn apart by your crime, you cross off the days until execution. As the date nears, a guard knocks at your door. He tells you that you’re free to go. As a cocktail of emotions flow through you, you question simply, “why?” The guard tells you that your charges remain, but another has offered to step in and take the punishment your actions deserved.

This is an incomplete picture of what Jesus Christ has done for us, but I hope that it serves to place that reality in practical terms. You may know Him as the leader of the Christian religion, or perhaps as a really “good” historical figure, but it’s His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead three days later that allow us to forgive. For it is here where sinful man is offered their most desperate need – God’s forgiveness. Jesus is, in the most literal way, the substitute taking our place on death row.

Every one of us has rebelled against God. We don’t think there’s a problem with that separation until we experience a genuine taste of Godlessness. Yet it’s God’s righteous judgement that we were saved from when Jesus took his dying breath and cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s in that moment that we along with the death row inmate can say with tears, “why?”

Jesus dying on the cross is the greatest “I love you” ever spoken. His resurrection from the dead proved that justice was served and that what we had owed was paid in full.

When we see that we’ve been forgiven something infinitely greater than any wrongdoing we’ll receive on this earth, it makes real forgiveness possible. If our catastrophic sins are no longer held against us by God, how could there be any justification in holding something so comparatively insignificant against a fellow sinner?

I recognize and affirm that genuine forgiveness can occur without a reconciliation or an emotional desire. The relationship may end. But let it not be because you sought your own depraved method of justice. Let it be for the good of the other. Let it be with a heart free of bitterness, in light of the forgiveness you have received.

If you have not already considered that you need God’s forgiveness, please read Romans 3:22 & 23 below.  The greatest need of your offender is also your greatest need.

The temptation to say of someone “now you’re just somebody that I used to know” will always be appealing to our selfish hearts. Yet it is receiving God’s forgiveness and forgiving others that will set our hearts free.

Scripture References:

Romans 3:22-23 – “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:13 – “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Matthew 18:21-35 – Parable of the unmerciful servant

Matthew 6:12 – As Jesus instructed us to pray : “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Matthew 6: 14-15 – “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Communication Factor

/ brianhilton9 / 1 Comment

 

The past two years I was blessed with the opportunity to work on the grounds crew of a golf club who hire migrant workers all the way from Mexico to come up and work every March through November.  Hailing from Vera Cruz, Mexico, a place riddled by drug cartels, most of these men speak very little to no English which presents some interesting challenges during the course of the work day.  However, all these guys are hilarious and awesome people, so the miscommunication was usually very entertaining for both English and Spanish speakers alike.  Despite the language barrier between the Americans, Mexicans, and single Jamaican on the crew (shout out to Gopie) everything that needed to be done, always was finished by the end of the day.  There were some days where I was absolutely blown away by the efficiency that was displayed, with such an inefficient method. 

 

                One day this past fall, I was working side by side with a man from Mexico named Samuel.  Samuel is a small, skinny man who sports a grey goatee off of his wrinkly face.  Smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day while being in his sixties having done manual labor his entire life, the man musters up the strength each day to weather the elements and earn money for his family back home.  Serious respect.  Anyway, we got to talking on this blustery fall day.  I asked “You excited to go back Mexico and see familia?”  Wow.  Who would have known something as simple as that would spark such a grammatically incorrect yet involved conversation?  Samuel started telling me about his daughters, and how one of his daughters was a widow because her husband was murdered by the cartels.  She had 3 kids to raise with no job and no husband to provide.  Samuel knowing my minimal grasp on the Spanish language simply said it was “No Bueno”.  He got that across to me amidst the massive wall separating us conversationally, so I decided to tell him about something’s that were going on in my life.  I realized how I hadn’t had a good conversation like this with someone who even spoke ENGLISH in a while!  Everything was straightforward, to the point and perhaps most important, we both really had to think about what the other was saying in order to understand.  Later on in the day, Samuel, out of the blue came up to me and said “We no good understand each other for Tower of Babel!”  I just started laughing hysterically, partially because of how funny he sounded saying it (a common occurrence for us to laugh at the language barrier), and because of how blown away I was!  We then started talking about various Old Testament occurrences including The Tower of Babel, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, The Battle of Jericho, and also talked about Paul from the New Testament a little.  It then hit me like a bag of bricks, there still is a universal language…The Gospel!!

 

In Genesis chapter 11, the first verse states that at the current time, there was only one language.  Then people travelling from east find this big plain in the land of Shinar (most likely modern day Iraq) and decide to build a gigantic tower “with a top that reaches the heavens so we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the whole earth”. (v.4). God decides to punish them for their pride and protect them from dangerous unification by “confusing” their language.  This was the origin of miscommunication between Samuel and I, and millions of others!

 

If God eliminated having only one language, but wants us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19), then how do we do so when the other countries speak a different language then we do?  The Gospel isn’t bound down by words, its living.  The Holy Spirit lives in us and communicates to others through our actions.  Even if there is a physical language barrier, there will never been a spiritual language barrier between us.  The Gospel is for everyone!  Not just English speaking Americans, or Spanish speaking Mexicans.  The consistency of our sinful hearts needing to be saved that will exist in all of us until we accept Jesus Christ into our lives by faith transcends words.  Which is why through hand motions, broken words, and tears there is amazing ministry going on all over the world, because it is Spirit led, sincere, and truly from the heart.

 

Jesus says we should let our Yes be Yes and our No be No in Matthew 5:37.  How often do we communicate like Jesus though?  He was always truthful, honest and loving with his words.  Mark 1 and 2 provide a good lesson on how to communicate with one another. 

 

  • Mark 1:15…short, honest, and sincere.

 

“The time has come,” he said.  “The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!”

 

  • Mark 2:17…truthful, and patient with the wishy washy Pharisees after they questioned him about eating with “sinners” and tax collectors.

 

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but

 

sinners.”

 

                Unlike us, he had every right to be harsh with these people and to flip things around and judge them as we often do with people who do things contrary to what we think they should do.  Jesus was without sin though, and we are overflowing with it.  It puts things in perspective to know that we never have the right to judge anyone yet we always do, and he had every right to, and was calm, patient and slow to anger.  Another way we need a savior.

 

The latter half of Matthew 5:37 says that “anything beyond this (simple, truthful answers) comes from the evil one”.  Sadly, rarely are people upfront about things.  Or if they are, it’s out of bitterness and sin, not truth.  Instead, they choose to people please and aim to earn the acceptance of man rather than of their Savior.  Ironically, people pleasing really is only done with self-glorification in mind…we only do it to make things easier on ourselves, rather than thinking about the others best interests.  Our yes’s are not yes’s and no’s are not no’s, and this is a very devastating place to be for everyone, nobody wins! 

 

We can be strong though, when our confidence isn’t in compliments from others or approval of man but resting solely in God and his word.  It’s an amazing freedom, and serves as an opportunity to build better more meaningful relationships with people when we are bold in Christ and learn to communicate as he would.  He’ll provide amazing ways, just like he did with Samuel and I, but most importantly, he’ll teach you how to better communicate with him!  He’s the best person to talk with around.