Mercy and truth

The more I read the Bible in different translations, the more it makes sense to me. Different verses come together. Aha - this means this. And those words are the same as these other words, just a different twist.

For example in Proverbs 16:6

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for

(NIV)

In King James the words love and faithfulness are translated mercy and truth. Because it is the same thing!


The truth of God is not hard or harmful. Just because he knows the truth about us does not mean we need to fear him because he will reveal who we really are, the sin in our lives etc. That is completely not according to his character, although some people who don't know the Father heart of God can use him as a threat: "You better behave because God sees you (and he is going to punish you if you don't behave)".

Jesus, who perfectly reflects the character of the Father, is full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14
This word "truth" has more to do with faithfulness, that he is true to us. He is faithful even when we are faithless (2 Tim 2:13).


I actually learned today that there is a special word in Hebrew that describes all the love, favor, goodness, kindness, mercy, and compassion He shows us in the blood covenant He made with us. The word in Hebrew is chesed. Wow! I want to dig deeper into this. God is soooo good!

Wisdom

Sometimes I ask God for wisdom and revelation but I tend to pray that when I have something I don't understand or a special problem in mind that I think I need wisdom for. I kind of memorized Ephesians 1:17 but it is always good to pick up your Bible and read it again in its context. Why do I need wisdom and revelation? Aha - to know Him better!

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better

Eph 1:17

Wisdom is to know God, to seek Him, to love Him. In Proverbs it is talking about fearing the Lord (Prov 9:10), but it is all the same thing. To fear God does not mean we are afraid of Him, but that we are God-fearing people that count on God, rely on Him, believe His word, have a healthy respect for God and His power, not treating Him like He is our little pet that we keep in a box for our benefit and comfort as it suits us. (By the way - God is never kept that way, but we might think we have Him, when it is only our own version of Him, what the Bible calls an idol.)

Wisdom is in Proverbs described as a person, a woman actually, that we can interact with and get to know. She is calling out to everyone to come and eat at her table (Prov 9).

For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Prov 2:10

This does not happen automatically but takes some activity from our part. There are eight steps described in Proverbs 2:

1- accept God's words, humility, willingness to say that He is God, not think that we know best all the time and set ourselves up as judges over His word
2- store up His commandments within us, not just read the word but actively meditate and digest it
3- turn our ears to wisdom, a repenting attitude on our part, we realize our need for wisdom, we are turning to Him
4- applying our hearts to understanding, put all our hearts in it, all our strength, our will, our power, not just halfheartedly, this is the priority for our lives, it is not only about us becoming wise people, it is about knowing God and becoming like Him, finding our destiny and purpose
5- call out for insight, the search intensifies, becoming loud now, public, it is not just a private thing anymore
6- cry aloud for understanding, - I don't care what people think, I am desperate, I am hungry, I got to have it
7- look for it as silver, we really value what God values and prioritize accordingly
8- search for it as a hidden treasure, we are not giving up but keep looking and we realize it is hidden, a mystery, but it is worth spending our lives on.

Pretty intense! That is the kind of attitude we are to go after Him with!

then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

Prov 2:5

and we will delight in the fear of the LORD.

Is 11:3

Peace

As I am reading the Bible in English instead of Swedish certain wordings stick out to me in a new way. This morning as I was reading First John, I found a number of "This is how..." statements and one in particular stuck out to me: This is how (...) we set our hearts at rest in His presence.

The following verse is very well known to me but I somehow had missed the connection between verse 19 and 20.

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 3:20

To be at rest in his presence, to really know that there is no condemnation for me when I am in Christ (Rom 8:1), to have peace of mind - it has everything to do with my relationship with the Father. We know that he is not angry, upset or disappointed with us. He sees us, as he sees his Son. Jesus said, as one of the last things he was sharing with his disciples before his death, that he left them with peace as a gift. "My peace I give you" (John 14:27). It is not just peace in general, peace and quiet, a peaceful life, happy circumstances. Actually, he did not promise any of that, quite the opposite, but he promised us the peace of Jesus Christ, that kind of relationship with the Father. Or not just that kind of relationship but we actually enter into their perfect relationship, we are in Christ, included. We have the mind of Christ, the peace of mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

1 John 4:13,16

The peace of God will guard my mind and this happens in our relationship, when I focus on him instead of myself or my circumstances, when I trust him, when I pour out my heart to him in prayer and praise and present my requests to him boldly (Phil 4:6). My restless thoughts can find rest if I direct my thoughts to him instead of worrying. I have to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to the love of Christ (2 Cor 10:5), knowing at all times that I am loved, unconditionally, limitless, complete, no matter what. And that brings peace. Such peace, or conviction of righteousness, also moves me into action. It makes me focus outwardly rather than questioning my heart, asking if I am okay all the time. This peace is like a pair of shoes of readiness and willingness that equip me and prepare me to move forward, stand upright and kick butt in the spiritual war we are in (Eph 6:15).

You can

My daughter is now in that age when she wants to be very independent and do everything herself. Very confidently she keeps on telling me "Du kan" which in Swedish means "you can". (She has been calling herself "you" since she started talking about herself because that is what I call her all the time.) She does not want to sit on my lap anymore when we read books but next to me on the couch. She is determined to put her shoes on herself and buckle up with the seat belt in the car etc. I have to secretly help her without her noticing. When I am cooking or doing something in the kitchen she brings a chair and wants to "help" and I will find tasks that are just on her level that she actually can do like pouring flour into a bowl or stirring in a pot. I guess I am feeling somewhat what God must be feeling when He is cooperating with us. We are not actually "helping" God with anything but He enjoys having us around and doing stuff together with us. Although we have no clue of what is going on, or no concept of following a recipe or where things are going to end up He will let us stir in His pots just because He loves us. He enjoys our time together. It is all about the relationship and He wants us to feel good about ourselves. He is lavishing encouragement and love upon us for our "achievements" just like I do with my daughter and we are actually growing in the process. And this is just the beginning!

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2

Sit down

In our culture we suffer from sitting too much. It is a passive kind of sitting that leads to complacency and laziness. We get stuck in front of our computers or in our couches or church pews and can hardly get up and make ourselves do anything because we just get comfortable sitting.

But at the same time that we are sitting too much, we have a hard time finding rest. We are filled with stress and restlessness even when we are inactive, zapping away on our wide screen TV:s or surfing the internet for hours.

In Biblical language, the verb "to sit" does not usually have to do with sitting down to rest but sitting down to rule (Is 52:2). It is a place of honor and respect. We sit down on thrones with Christ. It is a very active sitting down. But it is also a place of rest. We rule when we rest. Our strength is in the stillness and the rest we find in God (Is 30:15). We don't get caught up in worries and fears because we know that God is so much bigger and mightier than whatever we can face and that His love always surrounds us.

Faith

The concept of Happy Thoughts comes from Peter Pan. Peter Pan has grown up and forgotten who he really is. To get in touch with his true self again and be able to fly, like he used to, he needs to think Happy Thoughts.

More and more I understand how our thoughts are so important for our lives. If our thoughts are all negative and filled with lies and fears we are not going to fly very high in life.

I know that faith is not "positive thinking" but in a sense we need to become like little children and have that childlike faith that everything is possible. Faith is not a heavy thing, that we can work hard on to make stronger in our life. Faith is a gift. We receive what God has for us by faith. It is not even our faith but the faith of Jesus Christ. He has faith in us. He is full of faith. That means that He is faithful and true! To us. And most of all to Himself. So we need to get to know Him, the person Jesus Christ, and then our faith will grow automatically. It is a very personal, relational thing, not some magic formula.

If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself.

2 Tim 2:13







To a Swede, the Norwegian language sounds sort of humorous. We can perfectly understand Norwegian (pretty much) but it is like a funny version of Swedish, not quite as serious, but Norwegian sounds happier and more energetic than Swedish, at least to a Swede. That is why I liked this Norwegian version of the Peter Pan song. To me it catches the spirit of positive thinking.

Happy Thoughts

Tonight I visited heaven for a little while. We are house sitting and "baby sitting" our friends house and kids this week and one of the privileges about that is that I get to put the younger kids to bed, read them stories, sing lullabies and pray with them. Tonight the youngest one wanted me to tell her "Happy Thoughts" to think about before she went to sleep and then she told me "Happy Thoughts" and off we went straight into heaven. She told me how I was dancing around on a field with all these animals and then the lamb climbed the back of the tiger and was riding on him. The little mouse was dancing right next to the big moose but he never stepped on him but the mouse ran in and out in between his legs in perfect harmony and just had fun, being silly.

Then we were playing by this waterfall and the water was just the right temperature and everybody could swim and those kids came that never had had fresh water their whole lives and they just drank. We did not need soap or shampoo that gets in the eyes but we all got clean and fresh from just the water and there was healing in the water too and refreshment. Then Jesus disciples came ("What does disciples mean anyways?") and said that these kids were rubbish but Jesus said that they were perfect for him and he thought they all were handsome and wonderful worshipers.

It was so easy and so much fun and really profound to visit heaven with my little friend. I cannot wait to go back again and get more revelation. Maybe I will even go up on my own. But it is good to have a little helper that is not too caught up in rational thought.