Pesuppositions

Everyone has certain beginning points in their thinking. I begin with God. I presuppose God. Why? Because I want there to be a God. I want to believe in Him. I want to believe in Jesus and his resurrection. I like this religion. I don’t like other religions. They are cold and empty. My presupposition is that the religion I like is true. Others do not like Christianity because they do not want someone telling them what to do. They want to keep their sin. So their presupposition is that there is no God who has the right to tell them what to do or will judge them for their sin in the end. It is self evident to me that Christ is true. Nothing else makes any sense. The Bible says that people love their sin more than God, and so they will not believe in Him. This is the same thing that happens when a Christian sins. At that moment he loves his sin more than God. In my life, He had to get me to a point where I loved Him more than anything and anyone else. It is this very belief in Him that proves His existence to me, because “faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” I want to believe in God and therefore I do, but Jesus said that this is a valid reason to believe. “If you want to know the truth,” he said, “ you will know that the things I say are true. You must turn from your sin every day and face the unseen and follow the One who you want to exist. I begin my thinking with Jesus. I may study to understand better or to explain to others, but ultimately I choose Jesus because I want Him more than anything else. Then at some point the Holy Spirit comes in and witnesses his presence to me. I know He is there because I feel him there at the center of my being and know that if He was not there I would be hollow.
People do not come to a belief in Jesus from a neutral position. They have built up biases over a life time. That is why Jesus told Paul it was hard for him to kick against the picks. He had had his biases attacked by the death of Stephen and other martyrs and was finding it hard to ignore this new information. The Pharisees came to Jesus with presuppositions that when Messiah came he would support their position and power. Unfortunately Hassidic Jews today bear the same presupposition. But you can come to something with valid presuppositions. The Word of God is true. Jesus never lied. God is intimately involved in our lives. And God is good. But we must not presuppose that God’s idea of goodness is ours or that God should do this or that to be good. Everyone has certain beginning points in their thinking. You must make sure that your beginning points are God’s Of course, since God was before the beginning, his beginning points are sometimes quite mysterious.

And the Lord turned....Luke 22:61a

Jesus knows everything that we have done and everything that we are going to do. But when we do these things, he does not turn away from us, he turns toward us. Just as the father looked for the prodigal son, so does Jesus turn toward us in our time of sin. His desire is to restore as he restored Peter. Jesus is not a fair weather friend who deserts us, who abandons us to our fate. He calls to us as you would call to a lost child. He turns toward us with comfort and grace. His gaze is instructional not rejecting. He cannot be disappointed because he knows the end from the beginning.

When Jesus came to the world on Christmas, that was God turning toward us. When Jesus began his ministry that was God turning toward us. When Jesus died on the cross, the Father had to turn away from him, but in doing so He turned toward us in forgiveness. And when he rose again, God turned away from condemnation to the offer of eternal life for all who turn to him.

The Lord is turning toward you. Will you turn toward Him?

The Samaritan Woman

Jesus answered and said unto her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." John 4:10

Why is it that Jesus values that which is not valuable to the world? He goes out of his way to talk to people who the world would say were nothing, loosers, outcasts, people who have a past, people who think little of themselves and have been told by others that they are even less. Yet Jesus, the King of Kings, the bright and morning star, all that is holy and good, seeks out these people in the time of his walk here on earth and today. First Corinthians 1:26-29 says that he chooses those who are "foolish," "weak," "base," "despised," "nothing," failures, if you will, so that no one can say, "Jesus loves me because I am worthwhile. I am beautiful, talented, brilliant, funny, educated, wealthy and therefore Jesus loves me. Jesus saw something fantastic in me, that is why he died in my place." No, he died for us while we were yet sinners, when we were his enemies. Romans 5:8

Here he seeks out a woman who probably felt pretty low about her life. She had been married five times which even in our liberal age would be the subject of jokes and mocking. The man that she is with is not committed to her. She has to go out to draw water in the hot sun because the women of the town probably do not want to be seen with her even just to be kind. And not only that...she is a Samaritan! Could you get any lower in that society?

This woman is told that she needs to know the gift of God. What is the gift of God? Surprisingly, we find the answer in 1 John 4:10. "Here in is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Jesus is in fact the gift of God, the Son of God and the propitiation for our sins. Jesus says to the woman that the gift of God is who is speaking to her. The living water is the Holy Spirit which Jesus gives to those who believe in Him. He is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives this gift to people like the woman of Samaria. People who wouldn't think they deserved such a gift.

The Word "Let"

"Let thy mercies come also unto me...." Psalm 119:41a

Jesus went out of his way to come to earth and endure great pain and anguish to provide salvation for his people. He desires to show us love and compassion, but we must ask before he can let his mercies come to us. If we do not ask, then we are saying we do not see our need; and we will forever be in rebellion, justifying our actions. It's as if there is a flood gate of God's mercies waiting to be let go, and when we ask, God lets that flood flow to us in Jesus' name. The word let makes this verse a prayer rather than a statement. It is a request for mercy rather than an affirmation of a fact. Let is a plea. We are always in a position of supplicant. We do not make a statement and expect it to be honored simply because we say the words. This is the difference between "Name It and Claim It" theology and submitting to the will and purpose of God in humility and trust.

The Hebrew Letter Vav

I've been really getting into the study of Biblical Hebrew, and I'm finding out some fascinating things. Somehow I've settled on the letter "vav" at the moment. It's the name for " a hook or nail," and it stands for the connectedness of all things. Psalms 119:41 begins the section of Vav in this alphabetically organized Psalm:

"Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word."

What I imagine are many golden hooks hanging down from the Lord in heaven, golden hooks of His mercies. Each person in the world has a golden hook waiting for him, but he must hook his faith to it to find salvation. Jesus Christ is the one who forged those hooks on Calvary, and the One who reaches them out to each of us. Then, after we have salvation, He still reaches out His hooks of mercy and forgiveness every day.

When I have a problem, a "care," I need to hook onto the golden hook of Jesus, and He will carry that problem for me. That's what trusting in Jesus is, hooking onto Him and not letting go, kind of like a zip line. He'll take you through, just don't let go!