Under His Wings

Under His Wings

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.  

In National Geographic some years ago I read the following: After a forest fire in Yellowstone, forest rangers began their trek up the mountain to survey the damage.  One ranger found a bird that was literally petrified in ash perched on the ground at the base of a tree.  Somewhat sickened by this eerie sight the

ranger knocked the bird over with a stick, and three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother's wings.  When the blaze had arrived the mother had remained steadfast. Instead of running she just stayed put.  She had been willing to die so that those under the cover of her wings would live.
 Jesus said , "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how I have wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing." (Matthew 23:37) Jesus did do this, and He was burned to a crisp.  On the cross you have God coming himself to love us.  The only way that you love a guilty, broken person and really change them is that you have to do it substitutionary. Jesus took our penalty upon himself and got what we deserved.  Our sins, guilt and brokenness fell upon Him.  He took it himself so that we could be forgiven.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller of New York City, and the Scripture is 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
 
All real life changing love is substitutionary sacrifice.  If you love a person whose life is all pulled together and they don't need any changes, it costs nothing.  It's wonderful and fun.  There are 4 or 5 of these people in New York City, and you ought to find them and become their friend.  But if you ever try to love somebody who has got needs or who is emotionally wounded, it's going to cost you.  Their life needs changing, and you can't love them and bring them up without you going down.  You can't do it without somehow their troubles and problems transfering to you. 
 
When an emotionally wounded person comes at you, you want to go the other way.  You know that you're going to have to listen to him or her, and it's just so draining to be their friend.  But the only way that emotionally wounded people are going to fill up emotionally is if somebody loves them, and the only way to love them is to be emotionally drained.  They aren't going to fill up unless you empty out.  If you hold onto to your emotional comfort and just stay away from those people, then they will just sink.  It is them or you, and the only way to love them is through substitutionary sacrifice.  Some of their woundedness and drain is going to have to hit you, so that some of your fullness can go to them.  That is just the way that it is. 
 
In John 10 Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.  The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep.  Jesus emptied Himself out for us and became a sacrificial lamb.  Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus says, "I lost everything, so that I wouldn't lose you."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Self-Denial and A Deceitful Heart

Self-Denial and A Deceitful Heart

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Jeremiah 17:9.  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?

 

At the end of WW2 a guard in a town with a concentration camp dug up bodies that were buried in order to get rid of the evidence.  The GI's found the bodies, and Patton knew that the people in the town must have known about the camp in spite of the fact that they denied knowing.  In fact, he made the people come out and dig graves for the bodies.  That night the mayor and his wife hung themselves and left a note.  "We didn't know, but we knew."  This mechanism is at work in our hearts as well.  We hide painful truths, and it is the root of great evil.  

 

Many hide behind religion to do evil, and others avoid religion because of hypocrisy.  Some cheat at work, but say, "I'm not like those Enron guys."   The Enron guys say, "I'm cheating people out of millions, but I'm not like the mafia out killing people."  The mafia guys say, "Sure I kill but not like Hitler."  What did Hitler say to himself?  We don't know, but he said something.

 

This capacity in our lives makes it possible for the nicest people to fall to the lowest depths and to live in self-denial.  If you don't recognize where this is at work in your life, then you are capable of the worst things as well.  That sin that ruins you is the sin that you don't see.

 

Only Jesus' obedience makes us holy.  He was great but became small so that we, though small, would become great in God's eyes.  

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining