The Thought Life of Jonathan Morris

What does it mean to be zealous for the Lord?

2009-06-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

The following is J.I. Packers description of a zealous man from "Knowing God."
"A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies - whether he has health, or whether he has sickness- whether he is rich, or whether he is poor- whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense- whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish- whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise- whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame- for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory."

Phinehas was a zealous man. His zeal saved the Israelites. Numbers 25:5-13

Am I zealous? Are you? Are we all designed to be this zealous?

When I read such a description of zeal and stories about such zealous men I am dishearted. I think "How can I achieve this!?" I look at myself and see such a lack of zeal for God's glory. I predominantly live my life for myself and not for Christ as I am commanded to in
2 Corinthians 5:14-15.

God I long for such zeal and ask for it, but praise be to you because you no longer regard me according to the flesh. 2 Corinthians 5:16

He is EVERYTHING!

2009-05-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

I went for an awesome, awe inspiring, walk through the horse trails near my parents house a midst a mild early monsoon rain. It was a sweet time of prayer and praise of our awesome God. Who holds the following qualities among many others : Creator of everything, His very power holds the world together, without it we would disintegrate into nothingness, lover of our souls, comforter, husband, head of all earthly principalities, etc....

Considering these qualities God is MORE than sufficient and powerful to satisfy me and conquer any situation which I may come across according to His will.

I do not really have a point. I just know that in Christ, the living water (John 4:14), I am satisfied in ways which I have not experienced in any other place.

Enjoying looking to Him and being satisfied. God is good. God is satisfying. God is doing a new thing. God works all things for good. God works in us that we may truly be like Christ!

Oh how I long to be truly selfless and loving as Christ was. I can not do this. Only God can do this work in me. Regardless of the intensity of my desire to be like Him I can not achieve these goals and even if I do I am glorified and God is not. May God be glorified in my life! May he do the work! May His promises be proven true!

I leave you with the following verses which did business on me earlier today:

2 Corinthians 1:19-22
^"19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. ²⁰For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter ourAmen to God for his glory. ²¹And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, ²²and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."

Numbers 23:19
"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"

You can draw your own conclusions on the combo of verses or ask me my thoughts.

The Men of Emotion

2009-05-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Four examples of men who were emotional and who made no attempt to hide it.

Jesus
John 11:33,35
"Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. [ ] Jesus wept."

David
2 Samuel 12:16-17
"David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them."

Jeremiah
Lamentations 2:11
"My eyes fail with tears, My heart is troubled; My bile is poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city."

Even the psalmist
Psalm 42:3
"My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?" "

I have not been one of these men. God has produced in me these emotions which historically I would have hardened my heart too, falsely believing that if my relationship with Christ was solid I could not be sad or depressed. This idea could not be farther from the truth as demonstrated by The Christ Himself and these other men of God.

I am called to have compassion upon people, but I can not have true compassion if I do not "feel."It is merely a product of my actions. God examines the heart. Christ felt for those weeping on behalf of Lazarus' death. It hit Him to the core. So am I called to be, but it must be the triune God doing the work in me. I may not seize it, can not act it out. If it is through suffering that this piece of God is created in me, let it be done. For "It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD" because "There may yet be hope." (Lamentations 3:26,29) It is for this hope, for this salvation and piece of God, that I endure suffering. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18) The bits of God which I have tasted have proven the previous statement to be exceedingly true!

The All Consuming Fire

2009-04-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is how He is described "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." (Deut 4:24) This is not the only way in which He is described for the Lord can not be contained by a single word. His qualities and nature far exceed anything we can comprehend "For My thoughts [are] not your thoughts, Nor [are] your ways My ways," says the LORD. " (Isaiah 55:8)

God - The consuming fire
Can you imagine being burned alive? Or this. Think about when you have burned yourself. How much it hurt. I remember dropping a pot of boiling water down my leg and having it cause me pain for a week. How much more intense would being burned alive be? This is what God does in us to our sinful nature. When he comes in contact with us His very nature is to sanctify us and remove all impurity. His righteousness is too pure to be tainted by us! "He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around." (Lam 2:3) This is done because of the foul sin within us. Jeremiah knew this when he said "Let all their wickedness come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions" (Lam 1:22) Jeremiah had a life full of suffering and pain.

Point being the process of being sanctified is not a pleasant one. It is extremely painful. Our sin nature is being burned up, but the problem is we are attached to our sin nature. We get burned in the process. I am currently getting burned. Having my eyes opened to another level of my sinful nature. Seeing how deep the beast really goes. The comforts which my sin nature provides are being seared and destroyed. I will only have God, though I forget that I already have him.

I can only trust as Jeremiah(Fyi in case you thought righteousness equated to an easy life you are mistaken. Examine the life of Jeremiah or many other men of God.) was able to. Able to look back at his bitter suffering and say "The LORD [is] good to those who wait for Him, To the soul [who] seeks Him." (Lam 3:25)

The Sweetness

2009-04-23T15:48:00.001-07:00

God has been revealing some sweet truths, at least for today, through the word.

While looking into the fruits of the spirit the knowledge that in the KJV "patience" at times is translated as "longsuffering." This verbiage seems proper seeing as in my current state I am just waiting, being patient in my suffering, for God to do work in my heart.

God is good! I love how he orchestrates things to provide for a heart knowledge of his word.

The Battle with legalism

2009-04-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

What does one do when the problem is in fact "doing" things?

All I want is Christ, but it is exactly Him which I can not grab hold of!

I guess I will just pray and wait.

What else can I do, but sit still and know that He is God and wait for him to do business on my heart?

Thoughts on Fear

2009-04-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Exodus 14:31
"And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant."

Lord's power led to fear, fear led to trust.

Contemplating the things which the Lord has done in my life, or in the past, which would cause me to fear him and place my trust in him.

What knowledge of God's power leads to a fear?

-Just at the sight of God, Isaiah was thrown into a deep fear for his life. (Isaiah 6) He was the most righteous man in all of Israel and on his own he was overcome with so much fear that he could not stand.

Do we gain a proper fear of God by simply viewing God?
-It seems so. There is no reason upon viewing the awesome things God has done to not have a deep fear of him. Just from the what the Israelites witnessed, parting of the red sea, manna, destruction of the most powerful army of its time, Egypt, etc. There are many more reasons to fear the Lord that exist even today.

How do we view the power of God and have a proper fear of him deeply rooted in our hearts?
-Prayer - James 5:16
-Time in the word in books where his power is obvious - Exodus, Isaiah, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel. (Its all good!)

Why do we want to trust him?
-He is the only consistent being ever!

Deuteronomy 32:4
"He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he."

Rockin the I wishing I was Rockin the E

2009-04-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Woof!

This week has been crazy full of suffering and rejoicing. Through all of my weakness God has been consistent and his strength truly has been made perfect through it. The weakness and suffering resulted from a breakup with my now ex-girlfriend. I praise God that it happened! Not because I have been rid of her but because of the fruit which has been produced through this trial.

Here is just one piece of fruit that has been produced:

The emotional suffering experienced the night of the breakup was intense. On a level of emotional grief which I had never experienced until then. I share this not to receive pity but only to demonstrate a point. Through all of it I had the promises of God to hold to and God himself right along with me. This suffering resulted from the cleavage of a relationship. This emotional suffering happens when ANY relationship/friendship is brought to an end. Neither person involved enjoys the ending of the relationship, well at least if it was a good relationship. Suffering is endured by all as a result.

Think about this: What if you were in a perfect relationship? Experiencing perfect love? What if you had been in that relationship for your entire existence? It was all you had ever known! What if this perfect relationship was suddenly brought to an end? How intense and extreme would your suffering be?!

Jesus did this for us! He cut off his relationship with God and the Holy Spirit to be with us!

(Heb 12:2) He had been with God and the Holy Spirit for all time! (John 1:1-2) How much more was the emotional suffering he endured for my sake? Infinitely more! I even had God through my trial to hold me up. Jesus did not have God. Jesus chose to do this in order that God's will might be fulfilled. The love of God and Christ is beyond measure! Praise be to God for He is loving and willing to accept much pain that we would be with him and his Father. I doubt that God enjoyed pouring out his wrath on Jesus for our sakes. Psalms 136 effectively demonstrates the love of God.

Considering it is almost Easter I believe it fitting to have our eyes focused upon Christ for what he has done in our lives.