The
Sacrificial Harley
Have you ever
wondered why Jesus lived thirty
years on Earth before He was
crucified? He could have
descended from the sky on
Thursday, been captured and put
to death on Friday, and
resurrected and taken to Heaven
on Sunday, but the Father had a
much bigger plan! He willed that
Jesus should come to Earth as a
baby and live among human beings
as one of us so that He might
study His life and examine how
God would live if He had to walk
in our shoes. The Father also
predetermined that Jesus should
be His servant. The Father
Himself would speak to mankind
through the lips of Jesus (John
14:10 24) so we could learn about
God and His ways.
To some people,
the following concept will seem
strange at first. When Jesus was
born, He was like any other baby.
He did not know anything. He had
to be fed, bathed, and diapered.
I am sure His mental, physical,
and spiritual development was
quite ordinary at first.
The Bible says that Jesus grew in
wisdom, stature, and in favor
with God and man. (Luke 2:52)
This means that Jesus developed
as children do. I am sure Mary
told Jesus about His miraculous
birth. I am also sure she told
Jesus about the promised Messiah,
and by the age of 12 (Luke
2:42-50), Jesus was well on His
way to figuring out who He was.
This discovery must have been
bittersweet. By faith, Jesus
concluded that He was the Son of
God and by faith, He also
concluded that He was the Lamb of
God. He could not be one without
the other.
Jesus was the Son
of God by faith for most
of His life. Until Jesus was
transfigured on the mountain
(Matthew 17:1-9), Jesus had no
proof that He was, in fact, the
Son of God. Prior to coming to
Earth, Jesus put aside every
divine prerogative. He came to
Earth as a subject of the Father,
to do His will. (John 6:38) This
is why Jesus is called the Son
(the subject) of God. The Hebrew
word for son is ben and it
means subject or subjected. While
Jesus heard the Father’s
voice at His baptism, He also
concluded that He saw the Holy
Spirit descent upon Him in the
form of a dove (Matthew 3:16,
17), the two signs were affirmations
of His identity, but they were
not proof.
After Jesus was
baptized, the Holy Spirit led Him
into the desert. (Matthew 4:1)
After forty days of fasting, the
devil pounced on Jesus because He
was weak and vulnerable. (The
devil always preys on us when we
are at our weakest or lowest
point.) The devil’s first
temptation was carefully designed
and highly focused. Lucifer
wanted to dupe Jesus with a
nagging question. The devil
gently questioned the identity of
Jesus! Notice the devil’s
carefully chosen words: “After
fasting forty days and forty
nights, he [Jesus] was
hungry. The tempter came to him
and said, ‘If you
are the Son of God,
tell these stones to become
bread.’” (Matthew
4:2, 3, insertion and italics
mine) The devil had been closely
watching and studying Jesus for
thirty years before this
temptation occurred. The
devil understood that up to that
point, Jesus understood that He
was the Son of God by faith
alone. The devil knew that
Jesus had zero proof that He was
the Son of God. The devil
reasoned that if he could get
Jesus to presume that He was the
Son of God by producing a
miracle, Jesus would violate the
Father’s will and the
Father’s efforts to redeem
mankind would have to end right
there. If Jesus sinned, He could
not be the flawless lamb required
for the atonement of mankind.
Jesus answered the
devil with words that many people
do not appreciate. “Jesus
answered, ‘It is written:
“Man does not live on bread
alone, but on every word that
comes from the mouth of
God.”’” (Matthew
4:4) Jesus understood that the
devil’s temptation was not
about food. The devil preyed on
Jesus’ hunger so that the
sin of presumption could be
hidden from sight. (Presumption
occurs when a person justifies
wrong doing.) If Jesus had
presumed to perform the miracle
to prove His identity, the devil
would have succeeded and the
redemption of mankind would have
ended.
For most of us,
the sin of presumption is tiny
and common. In fact, it is
largely ignored. Jesus saw
through the devil’s
sophistry and He replied (
I’m paraphrasing), “The
Scriptures says in Deuteronomy
8:3 that God allowed Israel to go
hungry in the desert before
giving them manna so that He
could teach them that faith in
God is greater value than food.
God can speak and food will fall
from the sky. He can speak and
stones can become bread. I have
been fasting in the desert
because this is the Father’s
will for me. His Spirit led me
into this deserted place. I must
remain there without food until
the Father directs me otherwise.
It would be a sin for me to
violate the will of my
Father,” What faith. Such
was Jesus’ faith!
During His final
days on Earth, Jesus entered the
Garden of Gethsemane on evening.
For eighteen years, Jesus had
anticipated His death and knowing
the time had arrived, He went
into the garden to receive
strength from the Father for the
ordeal that lay before Him.
Jesus did not want to die on the
cross, but He was willing to
submit to the Father’s
higher will. We should never
forget His words. “…My
Father, if it is possible, may
this cup be taken from me. Yet
not as I will, but as you
will.” (Matthew 26:39)
Again, what faith! Living by
faith is the most difficult thing
a person can do, whereas living
in presumption is easy. The
difference between living by
faith and living by presumption
is easy to define, but difficult
to admit. Faith yields obedience,
presumption excuses
transgression.
The biblical
definition of faith is
embarrassingly simple, but it is
a killer. Faith means
“Go-Be-Do.” When we are
willing to go wherever God
directs, to become all that God
asks, and to do all that God
requires, faith in God mirrors
the faith of Jesus. Otherwise, we
deceive ourselves. Living in
presumption is easy when faith is
dead. Consider these words: “During
the days of Jesus’ life on
Earth, he offered up prayers and
petitions with loud cries and
tears to the one who could save
him from death, and he was heard
because of his
reverent submission.
Although he was a son, he learned
obedience from what he suffered
and, once made perfect
[e.g.;, He was faith-full to the
end of His life], he became
the source of eternal salvation
for all who obey him.” (Hebrews
5:7-9, italics and insertion
mine)
Clearest in the
Desert
Communion with God
is clearest in the desert and
that’s why the Holy Spirit
took Jesus there at the beginning
of His ministry. The desert is a
scary, harsh, and unforgiving
place. A person cannot survive
there for very long. No one wants
to be trapped in a desert that is
hot by day, cold by night,
isolated from friends and family,
and full of cactus spines,
rattlesnakes, and scorpions.
Without shade, food, or water,
the desert is a deadly place.
Metaphorically,
there are many routes into the
deserts of life. Sometimes we can
make foolish decisions (like
drinking and driving) and end up
in a self-inflicted desert that
takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to exit.
Sometimes, we can end up in a
financial desert (through
unemployment) even though we
thought we were doing well when
everything fell apart. Sometimes,
a whole nation can find itself in
a desert experience through war,
economic mismanagement, famines,
etc. I mention these things
because a growing number of
people are finding themselves in
some kind of desert, and the rest
of mankind is fearful they will
end up in a similar circumstance.
But, the good news is that God is
in every desert!
The Sacrificial
Harley
“….Without
faith, it is impossible to please
God.” (Hebrews 11:6) A
few years ago, Bill and Sue
(names have been changed to
protect the identity of the
faithful) found themselves in a
deep financial desert. Bill is
self-employed and his data
acquisition business tanked when
the financial crisis occurred in
2007. Sue’s income could not
meet their monthly obligations
and they soon found themselves
facing many financial problems,
including foreclosure. The
one bright spot on the horizon
was that Bill had obtained a
small contract with a large
corporation and he desperately
hoped the small contract would
mature into a much larger
contract. On night, some
batteries used in Bill’s
equipment caught fire. The fire
not only destroyed Bill’s
equipment, but also destroyed a
lot of equipment that belonged to
the corporation. For three
months, Bill and Sue lived on
pins and needles. Bill lost
a great deal of equipment in the
fire that he could not afford to
replace, and due to the fire and
the lost business, they faced
foreclosure on their home. To top
it off, Bill’s client
threatened to sue him for
hundreds of thousands of dollars
in damages.
Bill and Sue owned
one toy. It was a Harley Davidson
motorcycle. Because their
financial situation was dismal,
Bill felt the Lord was impressing
him to sell their Harley Davidson
motorcycle, but Sue resisted.
Sue did not want to let the
Harley go. In her heart, she knew
Bill was right, but she resisted
the Spirit’s prompting. She
argued the proceeds from the sale
would not stop the foreclosure or
the pending lawsuit. Besides
that, the motorcycle was the only
thing they had for fun- it was
their way of temporarily escaping
some of the “desert
heat.” Most of all,
Sue knew they could never replace
the Harley if they sold it. The
motorcycle had been with them for
many years and to her, it was an
important part of their life.
She could not bring herself to
let it go. A few weeks later,
Bill and Sue were sitting in
their usual place at church. The
pastor presented plans to expand
the church and he asked for a
financial commitment from each
family in the church to help with
church expansion. Bill and Sue
sat there, feeling uncomfortable.
They wanted to help, but they had
nothing to give. During the
church service, they avoided eye
contact-their desert experience
was too painful. During the
service, Sue sensed the Holy
Spirit moving within her heart.
She was convinced that she should
step out in faith and give the
Harley to the Lord. After the
service was over, while walking
toward “the Harley,”
(they had ridden it to church)
she blurted out to Bill,
“Let’s sell the Harley
and give the proceeds to the
building program!”
Bill looked at his
wife and smiled. He had felt the
same conviction during the
service. “That’s a
great idea. Let’s do
it,” he said. And for that,
a sacrificial Harley roared to
life and they rode home-happy as
they could be that they could do
something for the Lord. Their
gift was a one-way street. It was
their joy to make a sacrifice to
the Lord and both had perfect
peace in doing so!
Two days later,
Bill received notice from his
client’s attorneys that the
corporation was not suing him.
Not only that, but the corporate
executives had decided to pay for
everything that had been
destroyed and were anxious to
purchase additional equipment
from Bill as well. In the
twinkling of an eye, Bill and Sue
saw manna fall from Heaven. They
were still in a financial
dessert, but they had hope.
I have shared
their story of the sacrificial
Harley because many people are
hopeless and frustrated. When we
are forced by circumstances to
walk on, day after day, in the
heat of the desert, the journey
can appear endless. We can become
very discouraged and fall into
temptation of becoming angry with
God. Of course, God sees our
weeping and He understands our
doubts and tantrums. God does
not forsake His children. He
wants to teach us the essence of
faith because faith in God
produces inner peace. It is hard
to let go of our dreams, goals,
and ambitions so that God’s
goals and purposes for our lives
can be fulfilled. It can be very
hard to see others exit their
desert when you have to remain in
yours. Therefore, keep your eyes
on the Lord. His purpose for you
and His goals for you are unique.
Allow Him to refine and purify
your faith because “…Man
does not live on bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the
mouth of God.” When God
sees that our faith has matured
to a level that He wants, when He
sees that we thirst for the peace
and joy that He offers, He will
speak on our behalf. He may send
grace (strength to endure) or
manna from Heaven, or if
necessary, He will change stones
to bread!
This is my last
newsletter for 2010 and I wanted
to end the year by saying that
the eyes of the Lord range
throughout the Earth. He see each
person, both those who are in a
desert and those who need a
desert experience. He knows the
desert is not a comfortable place
to live, but from His point of
view, the desert can be a place
where faith is born and divine
peace nurtured. Before the Father
performed a single miracle
through Jesus, the Holy Spirit
led Jesus into the desert to have
His faith tested. By faith, Jesus
overcame the devil’s
temptations and look how the
Father was able to use Jesus!
There is no need to be afraid of
a desert experience. Instead of
fearing whatever the outcome may
be, surrender the outcome to
God’s higher will and you
will receive peace. (John
14:27) Jesus said, “….And
surely I am with you always, to
the very end of the age.” (Matthew
28:20)
Larry Wilson
