“The One Who Is in You Is Greater!”

   I’ve just been reading through the Gospel of Luke and I puzzled over the passage about the “strong man, fully armed.” Who was he? And then, who was “someone stronger?”

 

²¹ "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. ²² But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder."     Luke 11:21-22.

 

     The context of the whole passage is  the question of Satan being credited with driving out demons. Jesus basically says, “How silly! If he did that he would destroy his own kingdom.” Jesus is “stronger”.

 

     Remember the legion of demons that bound the maniac of Gadara, and Who overpowered them (Luke 8:29). Remember the woman bent over with scoliosis for 18 years (Luke 13:13). Satan had bound her all those years—but Jesus was able to free her with a word. And remember the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. He had been crippled there since before Jesus was born (over 38 years. John 5:8).

 

     1 John 4:4 is the full expression of the power of Christ:-

 

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [the spirits of antichrist], because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

 

There is wonderful comfort to be had in this knowledge.

 

     Several years ago, Joy and I flew into Santiago airport in Chile. Some luggage was missing so we were delayed getting to the taxi rank. The taxis were all gone but we were

approached by a well-dressed man speaking good English. He was heading into town and would be happy to take us for a moderate price. We walked out to the parking lot and when he opened his trunk for our luggage, there, attached to the inside trunk lid but hidden from the outside, was a cardboard taxi sign. We got in the back, he got into the driver’s seat and at the last second, for no apparent reason, a huge man jumped into the passenger seat—we felt very threatened. We were about to be taken and relieved of our passports and cash!

 

     Now the adrenalin was flowing and Joy said we needed out! How could we get out? At this very moment a “real” taxi pulled up and blocked us in, with the driver wagging his finger at us, “No!” We showed the new driver a Google Map print-out of where we wanted to go, got into his cab, and were pleasantly and safely delivered to our hotel in Santiago. We thanked him, gave him a good tip, and never saw him again. We are sure God sent this driver, and easily stopped the dangerous, perhaps deadly plans against us. We still shiver, but often thank the Lord for preserving us. Once again, “the One Who is in you is greater!”    

Hymn of the Month: I will boast only in the cross!

     Last fall I was in a Christian bookstore where I saw a stack of two or three dozen copies of Chris Tomlin’s newest CD, “Love Ran Red”. I bought one and played it once, played it twice, played it a dozen times. It is more “modern” than I’m used to but the lyrics took hold of me—“At the Cross, at the cross, I surrender my life”; “Jesus, He loves me, He loves me, He is for me”; “I will feast at the Table of the Lord”; “I heard the roar of the Lion of Judah”; “Jesus, this is You.”

     I knew I had really absorbed the words when I was later reading 1 John 4:4 and thought, “There’s a quotation from Chris Tomlin!”—“Greater is the One  Who lives in me…”

     There are half a dozen great songs on this CD but the one that moved me most is this:
 

     I will boast only in the cross

     Where my Saviour died for me.

     Nothing else, no other love,

     Goes so far and runs so deep.

     I will boast only in the cross.

     See His head, His hands and feet,

     Scars of grace—the scars that heal.

     He broke the curse and set me free.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     I will boast only in the cross—

     The Father’s love at Calvary

     My sin erased, my debt he paid.

     This is my hope, this song I sing.

     This is my hope, this song I sing.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     Only One took the nails,

     Only One tore the veil,

     Only One spotless Lamb.

     I will boast only in the cross.

 

     I will boast only in the cross.
 

 

     Real devotion to Christ shines through in every line. The words are simple but the thoughts are deep. And within the song is a hauntingly simple piano tune.
 

     After absorbing the lyrics of Tomlin’s songs, I discovered that we would be in Miami in February at the time of the very first concert of his “Love Ran Red” tour. Six of us got tickets online, assembled at the Red Roof Inn across from the airport, and taxied over to the 8000 seat arena of the University of Florida for our concert. His introductory song was “How Great Is Our God” and it just got better!
 

     I’ve often thought how wonderful it would be to sit in an audience and hear Philip Bliss, or Daniel Whittle, or Ira Sankey sing their songs. Moving 150 years on, here we were listening to a new poet singing his own new songs!

     Chris Tomlin was born May 4, 1972, in Grand Saline, Texas. He learned the guitar by playing along to Willie Nelson records, but Wikipedia lists his “instruments” as “vocals, guitar, piano”. He “wrote his first worship song at age fourteen. He entered college planning to study physical therapy, but says he felt God’s calling to something else.”
 

     He was a worship leader at various churches and youth conferences but in 1997, Louie Giglio asked him to work “with the Passion Conferences. Tomlin has been in that movement ever since.” He is now based at the Passion City Church, in Atlanta, Georgia. Tomlin married Lauren Bricken in November, 2010, and they now have two daughters. Outside the music industry, Tomlin is on the board of CURE International, providing medical care to children in the developing world.  
 

     A recent newspaper article quotes Tomlin on this album: “I don’t think I can write a bigger song in my life than ‘Almighty’. When I hear that opening melody, and that opening piano, it’s like a glimpse of heaven to me. And yet I don’t think I can write a more intimate song of grace than ‘Jesus Loves Me.” It’s great that they’re both on this record together.”

 

Things God never thought of and things He will forget

     How could there be possibilities that God never thought of? It seems illogical but somehow, it really is true. For example, Jeremiah lived in an awful age but through him God tells us at least three times of something that had never entered His mind—for the Israelites to “burn their sons and daughters in the fire” on altars to Baal and Molek, in the valley of Hinnom. (See Jer.7:31; 19:5; and 32:35.) In a terrible sense, then, mankind can think of sins that God never thought of.
 

     Perhaps equally inexplicable is the question, how could God ever “forget”? In Jer.23:39, God says that He “will surely forget” the false prophets of Samaria and Jerusalem. On the other hand, and even better for us, God says in Jer.31:34, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (See also Heb.8:12; 10:17.)
 

     Do you remember any specific sin of your own? How about the sin of the world, in which we all have our share—the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus? How we long to forget our own sin, and we certainly want no part in the blame for Jesus’ death! The good news from the Bible is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) This means that, in the light of Jeremiah’s words, God will deliberately forget our sins. If He forgets, we will too. What a relief!

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