God of the Towel: Knowing the tender heart of God
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About this ebook
Since childhood, you’ve sung the words, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” The tune is as familiar as your own mirrored reflection. But sometimes we have difficulty believing that the creator and sustainer of the universe could be bothered with people like you and me—much less really love us. But when God put on flesh and entered our world, he washed dirty feet, he soothed suffering souls, and he forgave fallen sinners. His message is loud and clear—he loves us!
Jim McGuiggan’s passionate, devotional readings draw you beyond the commands, the laws, and the history to paint insightful portraits of God that reveal his tender heart of love.
Jim McGuiggan
Jim McGuiggan, a powerful speaker and seasoned writer, has written numerous inspirational books, including The God of the Towel, Jesus the Hero of Thy Soul, Where the Spirit of the Lord Is . . . , Let Me Count the Ways, and Celebrating the Wrath of God. Born in Belfast, Ireland, McGuiggan has studied and taught the Bible in America at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Since he and his wife of 44 years, Ethel, returned to Ireland, he has worked with a congregation of God's people outside of Belfast.
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God of the Towel - Jim McGuiggan
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THE GOD OF THE TOWEL
Other books by Jim McGuiggan:
Jesus, Hero of Thy Soul
Where the Spirit of the Lord Is…
Our purpose at Howard Publishing is to:
Increase faith in the hearts of growing Christians
Inspire holiness in the lives of believers
Instill hope in the hearts of struggling people everywhere
Because He’s coming again!
The God of the Towel
© 1997 by Jim McGuiggan
All rights reserved
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Published by Howard Publishing Co., Inc.,
3117 North 7th Street, West Monroe, LA 71291-2227
Printed in the United States of America
Third printing 1998
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews.
Library of congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McGuiggan, Jim, 1937-
The God of the towel : knowing the tender heart of God / Jim McGuiggan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-878990-63-2 (alk. paper)
eISBN 978-1-4516-0567-9
1. God—Love. I. Title.
BT140.M42 1997
231′.6—dc20 96-43931
CIP
Cover Illustration by Joe Clark
Jacket Design by LinDee Loveland
Edited by Philis Boultinghouse
Scripture quotations not otherwise marked are from the New International Version, © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission Zondervan Bible Publishers.
DEDICATION
This book is for Imo.
CONTENTS
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
THE GOD WHO LOVES HUMANS
A Vulnerable God
Why Would He Bother?
God’s Loving Purpose
Cherishing the Mystery
Don’t Give Up on Me!
This God Came to Die!
Love in Four Dimensions
A Love That Will Not Let Me Go
CHAPTER TWO
THE GOD WHO LOVES THE WEAK
Allowances
Sticking Up for the Underbird
Bruised Reeds and Smoking Wicks
Receiver of Wrecks
The Shepherd King
Where Are the Stretchers?
CHAPTER THREE
THE GOD WHO IS HOLY
A Love That Can Be Trusted
God’s Ethical Holiness
More Than Pardon
The Gift of Holiness
And Maddest of All …
The Loving Holiness of God
CHAPTER FOUR
THE GOD WHO FORGIVES SINS
Forgiveness and Repentance
If Our Hearts Condemn Us
Isn’t Somebody Going to Forgive Me?
Of Judges and Friends
Ruby Bridges
Humans Need Forgiving
God Delights in Forgiving!
No Fishing!
Jesus Paid It All!
Why Must You Die?
CHAPTER FIVE
THE GOD OF THE TOWEL
Twelve Lords, One Servant
God Is Not Slumming
With Love and Forethought
The Lamb at the Center of the Throne
Power: Pagan and Christ-like
Made a Difference to That One
Take My Word for It
Only Half the Cure
CHAPTER SIX
THE GOD WHO ALLOWS SUFFERING
Hang Nails and Colon Cancers
Can You Still Trust Me?
Bad Fridays and Good Friday
Go Tell John
What Doesn’t Destroy Me Makes Me Strong
The One Who Holds the Knife
It Seemed Good in Thy Sight
Don’t Go through It Alone
The Pain God Bears
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Beliefs of Unbelief
Tractor-Driving, Cow-Scratching John
Sent to Me By Heaven
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE GOD WHO MADE YOKES
Not What They Expected
The Glory of the Ordinary
The Sacredness of the Secular
Stolen Joy
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE GOD WHO CALLS DISCIPLES
Called to Copy God
Called to Maturity
Called to Confess
Called to Treat Transgressors Tenderly
Called to Compassion
Called to Befriend Sinners
Called to Respect Repentance
Called to Carry the Weak
Called to Serve
Called to Deny Self
Notes
Introduction
Said God to Moses, I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.
Warmed and emboldened by this incredible kindness, the man said to God, Now show me your glory.
This sovereign Lord said he would, but there was only so much that would or could be seen by humans— My face cannot … must not … be seen.
¹
For all the intimacy, for all the mercies shown to Moses and to the rebellious people, for all the willingness of God to make himself known, humans are too impure, too limited, to handle a full frontal view of God.
I think I’m reminding you of all this so you wont expect too much from this little book. Maybe I’m wanting to make the point, too, that we must retain some modesty and humility when we talk about God. Colin Morris, put it like this:
There are preachers who chat about God with a folksy familiarity that is breathtaking. They would be modest enough to confess they haven’t the foggiest idea what is going on in the head of their family pet but lay claim to sure knowledge of what their Pal Up There is thinking about the National Economy, the Middle East conflict or even the future of Mankind.²
There’s more to the mind, character, and purposes of God than we can scribble in the margins of our Bible, cram into our filing cabinets, or store on our hard disks.
While modesty’s an essential, surely it’s right for our reach to be greater than our grasp. I’m weary of reading froth and eating bubbles.
Because it was what he wanted, the Witch Queen gave Edmund Turkish Delight to eat, says C. S. Lewis.³ But though he shoveled it into his mouth and although it tasted delightful, he always felt hungry and wanted more. Always edible, always delightful, but never satisfying.
Certain kinds of literature (and preaching) can be like that. P. T Forsyth passionately dismissed that sort, saying, The non-theological Christ is popular, he wins votes; but he is not mighty [to save].
⁴
Following the lead of countless others, I’m one of those who thinks that to make sense of life and to live it to the full, we must begin at God.
Discipleship is living in the image of God in whatever life situation we find ourselves. Our submission to God as followers depends on our view of him; and though we can’t completely succeed in seeing him, we must pursue not our view of God but God’s view of himself.
God’s view of himself is Jesus Christ. Jesus
is the human name of God; he is God, says Howard Butt, with name, rank and serial number; God with a Galilean accent.
⁵ Jesus is God speaking to us in the only language we can understand, a human language spoken in a human life. Jesus is the human life of God. He is God become intimate— God the Vague
become God the Vital,
God the faceless taking on a face.
Harry E. Fosdick wouldn’t have accepted all that is claimed for Jesus Christ in these studies, but he imagines the growing convictions of the disciples concerning Jesus like this:
At first they may have said, God sent him. After a while that sounded too cold, as though God were a bow and Jesus the arrow. That would not do. God did more than send him. So I suspect they went on to say, God is with him. That went deeper. Yet, as their experience with him progressed, it was not adequate. God was more than with him. So at last we catch the reverent accents of a new conviction, God came in him.⁶
It’s correct to say that Jesus not only lived for God, he lived as God.
In these glimpses into the life of God,
I’m taking the view that the only true God has a history that shows itself in the biblical Story and culminates in his coming in the person we know as Jesus of Nazareth. It’s that Story that must shape our existence and life as God’s covenant community and as God’s disciples.
ONE
THE GOD
WHO LOVES HUMANS
They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him.
—Matthew 27:28
A Vulnerable God
The lengths to which this God will go to express his love for us are almost beyond belief—almost, but not quite!
Sometimes God manifests himself in powerful—even frightening—ways. When Isaiah saw him, he gasped in terror and astonishment, Woe to me! I am ruined!
¹ And when the apostles saw Jesus rebuke the wind, they recoiled in awe at this one who commanded raging storms and boiling seas to obey him.
But when Thomas saw Jesus that day in the upper room, there were no heavenly seraphim, no smoke-filled temple, no shaking of the ground. There was no threatening sea or raging storm—only a young man standing quietly in front of Thomas … a wounded young man … a lethally wounded young man. The wounds were still visible—even accessible, if Thomas had wished.
Here was someone who bore the marks of defeat. Standing in front of Thomas was a vulnerable one, one who had been beaten and put down like an unwanted dog. The staggering confession that fell from his lips was more than, You’re alive after all!
It was more than, You’re the Messiah and my Lord!
More than, Now I believe!
I’m dragging this out because I missed the depths of it for so long. I’m far from fully grasping it now, but much of what I missed is there to be seen and ought to be seen, needs and begs to be seen.
The lengths to which this God will go to express his love for us are almost beyond belief—almost but not quite!
It isn’t just that Thomas identified Jesus as God—which in itself is a profound and precious mystery—it’s the kind of God that stood before Thomas that baffles the mind. A God who tears mountain ranges to shreds, who rolls out light years of space like a man laying carpet, a God who flings galaxies into the empty space and lays oceans in their places with an eyedropper—that kind of God, we think, earns the name God.
But a God who will be bundled into a crowded room, with spittle falling from his beard and red welts marking his face? A God like that? A God who stands silent before an insolent and pathetic little Roman governor, a God who listens patiently to the rantings of an ecclesiastical hypocrite? A God like that? A God who blushes as he is stripped naked for crucifixion, who winces as spikes gouge their way into his feet and hands? A God who delivers himself into the hands of stupid, self-serving, brutal men—this is the God who stood before Thomas!
But how could they have done this? Where did they get the power to kill God? How did they get within reach of him? Don’t you remember what Jesus said to Pilate when the governor claimed to have the power to kill or release him? You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above.
God made himself vulnerable. It could have happened no other way.
And why did he do it? For love of us!
God loves to be longed for, He longs to be sought,
For He sought us Himself with such longing and love,
He died for desire of us, marvellous thought!
And he yearns for us now to be with Him above.²
This is the only true and living God!
Why Would He Bother?
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you.
—Deuteronomy 7:7
The Christian faith says God died for love of us!
But,
you say, God can’t die!
This is true—but he went ahead and died anyway, didn’t he? He who was God became human and dwelled among us and humbled himself to death, even death on a cross.¹ I must confess that the most perplexing part of my faith is the truth that God can be bothered with us.
Have you noticed that the New Testament doesn’t dwell on the gory details of the actual dying of the Lord? We’re inclined to do that, to milk it for all the emotional value we can get from it. We describe the horrors of a long, slow, pain-filled, agonizing death, forgetting that Jesus died so quickly it surprised Pilate. No, the wonder of it all was not the amount of pain but the amount of love. The power of this death was not in the physical pain that accompanied it but in the holy devotion to the will of God that motivated it. The inexpressible importance of it lay not in its physical endurance but in its atoning.
Though I read it more than thirty years ago, I’ll never forget my emotional response to something E. S. Jones, a missionary to India, said. If there were a cosmic newspaper announcing: GOD THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE GIVES HIMSELF TO REDEEM A PLANET CALLED EARTH!— the universe would gasp in astonishment.
² I did. Suddenly Jones had made me see what it was I had been paying lip service to. I had already known, if not said, such a thing, and yet … I had never really known.
Why is it so hard for me to understand such a love by such a God? Perhaps it’s because I’m weary of watching a world filled with vile human beings. And perhaps it isn’t just the cruel and brutal and callous people who make me sick—maybe it’s the pathetic. Those of us who aren’t viciously brutal are banal. We fritter away our lives with trivial pursuits, paltry causes, with the superficial, the trite, the oohing and aahing over the commonplace.
There are times when I wonder why anyone would bother with me, much less God.
Why would he bother?
But more than all this, I have a hard time comprehending his love because I’m weary of looking at