David Addesa
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –On April 27, 2007, David Addesa's eleven-year-old son, Noah, was struck by lightning. And in that instant, David's world changed. He was hundreds of miles away at a conference when he got the news. He did not know if his son was alive or dead. All he knew was that he had to get home. Hours later, David finally saw his son and the damage that the lightning had done. Burns covered his face and chest, and he was in a coma. The prognosis was bleak, and doctors suggested that David and his family place Noah in a local care center for the severely disabled. But they refused to accept it.
"We looked at each other and said, 'What are we doing here?' We have Hope. His name is Jesus."
Weeks turned into months, and Noah made little progress. But David and his family kept praying and trusting God, and every movement and every response was proof that He was working in Noah's life. Now, six years later, Noah still lives with the injuries he sustained that day. He is immobile from the neck down, and he is not able to speak. But he is happy and healthy, and as far as David is concerned, he is evidence of God's presence here on earth.
HAS HEAVEN INVADED EARTH?
When face to face with tragedy, it is difficult to see anything else. And when we are flooded with questions, "Why did this happen?" "Why did God allow this to happen?" "Why would a loving God do this to me and my family?" it is difficult to know what to pray. And as David shared, "When those questions remain unanswered, we often believe God is judging us. Or, we take the position of Job's friends and believe God is judging them for their sin. The way we think about calamity directly affects the way we represent God to the world." And so, with his book Has Heaven Invaded Earth?, David answers the ultimate question, "Is God judging the world today?"
GOD'S FACE
In figuring out who God is, David argues that we need to first figure out how we view God. "The most important thing you will ever have to address in your life is what is God really like to you. The key to this is to understand why Jesus came. He came to put a 'face' on God. He came to talk about favor, to present The Father in such a way that we could fully embrace and fully love. Isaiah 61 was Jesus' manifesto - His reason for being was to preach, open blind eyes, set captives free, etc. He came to play the flute so that we would no longer grieve and mourn, but would rejoice and dance. The gospel is about what God is really like." So, in order to recognize God and how He works in our life, we need to know the Scriptures.
CULTURE OF GRACE
According to David, Jesus came to bring a culture of grace to the people of God. "Jesus came as an Apostle of grace. He didn't come to conquer, but conquer He did. He brought with Him the culture of the Kingdom, which is held together by grace. This culture of grace has core values. One is called honor...Honor is the gateway to the Kingdom reward and Kingdom inheritance. The people of Jesus' hometown lost both reward and inheritance in their flagrant dishonor of the One who came to heal them. Another value is covenant...The only way out of the covenant was the death of one party...Jesus, because He had no sin, satisfied the justice the law required where no one else could. Jesus created justice with the cross."
Now, God the Father could have easily broken the covenant, but as David pointed out, "He would be like a judge on the take; a corrupt judge who makes deals when He feels like it." Jesus, on the other hand, is different. "When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery, the Pharisees were not wrong in challenging Jesus about stoning her. The law demanded it. And though He was about to transition His people from law to grace, He does something amazing. He doesn't say don't stone her. Instead, He begins to introduce grace on the scene.
Since Jesus, we live in, what David calls, Graceland (and no, he is not referring to the "memorial to the bygone musical star, Elvis"). In this Graceland, we are all given grace and mercy in place of judgment. And for those confused about the difference between the two, David explained, "the difference between mercy and grace is this - mercy withholds from us what we deserve. Grace gives us what we do not deserve." And this is the God we serve - a God of grace and mercy, not one that finds satisfaction in judging or punishing us.
IDENTITY
Everything we do and believe is slanted by our own perception. So, when it comes to God, David shared that, "if we think correctly about God, we will think correctly about ourselves and each other..." In Matthew 16:13-18, Jesus asked two questions that we all should consider. "The first was 'who do men say that I am?' The second question was aimed at His twelve; 'OK...now who do you say that I am?' The answer to that question became and still is today the greatest question any human being can address...If I were to ask you again, 'who you are,' your answer should be something like: 'I am a son/daughter of God. He has given e all that I need to live Godly all the days of my life. I am not a sinner...I am a saint.' When you do that you may be calling that which is not as though it is, and in doing that you give yourself time to chew the cud over and over until it is digested and becomes a part of who you are."
A MATTER OF JUSTICE
According to David, "Biblical justice has a different standard. Isaiah 61 says Jesus came to 'free the captive.' Once a person is truly converted, biblical justice is no longer aimed at the person who did something wrong, but it is now aimed at the thing behind that foolish act that caused him to mess up...Once the blood of Jesus washed you, you can't get any cleaner." What's more, David commented that, "God is not honored when I live under the burden of things I did wrong yesterday or last year." For example, he shared, "...more than 50 million babies have been aborted since Roe vs. Wade. No one knows for sure, but there are probably 30 to 40 million moms who are still alive that carry the anguish of that act. Many have come to Him and repented. And when that happens He is delighted. He surely says to the recording angel something like, 'Look she did it. She turned to me...she's come to me in brokenness...that's my girl...she is amazing. Write that down!' When that mom crosses over, I believe the Father will have the son and daughter who was aborted waiting for that mom or dad to escort them into glory. He's that kind of Father."
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
"When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
For David, 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 answers the ultimate question, "Is God judging the world today?" "What is directly implied here is that if God sees fit, He will send judgments upon His people, and when that happens, the prescription for this judgment is in verse 14." And as for our relationship with God, David referenced 1 John 4:16-19.
"And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us."
And to David, this means that, "If we choose to have a relationship with God by having a relationship with His rules, we have placed ourselves 'under' the law. We are subject to punishment when we fail. On the other hand, those who choose to have a relationship with God based upon the 'love of God in Christ Jesus' are subject to grace when they stumble." Here, David also shared that God keeps his word. "The oft quoted saying, 'If God does not judge America for her sins of ____ (you fill in the blank), then He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology,' becomes an illegal demand upon the mercy of God." In fact, he suggested that it would be an affront to His promises.
In the end, David shared these words: "God is good...always. God is love...always - not in between bad days or fits of rage. And God is for you...always. The Lord says, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). It is not negotiable...There is none like Him."