God's Masterpiece

Here is the 3rd of 3...hope this trio of blogs has caused some reflection on your walk with Christ...Give me a shout if you have a thought.  Thanks.

GOD’s Masterpiece – Ephesians 2:8-10

As I’m writing this I’m enjoying some vacation time with my family on Jekyll Island in southern Georgia.  The first evening we were here we ate dinner out on the wharf and after dinner we walked along the intercoastal waterway and got to see the sun set down below the horizon.  I have seen sunsets before, but as I watched this beautiful thing I was reminded that God designed life to be enjoyed. 

It has become epidemic in western society that life is meant to be lived at a blistering pace.  Earning a living, saving a little, paying the bills and hopefully one day we will have saved enough and we can retire and enjoy the rest of our lives in peaceful living.  But if God had intended us to not really enjoy life till the last third of life then why did he create sunsets?  Why did he create children’s smiles to be so intoxicating?  Why did he give us 4 seasons, or 3.5 in Northeast GA?  Why did God create color?  I could go on and on.

God most definitely desires for us to enjoy life.  Yes we should work hard, we can find that clearly stated in the Bible.  But he also desires for us to LOVE LIFE!!  I think this is why the “Life is Good” shirt company resonates so strongly with me.  God desires us to have the attitude that life is good as much as possible.  Yes there will be seasons of pain and strife.  Yes, there will be times of sadness and mourning.  Yes, there will be trouble because we are children and followers of God (Jesus promises that in John 16:33).  However, multiple times and in many ways Jesus also tells us that he came to give us life.  Not just hum-drum, trudge through the mud of life; but life so filled with promise, hope, and joy that we can’t help but say LIFE IS GOOD!!! 

I am so uplifted when I meet people who actually do have this attitude because it reminds me that I have a purpose and a calling on my life that demands I have a Joyful outlook.  My God who has saved me from eternal death has a purpose for my life here on earth before I spend eternity with him.  It is because of that very purpose that God allows me to wake up every morning with air in my lungs.  How can I not have joy in my heart?!?!  I am a fully devoted follower and LIFE IS GOOD!!!!  If you haven’t seen a sunset lately you should try it, maybe it’ll give you some perspective that God loves you enough to let you see this amazing beauty created by God for you and me, his true Masterpieces. 

The Body/Family of Christ

Here is the 2nd of 3; wrote this a month or so ago. Hope it spurs some thought and action.  Dig in to the work of God!!

Ephesians 4:16 – “From [Jesus] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

          We as followers of Christ are called to grow in many ways.  To grow in the strength of our faith, to grow in the firmness of our Biblically based convictions, to grow in our personal relationship with Jesus, to grow in our love for the world in need around us, and there are many more.  The point is that we are called to become stronger, more mature, fully-devoted followers of Christ.

          This verse from Ephesians shows us that not only are we called to become more mature in our relationship with Jesus, but we are just as strongly called to become more integral parts of the Body of Christ.  We are called to be plugged in, devoted, active members of the local church. 

          In doing this we will see two natural by-products: growth in our Christian walk and even more so growth in our involvement in the growth of others.  As Christians, as active parts of the body of Christ and the local church we are commanded to encourage one another, to comfort one another, to care for one another, to hold one another accountable to our faith; simply put to be a strong family.  Family members know what is going on in the lives of other family members and take a role in the development of maturity and growth.  If we are members of the body of Christ we are to be intimately involved in the growth of the body.

         If you aren't part of and involved in a local Bible-believeing church, do so soon and join into the work and movement of God!!!  

Fan or Follwer

Okay, so once again I've been absent from the blogging world for a while, but I'm about to drop 3 back-to-back-to-backers, so enjoy the reading and feel free to comment away. I wrote this first a couple of months ago and just never got it up.  Enjoy!!

I’ve been working my way through the Book of Job recently and I came across a few verses that struck me.  Chapter 9:25-35:

²⁵ "My days go by faster than a runner; they fly away without my seeing any joy.
 ²⁶ They glide past like paper boats. They attack like eagles swooping down to feed.
 ²⁷ Even though I say, 'I will forget my complaint; I will change the look on my face and smile,'
 ²⁸ I still dread all my suffering. I know you will hold me guilty.
 ²⁹ I have already been found guilty, so why should I struggle for no reason?
 ³⁰ I might wash myself with soap and scrub my hands with strong soap,
 ³¹ but you would push me into a dirty pit, and even my clothes would hate me.

 ³² "God is not human like me, so I cannot answer him. We cannot meet each other in court.
 ³³ I wish there were someone to make peace between us, someone to decide our case.
 ³⁴ Maybe he could remove God's punishment so his terror would no longer frighten me.
 ³⁵ Then I could speak without being afraid, but I am not able to do that.

As I read through this I was absolutely floored at Job’s frustration and understanding of his condition as human.  He knew that no matter how upright and righteous he was (see Job 1:1), his state as a human was still flawed in comparison to that of the Holy and Powerful God.  And Job has no idea of the day down the road that Christ will die on a cross then rise from the grave and take away the sins of the world and bridge the gap from man to God so that there can be a relationship there.  Even though he had zero knowledge of that glorious day of victory to come; he knew that without having someone to serve as the bridge between man and God there is no way to reconcile our guilt.  There is no way to save us from the wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked beings that we are (Revelation 3:17), without Christ. 

          We are so blessed to have this knowledge and have it at our fingertips in the Holy Bible.  Job had to come to this knowledge through life experience and he came to it through horrible tragedy.  We have simply been given this knowledge.  All we have to do is respond to the loving gift of Grace offered by God who desperately desires to see all enter into his grace. 

          Despite the knowledge of his flawed human condition, Job knew he had been called to be committed to following God no matter what it meant for his life instead of being someone who sits in the bleachers on the sidelines thinking they are fine because they said a prayer once or got baptized or were confirmed. 

I am “Not a Fan”.  “I am a follower” and I will get in the game and be a valuable member of the Body of Christ.   

IMAGinE thIS...

I’ve always wrestled with the idea of image.  I think one of the reasons I struggled and wrestled with it over the course of my life is because I grew up as a preacher’s kid or “PK” for short.  As a preacher’s kid, in general, there is one of 2 ways you can go.  You can either be the “clean behind the ears”, Christ-following “example of how a kid should act” or you can be the rebellious heathen that some PKs sadly turn out to be.  Unfortunately, it is the latter of the two that the public focuses on the most and the rest of us have to deal with the negative image.  The image that says, preacher’s kids are all rebels and don’t want anything to do with their daddy’s religion.          

My parents raised me to know the difference between right and wrong, to love everyone, and to be the best example of Christ I could be to those around me based on what the Bible taught me.  So, I chose the narrow road: partly out of a desire to live as a Christ-follower, partly out of a desire to please, partly out of a fear of what punishment I would face if I strayed (even though my parents were usually quite forgiving), and partly out of a knowledge that bad behavior would reflect poorly on me, on my parents, and on my father’s ministry.

The reason I tell you about that little piece of personal history is to tell you this.  My struggle with how to live my life as a kid was largely based on PUBLIC image.  How would it look if I was a rebel and strayed from the church?  How would that look for my parents and especially my father, a preacher?  These are questions that dominated my decision-making process.  For most people, public image plays a big role in the vast majority of our everyday decisions and unfortunately the biggest and most important decisions we can make are bathed in and affected by public image.  I use the word “unfortunately” because public image should not be a primary factor in determining who we are and what we do, but it is.  

            Try to fill in the blank: “Image is _______”.  You probably guessed it; the answer is “everything”.  This is what our society says; therefore, this is the big factor for most people when making decisions; in fact, often it is the only factor.  What if I told you I agree with that statement......just go with me for a second......let’s say, image IS everything; what if we all decided to live our lives in the image of Christ?  What if we agreed with that statement saying that the only image that matters is what Jesus says is important; therefore, we will live according to HIS standards?    

      

Imagine this: What if we all lived according to the image God desires for us?  Imagine what changes we could make in our lives and the changes that would happen around us.  Imagine who you could affect for Christ; imagine who would take notice of the change in you.  What would they say?  What would they think?  How would that change the way they see you and act around you? IMAGINE.........

In AWE of an eternal GOD...

" 'Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,' declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty."  -Jeremiah 2:19-

Translation: Evil begins when there is no fear of God.

As I have been reading through scripture over the last couple years, one reoccuring theme is the awe that we should have of the Lord.  And this isn't just the "ooooooo, ahhhhhhhh" kind of awe either.  This is the, "God is so mighty and powerful that simply the thought of his unlimited power causes such, fear/respect/reverance/amazement/terror/ in me that I lose control of my bodily functions," kind of awe.  Have you ever been in that kind of awe of God?  Read through the Bible, especially the Old Testament and see the reactions that people had when they were in the presence of God or even His heavenly messenger (which I'm convinced many times was Christ himself).  Often times it was pure terror that overtook people when in God's presence.

Jesus said in Luke 12:4-5: "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.  Yes, I tell you, fear him."

The beauty of what is happening hear is that Jesus goes on in the following verses to talk about how this same one we should fear (the Lord Almighty) Loves us more than we could ever fathom and cares for us better than we could ever care or provide for ourselves. 

Basically, once we come to a point of truly fearing/being in awe of God, we have nothing else to fear.  Because, "if God is for us who can be against us" (Romans 8:31) and (Romans 8:35-39) "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Here's what I'm driving at: this world is constantly trying to please us with stuff.  It is constantly coming up with this new thing or that new thing, trying to give us satisfaction.  Trying to fill that "hole" inside of us.  We are seeking that peg to put into the peg-hole.  The problem is that nothing of this earth can ever satisfy us?  Why?  Because we are made in the likeness of God and God is an eternal being!! So, therefore, despite these finite and limited bodies that we are currently living this life in, our souls are made to be eternal, like God.  And so that hole that all humans are seeking to fill, in whatever way they are trying to do so, can only be filled by something or rather someone of eternal value.  We long for something more; something more than this temporal earth can give us.  We are made for eternity with God and only an eternal realtionship with him can fulfill that deep longing inside us.  That is why hell will be so painful and tormenting for anyone who spends eternity there because all those souls were fashioned and designed by God to exist in His presence for eternity, not separated from Him for eternity.  But because they do not fear Him in this life they cannot know Him, cannot have relationship with Him, and cannot spend eternity with Him.

All this is why it is supremely important for us to always be in AWE of God,because once we come to that place of awe, then we can begin to meet with God, know God, have a relationship with him, and know that there is nothing else that is worth our fear.  Fear of God brings us to a place where we are primed and ready for a relationship with Him.  We can then begin to fill that eternal longing that nothing in this world can satisfy.  That eternal longing for an eternal God and Savior. 

Are you in AWE of GOD?

Our Unbelieveable Blindness

This morning I was reading from the book of Judges about this guy named Samson.  His life and stories of amazing strength are well known to many people, even some people who have never even picked up a Bible. 

There was one particular thing that struck me this morning that I've noticed before, but honestly shrugged it off as a testament to the borderline stupidty and certainly overblown ego of Samson himself.  In chapter 16 we find Samson in the middle of his affair with Delilah and she is bribed a rediculous amount of money to discover the secret to Samson's strength. 

3 separate times he gives her a lie about the secret and each time she sets him up to be captured by the Philistines (Samson's enemy).  Each time he lies to her, he gets a little closer to the truth and each time he somehow allows himself to falls asleep after telling her how to "subdue him".  Finally, after much nagging and prodding and guilt tripping by Delilah, Samson gives in and tells the truth about his strength.  As if she won't try and subdue him again and allow him to be captured.  But Once again after this fourth attempt by Delilah to extract the secret, during which Samson finally tells her the truth, Samson then proceeds to take another nap at her house.  And you can probably guess the rest of the story; Samson loses his strength by allowing Delilah to know the secret, which is cutting his hair off, he is captured by the Philistines, his eyes are gouged out and he is put to slavery in the Philistine's capitol city of Gaza.

Samson eventually pleads for forgiveness from God and gets revenge on the Philistines, but the thing that really struck me today is how we are far too often just like Samson.  We test God's grace and temptation by walking too close to the line of sin or even tightrope walking the line of sin and we tell ourself, "it's not that big of a deal, God and I are tight, he'll save me from anything, no matter what I do."  The problem is this; even though we are offered grace by a loving God from all of our sins, God doesn't necessarily keep us from falling into sin, especially when we are the ones putting ourselves in postions to fall.  Samson had to have known somewhere in his thick skull what Delilah was doing, but I think he was just too full of himself and his glorious strength (fyi: which was given by God) to see that he was not invincible and God does have limits and breaking points.  We see those breaking points throughout the Bible, especially the old testament.

Samson was so full of himself that in Chapter 16 verse 20, after telling Delilah his secret and taking a nap on her lap of all places then hearing her cry that the Philistines we upon him, "[Samson] awoke from his sleep and thought, 'I'll go out as before and shake myself free.'  But he did not know that the LORD had left him."  

We all have things that we just keep doing and doing and doing.  We know these things are sinful, but we keep walking that line thinking we are invincinble and untouchable because we are saved and protected by God.  But God does not promise that he will always keep us from harm, especially when it is of our own doing.  We have got to check ourselves and set up guardrails that keep us far away from those sins that we are so fond of testing.  For Samson it was lust, women, and relying on himself instead of God.  For you it may be something different, but whatever it is you need to flee from the things that tempt you.  Don't even get near them.  Cut them out of your life completely. 

Don't be like Samson and try to prove that because of your great strength or determination, or whatever that you can walk the line of temptation and not come out blind and a slave to your sin; rather, make every effort to be holy and pleasing to God, make your life an offering to him by giving up your desires of the human and sinful nature and take up the desires of the God who wants to save you from the bondage and slavery of sin. 

"The end of myself"

Don't let the title fool you, this blog is not morbid, sad, or hopeless.  I am currently reading a book called "Radical", and so far it's pretty good.  But the chapter I read today really struck me.  It's talking about how the "American Dream" is actually a very selfish notion.  Here's the quote from the guy who coined the phrase "American Dream", his name is James Truslow Adams in 1931, "a dream...in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are."

Now this sounds all nice and good on the surface, because it's all about working hard at what your good at and doing so well through hard work that you end up reaching your maximum potential, then in the end other people notice and praise you for what you've done.  Once again this is all well and good, but there's one major flaw here and this flaw is really bigger then you might think.  The American Dream is all about 'self'.  There is nothing there about glorifying the Father.  It's all about me and what I did for myself.  Don't worry about the fact that my gifts, talents, and abilities were all given me by the creator of the universe and he gave me those gifts to be a good steward of them for the advancement of the gospel and not for my glory, but for His. 

If we buy into the American Dream, then we are buying into the idea that my life is about me and everything I do is about me and for me and for my glory.  We Christians have bought into this idea far too deeply and I pray that we will dig out of this hole through the grace of God.  That we will see that all we have, our abilities, resources, time, careers, family, etc; it is all for His glory and we are simply here on this earth to point to Him.  Read through the scriptures, the people that 'got it' were constantly pointing to God in everything they did and not the literal pointing that we see sports stars do (most of whom I'm pretty sure do that for attention anyway), but the pointing to God through their words and deeds.  Their lives pointed to the one who gave them all they had. 

The goal of the "American Dream" is to make much of [me], the goal of the gospel [of Jesus Christ] is to make much of God. (Radical, pg47)