Encouragement

Every single one of us is rich.  We are filthy stinking rich.  We are loaded.  And we don't know it...

But here's the deal.  Our currency is not something we can spend on ourselves.  If we try to keep it, we lose it.  It goes bad.  It's gone.  The only way to make this currency count is to give it away. 

We want it badly and try to get it from other people.  But we are stingy with it ourselves.  The only way to lose this game is not to play. 

What in the world am I talking about?  I am talking about our words.  We all have the ability to speak into the life of someone else.  The times when you are feeling best is when you feel affirmed by those who matter most to you.  We long for this affirmation, but we are so slow to give it. 

I picture myself like a liberated Scrooge, walking about giving away all I own for the joy of others.  Even if I am dirt poor, I can give my words.  I can encourage.  I can spread a bit of joy and happiness that might not have otherwise been.  I gain nothing by sitting in silence.  There is not a quota or a limit on how much I am allowed to love another.

I am a sinner.  I know that I am not perfect.  I know that I need help and saving and to be changed.  Precisely because of this, I feel unlovable sometimes.  God, can you still love me?  I have done this thing a thousand times?  Are you really taking me back again?

It is sometimes very hard to believe God's love for me when I am in a pit of despair.  We don't generally hear God audibly - at least I never have - and those times when I am in a pit are often the times I least feel like listening to Scripture.  The time when I most need to hear his voice of forgiveness and love are those times when I am least equipped to hear it.

I am not God and cannot speak for him.  Amen?  Amen.  And yet while I may not be able to convince someone else that God still loves them, I can do my best to love them myself.  To convince them of my love.  To help them see that they are indeed loved and appreciated and accepted.  God may get to their hearts through the love that I can give to them.  I do not speak as God, yet God may still speak through me.

To some this may sound vague and wishy-washy and light on adherence to truth.  No.  God loves those whom he disciplines.  Tough love is love, and "love" without tough love is not.  But in the midst of words of correction or disapproval, there ought to be a strong undercurrent, a strong context of, "You are my friend and I am with you and we are going to get through this." 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  How difficult it is to believe this, to believe in grace.  God saves us, not because we're awesome, but because he loves us and is up to something with us.  Having saved us, he will keep us.  I know, at least, that I need to be encouraged by my brothers and sisters with this truth.  Let's give it liberally to each other.

If there is an imbalance in our world, it is most often toward criticism.  And I don't mean to tip the balance toward vacuous and empty comments.  But I do mean that you have the ability to show someone with your life and words that it is indeed a good thing that they exist.  That they have a friend.  When they know that you will not give up on them, they may be more likely to believe that God won't either.  When they feel that you like them, they will be more inclined to think that God does, too.

Let us love each other to the praise of the glory of Jesus, who brought truth and love and shed his blood to secure our salvation.

Repentance

Our class has been in a study of Hosea over the last few weeks. God, in His love, sent messengers (prophets) to the Israelites to warn them of their apostasy and to seek their return to Him (the one true God). This return involved more than just a mental assent to their waywardness from God and asking for His forgiveness.

Repenting is a “change of mind” (a change of direction). As sinners, we are pointed away from God in our thoughts, our actions, and our deeds……. we are slaves to sin. In Hebrew, the “mind” has a number of translations that include our heart, our soul, our spirit, our imagination, and our mouth (speech). So a “change of mind” is radical and complete. The “mind” is who you are and God wants all of us! Have you surrendered? Is God the most important fact of your existence? Does God’s saving grace consume you?

In John 8, Jesus was in the Temple area and announced He was the “Light” of the world and those that follow him will not “walk in darkness”. The religious lost (Pharisees) called him a liar and a dialogue of His “testimony” ensued with Jesus claiming its validity by the Father and Himself. He told them that He was “not of this world” and that they would die “in your sins” unless you believe in Him. And the scripture says in 8:30, “many believed in Him”.

Is believing “repentance”? Jesus followed with a statement to the “believers” in 8:31 “ If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” To “abide” means to accept, to act in accordance, and to continue without fading. Does that characterize our salvation (deliverance)? God is the author and perfecter of our faith. Are we a new creation? Does the world sense and know that the things of this world do not hold our affections?

Jesus dealt with at least 3 different groups that day (and probably every day) in the Temple; the religious lost (Pharisees), believers that would not abide (not changed), and believers that would abide (and become disciples of the Truth). Are you in one of these groups? Jesus has gone to “prepare a place” for His disciples and He will come again to receive them.

The demons “believe” and shudder (James 2:19). Have you given God more than the fruit of your lips? Do you desire to abide with Him today? He desires to dwell with you today! Will you accept the most important “invitation” of your life or will you stumble in darkness separated from the eternal God!

God's Creation (A Post from Wayne)

At a recent Life Action Summit at our church, one of the sermons included a description of the immensity of the heavens (Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God…”). As an example, light travels at 186,000 miles per second! In the snap of your fingers, light could travel around the earth seven times. Light could travel between the earth and the moon in a little over a second.

If you peer into the heavens at night and look at the stars, the nearest star is 4.3 light years away (how far light will travel per year at 186,000 miles per second). The nearest galaxy to ours is (Andromeda) 2.5 million light years away! By the Hubble telescope, the furthest galaxy known to man is 13 billion light years from earth!  

It is estimated that the Milky Way alone contains 150 – 200 billion stars (Psalm 147:4 “He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names.”).

The sun is 333,000 times the size of the earth. A star (Eta Carinae) in our galaxy is 120 times the size of the sun. Astronomers have found beyond our galaxy an object somewhere between 40 – 200 billion times the sun!

Isaiah 40:12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span.” Of the definitions of a “span”, one is the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger (9 inches approximately).

Our God has measured out the heavens in nine-inch increments and named all the stars! Wow! And He calls us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). He stepped off His throne and took on flesh to reconcile those that would trust in Him.

Our, beyond our comprehension, powerful God cares for the helpless……… the widow, the orphan, the alien, the child. Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of sensitivity to the parents and adults bringing the children to Jesus to be touched by Him (Mark 10:13-16). “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

God used the prophet Hosea to witness to the Israelites of their sin (transgressing the Law) and particularly their abuses to the poor and downcast in society.

God has named the stars to the furthest reaches of the heavens and He is also concerned about you and me! How can we not be humbled! How can we not place Him in the rightful place on the throne of our hearts! How can we not be consumed with His Word and His presence! How can we not fully trust Him with our lives! How can we not rejoice in our deliverance (salvation)!

God (Father, Son, and Spirit) is worthy of our praise!

Putting it Together - Passion 2013

It will probably take me a little while to process all that was Passion 2013.  It was a four day experience crammed with so much... My mom, who does read my blog, has warned me that I have gone against my promise to keep blog entries short.  So I hereby resolve to fix that, at least for now.

What did I learn?

First, I must start with the issue of justice and slavery.  There are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history.  We do not want to be the generation that lets this slide.  We want to be able to tell our grandchildren that we fought for the things worth fighting for. 

Fighting slavery is a no-brainer.  Jesus teaches us to do to others what we want done to us.  If I was a slave, I would definitely want someone to come help me find freedom. 

How can the world believe that God exists if there are 27 million slaves?  Does God care?  Yes, he does care.  And his people is the means he has chosen to use.  He saved us, not so that we could sit fat, happy, rich and religious, but so that we might do good. 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  (Micah 6:8)

Second, I was reminded of the trustworthiness of God's Word.  We can lean on it.  Because it is God who has spoken we can trust it as true.  As his people, we should tune our ears to listen to him, and we should base our life on his Word.  He has guaranteed these promises with his blood.  I want to build my house on the Rock.

Third, I was encouraged to pursue justice uniquely in the freedom that comes from trusting God's promises.  What holds me back from fully loving others?  It is fear and selfishness.  It is fear that I will die or that I will lose my comfortable future or that my life will be ruined in some unspeakable way.

But God's Word, which is trustworthy, tells me of a future and reward to look forward to.  I am going to be in heaven with Jesus, and I will be given a new resurrected body like his, and I will worship in ways higher and better than I ever have, and the God who created the worlds will lead me into new mysteries, and there will be things to do and people to rejoice with.  There will be no more tears, sorrow, pain, boredom, or death.  And at the center of it all will be the lion-like lamb who purchased it all with his blood because he is worthy.  These are promises I can bank on.  These are the promises that free me.

When I really believe these promises, the puny things I live for and trust in pale in comparison.  This is faith!  I begin to count fellowship with Christ as worth far more than any other imagined gain.  Trusting in the promises of God by the power of the Spirit is what sanctifies and frees me from sin.  And as I experience freedom from sin and doubt and despair, I become more available and usable in the pursuit of justice and the world-wide sharing of the Gospel.  My community group leaders said that the most powerful version of someone is that person fully convinced that God loves them.

Fourth, I do not simply want to do good things.  And I don't simply want to know the Bible better.  And I don't simply want to aim at believing the Bible.  All of these are essential and good.  But God is at the center of things.  How can I really experience Christ in my life?  How can I experience his presence?  How can I find my prayer life invigorated and real? 

Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  

It is in the context of going and making disciples that Jesus promises his presence.  If we do not feel close to God, we are probably not trying very hard to make disciples.  Making disciples places us outside of our comfort zone so that we must depend on God to show up.  And that is good.

Finally, this is not to be done alone.  Community is at the heart of reality because God is a community.  God is three-in-one, both unity and diversity, neither overtaking the other.  What mystery!  The purpose of reality as we know it is to make God known in his goodness and glory.  We were created to glorify God.  He has made us his image bearers, so that we, in a unique way, show forth God's glory to creation.  If God is a community and we are made in his image, community is at the heart of our very purpose and identity - to make his glory known in a Triune and communal way. 

Practically, I have found that community also happens best when we have something to do, something to get us going.  I am close to people that I have experienced things with.  I am close to people I would not have anticipated being friends with simply because we have worked to accomplish something together.  Mission creates authentic community.  Community as a means of encouragement helps us in the mission.  For Christians this makes sense, because we find in the other person the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, so we have a unique power to encourage each other if we will allow it.  Especially as we allow the trustworthy promises of God to be what is resting on our hearts and leaving our tongues. 

Set free by the blood of Christ, we are a community who has been sent on mission, resting together on God's promises and the reward to come, to proclaim with our lives the Good News of God's Kingdom in all that it means, which includes freedom for those who have been enslaved - both physically and spiritually.  Let us live worthy of the Gospel.

Most of those thoughts came from Passion, some from connections in my own head, but I hope you are challenged and edified.