I have made many wrong choices in life. What baffles me about many of those choices, is that at the time I thought I was making the right choice. Often I was trusting my own judgement. Others would try to advise me, but I would do what I wanted. Many times we make choices according to our feelings. This is very dangerous because we can't trust our feelings alone. Many of my wrong choices in life were based on feelings. It felt "right", it seemed "right", etc...
The Bible says," There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
Proverbs 14:12
Many of the wrong choices we have made seemed right at the time, but in the end had negative results. When I reflect on the wrong choices I had made in life before I became a follower of Jesus, even then, though it felt right, something way deep down inside of me knew it wasn't the right choice to make, but I went ahead and did what I wanted based on feeling.
Even though I still continue to make wrong choices in life and am far from perfect, I would like to share with you a few things that have helped me from making choices based on what just seemed right and just trusting my own judgement. As a follower of Jesus I have the Bible. Even though the Bible seems to be grey in some areas, in other areas it is pretty black and white between what is right and what is wrong.
I have to remember that when I follow God's way, HE IS NOT TRYING TO RUIN MY LIFE OR TAKE ALL THE FUN OUT OF LIFE, HE WANTS WHAT IS BEST FOR ME!!!
A child may cry because they want more candy or cookies, but a parent knows that just giving the child what they want is not in the child's best interest. Many people think God is too restrictive, but when we look back on our lives we will see that His commands are there for us to have the life that we have longed for deep down inside. Remember that we are told that as followers of Jesus we will experience an abundant life.
As followers of Jesus we have the Holy Spirit. He will guide us into all truth. Let me say that He will guide, but He will not force. When we are about to make a choice that is not right, The Holy Spirit will let us know, but we have to be willing to listen to that "still small voice".
We have the patience of God. When we make a wrong choice He doesn't just strike us down. I am so thankful for the patience and grace of God. The Church in Thyatira had someone who was involved in some things that they shouldn't have been and Jesus said in the Book of Revelation:
I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.
Revelation 3:21
I am so thankful for all the times in my life in which God gave me time to repent of wrong actions. Sadly just like the woman mentioned in the Church in Thyatira God gave me time to repent but I did not want to repent of my immorality. I am sure we can all relate to that at some point in our life.
The last thing that I would like to mention in this post is that when we make a wrong choice, which is often based on our own judgement andled by our feelings, and we haven't responded to what we know deep down inside, or the prompting of the Holy Spirit, God will then "out of love" begin to discipline us.
This is where many people get upset with God. A God made in our image is no god at all. The God made in our image will let us do whatever we want. But that is not the God of the Bible. He loves us too much to just let us do whatever we want without attempting to try to lead us back on the right path. Just as a good parent will give their children opportunity to change their wrong action before they discipline, so does God. His discipline is actually Him showing His love for us and that we belong to Him. To allow our child to do things that aren't right without disciplining them only shows a lack of love on our part. The reason you don't discipline other children is because they don't belong to you.
We belong to God and He will do all He can to keep us on the right path, including discipline. Everyone who is a follower of Jesus has experienced His discipline because none of us are perfect.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin ; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM. 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline that you endure ; God deals with you as with sons ; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline ? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live ? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful ; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Hebrews 12:4-11
As I mentioned earlier I have made many wrong choices in my life. Many of those choices were based on feelings. Since I have been a follower of Jesus I have made wrong choices, hopefully I am not making as many and I am not being led by just my feelings to make a decision. But I am not perfect and so when I make a wrong choice God attempts to get my attention through His Word. He has the Holy Spirit try to get my attention. Through the whole process He is full of mercy, grace and patience. If I don't respond to His promptings He will discipline me.
As we go through life let us continue to follow Jesus. Let us trust His way and not our own judgement when it comes to life's choices..His way is best. He knows what is best for our lives. Remember He loves us so much that He was willing to be crucified for us so that we wouldn't be stuck in our sin. He is full of love and He is faithful.
Thank you Lord for Your grace over our lives. Thank you for loving us with an everlasting love. Help us to follow Your ways. Help us to respond to Your leadings.
Amen.
Troy
A place where you can find encouragement as you go through life. A place where you can connect and grow in your relationship with God. A place where you can grow spiritually while still being human.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
When It Feels Like God Doesn't Hear Our Prayers
Sometimes there are "seasons" where it feels like God doesn't hear our prayers. We may begin to feel God doesn't care. We may not understand what is going on. We may feel like we are in the dark. We may begin to lose hope.
Jeremiah had prayed and prayed for his nation. It seemed to him that God wasn't hearing his prayers. The things he didn't want to happen to his people had come to pass. In the book of Lamentations Jeremiah wrote," He has made me to dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape;he has weighed me down with chains.Even when I ...call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer"(Lamentations 3:6-8).
For those who are going through a difficult season, or maybe it has been going on longer than that. Let us remember the words that the writer of Lamentations wrote a few verses later, and with whatever hope is left cling to his words. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail" (Lamentations 3:21,22).
Troy
Jeremiah had prayed and prayed for his nation. It seemed to him that God wasn't hearing his prayers. The things he didn't want to happen to his people had come to pass. In the book of Lamentations Jeremiah wrote," He has made me to dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape;he has weighed me down with chains.Even when I ...call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer"(Lamentations 3:6-8).
For those who are going through a difficult season, or maybe it has been going on longer than that. Let us remember the words that the writer of Lamentations wrote a few verses later, and with whatever hope is left cling to his words. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail" (Lamentations 3:21,22).
Troy
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Musings from John 15:7-11
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7
Jesus is teaching us that as we abide in Him, God will be able to lay on our hearts what is on His heart. What is His heart's desire becomes our heart's desire. Then as we ask, He tells us it will be answered. Let us abide in Him.
Here is the musing from John 15:8:
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Jesus is teaching us that God the Father is glorified as we bear much fruit. As our actions and lives become more Christ like not only is God the Father glorified, but we also are showing that we are Jesus' disciples. We are apprentices of Jesus so let's bear much fruit and glorify God the Father.
Here is the musing from John 15:9:
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
How much do you think God the Father loves Jesus? Jesus is teaching us that we are loved by Him the way God the Father loves Jesus. Pretty remarkable isn't it? Most of us have a hard time believing it. But Jesus said it, so believe it and walk in this truth. Let's learn how to abide in Jesus' love. Let's especially abide in it when we think we aren't worthy of His love.
Here is the musing from John 15:10:
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
In the previous verse Jesus spoke about abiding in His love. He now teaches us that if we keep His commandments we will abide in His love. His commandments are not meant to be burdensome, they help us to live life the way we were designed. When we follow Jesus' design for our lives we will not only sense His love, we will abide in His love. It is very difficult to sense the love of Jesus when we choose to live life the way we want instead of the way we were designed. Let's keep His commandments and abide in His love.
Here is the musing from John 15:11:
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Jesus' joy in us? Is it possible? According to Jesus, yes. Our joy made full? Again, according to Jesus, yes. Jesus said the things He had spoken would bring His joy to us and that our joy would be made full because of them. Let's go back over the words that Jesus had spoken up to John 15:11. Let's apply His words to our lives.
Jesus is teaching us that as we abide in Him, God will be able to lay on our hearts what is on His heart. What is His heart's desire becomes our heart's desire. Then as we ask, He tells us it will be answered. Let us abide in Him.
Here is the musing from John 15:8:
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Jesus is teaching us that God the Father is glorified as we bear much fruit. As our actions and lives become more Christ like not only is God the Father glorified, but we also are showing that we are Jesus' disciples. We are apprentices of Jesus so let's bear much fruit and glorify God the Father.
Here is the musing from John 15:9:
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
How much do you think God the Father loves Jesus? Jesus is teaching us that we are loved by Him the way God the Father loves Jesus. Pretty remarkable isn't it? Most of us have a hard time believing it. But Jesus said it, so believe it and walk in this truth. Let's learn how to abide in Jesus' love. Let's especially abide in it when we think we aren't worthy of His love.
Here is the musing from John 15:10:
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
In the previous verse Jesus spoke about abiding in His love. He now teaches us that if we keep His commandments we will abide in His love. His commandments are not meant to be burdensome, they help us to live life the way we were designed. When we follow Jesus' design for our lives we will not only sense His love, we will abide in His love. It is very difficult to sense the love of Jesus when we choose to live life the way we want instead of the way we were designed. Let's keep His commandments and abide in His love.
Here is the musing from John 15:11:
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Jesus' joy in us? Is it possible? According to Jesus, yes. Our joy made full? Again, according to Jesus, yes. Jesus said the things He had spoken would bring His joy to us and that our joy would be made full because of them. Let's go back over the words that Jesus had spoken up to John 15:11. Let's apply His words to our lives.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Lost Hope
I was reading Luke 24 this morning. It tells the story of the two followers of Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus. Jesus had been crucified and risen from the dead, but they didn't know that the resurrection had happened. Then something very interesting happens, Jesus begins to walk with them, but they don't know it is Jesus.
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Luke 24:13-16
They begin talking with Jesus. Jesus acts like He hasn't heard of anything that has happened, so they begin to tell Him.
And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking ?" And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days ?" And He said to them, "What things ?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
Luke 24:17-20
It is the next verse that spoke to my heart this morning:
"But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
What spoke to my heart was that these men had a hope. Their hope was that Jesus was going to redeem Israel. But because of the crucifixion of Jesus they had lost their hope. You can't blame them, the reality was as far as they knew, was that Jesus was dead.
Then they tell Jesus that they had heard that some women said that they had seen angels, and the angels said Jesus was alive, resurrected from the dead. Some had been to the tomb and saw it was empty, but Jesus they had not seen.
"But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said ; but Him they did not see."
Luke 24:22-24
What I saw out of this story was that we as followers of Jesus, all have a hope about Jesus doing something in our lives. We all have hope that He will work out some situation in our lives.
When things don't go as planned, we begin to lose our hope. As I mentioned earlier, we can't blame them, as far as they knew Jesus was dead. Often times in our situations the reality is that things have gone from bad to worse. So we begin to lose hope and don't think that Jesus is working in the situation.
Finally the interesting thing to me, is that Jesus was with them. He was right next to them in the midst of their sadness (vv.17). What they thought was reality was, and yet, there was a greater reality going on that they didn't know about, and that was that Jesus was alive. They also couldn't see how what the women had said was true because three days had passed. They may have thought that nobody is coming back from the dead after three days. Isn't that like our situations in life? We see a reality going on in our lives, but we aren't even thinking that there may be a greater reality going on at the same time. Also, we may think that there may be another reality going on, but that reality sounds impossible for us to believe.
How often in my life have I had a hope, but the because of situations (that were real) I thought that I should give up hope? How often have I thought that Jesus wasn't working in my life because of certain realities, and yet the whole time He was working? How often have I felt like Jesus wasn't with me, and yet just like the story of the two on the road to Emmaus, He was right next to me?
Eventually Jesus revealed Himself to the two:
And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken ! "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory ?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
Luke 24:25-32
Let us be encouraged today that Jesus is always with us. Though we may not always recognize His presence, He is right next to us.
Here are a couple of links of a song that is about God always being with us. The song is by Matt Redman.
The first one is the story behind the song. The second link is the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6M5iu3Ez8&feature=relmfu The story behind "Never Once"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=722zPX1npcA&feature=relmfu Video for "Never Once"
Troy
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Luke 24:13-16
They begin talking with Jesus. Jesus acts like He hasn't heard of anything that has happened, so they begin to tell Him.
And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking ?" And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days ?" And He said to them, "What things ?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
Luke 24:17-20
It is the next verse that spoke to my heart this morning:
"But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
What spoke to my heart was that these men had a hope. Their hope was that Jesus was going to redeem Israel. But because of the crucifixion of Jesus they had lost their hope. You can't blame them, the reality was as far as they knew, was that Jesus was dead.
Then they tell Jesus that they had heard that some women said that they had seen angels, and the angels said Jesus was alive, resurrected from the dead. Some had been to the tomb and saw it was empty, but Jesus they had not seen.
"But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said ; but Him they did not see."
Luke 24:22-24
What I saw out of this story was that we as followers of Jesus, all have a hope about Jesus doing something in our lives. We all have hope that He will work out some situation in our lives.
When things don't go as planned, we begin to lose our hope. As I mentioned earlier, we can't blame them, as far as they knew Jesus was dead. Often times in our situations the reality is that things have gone from bad to worse. So we begin to lose hope and don't think that Jesus is working in the situation.
Finally the interesting thing to me, is that Jesus was with them. He was right next to them in the midst of their sadness (vv.17). What they thought was reality was, and yet, there was a greater reality going on that they didn't know about, and that was that Jesus was alive. They also couldn't see how what the women had said was true because three days had passed. They may have thought that nobody is coming back from the dead after three days. Isn't that like our situations in life? We see a reality going on in our lives, but we aren't even thinking that there may be a greater reality going on at the same time. Also, we may think that there may be another reality going on, but that reality sounds impossible for us to believe.
How often in my life have I had a hope, but the because of situations (that were real) I thought that I should give up hope? How often have I thought that Jesus wasn't working in my life because of certain realities, and yet the whole time He was working? How often have I felt like Jesus wasn't with me, and yet just like the story of the two on the road to Emmaus, He was right next to me?
Eventually Jesus revealed Himself to the two:
And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken ! "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory ?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
Luke 24:25-32
Let us be encouraged today that Jesus is always with us. Though we may not always recognize His presence, He is right next to us.
Here are a couple of links of a song that is about God always being with us. The song is by Matt Redman.
The first one is the story behind the song. The second link is the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6M5iu3Ez8&feature=relmfu The story behind "Never Once"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=722zPX1npcA&feature=relmfu Video for "Never Once"
Troy
Monday, June 13, 2011
George Benson And The Problem Of Labeling
When I was in High School I would like to keep my albums in alphabetical order by genre. I would have three main genre's, rock or pop, r+b, and jazz. Anything that didn't fit those genre's then went into a fourth group, miscellaneous. This way of keeping order worked well until about 1981. In 1981 George Benson released his album "Give Me The Night". Up until this point George always went into my jazz section. He would always have a vocal number or two on each album, but the majority of the songs would be jazz instrumentals. With "Give Me The Night" it all changed. Here was an album with two instrumentals and except for "Moody's Mood" the rest of the tracks all had an r+b feel. George, for the most part has kept this trend up with all of his following releases. When it came time to label him, I couldn't. Was he jazz? Yes. Was he r+b? Yes. Where do I put him in my collection? From that point all I could do was put all the albums together, and just alphabetize from there, no more genre's. It was too difficult to label.
Being a musician myself, I found that people like to label. If I was playing in a Mexican band, people just generally thought that was the only style I knew how to play. They didn't know I could rip into a classic rock song or a funky r+b number at anytime. When I would play jazz, people had no idea I could do other genre's. They would just label me by whatever they saw me doing. I have seen the same thing with my other musician friends.
Why do we like to label people in life? Maybe we want life to be simplistic and not have to think too hard. I really don't know why we want to do it. I do know it is very hard to do. We humans are complex, and to try and label one is very dangerous and takes away the beauty of our complexities.
Think of David in the Bible, he is referred to as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Yet this same man would commit adultery with a woman, get her pregnant, and then order her husband to the front lines so that he would be killed in battle (2 Samuel 11). So was David a man after God's own heart or was he a murdering adulterer? Yes!!! That is the complexity of us humans. We have the capability of being both.
Maybe you and I will catch someone on a good day, maybe we will catch someone on a bad day. Maybe your waitress has a parent who is deathly ill the day she waits on your table and seems rude. Maybe she is having marital problems. On the flip side maybe you are having a tough time and the waitress needs to be reminded about this before she says to another waitress that you are rude.
Scot McKnight says the story of humans is about being both brilliant and bad. In his long sentence prose Brian Doyle reflects on the heart of all humans. Humans, he says, carry with them a heart filled with all kinds of pain.
I think about this all the time. I find myself staring at the shoulders of counselors and priests and doctors and mothers, to see what the weight looks like. I find myself thinking that most people sure are extraordinary. I find myself thinking, as I get older and less cocky and less sure and more merciful and more hip to the fact that everyone has scars on their hearts and will, and everyone carries their loads or will, and everyone carries their load alone or will, that maybe all people are extraordinary, whether or not I see that clear, and that my seeing it or not seeing it has nothing to do with the reality of grace under duress, which is pretty much the story of the human race. Love carries a lot of pain in its chest.
When I was younger I thought labeling my record collection was a tough task. I have since learned that there is a similarity in dealing with humans. We just can't be labeled. We are capable of both good and bad actions. To quote Scot McKnight again,"We find in humans around us a glory that astounds as well as a frailty that can shatter."
I never would have guessed that all those years ago as I was trying to label George Benson, I was being taught a lesson about life. A lesson about myself and other humans.
Troy
Works Cited
Doyle, B. The Wet Engine (Brewster, Mass: Paraclete,2005), 132
McKnight, S. Embracing Grace (Brewster,Mass: Paraclete,2005), 29,30
Being a musician myself, I found that people like to label. If I was playing in a Mexican band, people just generally thought that was the only style I knew how to play. They didn't know I could rip into a classic rock song or a funky r+b number at anytime. When I would play jazz, people had no idea I could do other genre's. They would just label me by whatever they saw me doing. I have seen the same thing with my other musician friends.
Why do we like to label people in life? Maybe we want life to be simplistic and not have to think too hard. I really don't know why we want to do it. I do know it is very hard to do. We humans are complex, and to try and label one is very dangerous and takes away the beauty of our complexities.
Think of David in the Bible, he is referred to as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Yet this same man would commit adultery with a woman, get her pregnant, and then order her husband to the front lines so that he would be killed in battle (2 Samuel 11). So was David a man after God's own heart or was he a murdering adulterer? Yes!!! That is the complexity of us humans. We have the capability of being both.
Maybe you and I will catch someone on a good day, maybe we will catch someone on a bad day. Maybe your waitress has a parent who is deathly ill the day she waits on your table and seems rude. Maybe she is having marital problems. On the flip side maybe you are having a tough time and the waitress needs to be reminded about this before she says to another waitress that you are rude.
Scot McKnight says the story of humans is about being both brilliant and bad. In his long sentence prose Brian Doyle reflects on the heart of all humans. Humans, he says, carry with them a heart filled with all kinds of pain.
I think about this all the time. I find myself staring at the shoulders of counselors and priests and doctors and mothers, to see what the weight looks like. I find myself thinking that most people sure are extraordinary. I find myself thinking, as I get older and less cocky and less sure and more merciful and more hip to the fact that everyone has scars on their hearts and will, and everyone carries their loads or will, and everyone carries their load alone or will, that maybe all people are extraordinary, whether or not I see that clear, and that my seeing it or not seeing it has nothing to do with the reality of grace under duress, which is pretty much the story of the human race. Love carries a lot of pain in its chest.
When I was younger I thought labeling my record collection was a tough task. I have since learned that there is a similarity in dealing with humans. We just can't be labeled. We are capable of both good and bad actions. To quote Scot McKnight again,"We find in humans around us a glory that astounds as well as a frailty that can shatter."
I never would have guessed that all those years ago as I was trying to label George Benson, I was being taught a lesson about life. A lesson about myself and other humans.
Troy
Works Cited
Doyle, B. The Wet Engine (Brewster, Mass: Paraclete,2005), 132
McKnight, S. Embracing Grace (Brewster,Mass: Paraclete,2005), 29,30
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Unexpected Events Part 3
In the last blog post we began to look at the prayer of king Jehoshaphat. In this post we will look at the remainder of that prayer. Her was the beginning of that prayer:
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.' 2nd Chronicles 20:5-9
Here is the remainder of that prayer:
10 "Now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy them), 11 see how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from Your possession which You have given us as an inheritance. 12 "O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You."
2nd Chronicles 20:10-12
In verses 10 and 11 Jehoshaphat is telling the LORD what the problem is. He is letting Him know the trouble that is going on. Did you notice how many verses it took before he got to the problem? This is a good example to follow, when you have time. If your car is sliding on the ice, all you have time for is a,"Jesus help me". But when we have more time it is good to spend time reminding yourself how great God is, the ways He has come through for you in the past. This will help you to focus on God instead of the problem. Those were all things discussed in the last blog post.
In verse 12 he mentions that they are powerless before the great multitude coming against them. Isn't that how we feel against some of the problems that we face? We feel powerless. Not only do we feel powerless, we know we are powerless against those problems unless God helps. That is where Jehoshaphat is at in his situation.
On top of that, Jehoshaphat admits that they don't know what to do. Again, isn't that how we feel at times with some of the stuff we have to face in life? We feel powerless and we don't know what to do. Even though that is a tough situation to be in, and none of us enjoy it. It is in those times where we are humble. Most of the time we feel like we can take care of our problems ourselves. But every now and then we have situations that humble us. Situations where we are reminded that we are not as powerful as we thought we were. If only we could keep that attitude of humility when things are going good.
In the midst of feeling powerless and not knowing what to do, it leads Jehoshaphat to say these words,'For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You."
There is the key. When those unexpected events come up in life, it is good to keep our eyes upon God. It is ok to acknowledge we feel powerless and don't know what to do. But just remember to keep your eyes on God. Look to Him for help. Don't trust in yourself and don't look for a quick fix. As we keep our eyes upon Him, He will direct us.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Troy
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.' 2nd Chronicles 20:5-9
Here is the remainder of that prayer:
10 "Now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy them), 11 see how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from Your possession which You have given us as an inheritance. 12 "O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You."
2nd Chronicles 20:10-12
In verses 10 and 11 Jehoshaphat is telling the LORD what the problem is. He is letting Him know the trouble that is going on. Did you notice how many verses it took before he got to the problem? This is a good example to follow, when you have time. If your car is sliding on the ice, all you have time for is a,"Jesus help me". But when we have more time it is good to spend time reminding yourself how great God is, the ways He has come through for you in the past. This will help you to focus on God instead of the problem. Those were all things discussed in the last blog post.
In verse 12 he mentions that they are powerless before the great multitude coming against them. Isn't that how we feel against some of the problems that we face? We feel powerless. Not only do we feel powerless, we know we are powerless against those problems unless God helps. That is where Jehoshaphat is at in his situation.
On top of that, Jehoshaphat admits that they don't know what to do. Again, isn't that how we feel at times with some of the stuff we have to face in life? We feel powerless and we don't know what to do. Even though that is a tough situation to be in, and none of us enjoy it. It is in those times where we are humble. Most of the time we feel like we can take care of our problems ourselves. But every now and then we have situations that humble us. Situations where we are reminded that we are not as powerful as we thought we were. If only we could keep that attitude of humility when things are going good.
In the midst of feeling powerless and not knowing what to do, it leads Jehoshaphat to say these words,'For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You."
There is the key. When those unexpected events come up in life, it is good to keep our eyes upon God. It is ok to acknowledge we feel powerless and don't know what to do. But just remember to keep your eyes on God. Look to Him for help. Don't trust in yourself and don't look for a quick fix. As we keep our eyes upon Him, He will direct us.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Troy
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Unexpected Events Part 2
Last time we read about how King Jehoshaphat faced an unexpected event in his life and how we can apply that to our lives. This time we will continue from where we left off.
Jehoshaphat and the people had gathered together and now we will take a look at Jehoshaphat's prayer. We will look at the first few verses of his prayer and see how we can apply that to our lives.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
2nd Chronicles 20:5-9
I enjoy reading the different prayers that are recorded in the Bible. We get to see how others called out to God in their situations. It also helps us to develop a prayer vocabulary. Though we don't just want to recite words over and over from memory with no thought behind what we are saying, we can use the words of the prayers that are in the Bible to teach us how to pray.
In verse 6 we are seeing how great God is. This is always a good place to start when we are facing a tough time. When we are in the midst of a fearful situation it is encouraging if we reflect on how great God is. Though we don't want to deny the reality of our problem, sometimes we can make the mistake of magnifying the problem over God. But Jehoshaphat starts out: and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.
Notice, he hasn't mentioned his problem yet. He is just ackowledging who God is right now.
In verse 7 he begins to tell of some of the ways God had come through in the past: 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ?
When we are in the midst of a challenge and not sure of what to do, it is a good idea to reflect on ways that God has come through for you in the past. Often when we are in a challenge all we can think about is the past. So we need to remind ourselves of how God has been faithful to us in the past. One way to help you remember is to keep a notebook. When the challenge comes and all you can think about is your problem, you can go back to your notebook to remind yourself of what God has done for you in the past.
In verse 9 the prayer is basically saying that if anything were to happen to them, they would cry out God in their distress and God would hear them and deliver them. 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
They are an example to what we should do. Should anything come upon us, we will: Go to God, cry out to Him, and He will hear us and deliver us.
So we see from this prayer:
1. Let's magnify our God above our problem.
2. Let's remind ourselves how great our God is.
3.Let's remind ourselves of ways God has come through for us in the past.
4.Go to God with our problem.
5. He will hear us.
6. He not only will hear us, but He will deliver us.
Troy
Jehoshaphat and the people had gathered together and now we will take a look at Jehoshaphat's prayer. We will look at the first few verses of his prayer and see how we can apply that to our lives.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
2nd Chronicles 20:5-9
I enjoy reading the different prayers that are recorded in the Bible. We get to see how others called out to God in their situations. It also helps us to develop a prayer vocabulary. Though we don't just want to recite words over and over from memory with no thought behind what we are saying, we can use the words of the prayers that are in the Bible to teach us how to pray.
In verse 6 we are seeing how great God is. This is always a good place to start when we are facing a tough time. When we are in the midst of a fearful situation it is encouraging if we reflect on how great God is. Though we don't want to deny the reality of our problem, sometimes we can make the mistake of magnifying the problem over God. But Jehoshaphat starts out: and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.
Notice, he hasn't mentioned his problem yet. He is just ackowledging who God is right now.
In verse 7 he begins to tell of some of the ways God had come through in the past: 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ?
When we are in the midst of a challenge and not sure of what to do, it is a good idea to reflect on ways that God has come through for you in the past. Often when we are in a challenge all we can think about is the past. So we need to remind ourselves of how God has been faithful to us in the past. One way to help you remember is to keep a notebook. When the challenge comes and all you can think about is your problem, you can go back to your notebook to remind yourself of what God has done for you in the past.
In verse 9 the prayer is basically saying that if anything were to happen to them, they would cry out God in their distress and God would hear them and deliver them. 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
They are an example to what we should do. Should anything come upon us, we will: Go to God, cry out to Him, and He will hear us and deliver us.
So we see from this prayer:
1. Let's magnify our God above our problem.
2. Let's remind ourselves how great our God is.
3.Let's remind ourselves of ways God has come through for us in the past.
4.Go to God with our problem.
5. He will hear us.
6. He not only will hear us, but He will deliver us.
Troy
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Unexpected Events
All of us have experienced unexpected events. Sometimes they are positive, such as when you receive that unexpected check in the mail, a promotion at work, a pay increase. Sometimes they are negative. You get told you have lost your job, and unexpected illness, an unexpected tragedy. The list could go on and on in either category.
There is a story in the Old Testament that I have always thought was a good text to learn from when we experience negative unexpected events in life. I have preached on this text many times. Instead of writing out a whole sermon I think I will just take a few verses at a time and present the chapter in different parts.
In 2nd Chronicles we find these words: 1 Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi )." 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD ; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD. 2nd Chronicles 20:1-3
Jehoshaphat, who was king at the time, woke up and probably expected a day like any other day. But he is told in verse 2 that a great multitude is coming against him. This is what I referenced earlier. You start your day like any other day and then you get the news. Some unexpected event has come up. It's not good news. How do we respond? What do we do?
Notice that at the beginning of verse3 that Jehoshaphat was afraid. I find it comforting that a great king was afraid. So many of us try to put on a brave face and act like there is nothing wrong. Or we can have others try to make us ashamed for being afraid, but fear is a natural reaction. I think it's ok to be afraid as long as we don't get paralyzed by our fear and remain fearful.
Jehoshaphat didn't let his fear paralyze him. We are told that in the midst of his fear he turned his attention to seek the LORD. Do you know what our natural human reaction is? We try to fix the problem on our own. Think back to how many times in our lives when you or I have experienced unexpected bad news that our first option was to try and fix the problem on our own? Probably the majority of the time. But the Bible is showing us that our first option can and should be to seek the LORD. We should go to God to see what He wants us to do. I also see in this passage that since Jehoshaphat went to seek the LORD as to what to do, that means that God wants us to go to Him. It also implies that He will give us direction if we humble ourselves and go to Him.
We learn how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and what God is actually trying to say to us by experience. Though we may not get it right 100% of the time, we can learn how to tell when it is God speaking to us and giving us direction.
So in those unexpected events let's remember:
1. Unexpected events happen to everyone
2. It is ok to have that initial fear.
3. Let's seek God in the midst of our fear.
4. God desires for us to go to Him.
5. God will give us direction.
Troy
There is a story in the Old Testament that I have always thought was a good text to learn from when we experience negative unexpected events in life. I have preached on this text many times. Instead of writing out a whole sermon I think I will just take a few verses at a time and present the chapter in different parts.
In 2nd Chronicles we find these words: 1 Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi )." 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD ; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD. 2nd Chronicles 20:1-3
Jehoshaphat, who was king at the time, woke up and probably expected a day like any other day. But he is told in verse 2 that a great multitude is coming against him. This is what I referenced earlier. You start your day like any other day and then you get the news. Some unexpected event has come up. It's not good news. How do we respond? What do we do?
Notice that at the beginning of verse3 that Jehoshaphat was afraid. I find it comforting that a great king was afraid. So many of us try to put on a brave face and act like there is nothing wrong. Or we can have others try to make us ashamed for being afraid, but fear is a natural reaction. I think it's ok to be afraid as long as we don't get paralyzed by our fear and remain fearful.
Jehoshaphat didn't let his fear paralyze him. We are told that in the midst of his fear he turned his attention to seek the LORD. Do you know what our natural human reaction is? We try to fix the problem on our own. Think back to how many times in our lives when you or I have experienced unexpected bad news that our first option was to try and fix the problem on our own? Probably the majority of the time. But the Bible is showing us that our first option can and should be to seek the LORD. We should go to God to see what He wants us to do. I also see in this passage that since Jehoshaphat went to seek the LORD as to what to do, that means that God wants us to go to Him. It also implies that He will give us direction if we humble ourselves and go to Him.
We learn how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and what God is actually trying to say to us by experience. Though we may not get it right 100% of the time, we can learn how to tell when it is God speaking to us and giving us direction.
So in those unexpected events let's remember:
1. Unexpected events happen to everyone
2. It is ok to have that initial fear.
3. Let's seek God in the midst of our fear.
4. God desires for us to go to Him.
5. God will give us direction.
Troy
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Give People A Chance
Many years ago one of my mentors, Pastor Hollis told me,"If people won't allow you to fail, they won't let you succeed." He was speaking in terms of ministry. He was trying to say that your congregation has to allow you to make mistakes so that you can learn and eventually succeed in what you are doing. I believe that principle works for any area of life. We have to let people be free to make mistakes and not feel that that is the limit of their potential or become close minded to their ability just because they make a mistake.
We often judge a persons ability based on their mistakes. I find that fascinating. Why do we expect perfection from people when we aren't perfect ourselves?Why do we feel superior to others when they fail in a certain area of life that we seem to have a good hold on? Why do we want others to extend grace to us and be understanding toward us when we make mistakes, but we don't want to extend that same grace to others or be as understanding to others when they make mistakes? Isn't it a double standard? Didn't Jesus say something about treating others the way we want to be treated?
I'm not saying that we shouldn't use wisdom. If someone isn't gifted in a certain area we need to try and direct them into an area where they are gifted. I'm also not talking about the issue of forgiveness right now. Or for example, someone borrowing money from you and time after time they never pay you back. Then you wonder should you loan money to them again.I'm simply saying that we need to give people a chance and see their potential.
Many years ago when I got the opportunity to start playing with some of the best musicians around, I didn't play perfectly, but they encouraged me, they saw my potential. With their understanding and patience they helped me to grow into a better musician.
When we read the gospels we see the disciples continually messing up, but instead of giving up on them, Jesus kept believing in them and teaching them. In fact, if you and I were to think about it, hasn't Jesus done the same with us? Even though we may gifted or talented in certain areas, Jesus has been patient with us as we have developed our talents. Maybe we should do the same to others.
Finally, let me add that if you have a talent or gift in a area but it seems like you keep failing at it, don't give up. Continue to develop your talent and gift. At some point you will see the fruit of your efforts and persistence.
Troy
We often judge a persons ability based on their mistakes. I find that fascinating. Why do we expect perfection from people when we aren't perfect ourselves?Why do we feel superior to others when they fail in a certain area of life that we seem to have a good hold on? Why do we want others to extend grace to us and be understanding toward us when we make mistakes, but we don't want to extend that same grace to others or be as understanding to others when they make mistakes? Isn't it a double standard? Didn't Jesus say something about treating others the way we want to be treated?
I'm not saying that we shouldn't use wisdom. If someone isn't gifted in a certain area we need to try and direct them into an area where they are gifted. I'm also not talking about the issue of forgiveness right now. Or for example, someone borrowing money from you and time after time they never pay you back. Then you wonder should you loan money to them again.I'm simply saying that we need to give people a chance and see their potential.
Many years ago when I got the opportunity to start playing with some of the best musicians around, I didn't play perfectly, but they encouraged me, they saw my potential. With their understanding and patience they helped me to grow into a better musician.
When we read the gospels we see the disciples continually messing up, but instead of giving up on them, Jesus kept believing in them and teaching them. In fact, if you and I were to think about it, hasn't Jesus done the same with us? Even though we may gifted or talented in certain areas, Jesus has been patient with us as we have developed our talents. Maybe we should do the same to others.
Finally, let me add that if you have a talent or gift in a area but it seems like you keep failing at it, don't give up. Continue to develop your talent and gift. At some point you will see the fruit of your efforts and persistence.
Troy
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Broken Promises and Broken Resolutions
How many of us have ever had someone make a promise to us, only to have them break it? How did it make you feel? How many of us have made a promise to someone, only to break it? How about New Years resolutions? How many New Years resolutions have we started, only to break them within a month?
What about a promise to God or a resolution to be more committed to God? How many of us have made a promise to God, or made a resolution to be more committed to God in someway, only to not come through on what we said we would do? How did it make you feel? Did you get that little thought in your head that told you were no good, that you let God down? Maybe you made a promise to God in someway hoping it would keep something bad from happening to you. But, even though you tried really hard you couldn't keep your end of the promise, and now you fear that what you feared would happen to you, will happen to you.
Though making a promise to God is noble, often it's not required. In fact, the promises we make to God are things that even though they are good, they can often be things that God would never ask us to make a promise about.
Another challenge when we make a promise to God is that often we try to fulfill it with our own self-will. You see, our self-will can only take us so far, but when we are empowered by God's Spirit, the action we were hoping to start or stop will be accomplished.
Though making a promise to God sounds very religious, often it produces results that we don't desire. If we don't keep the promise we will feel guilty. We will begin to feel that we are not good enough for God. We may feel that the spiritual life is not for us. On the other hand, if we keep the promise, this can lead to feelings of self righteousness. When we start going down that road, we begin to think we are accomplishing the action we desired in our own power and strength. So we begin to trust in ourselves and our strength more than God's power and strength.
Well if you have ever made a promise to God, only to break it, or made a resolution to do more for God only to not do it, I have good news for you. God still loves you. He loved you before you made the promise. He loved you while you made the promise, and He still loves you after you break the promise.
Now if God is wanting to bring about some change in your lifestyle, I'm not encouraging you not to do it. By all means get closer to God, do what you feel God is asking of you. But what I am trying to tell you, is that you don't have to make a promise. As I mentioned earlier, often a promise can set us up for failure. Instead, ask God to empower you to be able to do what He has laid upon your heart. That's right, that desire to get closer to God in some way is from Him. You didn't come up with the idea on your own, He put the idea in you. The problem is that we try to accomplish it in our own strength instead of His.
What we need to remember is that our standing with God is not based upon our keeping our promise to Him, but in Him keeping His promise to us. His Word shows us that He remains faithful to His Word.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
Troy
What about a promise to God or a resolution to be more committed to God? How many of us have made a promise to God, or made a resolution to be more committed to God in someway, only to not come through on what we said we would do? How did it make you feel? Did you get that little thought in your head that told you were no good, that you let God down? Maybe you made a promise to God in someway hoping it would keep something bad from happening to you. But, even though you tried really hard you couldn't keep your end of the promise, and now you fear that what you feared would happen to you, will happen to you.
Though making a promise to God is noble, often it's not required. In fact, the promises we make to God are things that even though they are good, they can often be things that God would never ask us to make a promise about.
Another challenge when we make a promise to God is that often we try to fulfill it with our own self-will. You see, our self-will can only take us so far, but when we are empowered by God's Spirit, the action we were hoping to start or stop will be accomplished.
Though making a promise to God sounds very religious, often it produces results that we don't desire. If we don't keep the promise we will feel guilty. We will begin to feel that we are not good enough for God. We may feel that the spiritual life is not for us. On the other hand, if we keep the promise, this can lead to feelings of self righteousness. When we start going down that road, we begin to think we are accomplishing the action we desired in our own power and strength. So we begin to trust in ourselves and our strength more than God's power and strength.
Well if you have ever made a promise to God, only to break it, or made a resolution to do more for God only to not do it, I have good news for you. God still loves you. He loved you before you made the promise. He loved you while you made the promise, and He still loves you after you break the promise.
Now if God is wanting to bring about some change in your lifestyle, I'm not encouraging you not to do it. By all means get closer to God, do what you feel God is asking of you. But what I am trying to tell you, is that you don't have to make a promise. As I mentioned earlier, often a promise can set us up for failure. Instead, ask God to empower you to be able to do what He has laid upon your heart. That's right, that desire to get closer to God in some way is from Him. You didn't come up with the idea on your own, He put the idea in you. The problem is that we try to accomplish it in our own strength instead of His.
What we need to remember is that our standing with God is not based upon our keeping our promise to Him, but in Him keeping His promise to us. His Word shows us that He remains faithful to His Word.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
Troy
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
What Does God Want From Me? (Phase One)
Lately I have been reading a wonderful book by James Bryan Smith entitled,"The Good And Beautiful God". It is part of a three book series on spiritual formation. In the book he states that, "Our thinking about life with God inevitably confronts us with this crucial question: What does God want from me?"
I bet that if we polled 100 people and asked them that question, I bet we would get a broad range of answers. But I think that there would be a thought that would be consistent in all of the answers. James Bryan Smith says,"If you ask the average person, What must you do to get God to like, favor and bless you? the answer would be clear and consistent: Well, I think I would have to go to church, read my Bible, give some money, serve on committees and serve the needy. Oh, and God does not want me to sin-or at least keep it at a minimum."
It sounds reasonable doesn't it? In fact, all of the things mentioned are good things to do. I think the answer if I were to try to simplify it has two phases. What is mentioned above is phase two. What we do is we try to do phase two without phase one. Have you ever had to assemble something? Well then you know the frustration when you try to put something together without reading the directions and it doesn't turn out right. You try and try to make it work, but it doesn't. To you, it just makes sense that you would put it together the way you did. But, after all the frustration, you finally go back and read the directions and you notice you missed a step.
Before we look at phase one let me just say something about sin. God isn't a kill joy. God isn't out to make our lives unenjoyable. God doesn't want us to sin because it harms us. He is actually looking out for us. If you were honest enough to examine your life, you would admit that not much good comes out of sinning.
When we try to live our lives for Jesus, if we focus on phase two without phase one we will get frustrated just as in the example of assembling something. So what is phase one? To know Him and love Him.
The Westminister Larger Catechism, written in 1648, opens with a question and an answer:
Question: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.
What I love about that statement is to fully enjoy God forever. Most of us don't think of fully enjoying God. If we aren't in love with God and fully enjoying Him then how can we enjoy church, the Bible, serving others, etc...? You see, it's the classic example of phase two without phase one. You will feel obligated to do phase two instead of, desiring to do phase two. I remember not enjoying going to High School. I would skip school very often. But every now and then there would be a class or a teacher that I enjoyed very much. Guess what? Because I enjoyed that class I couldn't wait to get to that class. In your spiritual life, if you try to do phase two without phase one, usually you will get frustrated, then you will stop trying, or think there is nothing to God.
Now if we stop trying to do the things that we think that God wants us to do this leads us to believe- that God is mad at us. We believe He's mad because we aren't doing what we know we should do. Then what can happen is that we try again, except this time we do it out of guilt. Guess what? Having guilt as a motivator never leads to lasting change. So after we try the guilt route, we get frustrated again and quit again. Which leads us to think that God is mad at us again.You can imagine what this thought process leads to: Whenever something doesn't go good in our lives we think God is punishing us.
What if God isn't mad at you? What if He loves us irregardless of our religious performance? Wouldn't this lead to "delighting" in Him? If God loves me regardless of my performance, then my response is to love Him.
His love for me first led me to love Him. That then led me to want to do phase two.To quote James Bryan Smith again," The narrative that God loves us and longs for us to love Him in return provides a genuine and lasting incentive to change."
1 John 4:10-11 are two verses that bring this thought out:
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
The Message which is a paraphrase of the Bible puts it like this:
10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.
You see, our love for God does not determine His love for us. God loves us first. In fact Jesus went to the cross and was willing to die for us before we loved Him.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man ; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8
This verse from Romans shows us again God not only loving us first, but being willing to die for us before we were "cleaned up" and loving Him.
That type of love is what leads us to loving Him. That is phase one. This will eventually lead to a desire to do phase two (go to church, read the Bible, etc...).
I'll close with another quote from James Bryan Smith,"The primary thing God wants from us is not improved moral behavior (which will come), but to love God because He first loves us.
Troy
I bet that if we polled 100 people and asked them that question, I bet we would get a broad range of answers. But I think that there would be a thought that would be consistent in all of the answers. James Bryan Smith says,"If you ask the average person, What must you do to get God to like, favor and bless you? the answer would be clear and consistent: Well, I think I would have to go to church, read my Bible, give some money, serve on committees and serve the needy. Oh, and God does not want me to sin-or at least keep it at a minimum."
It sounds reasonable doesn't it? In fact, all of the things mentioned are good things to do. I think the answer if I were to try to simplify it has two phases. What is mentioned above is phase two. What we do is we try to do phase two without phase one. Have you ever had to assemble something? Well then you know the frustration when you try to put something together without reading the directions and it doesn't turn out right. You try and try to make it work, but it doesn't. To you, it just makes sense that you would put it together the way you did. But, after all the frustration, you finally go back and read the directions and you notice you missed a step.
Before we look at phase one let me just say something about sin. God isn't a kill joy. God isn't out to make our lives unenjoyable. God doesn't want us to sin because it harms us. He is actually looking out for us. If you were honest enough to examine your life, you would admit that not much good comes out of sinning.
When we try to live our lives for Jesus, if we focus on phase two without phase one we will get frustrated just as in the example of assembling something. So what is phase one? To know Him and love Him.
The Westminister Larger Catechism, written in 1648, opens with a question and an answer:
Question: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.
What I love about that statement is to fully enjoy God forever. Most of us don't think of fully enjoying God. If we aren't in love with God and fully enjoying Him then how can we enjoy church, the Bible, serving others, etc...? You see, it's the classic example of phase two without phase one. You will feel obligated to do phase two instead of, desiring to do phase two. I remember not enjoying going to High School. I would skip school very often. But every now and then there would be a class or a teacher that I enjoyed very much. Guess what? Because I enjoyed that class I couldn't wait to get to that class. In your spiritual life, if you try to do phase two without phase one, usually you will get frustrated, then you will stop trying, or think there is nothing to God.
Now if we stop trying to do the things that we think that God wants us to do this leads us to believe- that God is mad at us. We believe He's mad because we aren't doing what we know we should do. Then what can happen is that we try again, except this time we do it out of guilt. Guess what? Having guilt as a motivator never leads to lasting change. So after we try the guilt route, we get frustrated again and quit again. Which leads us to think that God is mad at us again.You can imagine what this thought process leads to: Whenever something doesn't go good in our lives we think God is punishing us.
What if God isn't mad at you? What if He loves us irregardless of our religious performance? Wouldn't this lead to "delighting" in Him? If God loves me regardless of my performance, then my response is to love Him.
His love for me first led me to love Him. That then led me to want to do phase two.To quote James Bryan Smith again," The narrative that God loves us and longs for us to love Him in return provides a genuine and lasting incentive to change."
1 John 4:10-11 are two verses that bring this thought out:
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
The Message which is a paraphrase of the Bible puts it like this:
10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.
You see, our love for God does not determine His love for us. God loves us first. In fact Jesus went to the cross and was willing to die for us before we loved Him.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man ; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8
This verse from Romans shows us again God not only loving us first, but being willing to die for us before we were "cleaned up" and loving Him.
That type of love is what leads us to loving Him. That is phase one. This will eventually lead to a desire to do phase two (go to church, read the Bible, etc...).
I'll close with another quote from James Bryan Smith,"The primary thing God wants from us is not improved moral behavior (which will come), but to love God because He first loves us.
Troy