And...We're back.
8 years ago
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My Photography
I really enjoy photography and photo editing. God is creative, so I do think it's possible to worship through creative pursuits as well.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Jesus is not cool…and neither is following Him.
Jesus is not cool…and neither is following Him.
(read this in an Irish accent or listen to this quote here: http://www.sermonindex.net
“And there's no room for [Jesus] in the inn.
He got a bit older, there was no room in His family, His family turned on Him.
He went to the temple, no room in the temple, the temple turned on Him.
And when He died there was no room to bury Him, He died outside of the city.
Well why in God's Name do you expect to be accepted everywhere?
How is it that the world couldn't get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me?
Are we compromised? Are we compromised?
Have we no spiritual stature?
Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption?”
-Leonard Ravenhill
I am a female. Females seek attention. God wired us that way, but our sinful nature has transformed a beautiful need for Him into a desperate quest for popularity. Pursuing popularity (or doing whatever it takes to get people to like me) poses a problem, a contradiction to the lifestyle of the Jesus to whom I surrendered.
I’ve spent nearly my entire high school career trying to get people to like me. I’d laugh at the nasty jokes. I’d talk junk about the friends and teachers to whose faces I’d talk sweetly. But where in the Bible does it say this kind of compromise is okay? Jesus has promised that the world will hate me because it hated Him. Only one of His disciples died a natural death, friends, and even then John the Beloved was exiled and endured much suffering.
Read Matthew 10:16-39. Seriously, right now get your Bible out or go on Biblegateway.com and read it. Soak in each word. The context is Jesus was sending out His disciples to share the gospel with the Jews (though later they would also share with the Gentiles.)
This passage was at first scary, but once I thought about it more it became empowering. If we are living in obedience to God and sharing the offensive Gospel, we are guaranteed difficulties. We are not promised health and safety, but we can delight in knowing that nothing escapes our sovereign LORD’s sight. If it’s His will for a sparrow to die, the sparrow will die. If it’s His will for us to complete our stay on this world, then we will complete our stay here. If we are obedient to Him we don’t have to worry about a thing because we know that nothing bad will happen apart from His will. That’s more comforting than anything.
We as humans are so…humanistic. Everything we do revolves around us, even evangelism. We rely on ourselves so much, wanting to be “culturally relevant” so we can relate to everyone. We never take a stand on anything so we don’t “encroach on anyone’s beliefs” or “step on anyone’s toes.” This way of thinking/preaching is so flawed. Have you read Paul’s letters? 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 says that he didn’t come with superiority of speech or wisdom, but he was determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, so when he was preaching he was relying not on persuasive words but on the power of God. If what he was saying penetrated the hearts of the Corinthians, that meant that they were putting in their faith in Jesus Christ rather than in the communicative ability of the messenger. Paul didn’t learn funny jokes or hip slang; he learned Jesus. This leaves no room for justifying your approval of sin so you can “relate” with the lost. It’s not your job to speak to their hearts; it’s your job to plant and water but God gives growth. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)
Today I read 1 Corinthians 4:11-13. Check this out.
“To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”
Scum of the world, eh? To the unbeliever this does not seem appetizing. (So thank God for intervening and giving the unbeliever understanding!) But though we as Christians will be oppressed and afflicted, the rewards are so much greater, not only in this kingdom but in the Kingdom to come! We have inherited salvation through the suffering of Jesus Christ. We can fellowship with a holy God. He gives us a peace that passes all understanding. How beautiful is the tortured life of the believer!
Philippians 4:11-13 is one of my favourite passages, but verse 13 is constantly taken out of context and deemed as a “life verse” for athletes. “…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me.” Paul was content with his condition because he had Christ. He knew that Christ likewise suffered much, so by also suffering for His Name’s sake Paul was able to share in His sufferings. That’s an exciting thing to have in common with Jesus.
How did Jesus survive the forty days of fasting? When the devil tempted him, He said “Man does not live on bread alone.” Jesus’ source of strength was the LORD. May we rely on Him to sustain us as well! We need not comfort or wealth or popularity. We need Christ.
Though in high school I do not have to face prison or beheading, but I do have to face people who will make fun of me or get annoyed with me for being passionate about Jesus (and I go to a Christian school, so I'm sure the rest of you have it way worse.) But it's not my job to stir up revival or get a million saved; it's my job to be obedient to Him (no matter the cost!) and let Him do as He pleases. And if I see fruit for my labour, yay. But if I don't see how He used me until I'm with Him, that's okay too. But He is so worth any kind of suffering.
You only have one life, friends. Will you pursue coolness or will you pursue Christ?
(read this in an Irish accent or listen to this quote here: http://www.sermonindex.net
“And there's no room for [Jesus] in the inn.
He got a bit older, there was no room in His family, His family turned on Him.
He went to the temple, no room in the temple, the temple turned on Him.
And when He died there was no room to bury Him, He died outside of the city.
Well why in God's Name do you expect to be accepted everywhere?
How is it that the world couldn't get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me?
Are we compromised? Are we compromised?
Have we no spiritual stature?
Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption?”
-Leonard Ravenhill
I am a female. Females seek attention. God wired us that way, but our sinful nature has transformed a beautiful need for Him into a desperate quest for popularity. Pursuing popularity (or doing whatever it takes to get people to like me) poses a problem, a contradiction to the lifestyle of the Jesus to whom I surrendered.
I’ve spent nearly my entire high school career trying to get people to like me. I’d laugh at the nasty jokes. I’d talk junk about the friends and teachers to whose faces I’d talk sweetly. But where in the Bible does it say this kind of compromise is okay? Jesus has promised that the world will hate me because it hated Him. Only one of His disciples died a natural death, friends, and even then John the Beloved was exiled and endured much suffering.
Read Matthew 10:16-39. Seriously, right now get your Bible out or go on Biblegateway.com and read it. Soak in each word. The context is Jesus was sending out His disciples to share the gospel with the Jews (though later they would also share with the Gentiles.)
This passage was at first scary, but once I thought about it more it became empowering. If we are living in obedience to God and sharing the offensive Gospel, we are guaranteed difficulties. We are not promised health and safety, but we can delight in knowing that nothing escapes our sovereign LORD’s sight. If it’s His will for a sparrow to die, the sparrow will die. If it’s His will for us to complete our stay on this world, then we will complete our stay here. If we are obedient to Him we don’t have to worry about a thing because we know that nothing bad will happen apart from His will. That’s more comforting than anything.
We as humans are so…humanistic. Everything we do revolves around us, even evangelism. We rely on ourselves so much, wanting to be “culturally relevant” so we can relate to everyone. We never take a stand on anything so we don’t “encroach on anyone’s beliefs” or “step on anyone’s toes.” This way of thinking/preaching is so flawed. Have you read Paul’s letters? 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 says that he didn’t come with superiority of speech or wisdom, but he was determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, so when he was preaching he was relying not on persuasive words but on the power of God. If what he was saying penetrated the hearts of the Corinthians, that meant that they were putting in their faith in Jesus Christ rather than in the communicative ability of the messenger. Paul didn’t learn funny jokes or hip slang; he learned Jesus. This leaves no room for justifying your approval of sin so you can “relate” with the lost. It’s not your job to speak to their hearts; it’s your job to plant and water but God gives growth. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)
Today I read 1 Corinthians 4:11-13. Check this out.
“To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”
Scum of the world, eh? To the unbeliever this does not seem appetizing. (So thank God for intervening and giving the unbeliever understanding!) But though we as Christians will be oppressed and afflicted, the rewards are so much greater, not only in this kingdom but in the Kingdom to come! We have inherited salvation through the suffering of Jesus Christ. We can fellowship with a holy God. He gives us a peace that passes all understanding. How beautiful is the tortured life of the believer!
Philippians 4:11-13 is one of my favourite passages, but verse 13 is constantly taken out of context and deemed as a “life verse” for athletes. “…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me.” Paul was content with his condition because he had Christ. He knew that Christ likewise suffered much, so by also suffering for His Name’s sake Paul was able to share in His sufferings. That’s an exciting thing to have in common with Jesus.
How did Jesus survive the forty days of fasting? When the devil tempted him, He said “Man does not live on bread alone.” Jesus’ source of strength was the LORD. May we rely on Him to sustain us as well! We need not comfort or wealth or popularity. We need Christ.
Though in high school I do not have to face prison or beheading, but I do have to face people who will make fun of me or get annoyed with me for being passionate about Jesus (and I go to a Christian school, so I'm sure the rest of you have it way worse.) But it's not my job to stir up revival or get a million saved; it's my job to be obedient to Him (no matter the cost!) and let Him do as He pleases. And if I see fruit for my labour, yay. But if I don't see how He used me until I'm with Him, that's okay too. But He is so worth any kind of suffering.
You only have one life, friends. Will you pursue coolness or will you pursue Christ?
The Glory of God (part 2: God's Pursuit of His Own Glory)
In my last note (The Glory of God Through Believers), I hopefully established that God's greatest passion is His glory: the acknowledgement of His splendour and majesty. Our every deed and thought and motive should be geared towards this purpose because God's every deed and thought and motive is bent upon His renown as well. God pursues His glory in an infinite amount of ways, but for this Note I hope to shed some light on what that looks like.
God will tear down idols.
An idol is anything we put before Him, and nearly anything can be turned into one; a great theologian once said "The human heart is a factory of idols…Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” But God will not take this. And let me tell you, friends, one of the most wonderfully dangerous things that you can pray for yourself or others is that God will tear down whatever is keeping you from Him.
Isaiah 42:8
I am the LORD; that is My Name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.
In the first few chapters of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of Judah's wickedness and rebellion, and how God isn't impressed with their numerous sacrifices or offerings because their hearts are all wrong. Then in chapter 3 Isaiah says that God will take away their esteemed leaders and their treasured supplies and their fine goods. When God takes things away (today it might be money, a sweet car, an intense relationship, etc.), He does this for at least two reasons:
1) His throne is not to be shared with idols (what fools we are to treasure the created more than the Creator!)
2) He loves us too much to withhold from us the greatest pleasure of Himself!
C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, said this:
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
Yes! God's passion for His glory benefits us as a byproduct! If God's first priority was to benefit us in everything He did, He would be putting something of infinitely less worth over Himself, and that is idolatry and FAILURE. So if something sad or even devastating happens in your life, don't immediately blame satan (we tend to overestimate the Enemy's power) but, rather, seek God!
Never say something like "A good God won't let your mom die" or "The LORD is in control, and you won't lose your house"; it is because God is good and in control that such things might happen. Besides, if you hold onto this false hope of "a good blessed life" it'll make God look like a liar when the cancer returns or your financial plight worsens. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray for God to fix our problems or heal the sick, but I do hope that we all get our thoughts of Him out of a humanistic box and acknowledge that His sovereignty is always best.
One day I was really upset because I felt like God would never provide this one thing I was waiting desperately for, and I was just sitting in my room bawling and really upset about it, drowning in self-pity. Then one of my dear friends texted me and reminded that this life isn't all about me; it's about God. Even if the thing I wanted was a good thing, if I think God's plan is bent around providing me what I want when I want it, that's as foolish as thinking that the sun revolves around the earth instead of the other way around.
By now I've probably given you the impression that God is horrible and unloving and doesn't care about His people. By no means! It would be unloving of Him to put anything before Himself. If He provided us with things to find pleasure in other than Himself, I wouldn't consider those "Blessings" at all because anything found on this earth is just a cheap substitute for the presence of the Holy One! May we find all that we need in Him! Ephesians 1 says that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing...that's more than enough!
God will tear down idols.
An idol is anything we put before Him, and nearly anything can be turned into one; a great theologian once said "The human heart is a factory of idols…Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” But God will not take this. And let me tell you, friends, one of the most wonderfully dangerous things that you can pray for yourself or others is that God will tear down whatever is keeping you from Him.
Isaiah 42:8
I am the LORD; that is My Name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.
In the first few chapters of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of Judah's wickedness and rebellion, and how God isn't impressed with their numerous sacrifices or offerings because their hearts are all wrong. Then in chapter 3 Isaiah says that God will take away their esteemed leaders and their treasured supplies and their fine goods. When God takes things away (today it might be money, a sweet car, an intense relationship, etc.), He does this for at least two reasons:
1) His throne is not to be shared with idols (what fools we are to treasure the created more than the Creator!)
2) He loves us too much to withhold from us the greatest pleasure of Himself!
C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, said this:
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
Yes! God's passion for His glory benefits us as a byproduct! If God's first priority was to benefit us in everything He did, He would be putting something of infinitely less worth over Himself, and that is idolatry and FAILURE. So if something sad or even devastating happens in your life, don't immediately blame satan (we tend to overestimate the Enemy's power) but, rather, seek God!
Never say something like "A good God won't let your mom die" or "The LORD is in control, and you won't lose your house"; it is because God is good and in control that such things might happen. Besides, if you hold onto this false hope of "a good blessed life" it'll make God look like a liar when the cancer returns or your financial plight worsens. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray for God to fix our problems or heal the sick, but I do hope that we all get our thoughts of Him out of a humanistic box and acknowledge that His sovereignty is always best.
One day I was really upset because I felt like God would never provide this one thing I was waiting desperately for, and I was just sitting in my room bawling and really upset about it, drowning in self-pity. Then one of my dear friends texted me and reminded that this life isn't all about me; it's about God. Even if the thing I wanted was a good thing, if I think God's plan is bent around providing me what I want when I want it, that's as foolish as thinking that the sun revolves around the earth instead of the other way around.
By now I've probably given you the impression that God is horrible and unloving and doesn't care about His people. By no means! It would be unloving of Him to put anything before Himself. If He provided us with things to find pleasure in other than Himself, I wouldn't consider those "Blessings" at all because anything found on this earth is just a cheap substitute for the presence of the Holy One! May we find all that we need in Him! Ephesians 1 says that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing...that's more than enough!
Thoughts on Grace/Judging Others/There's A Good Chance You're Not Really Saved
One thing that is on my mind a lot is how judgmental we are of people who commit the “big sins” like drugs, homosexuality, alcoholism, and premarital sex. I’m pretty sure that Jesus didn’t rank sins like we “Christians” do, and though some vices bring forth more harmful consequences than lying or gossip, they are all equally worthy of the full wrath of God. The wages---or reward/punishment---of sin is death! (Romans 6:23.) That’s some serious bidness, and regardless of what you do, you cannot help yourself out of this mess. If you are not in Christ, you are just as chained to sin and spiritually dead as Marilyn Manson or Hitler. So don’t brag that you have never done the “big ones”; every sin is a “big one” to a holy God, and before you are covered in Christ’s righteousness you are extremely evil and wicked and disgusting (read Romans 3!) So if you are His now, remember how far He has brought you, and never consider yourself better than anyone else…because you’re not.
Romans 8:5 says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Homosexuality, drugs, profanity…Christians constantly make a big deal and “take a stand” against these topics, and it has given us the reputation of being anti-gay, legalistic, hypocritical haters of Obama. This reputation in no way glorifies God. Sinners are going to sin; it’s their nature, what do you expect? We don’t need to protest allowing gay marriages or gossip about girls who sleep around. Jesus did not do this. The people that He harshly rebuked were, on the contrary, the religious people that were harshly rebuking the “morally repugnant!” Jesus realized that sinners sin! Criticizing lost people for their morals does no good at all; if they are not spurred by the Holy Spirit, they are not going to truly change.
If anything, we as Christians should love homosexuals and drug addicts, and show them that we are equally needy of mercy, no better than them, and that Jesus satisfies! If we’re going to rebuke people, let’s rebuke the Church! In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is telling Christians to not even associate with people who call themselves “a brother” but is guilty of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, drunkenness, or swindling.) He says, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’”
We must remember our own neediness! Regardless of social status or income or race or gender or physical appearance or spiritual background, we all must be covered in Jesus’ blood or we are absolutely worthless. Donald Trump is in need of Jesus exactly as much as a homeless guy is. Ellen Degeneres is in need of Jesus just as much as Billy Graham is. You are in need of Jesus just as much as I am. The only difference is some of us have received grace, and some of us have not. But you must remember that just because you have received grace does not mean that you did the right thing or made the right choice; “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7.) This leaves no room for bragging about anything other than the LORD! That is freeing! God does not owe us mercy, Jesus does not have to save us, the Holy Spirit does not have to take over; but it is by His grace we are saved!
One thing I must note, however, is that just because sinners sin does not mean that we should support what they do. Murderers should go to jail, alcoholics should go to rehab, and abstinence programs should be established. I don’t think we need to make war against homosexual marriages (nor should we support them.) However, I am all for making a stand against abortion and for life, because that really is a matter of life or death.
Now that I have hopefully established that we should quit being so insensitive to hurting people who find solace in vices that we consider despicable, I must rebuke you who claim to be His but are truly enemies. Read 1 John, seriously. Here are some chunks from that book that should convict all of us, but hopefully it will especially convict you fake Christians that are bringing destruction to the Church and, ultimately, to yourselves.
This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in Him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.
We have the victory because of Christ! If He has freed you, you are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness. So claim this victory and walk in the light…yet don’t look down on the broken. Read Romans and 1 John and let’s talk about them. ☺
Romans 8:5 says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Homosexuality, drugs, profanity…Christians constantly make a big deal and “take a stand” against these topics, and it has given us the reputation of being anti-gay, legalistic, hypocritical haters of Obama. This reputation in no way glorifies God. Sinners are going to sin; it’s their nature, what do you expect? We don’t need to protest allowing gay marriages or gossip about girls who sleep around. Jesus did not do this. The people that He harshly rebuked were, on the contrary, the religious people that were harshly rebuking the “morally repugnant!” Jesus realized that sinners sin! Criticizing lost people for their morals does no good at all; if they are not spurred by the Holy Spirit, they are not going to truly change.
If anything, we as Christians should love homosexuals and drug addicts, and show them that we are equally needy of mercy, no better than them, and that Jesus satisfies! If we’re going to rebuke people, let’s rebuke the Church! In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is telling Christians to not even associate with people who call themselves “a brother” but is guilty of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, drunkenness, or swindling.) He says, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’”
We must remember our own neediness! Regardless of social status or income or race or gender or physical appearance or spiritual background, we all must be covered in Jesus’ blood or we are absolutely worthless. Donald Trump is in need of Jesus exactly as much as a homeless guy is. Ellen Degeneres is in need of Jesus just as much as Billy Graham is. You are in need of Jesus just as much as I am. The only difference is some of us have received grace, and some of us have not. But you must remember that just because you have received grace does not mean that you did the right thing or made the right choice; “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7.) This leaves no room for bragging about anything other than the LORD! That is freeing! God does not owe us mercy, Jesus does not have to save us, the Holy Spirit does not have to take over; but it is by His grace we are saved!
One thing I must note, however, is that just because sinners sin does not mean that we should support what they do. Murderers should go to jail, alcoholics should go to rehab, and abstinence programs should be established. I don’t think we need to make war against homosexual marriages (nor should we support them.) However, I am all for making a stand against abortion and for life, because that really is a matter of life or death.
Now that I have hopefully established that we should quit being so insensitive to hurting people who find solace in vices that we consider despicable, I must rebuke you who claim to be His but are truly enemies. Read 1 John, seriously. Here are some chunks from that book that should convict all of us, but hopefully it will especially convict you fake Christians that are bringing destruction to the Church and, ultimately, to yourselves.
This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in Him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.
We have the victory because of Christ! If He has freed you, you are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness. So claim this victory and walk in the light…yet don’t look down on the broken. Read Romans and 1 John and let’s talk about them. ☺
The Glory of God, Pt. 1 (The Glory of God As Seen Through Believers)
Part 1 (The Glory of God Through Believers)
I think I now sort of know why God made everything.
I certainly don’t comprehend His ways in their fullness (not even close!), but recently I think God has revealed to me His purpose, His will, and all that other stuff that we have questions about…They have sort of come together to make sense and it all boils down to one thing: His glory. This Note is how it applies to us as Christians.
Isaiah 43:5-7
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.
God gathered, is gathering, and will continue to gather a people for Himself from every corner of the earth for the primary purpose of His glory. We as His adopted children have been called to lead the world in the worship of the Almighty God…(that is why missions exists, by the way: because worship doesn’t.) God did not make us to climb the corporate ladder or to become famous or to live the American dream. He made us fro the same reason He made the trees, the sky, the birds, the flowers, the universe: for His glory.
So what is God’s glory? To be honest, I went for a very long time pretending to know what that word meant. I would talk about it often, listen to sermons about it, but I didn’t really comprehend what the Bible means when it talks about God’s glory. A close friend of mine found a great definition from the dictionary (haha):
The glory of God is His magnificence and splendour.
Okay, that’s good. So what does it mean to “glorify” God or to “give” Him glory? Surely we cannot make Him any more awesome than He is…He’s already infinitely awesome; addition and subtraction don’t work with infinity. So…(also from the dictionary)
Giving God glory is acknowledging the fact that He is magnificent and splendid.
1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
To be honest, every time someone talks about this verse they seem to give the impression that all it means is to point to the sky after a soccer victory or a good singing performance…that apparently is what it means to give glory to God. But the implications of “do[ing] all to the glory of God” are much deeper than that.
In chapel, I hear about sin a lot. A friend of mine sarcastically took “notes” one day that consisted of writing “don’t sin” about fifty times…Jesus is often never even mentioned. We hear how destructive sin is and that it’ll ruin your life (which is true) but we are never given a good motivation to not sin. This style of teaching might guilt us into about five seconds of “repentance”, but brings about no real change. But let me tell you right now why living for God is so much better than living for self: His worth.
In the 1700’s, there were two young men who found out about an atheist slave owner who was keeping about 3,000 slaves on an island and boasted that no preacher or clergyman would stay there. If a missionary was shipwrecked, they’d get him a separate house until he is able to leave but he would never talk to anyone about God…so all these slaves from Africa would be brought to this island in the West Indies and will have lived and died without ever hearing of Christ. The two young men, upon finding this out, sold themselves to the slave owner for as much as he would pay for any slave (and he wouldn’t even provide their transportation.) Remember that this wasn’t a three-month or fifteen-year mission trip. This was for life; it couldn’t be “undid.” As these men in their early twenties were on a ship leaving their home in Hamburg about to spend the rest of their lives in inescapable slavery for the sake of the Gospel, their friends and family gathered at the docks to see them off. They were weeping, wondering why these promising and capable young men were making such a “foolish” decision…then one of the young men cried out from the boat as it was leaving the dock, “May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!” Christ’s worth is so great that it motivated these two men to willingly become slaves to an otherwise unreachable people. This also should be our motivation for everything.
We must show the world that we acknowledge God’s majesty, and as a result He has taken the highest worth in our lives. So in everything we do, whether it’s by eating or drinking or anything, let us do it all to show His greatness, to show His glory…any other motivation is simply a waste.
So examine your life. Look at your pursuits and look at your words. Are you leading all to worship, are you acknowledging to the world the worth of Christ? Let me tell you, there is no way of living that is more satisfying, challenging, and exciting than a life that is wholly devoted to the God who is worthy.
“It’s not about what you’re going to get out God; it’s about what God is going to get out of you.” –Paris Reidhead
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” –John Piper, The Blazing Center
“Worthy are You, our LORD and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.” –Revelation 4:11
I think I now sort of know why God made everything.
I certainly don’t comprehend His ways in their fullness (not even close!), but recently I think God has revealed to me His purpose, His will, and all that other stuff that we have questions about…They have sort of come together to make sense and it all boils down to one thing: His glory. This Note is how it applies to us as Christians.
Isaiah 43:5-7
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.
God gathered, is gathering, and will continue to gather a people for Himself from every corner of the earth for the primary purpose of His glory. We as His adopted children have been called to lead the world in the worship of the Almighty God…(that is why missions exists, by the way: because worship doesn’t.) God did not make us to climb the corporate ladder or to become famous or to live the American dream. He made us fro the same reason He made the trees, the sky, the birds, the flowers, the universe: for His glory.
So what is God’s glory? To be honest, I went for a very long time pretending to know what that word meant. I would talk about it often, listen to sermons about it, but I didn’t really comprehend what the Bible means when it talks about God’s glory. A close friend of mine found a great definition from the dictionary (haha):
The glory of God is His magnificence and splendour.
Okay, that’s good. So what does it mean to “glorify” God or to “give” Him glory? Surely we cannot make Him any more awesome than He is…He’s already infinitely awesome; addition and subtraction don’t work with infinity. So…(also from the dictionary)
Giving God glory is acknowledging the fact that He is magnificent and splendid.
1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
To be honest, every time someone talks about this verse they seem to give the impression that all it means is to point to the sky after a soccer victory or a good singing performance…that apparently is what it means to give glory to God. But the implications of “do[ing] all to the glory of God” are much deeper than that.
In chapel, I hear about sin a lot. A friend of mine sarcastically took “notes” one day that consisted of writing “don’t sin” about fifty times…Jesus is often never even mentioned. We hear how destructive sin is and that it’ll ruin your life (which is true) but we are never given a good motivation to not sin. This style of teaching might guilt us into about five seconds of “repentance”, but brings about no real change. But let me tell you right now why living for God is so much better than living for self: His worth.
In the 1700’s, there were two young men who found out about an atheist slave owner who was keeping about 3,000 slaves on an island and boasted that no preacher or clergyman would stay there. If a missionary was shipwrecked, they’d get him a separate house until he is able to leave but he would never talk to anyone about God…so all these slaves from Africa would be brought to this island in the West Indies and will have lived and died without ever hearing of Christ. The two young men, upon finding this out, sold themselves to the slave owner for as much as he would pay for any slave (and he wouldn’t even provide their transportation.) Remember that this wasn’t a three-month or fifteen-year mission trip. This was for life; it couldn’t be “undid.” As these men in their early twenties were on a ship leaving their home in Hamburg about to spend the rest of their lives in inescapable slavery for the sake of the Gospel, their friends and family gathered at the docks to see them off. They were weeping, wondering why these promising and capable young men were making such a “foolish” decision…then one of the young men cried out from the boat as it was leaving the dock, “May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!” Christ’s worth is so great that it motivated these two men to willingly become slaves to an otherwise unreachable people. This also should be our motivation for everything.
We must show the world that we acknowledge God’s majesty, and as a result He has taken the highest worth in our lives. So in everything we do, whether it’s by eating or drinking or anything, let us do it all to show His greatness, to show His glory…any other motivation is simply a waste.
So examine your life. Look at your pursuits and look at your words. Are you leading all to worship, are you acknowledging to the world the worth of Christ? Let me tell you, there is no way of living that is more satisfying, challenging, and exciting than a life that is wholly devoted to the God who is worthy.
“It’s not about what you’re going to get out God; it’s about what God is going to get out of you.” –Paris Reidhead
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” –John Piper, The Blazing Center
“Worthy are You, our LORD and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.” –Revelation 4:11
Top 10 Reasons for Reading the Bible Instead of Devotional Books, Which Are Usually Full of FAIL
If you know me, you know that a lot of things about American "Christianity" peeves me greatly. Such offenders are "the sinner's prayer", nonrepentant but emotional altar calls, selfish "praise" songs, and many more things that I go way overboard with criticizing. However, one of the most destructive things to the Church today is being fed a devotional-only diet. When I ask people what God has been showing them, so many people (at school especially) tell me about this devotional book that they are reading and how it has a verse, a story, and then a thought for the day. To people who read devotional books only: YOU ARE MISSING OUT. Seriously. God's Word has much better things for you than human "inspiration" that you can get from the Christian book store.
I must preface this with saying that not all Christian books are bad, and I am certainly not claiming that anything said about God by humans is wrong (since I am a human and I am writing about God right here.) I read stuff by John Piper and Jonathan Edwards, and I use a study Bible...but we should never listen to humans talking about God more than we should listen to God talking about Himself, directly through His Word. If devotional books or "religious literature" is all that you are reading, they are getting in the way of what God wants to say to you directly. Here is why Devo over Divinity is full of fail:
1. Devotional books usually have very little Bible in them. If something is not pouring with truth, it does not deserve your attention. You will never be a true student of the Word if all that you're getting from it each day is one verse that someone else picked out.
2. People interpret scripture wrongly...humans are selfish, so devotionals tend to preach the Bible humanistically. But friends, the Bible is not a "manual for life" but rather the story of God, and who can tell the story of God better than God Himself? We always try to take scripture and try to tie it into how it can apply to us, or how it can make us feel better about ourselves. That brings no true repentance. Austin and I were talking about this and we concluded that a better question than "What Would Jesus Do?" is "WHY Would Jesus Do?"
3. It's hard to rely on the insights of someone else for divine revelation from God. It's like if someone gave me a chocolate chip cookie, I ate it, threw it up, gave it to you, and then you ate the regurgitated stuff. You'd still salvage some of the chocolate chips and everything, but it definitely wouldn't taste as good as if you would have eaten the cookie fresh and straight from the source. Regurgitated inspiration is neveras piercing as the real thing.
4. Devotional books cost money! My ESV Bible cost $5 from Family Christian and I have learned so much from it. I can use this book that cost me less than a meal at Arby's for the rest of my life, and even if I use it for the rest of my life, I will still not harvest every treasure to be found therein. Bibles are a much smarter study choice economically!
5. If you rely on the devo book for your Bible reading, you will not know the context of the scripture. An example is Philippians 4:13...everyone teaches that this verse can be applied to winning a soccer game or getting an A, but if you read Chapter 4 and actually the whole book of Philippians, you will find that this verse (in context) is so richly speaking about contentment in Christ alone, even when you are suffering for His Name's sake. The humanistic approach that devotional books take towards verses like Philippians 4:13 cheapens the meaning for moldable minds like Americans today.
6. Devotional books are shallow. Hebrews 5 says by now you should be teachers, but you're still drinking milk. Get on meat, you guys! Quit settling for shallow teachings when God has much deeper things in store for you to learn!
7. The Bible is universal. Discussing scripture with others is easier since the Bible is used all across the world by every Christian of every age, race, language, and background; you don't have to be limited to talking about what happened in your devotional book, since not every Christian owns Joyce Meyer or whatever else you're reading.
8. God is much better at making sense of His Word than humans are. Reading the Bible is hard, and there are definitely some parts that seem to contradict. But His Word is perfect, and He will give you insight if you ask for it. If you're confused about something, don't see what another human has to say about it before you see what GOD (who wrote the Bible so definitely knows what it means) has to say about it.
9. If you spend your whole life taking what others say as truth, you will be very quickly confused. I learned this first-hand recently, and it was awful...You have got to study the Bible for yourself. Not everyone is right, but the Bible is always right.
10. Human insight will be one-sided. A few years ago, I went through a phase where I thoroughly studied what one author had to say about God, so my view of God was solely love love love, and I would totally ignore any verses about His wrath (even though the Bible definitely portrays that characteristic of His.) Then this summer, I went through a phase where I thoroughly studied what one preacher had to say about God, so my view of God was solely justice justice justice, and I felt uncomfortable when reading verses about His love. God is loving and just; the Bible paints the full picture of Him. Don't rely on human insight to accurately portray His character.
So read the Bible. Journaling is definitely important (or "man-booking", if you're a boy and think journaling is only for girls.) If you do not have a journal or somewhere to write down what God is showing you, tell me and I will get you one. If you are reading the Bible and not remembering what you learn, what good is it? So get in the Bible. Every day. Throw away your devotional books if they are taking the place of God's Word. Let's keep each other accountable about this; I want to be able to talk about the Bible; it is much more exciting than talking about movies or TV.
If you don't know where to start, some great books of the Bible that I recommend are:
-Ecclesiastes (this world has nothing for us)
-John (what Jesus was like)
-Matthew (what Jesus said to do)
-Romans (very difficult, but excellent for studying about our faith)
-Ephesians (what God did for us when He saved us)
-1 John (the marks of a true Christian)
-Psalms (God is awesome)
-Isaiah has gems of amazingness all throughout, but it's easy to take things out of context with that book so be careful. Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus. It's great.
If you have any questions or would like to talk about what God is showing you, please let me know! I love you so much!
Legalism is Dangerous!
“R-rated movies are of the devil.” “Drinking alcohol will give you a first-class ticket to hell.” “Christian rock is from satan.” "NEVER say damn, but dang is just fine."
My emotions towards such sayings can be best summed up in the following: Blechhh.
Before I say more I would like to preface this with saying that I in no way claim to be perfect, and my heart is dirtier than anyone on this planet will ever know, and my motives are sick too. I am by no means claiming to “have it down”, but I have thought about this subject a lot recently and would like to share what I believe the Bible says about it. I know that I come across as a little goodie-two-shoes and that is so offensive to me…but please listen to what I’m going to say before making a rash judgment. I’m not judging you and I don’t want you to judge me either.
An epidemic that I see raging rampantly throughout America is a severe case of legalism. For this Note I will define legalism as “the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws”…or in other words, a legalistic person would have the mindset of “you’re a bad person if you approve of the things I don’t approve of.” It is very dangerous to give certain people control of what’s good or bad, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but humans are stupid, so if some person is set up as the standard for “how to live right”, we’re in trouble.
Here is what our standard for living righteously should be: Jesus Christ.
Hmm. Since Jesus was perfect and we certainly are not (Romans 3:23), that makes it difficult to meet the standard that He has set before us. So some loud-mouthed elders in your church might change the standard for how to live to what they think is okay. Usually in legalistic surroundings, people either follow and are careful to abide by those rules as long as it's comfortable for them (“it’s definitely not okay to watch R-rated movies, but PG-13 is fine as long as there isn’t nudity”) or they give up on trying to be like Jesus altogether and do their own thing.
But instead of asking “Is this a sin?” or “Would this be considered okay?” I think we need to forget everything we’ve been taught all our lives and consider our motives for living “morally.”
Jesus did not come into this world to condemn us, but to save us. And that He did. So I want to ask you (“you” being the redeemed, if you have surrendered your life to Him.) …what did He save us from? Once you think back to the cross and what He did for us there, maybe your thoughts on “how to live” will change:
1.Jesus saves us from hell. I am not going to say what the Bible says hell contains (I want you to research the gruesome details for yourself) but I will say that it’s worse than our little human brains can imagine. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a hell?
2. Jesus saves us from satan’s control. Colossians 1 talks about how He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a jerk as satan? (I could have used stronger language here but some parents might not like it.)
3. Jesus saves us from separation from the Father. Since God is perfect and we are not, He hates to see sin so much that He hates to see us. Actually, He would hate to see us if One that He loved hadn’t died in our place…So now we can commune with the holy God because His holy Son died in the place of unholy us! Do you realize how much He hates sin? It took Adam and Eve one sin to get kicked out of the Garden. That’s serious business. So why do we pursue things that glorify what God hates?
4. Jesus saves us from sin. Romans 6 talks a lot about how we used to be dead in sin, but since Jesus gave us life we are now dead to sin. “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57.) Sin doesn’t have power over us anymore; Jesus beat it once and for all when He rose from the grave. We still sin, yes, but it does not have power over us like it used to, and we must realize this victory that we have in Jesus! Never call yourself a sinner; Jesus has changed your identity!So why do we pursue things that no longer have power over us?
5. Jesus saves us from a boring life. Something that we don’t get taught in church very often is that God created us to enjoy Him. God knows all of our needs (He gave them to us from birth!) and He made us to long for love, adventure, wonder, and excitement…so that we would seek Him to fulfill them all! Is He not the giver of every good thing? The reason I don’t really pursue “entertainment” (TV, movies, etc.) anymore is because I don’t need it…the God who created the whole universe is quite “entertaining” enough. If you're seeking the LORD, you're not missing out on anything. So why do we get bored!?
After thinking about all that was accomplished on the cross, I feel empowered more than limited. I have been freed from sin, so why would I want any traces of it still on me? Romans 1:32 puts those who approve of sin in the same category as idolaters and murderers and adulterers. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Most people at my school aren’t having sex, but pretty much everyone sees no problem with joking about it. “That’s what she said” and “ITB” are all over the place…but Jesus died for premarital sex! He doesn’t want to hear us joking about something that He died for! How serious is His death to us?How precious is His blood?
Jesus died!
Have you ever really thought about that?
He DIED.
For us!
For undeserving little wimps who daily choose the empty temporal fleeting worldly pleasures over the only truly satisfying source of delight out there…Himself.
Have you thought about that today? Do you think about that every day? I promise that if you truly consider His precious blood, you won’t want to chase after the very things that His blood was shed for.
I'll close with this verse:
James 1:16 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." When I get to Heaven, I don't want to be able to say that I used my time on earth to "go to church every Sunday and I never drank a sip of wine!" (That's legalism in case you didn't catch that.) I want to be as unstained from this yucky world as much I can, so that God will be pleased with my purity...I want Him to say "Well done, you loved Me and you loved others, and that was all that mattered to you." Is there no higher calling than following Him daily??
So, friends, I plead with you…stop listening to people who preach morals apart from the Gospel. If you want to know what’s right or wrong, consider the cross. The Holy Spirit (the same one that raised Christ from the dead!) now resides in us. No longer are our souls crying out for freedom from slavery, but rather they are crying out praises to the Father. (Romans 8:15) Do you want to grieve that Spirit inside of you? Flee from morals detached from the Gospel. Stop looking for loopholes in the law and start thinking about what would make God happy…because His opinion is all that matters.
Check out the words to this song: Make War
My emotions towards such sayings can be best summed up in the following: Blechhh.
Before I say more I would like to preface this with saying that I in no way claim to be perfect, and my heart is dirtier than anyone on this planet will ever know, and my motives are sick too. I am by no means claiming to “have it down”, but I have thought about this subject a lot recently and would like to share what I believe the Bible says about it. I know that I come across as a little goodie-two-shoes and that is so offensive to me…but please listen to what I’m going to say before making a rash judgment. I’m not judging you and I don’t want you to judge me either.
An epidemic that I see raging rampantly throughout America is a severe case of legalism. For this Note I will define legalism as “the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws”…or in other words, a legalistic person would have the mindset of “you’re a bad person if you approve of the things I don’t approve of.” It is very dangerous to give certain people control of what’s good or bad, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but humans are stupid, so if some person is set up as the standard for “how to live right”, we’re in trouble.
Here is what our standard for living righteously should be: Jesus Christ.
Hmm. Since Jesus was perfect and we certainly are not (Romans 3:23), that makes it difficult to meet the standard that He has set before us. So some loud-mouthed elders in your church might change the standard for how to live to what they think is okay. Usually in legalistic surroundings, people either follow and are careful to abide by those rules as long as it's comfortable for them (“it’s definitely not okay to watch R-rated movies, but PG-13 is fine as long as there isn’t nudity”) or they give up on trying to be like Jesus altogether and do their own thing.
But instead of asking “Is this a sin?” or “Would this be considered okay?” I think we need to forget everything we’ve been taught all our lives and consider our motives for living “morally.”
Jesus did not come into this world to condemn us, but to save us. And that He did. So I want to ask you (“you” being the redeemed, if you have surrendered your life to Him.) …what did He save us from? Once you think back to the cross and what He did for us there, maybe your thoughts on “how to live” will change:
1.Jesus saves us from hell. I am not going to say what the Bible says hell contains (I want you to research the gruesome details for yourself) but I will say that it’s worse than our little human brains can imagine. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a hell?
2. Jesus saves us from satan’s control. Colossians 1 talks about how He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a jerk as satan? (I could have used stronger language here but some parents might not like it.)
3. Jesus saves us from separation from the Father. Since God is perfect and we are not, He hates to see sin so much that He hates to see us. Actually, He would hate to see us if One that He loved hadn’t died in our place…So now we can commune with the holy God because His holy Son died in the place of unholy us! Do you realize how much He hates sin? It took Adam and Eve one sin to get kicked out of the Garden. That’s serious business. So why do we pursue things that glorify what God hates?
4. Jesus saves us from sin. Romans 6 talks a lot about how we used to be dead in sin, but since Jesus gave us life we are now dead to sin. “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57.) Sin doesn’t have power over us anymore; Jesus beat it once and for all when He rose from the grave. We still sin, yes, but it does not have power over us like it used to, and we must realize this victory that we have in Jesus! Never call yourself a sinner; Jesus has changed your identity!So why do we pursue things that no longer have power over us?
5. Jesus saves us from a boring life. Something that we don’t get taught in church very often is that God created us to enjoy Him. God knows all of our needs (He gave them to us from birth!) and He made us to long for love, adventure, wonder, and excitement…so that we would seek Him to fulfill them all! Is He not the giver of every good thing? The reason I don’t really pursue “entertainment” (TV, movies, etc.) anymore is because I don’t need it…the God who created the whole universe is quite “entertaining” enough. If you're seeking the LORD, you're not missing out on anything. So why do we get bored!?
After thinking about all that was accomplished on the cross, I feel empowered more than limited. I have been freed from sin, so why would I want any traces of it still on me? Romans 1:32 puts those who approve of sin in the same category as idolaters and murderers and adulterers. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Most people at my school aren’t having sex, but pretty much everyone sees no problem with joking about it. “That’s what she said” and “ITB” are all over the place…but Jesus died for premarital sex! He doesn’t want to hear us joking about something that He died for! How serious is His death to us?How precious is His blood?
Jesus died!
Have you ever really thought about that?
He DIED.
For us!
For undeserving little wimps who daily choose the empty temporal fleeting worldly pleasures over the only truly satisfying source of delight out there…Himself.
Have you thought about that today? Do you think about that every day? I promise that if you truly consider His precious blood, you won’t want to chase after the very things that His blood was shed for.
I'll close with this verse:
James 1:16 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." When I get to Heaven, I don't want to be able to say that I used my time on earth to "go to church every Sunday and I never drank a sip of wine!" (That's legalism in case you didn't catch that.) I want to be as unstained from this yucky world as much I can, so that God will be pleased with my purity...I want Him to say "Well done, you loved Me and you loved others, and that was all that mattered to you." Is there no higher calling than following Him daily??
So, friends, I plead with you…stop listening to people who preach morals apart from the Gospel. If you want to know what’s right or wrong, consider the cross. The Holy Spirit (the same one that raised Christ from the dead!) now resides in us. No longer are our souls crying out for freedom from slavery, but rather they are crying out praises to the Father. (Romans 8:15) Do you want to grieve that Spirit inside of you? Flee from morals detached from the Gospel. Stop looking for loopholes in the law and start thinking about what would make God happy…because His opinion is all that matters.
Check out the words to this song: Make War
Freedom.
Lately, God has been showing me a bounty of beautiful truths, but one that has been particularly applicable is the freedom I have found in Christ...a phrase which I can no longer say lightly.
For a few weeks this May, my thoughts were almost completely consumed with my appearance and I felt so terribly, hopelessly ugly. (I am not saying this for you to reply "Don't say that! You're lovely!" or anything...I'm just saying how I felt at the time.) However, in a short amount of time, God gave me a much deeper understanding of the weight of my sin, His wrath, Jesus' sacrifice, and the beautiful justice and mercy displayed there. And the more I fell in love with the Gospel, God was slowly chipping away my insecurities until one day it totally hit me that I didn't care much at all about my appearance anymore. I suddenly realized that my thoughts were now (mostly) bent towards what looked good to JESUS...and God doesn't really care if my eyes are green or not since He made them and deemed them perfect the way they are! He didn't mess up when He made the majestic universe, so obviously He didn't mess up when He made me...
Anyways, I soon realized that satisfaction in the Gospel is a FREEDOM that I had not really previously known.
Friends, listen to the awesomeness of Psalm 34 verses 8-10:
O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
Those who find satisfaction in God alone don't feel like they're missing out on things like money or good looks or popularity or boyfriends or anything like that. A friend once bluntly stated, "If Jesus doesn't supply it, you don't need it!" He has supplied Himself, and He is more than sufficient. The more that Christ consumes us, the less we care about anything except what makes Him happy! It's refreshing to find that kind of freedom.
Do you want to know what else is pretty crazy about finding freedom in Christ? Romans 8:15 says that before we came to salvation, our souls were crying out in pain, begging for freedom from this slavery to sin. Though the world can try to tell us that freedom is found in doing what makes you happy, I think we all from experience can testify that sin is truly suffocating. (And do not think that I am just talking about drugs and premarital sex; I'm referring to everyday struggles like disrespect or laziness or gossip or Facebook addiction...) But now, for those of us who are in Christ, God has REPLACED that helpless spirit with one of adoption, which is now instead crying out praises to our Father!
Have you ever really thought about this? We were like an orphan child, hopeless and hurting...then Jesus chose us by paying the highest price (namely, Himself!) for us. Have we done anything to deserve this? NO! One of my friends always says that if salvation was 99.99% God and .01% us, every single person on this earth would still be condemned to hell, for all have sinned and fallen short of God's prefect standard! (Romans 3:23)
There is no way we could pay our debt on our own, so Jesus, in all His glory, had to come to this earth to die for the sins of those didn't even know Him---much less love Him---yet. He did live 33 years sin-free, but He did not live 33 years temptation-free. He can empathize with our strugggles, which we often forget (Hebrews 4:15), except the difference between His response to temptations and ours is that He never failed!
The Gospel is so powerful. Christ unites in ways that no motivational book or speaker or any kind of counseling could ever unite. In a marriage, if the husband and wife have polar opposite interests and personalities, their relationship will still be strong if the Gospel is their center. Something I so fear about my senior class at church is that we are falsely united, getting along when we have to but completely leaving God out of the equation. (Plus we shouldn't just be united as a class, but rather as a body of believers regardless of the grade we are in.) We must be united in the Gospel, and even if Jesus is the only thing we have in common, that is more than enough to have in common.
So I encourage you, if your spirit is still crying out for freedom from sin, cry out to the LORD and repent! (That does not mean apologize; that means CHANGE.) And if you are already a child of God, I really want to encourage you to find the freedom found in considering God "enough." You do this by earnestly seeking Him, as it says in the Psalms...by valuing Him more than the things that we once held dear. He is all that is good.
For a few weeks this May, my thoughts were almost completely consumed with my appearance and I felt so terribly, hopelessly ugly. (I am not saying this for you to reply "Don't say that! You're lovely!" or anything...I'm just saying how I felt at the time.) However, in a short amount of time, God gave me a much deeper understanding of the weight of my sin, His wrath, Jesus' sacrifice, and the beautiful justice and mercy displayed there. And the more I fell in love with the Gospel, God was slowly chipping away my insecurities until one day it totally hit me that I didn't care much at all about my appearance anymore. I suddenly realized that my thoughts were now (mostly) bent towards what looked good to JESUS...and God doesn't really care if my eyes are green or not since He made them and deemed them perfect the way they are! He didn't mess up when He made the majestic universe, so obviously He didn't mess up when He made me...
Anyways, I soon realized that satisfaction in the Gospel is a FREEDOM that I had not really previously known.
Friends, listen to the awesomeness of Psalm 34 verses 8-10:
O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
Those who find satisfaction in God alone don't feel like they're missing out on things like money or good looks or popularity or boyfriends or anything like that. A friend once bluntly stated, "If Jesus doesn't supply it, you don't need it!" He has supplied Himself, and He is more than sufficient. The more that Christ consumes us, the less we care about anything except what makes Him happy! It's refreshing to find that kind of freedom.
Do you want to know what else is pretty crazy about finding freedom in Christ? Romans 8:15 says that before we came to salvation, our souls were crying out in pain, begging for freedom from this slavery to sin. Though the world can try to tell us that freedom is found in doing what makes you happy, I think we all from experience can testify that sin is truly suffocating. (And do not think that I am just talking about drugs and premarital sex; I'm referring to everyday struggles like disrespect or laziness or gossip or Facebook addiction...) But now, for those of us who are in Christ, God has REPLACED that helpless spirit with one of adoption, which is now instead crying out praises to our Father!
Have you ever really thought about this? We were like an orphan child, hopeless and hurting...then Jesus chose us by paying the highest price (namely, Himself!) for us. Have we done anything to deserve this? NO! One of my friends always says that if salvation was 99.99% God and .01% us, every single person on this earth would still be condemned to hell, for all have sinned and fallen short of God's prefect standard! (Romans 3:23)
There is no way we could pay our debt on our own, so Jesus, in all His glory, had to come to this earth to die for the sins of those didn't even know Him---much less love Him---yet. He did live 33 years sin-free, but He did not live 33 years temptation-free. He can empathize with our strugggles, which we often forget (Hebrews 4:15), except the difference between His response to temptations and ours is that He never failed!
The Gospel is so powerful. Christ unites in ways that no motivational book or speaker or any kind of counseling could ever unite. In a marriage, if the husband and wife have polar opposite interests and personalities, their relationship will still be strong if the Gospel is their center. Something I so fear about my senior class at church is that we are falsely united, getting along when we have to but completely leaving God out of the equation. (Plus we shouldn't just be united as a class, but rather as a body of believers regardless of the grade we are in.) We must be united in the Gospel, and even if Jesus is the only thing we have in common, that is more than enough to have in common.
So I encourage you, if your spirit is still crying out for freedom from sin, cry out to the LORD and repent! (That does not mean apologize; that means CHANGE.) And if you are already a child of God, I really want to encourage you to find the freedom found in considering God "enough." You do this by earnestly seeking Him, as it says in the Psalms...by valuing Him more than the things that we once held dear. He is all that is good.
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