I realize that God wants to shape and form my life according to him. I also know that God has given me a purpose, but sometimes, I try and make ends meet all by myself. Do you ever do that?
I'm often overwhelmed by what I have to do to make my life actually mean something. Tim Keller would probably note that, in all of my searching, what's really going on is that I'm desperately and superficially searching for something that only Christ can satisfy. Or in other words, I'm making idols that replace Jesus' work on the cross. So, there I am, I'm at the bottom of Mt. Sinai waiting for Moses to come down with the law and I'm molding an idol to worship and obey rather than waiting on God.
But, this is learning process and what I constantly must remind myself of is that, that only Christ can satisfy.
We sang this song in church and I really liked it. it's chorus was just a proclamation that Only Jesus can satisfy. How true is that? Only Jesus can curb my anxiety about the future. Only Jesus can give me the power to grow. Only Jesus can push me into a life worthy of the gospel.
I pray that I can remember this week,at least, to put God first, and trust Him.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Thoughts on justice
Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore, His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; the coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob. Says the Lord.
Isaiah 59:15b-20
Surely, Justice was seen on the cross when our sins were paid for, and one day, all things will be made right.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Running Forward.
God has been stirring up my heart lately and it's been making me hungry for him.
I see who I am; yet, I'm reassured by what I know about His Love for me. I want to know Him more, I want to dig deeper, to run farther in.
1 Peter 2:2&3
As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I'm hungry because of the gospel and I want to live like someone who has been affected by it. And I want to share with you guys in the experience.
I see who I am; yet, I'm reassured by what I know about His Love for me. I want to know Him more, I want to dig deeper, to run farther in.
1 Peter 2:2&3
As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I'm hungry because of the gospel and I want to live like someone who has been affected by it. And I want to share with you guys in the experience.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
I Guess After All, We're All Just Groaning
Throwing bible verses at certain situations seems a bit inconsiderate sometimes, because who really knows pain?
I didn't really think too much of the tragic earthquake in Haiti til I checked my twitter just a few minutes ago and realized somehow I had just closed my eyes to the pain out there in the world over this incident. My heart really goes out for the situation now, and so I will be praying for the people of Haiti.
But, I feel like I ought to share this. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt that God is there(Gen 28:15; Ps 9:10; Ps 94:14; Matt 28:19 ), He is suffering ( Isaiah 53:4-6; Hebrews 12:1, Luke 24:26; and that He has not forsaken us (Hebrews 4:14-16;5:8-11) and He loves us (Romans 8:18-28&32; 1 John 4:10.
It makes a whole lot of sense to me when I read that all of creation is groaning (Romans 8:22) and it's groaning for justice and righteousness. But all of creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in Hope (Romans 8:20). And so creation groans. And we groan. And they groan. We all grown.
Shouldn't there be something... Shouldn't it be... different? We can't even express the words... Why is there so much pain? We groan... and the Spirit hears us. (Romans 8:26) The Spirit intercedes for us. He cries out to God what we can't.
Now, In Luke 4 Jesus introduces his purpose for being here on earth. He says, " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." and do you see the justice of his coming. Luke 24:7 is when the disciples remembered what Jesus said before he died, He said, " The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Jesus came and died so that we can be reunited with our heavily father. The death on the cross is our security that all wrongs will be made right. AW Tozer said, in his book knowledge of the Holy, "Thy justice upholds the order of the universe and guarantees the safety of all who put their trust in Thee. We live because Thou art just - and merciful." He makes an argument in his chapter on the justice of God that it's God's justice itself that has identified Christ's payment as payment enough for all the injustice, all the sin, all the broken hearts, the sick the lame the abused... it's Jesus' debt on the cross that brings justice! We all live in the grace of God's ultimate sacrifice. And so, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) and "He who did not even spare his own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
Sometimes giving quick bibles answers is inconsiderate, but when you really look at it, I think the bible defends itself. This situation in Haiti is horrific and questioning why is a response that a lot of people do. But we need to look to scripture and see what it really says and then come to people on terms of understanding. John Piper said on a sermon i just listened to, "When you come to somebody who is suffering the first thing you do is hug. you hug for a really long time. then you hug some more. But your hug has to be founded upon firm ground, and we know that ground to be Jesus."
"For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
I didn't really think too much of the tragic earthquake in Haiti til I checked my twitter just a few minutes ago and realized somehow I had just closed my eyes to the pain out there in the world over this incident. My heart really goes out for the situation now, and so I will be praying for the people of Haiti.
But, I feel like I ought to share this. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt that God is there(Gen 28:15; Ps 9:10; Ps 94:14; Matt 28:19 ), He is suffering ( Isaiah 53:4-6; Hebrews 12:1, Luke 24:26; and that He has not forsaken us (Hebrews 4:14-16;5:8-11) and He loves us (Romans 8:18-28&32; 1 John 4:10.
It makes a whole lot of sense to me when I read that all of creation is groaning (Romans 8:22) and it's groaning for justice and righteousness. But all of creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in Hope (Romans 8:20). And so creation groans. And we groan. And they groan. We all grown.
Shouldn't there be something... Shouldn't it be... different? We can't even express the words... Why is there so much pain? We groan... and the Spirit hears us. (Romans 8:26) The Spirit intercedes for us. He cries out to God what we can't.
Now, In Luke 4 Jesus introduces his purpose for being here on earth. He says, " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." and do you see the justice of his coming. Luke 24:7 is when the disciples remembered what Jesus said before he died, He said, " The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Jesus came and died so that we can be reunited with our heavily father. The death on the cross is our security that all wrongs will be made right. AW Tozer said, in his book knowledge of the Holy, "Thy justice upholds the order of the universe and guarantees the safety of all who put their trust in Thee. We live because Thou art just - and merciful." He makes an argument in his chapter on the justice of God that it's God's justice itself that has identified Christ's payment as payment enough for all the injustice, all the sin, all the broken hearts, the sick the lame the abused... it's Jesus' debt on the cross that brings justice! We all live in the grace of God's ultimate sacrifice. And so, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) and "He who did not even spare his own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
Sometimes giving quick bibles answers is inconsiderate, but when you really look at it, I think the bible defends itself. This situation in Haiti is horrific and questioning why is a response that a lot of people do. But we need to look to scripture and see what it really says and then come to people on terms of understanding. John Piper said on a sermon i just listened to, "When you come to somebody who is suffering the first thing you do is hug. you hug for a really long time. then you hug some more. But your hug has to be founded upon firm ground, and we know that ground to be Jesus."
"For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Christ wins.
At this point, I am asking myself what I'm really known for. Over the last couple weeks, I've had two falls, one snowboarding, and the other skating, that have both hurt my wrist. Now, I don't mean to tell you that for pity's sake, but to share with you the question that arose, "Where do I find my identity?" and then share with you my answer.
Now, Snowboarding is one things I love doing. To be honest, I've put a lot of money into it so that I can enjoy it and experience the joy of hanging out with friends doing so. But, not only that, I believe I've put a lot of effort into developing myself as a skater/surfer/boarder which kinda all goes hand in hand. I've invested in the clothes, I have the gear, I can even carry on a conversation with any boarder mostly about the newest technology for snowboarding that might "revolutionize" the entire world of boarding. Anyway, point being, I feel as though I can identify myself as a boarder.
And so over break it was clear, I was gonna hit the slopes. I wasn't pushing myself like I did last year but I still managed to fall doing a simple boardslide on a down box, which is something I've done hundreds of times it seems. Well when I fell off, I landed on my wrist and could feel it start throbbing immediately. The first thing I thought about was guitar (my baby). And I was facing a real question. Ignorantly I told myself, it's not broken it will just go away, because the consequences of a broken arm were much too tragic. Not being able to play guitar for 6 weeks at least is what I was looking at. Because I wanted to play guitar for youth group over the weekend I just kinda sucked it up and wore a brace and battled through it for sunday.
So a couple days later I was hanging out with one of my best friends Mike Johns. I told him about the fall and how worried I was about guitar but it led into a pretty cool conversation. Psychology tells me that between the years 18-24 I will be searching for what I find my identity in; so, at this age, a lot of change takes place. And I can totally see that as being true and identifiable.Follow me now as I take a very large step back. I can tell you I'd love to be known as a musician in one sense but also at the same time keep some other influences in there too, but is that really who I am? What if those things were taken away and I really wasn't able to do them for an extended of period of time. Who would I be? Well this is where my conversation with Mike went, who is a professional drummer and aspiring sound technician. "Where does our identity come from?" Maybe a better question to ask is, "In what should our identity lie?" The simple is answer is Christ. Matt 7:24 says "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock."
But I don't think I find my identity on the rock all the time. Tim Keller, a influential theologian says, " a counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living." I'm not that extreme about snowboarding or guitar but I'm sure you can understand the importance of it. He continues, " An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources , on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money or achievement," and it goes on for quiet a bit longer. Where I find my identity is a much bigger issue at hand because it shows what really is ruling over my heart. Constantly Christ must be put on the throne of my heart. So how do we free ourselves, well we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith and, Tim Keller says this as well, " The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God who revealed himself at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and if you fail him, can truly forgive you."
So, I'm going to get my wrist checked out tomorrow after falling again yesterday, but no matter what I can be confident in the fact, that I am the Lord's. Eph:1 4-6 says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestined himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." More importantly than anything else, God loves us and that's our identity. We are saved by grace even though we don't deserve it, He loves us and thats all we need to worry about.
Now, Snowboarding is one things I love doing. To be honest, I've put a lot of money into it so that I can enjoy it and experience the joy of hanging out with friends doing so. But, not only that, I believe I've put a lot of effort into developing myself as a skater/surfer/boarder which kinda all goes hand in hand. I've invested in the clothes, I have the gear, I can even carry on a conversation with any boarder mostly about the newest technology for snowboarding that might "revolutionize" the entire world of boarding. Anyway, point being, I feel as though I can identify myself as a boarder.
And so over break it was clear, I was gonna hit the slopes. I wasn't pushing myself like I did last year but I still managed to fall doing a simple boardslide on a down box, which is something I've done hundreds of times it seems. Well when I fell off, I landed on my wrist and could feel it start throbbing immediately. The first thing I thought about was guitar (my baby). And I was facing a real question. Ignorantly I told myself, it's not broken it will just go away, because the consequences of a broken arm were much too tragic. Not being able to play guitar for 6 weeks at least is what I was looking at. Because I wanted to play guitar for youth group over the weekend I just kinda sucked it up and wore a brace and battled through it for sunday.
So a couple days later I was hanging out with one of my best friends Mike Johns. I told him about the fall and how worried I was about guitar but it led into a pretty cool conversation. Psychology tells me that between the years 18-24 I will be searching for what I find my identity in; so, at this age, a lot of change takes place. And I can totally see that as being true and identifiable.Follow me now as I take a very large step back. I can tell you I'd love to be known as a musician in one sense but also at the same time keep some other influences in there too, but is that really who I am? What if those things were taken away and I really wasn't able to do them for an extended of period of time. Who would I be? Well this is where my conversation with Mike went, who is a professional drummer and aspiring sound technician. "Where does our identity come from?" Maybe a better question to ask is, "In what should our identity lie?" The simple is answer is Christ. Matt 7:24 says "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock."
But I don't think I find my identity on the rock all the time. Tim Keller, a influential theologian says, " a counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living." I'm not that extreme about snowboarding or guitar but I'm sure you can understand the importance of it. He continues, " An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources , on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money or achievement," and it goes on for quiet a bit longer. Where I find my identity is a much bigger issue at hand because it shows what really is ruling over my heart. Constantly Christ must be put on the throne of my heart. So how do we free ourselves, well we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith and, Tim Keller says this as well, " The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God who revealed himself at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and if you fail him, can truly forgive you."
So, I'm going to get my wrist checked out tomorrow after falling again yesterday, but no matter what I can be confident in the fact, that I am the Lord's. Eph:1 4-6 says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestined himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." More importantly than anything else, God loves us and that's our identity. We are saved by grace even though we don't deserve it, He loves us and thats all we need to worry about.
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