THIS WEEK a series of good things happened that reminded me of God's goodness and His presence in my life, and I want to share several stories with you. They're all very different and probably small, but they are all really good and I had a fun time being there when they happened.
On Monday I was still in Alabama. A few hours before I was to tour Auburn University I visited a stained glass studio called GlassDesigns in Opelika. I love stained glass and I am considering it as a career, so it was exciting to visit Alice Chamblee and her son Douglas Chamblee, who make and replace stained glass windows of many shapes and sizes. But it was what happened after the visit that was very amazing.
When my mom tried to start the car to leave the studio, the engine would not start. The battery was quite dead. Five hours away from home and with a busy day of driving ahead, we had a big problem. But thanks to God we had gotten stuck in what was probably the most convenient place in Alabama to have a dead car battery. We were still in the driveway next to the studio, so Douglas Chamblee came to help us. When he tried to give our car a jump he discovered that the terminals were corroded. That meant he couldn't give the car a jump until they were cleaned off. So he went right across the street to the Advanced Auto Repair Store to get some terminal cleaner (he said he needed some anyway, but come on - that was too nice). While he was gone my mom recalled how her uncle used to say you could clean the corrosion with Coke.
We watched Mr. Chamblee's white truck move from the auto repair store to the gas station next to it. A few minutes later he returned with Coke to clean the terminals! The store was out of terminal cleaner. Amazingly, the soda worked. He gave the car a jump and it was ready to go. He wouldn't accept any money we tried to give him. It was refreshing to see that act of Christlikeness, of a person going out of his way to help someone unselfishly. I am reminded of the good Samaritan who spent his time and money to rescue someone who had been robbed and beaten on the street, after two others had just passed him by (Luke 10:30-37). That's how Jesus told us to be. If you're reading this, Mr. Chamblee, thank you again. We won't forget that.
Do you see what God did there? He made it so that when the battery died we were in the driveway of a very kind pair of people who own jumper cables, across the street from an auto repair store and a gas station with Coke. We could have been in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere dangerous. He answered my prayer as He had done so often before and as He continues to do. He also allowe my family and me to have a safe trip back to Jacksonville.
On Thursday I had a big presentation in history class about the American Home Front during World War Two. My partner, Cat White, and I were supposed to give this presentation for about an hour, and I was scared. I had never given a presentation like that before. So I kept praying that God would expand our words so that we could fill our time and have enough to say. And guess what? Our presentation was still going on when the bell rang for the end of class. We had spoken for over 45 minutes (taking turns) and were in the middle of playing a propaganda video that the class was really enjoying (they asked to see the end of it the next day). I thanked God and entered the next class celebrating with a big "YEAH!" that made my TOK instructor wonder why I was so excited.
Do you see how God helped us here? I didn't think I knew enough to speak about the Home Front for a long time. I had been praying and studying, a combination which I believe to be the best approach to difficult schoolwork. And now I can celebrate how God helped me and Cat by giving us enough to say and helping us not to be too nervous.
On Friday at the end of the school day I realized I was supposed to have turned in my NAHS dues to a Mrs. Heggood before the start of school. I was deeply troubled because I thought my dues were surely late and that I would probably be dismissed from the NAHS. My mom wrote a check for the dues when I got to the car, and I went back into the school to see if I could still pay.
I was praying that Mrs. Heggood would still be there and that it might not be too late. I thought about how small my problem was, since it was not life-threatening to me nor to anyone else. Still I asked God for His help, and immediately I felt a little better. I wasn't so scared anymore. Immediately when I entered the school building, who did I see? None other than Mrs. Heggodd herself. She did not have what she needed to collect the check at that time but she said to come give it to her on Monday morning. And so I will.
Do you see what God did here? He calmed my heart and made everything work out, as He has done so maany times. I can still turn in my dues on Monday. Now, it wouldn't have killed me or ruined my life if I were too late. I could survive without the NAHS. But God made this into an opportunity for me to see how He can answer prayers.
There are so many instances of God's guiding and blessing me and my family that I could tell you about. I saw a butterfly who had emerged from a cacoon that I had seen it make. There was a baby shower at my house for my aunt Tresha and her future baby Marco, due in mid-December. The cool October air blows on our faces every day lately, and there is a lovely tray of roasted pumkin seeds and rock salt in the kitchen at my house. Today I heard the story of a preacher from another country who has a rare, often fatal disease that causes paralysis. Pastor Russ interviewed him today at church, and although he was weak and his movements were not easy, he was moving and speaking. He has steadily started moving more and getting stronger. He has a big family that gets to have him around, where they could easily have lost him. God answered their prayers.
But what about the seemingly unanswered prayers? What about calamities, tragedies, and horrors? What about the times when it doesn't turn out like we prayed it would? On Sunday night, one week ago, my sister Isabelle was feeling really sick and I prayed for her to get better by morning. In the morning, she was not better. But now she is. That morning, when she was still sick, I read John 11 where Jesus allows Lazarus to be sick, even to die, before He comes so that He could demonstrate the greatness of God. Sometimes frustrations have to happen, whether to test our faith or to increase it, or both.
Indeed Jesus said (John 14:14) "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." But we must keep in mind that God knows what we don't know. He fills our lives with joy and simultaneously allows unpleasant things to happen to teach us to hang on to Him for dear life. He "sees over the fence," in the words of Laura Toney, my friend's mom. So let's thank Him for the amazing miracles He puts in our lives, and rest in the shelter He provides during the harder parts. He does answer prayer, as I have personally seen many times. Sometimes He will answer in ways we don't expect, like with a bottle of Coke and a kind stranger.
Philippians 4:6-7 "[6]Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; [7] and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
True Bread
THIS WEEK I’m writing to you from Opelika, Alabama, a little town next door to Auburn. I plan to visit Auburn University tomorrow. A few hours ago I visited a church associated with the college, and after the service a woman named Mary, the Activities Coordinator for the Auburn Christian Students Center, greeted me. When she learned that I had come to visit the college she offered to show me and my parents around the Student Center. We accepted her offer and when we visited the Student Center building she told us all about the interesting student group. As it turns out – and you know I don’t believe in coincidences – Mary doesn’t usually come to the service I attended today, and I am grateful that I got to meet her and to get information about that interesting group.
On the long car ride to Alabama I spent part of the time working on my art journal. I’m planning a revised version of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” and my attention has been drawn to that beautiful scene. It is the Passover meal that Jesus eats with His twelve disciples in the Upper Room, during which He declares that one of them – one of His closest companions and dearest followers, the twelve – would betray Him. He knew it had to happen because the Scriptures predicted He would be betrayed, and He was not surprised. And since He knows everything, He knew that it was Judas Iscariot who would betray Him. So while the disciples were filled with sorrow and surprise, He did not raise His voice or declare the name of the man responsible. He said that it was the man who dipped with Him, the man whose hand was on the table with Him, the man to whom He would give bread after He had dipped it, but He did not name Judas. I think it is because He did not plan to cause a scene or to incite the other eleven to kill him. He knew Judas had it coming to him, and He did not want anybody to defend Him because He knew this had to happen as part of His suffering and death for mankind.
But what did He do instead? He passed bread and wine around the table, calling it His body and His blood which are given for the sin of the world. He did this before Judas left, not after. Luke 22:19 “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this is remembrance of Me.’” Today we repeat this scene in Communion with tiny crackers and cups of wine or grape juice, in remembrance of Jesus.
Think about a time when you have been hungry. There is nothing for satisfying to the hungry stomach than for the mouth to be full of bread. When I have a piece of bread in my hand, and when I stop and notice it before I have eaten it, I have the grateful feeling that everything is alright, that God has given me what I need, because there are in fact people who don’t have any bread.
In John 6 Jesus explains to the people that He is the bread from heaven which gives eternal life to anyone who eats it. He had very recently turned only a few loaves of bread into way more than enough to feed about 5,000 people, so they were interested in what He was saying about bread. V. 32-33 “[32] Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. [33] For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The people tended to think that the ‘bread from heaven’ was the manna that gathered like dew on the grass in the time when the Moses and the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years. This event was not only to feed the people but to foreshadow how God would give Jesus as ‘bread’ from heaven to nourish His people. Jesus was explaining that He is the “true bread.”
The Jews started to complain because they did not approve of what He was saying. V. 51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” They did not understand that He was not speaking literally. Because they were not spiritually-minded and because they did not believe in Him, their eyes were closed so that they did not understand. V. 52 “The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’” What He meant was that if we believe in Him and abide in Him we shall have eternal life because, as bread is wonderful nourishment for the body, He would be eternal nourishment for our souls. He will fill us so that we do not hunger for something else. If we seek him and find the nourishment we need in Him rather than trying to earn peace, joy, or salvation by our own efforts, we will find that we are filled with peace, joy and salvation. Our hearts have longing needs that are like bottomless pits. Only something endless can permanently fill an endless space. Only He can satisfy our needs.
V. 27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
This amazes me. It speaks to me. How great God is, that He has come to assure us that He will never abandon us and that He is enough for us. The most important thing in my life, the one thing I simply could not live without, is the one thing I cannot lose. I believe this is the happiest way to live. I see myself and others being envious because somebody has what we do not.
This one has an amazing house. How about the mansion Jesus promised is surely waiting for each one of us in God’s kingdom? That one has the love of a faithful husband or wife. What about a life with God, an unending embrace of perfect true love? This one has a mouth full of food and a glass full of water. How about the living bread which came down from heaven? All of these things are good to have and perfectly fine to want. It’s definitely not wrong to want things. But when the desire of the heart is for that which cannot be lost, that which truly satisfies and never fails, we find our needs met completely.
Isaiah 55:2, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
On the long car ride to Alabama I spent part of the time working on my art journal. I’m planning a revised version of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” and my attention has been drawn to that beautiful scene. It is the Passover meal that Jesus eats with His twelve disciples in the Upper Room, during which He declares that one of them – one of His closest companions and dearest followers, the twelve – would betray Him. He knew it had to happen because the Scriptures predicted He would be betrayed, and He was not surprised. And since He knows everything, He knew that it was Judas Iscariot who would betray Him. So while the disciples were filled with sorrow and surprise, He did not raise His voice or declare the name of the man responsible. He said that it was the man who dipped with Him, the man whose hand was on the table with Him, the man to whom He would give bread after He had dipped it, but He did not name Judas. I think it is because He did not plan to cause a scene or to incite the other eleven to kill him. He knew Judas had it coming to him, and He did not want anybody to defend Him because He knew this had to happen as part of His suffering and death for mankind.
But what did He do instead? He passed bread and wine around the table, calling it His body and His blood which are given for the sin of the world. He did this before Judas left, not after. Luke 22:19 “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this is remembrance of Me.’” Today we repeat this scene in Communion with tiny crackers and cups of wine or grape juice, in remembrance of Jesus.
Think about a time when you have been hungry. There is nothing for satisfying to the hungry stomach than for the mouth to be full of bread. When I have a piece of bread in my hand, and when I stop and notice it before I have eaten it, I have the grateful feeling that everything is alright, that God has given me what I need, because there are in fact people who don’t have any bread.
In John 6 Jesus explains to the people that He is the bread from heaven which gives eternal life to anyone who eats it. He had very recently turned only a few loaves of bread into way more than enough to feed about 5,000 people, so they were interested in what He was saying about bread. V. 32-33 “[32] Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. [33] For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The people tended to think that the ‘bread from heaven’ was the manna that gathered like dew on the grass in the time when the Moses and the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years. This event was not only to feed the people but to foreshadow how God would give Jesus as ‘bread’ from heaven to nourish His people. Jesus was explaining that He is the “true bread.”
The Jews started to complain because they did not approve of what He was saying. V. 51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” They did not understand that He was not speaking literally. Because they were not spiritually-minded and because they did not believe in Him, their eyes were closed so that they did not understand. V. 52 “The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’” What He meant was that if we believe in Him and abide in Him we shall have eternal life because, as bread is wonderful nourishment for the body, He would be eternal nourishment for our souls. He will fill us so that we do not hunger for something else. If we seek him and find the nourishment we need in Him rather than trying to earn peace, joy, or salvation by our own efforts, we will find that we are filled with peace, joy and salvation. Our hearts have longing needs that are like bottomless pits. Only something endless can permanently fill an endless space. Only He can satisfy our needs.
V. 27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
This amazes me. It speaks to me. How great God is, that He has come to assure us that He will never abandon us and that He is enough for us. The most important thing in my life, the one thing I simply could not live without, is the one thing I cannot lose. I believe this is the happiest way to live. I see myself and others being envious because somebody has what we do not.
This one has an amazing house. How about the mansion Jesus promised is surely waiting for each one of us in God’s kingdom? That one has the love of a faithful husband or wife. What about a life with God, an unending embrace of perfect true love? This one has a mouth full of food and a glass full of water. How about the living bread which came down from heaven? All of these things are good to have and perfectly fine to want. It’s definitely not wrong to want things. But when the desire of the heart is for that which cannot be lost, that which truly satisfies and never fails, we find our needs met completely.
Isaiah 55:2, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
Sunday, October 17, 2010
All Kinds of Amazing
THIS WEEK a miracle happened that you probably heard about on the news. In Chile a group of 33 miners were rescued from a mine after having been trapped for about 69 days. For over two months they were locked in a very hot, very dark place deep beneath the surface of the earth, with only a small opening to the outside world through which they received important supplies. One by one they were finally brought up in a "caspule" contraption, all alive. Praise God for that miracle.
There are a lot of things I could say about God. He's amazing in many ways. Like how He sees and knows everything at once, and how He loves us consistently and without fail, like nobody else can love us. How He refuses to share a place in our hearts with anything else, and demands that we worship Him sincerely and exclusively. How He is willing to bear our pain and sin on our behalf, at His ouwn expense. How He takes our burdens upon Himself and through His Holy Spirit allows us to exchange anger for healing, sorrow for joy, filth for redemption, weakness for strength. Somehow writing about it helps me learn more about what I'm writing about.
This week I read the last chapter of Luke (chapter 24) which gives the details of Christ's Resurrection. The same day I read Isaiah 53, which is an amazing prophecy about Christ's life, death, and victory. Looking at chapters 23 and 24 of Luke next to Isaiah 53, I am again reminded of God's greatness.
I love the Old Testament prophecies about Christ because they were written about Him hundreds of years before He was in the world, and they could not describe anyone else. I'm going to compare some details of Isaiah 53 with what the New Testament says about Jesus.
Isaiah 53:3 "He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." There are a lot of examples of Jesus being rejected and afflicted. Think about when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." I've read that people's sweat starts to have blood in it when they are under extreme stress. That was what was happening to Jesus.
His pain was enormous, more than we can imagine. More than we will ever have to imagine, thanks to God.
Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth." Now look at Luke 23:8-10 "[8] Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. [9] Then He questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing. [10] And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him." Jesus did not say a single word in His defense, because He knew that this was how it had to be for our good. It was why He had been born. He submitted to the will of God completely. He went through with the pain not because He couldn't escape from it but because He knew we needed Him to and because it was what would glorify God.
Isaiah 53:9 "And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth." I keep noticing great things about this chapter. I just recently noticed how this detail compares to Jesus' death and burial. Luke 23:33 "And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left." Now look at Luke 23:53 "Then he [Joseph] took it [Jesus' body] down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before." and v. 56 "Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment." He was crucified like a criminal, in the place of criminals. We are people covered in crimes, and He, being completely without sin, suffers in our place. That is a great God. He was killed like a sinner and buried like a king, just like Isaiah predicts.
Isaiah 53:12 "Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." This means that because He laid down His own life to save us sinners He shall be glorifed. Jesus spoke to His disciples about the gospel in Luke 24:46-47, "[46] Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, [47] and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Everything the prophets ever said about Him was true, and everything Jesus ever said is true. God wants us to live by faith, so He makes sure we have reasons to believe.
Think about His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how Judas betrayed Him, and how His disciples fled during His arrest. Think about how the Pharisees hated Him, how they mocked Him on the cross, and even how people run from Him today. Jesus suffered in every way, to make a bridge between little us and a great God we can never deserve. And look at Him now: He is glorified for who He is, seated with the Father in heaven. I hope and pray that one day I can see Him smile and say I've served Him well. He is all kinds of amazing, all the time. I pray we can all live with the Lord's Table in our hearts, constantly remembering Him and glorifying Him in our lives as the Holy Spirit lives in us and through us.
There are a lot of things I could say about God. He's amazing in many ways. Like how He sees and knows everything at once, and how He loves us consistently and without fail, like nobody else can love us. How He refuses to share a place in our hearts with anything else, and demands that we worship Him sincerely and exclusively. How He is willing to bear our pain and sin on our behalf, at His ouwn expense. How He takes our burdens upon Himself and through His Holy Spirit allows us to exchange anger for healing, sorrow for joy, filth for redemption, weakness for strength. Somehow writing about it helps me learn more about what I'm writing about.
This week I read the last chapter of Luke (chapter 24) which gives the details of Christ's Resurrection. The same day I read Isaiah 53, which is an amazing prophecy about Christ's life, death, and victory. Looking at chapters 23 and 24 of Luke next to Isaiah 53, I am again reminded of God's greatness.
I love the Old Testament prophecies about Christ because they were written about Him hundreds of years before He was in the world, and they could not describe anyone else. I'm going to compare some details of Isaiah 53 with what the New Testament says about Jesus.
Isaiah 53:3 "He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." There are a lot of examples of Jesus being rejected and afflicted. Think about when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." I've read that people's sweat starts to have blood in it when they are under extreme stress. That was what was happening to Jesus.
His pain was enormous, more than we can imagine. More than we will ever have to imagine, thanks to God.
Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth." Now look at Luke 23:8-10 "[8] Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. [9] Then He questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing. [10] And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him." Jesus did not say a single word in His defense, because He knew that this was how it had to be for our good. It was why He had been born. He submitted to the will of God completely. He went through with the pain not because He couldn't escape from it but because He knew we needed Him to and because it was what would glorify God.
Isaiah 53:9 "And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth." I keep noticing great things about this chapter. I just recently noticed how this detail compares to Jesus' death and burial. Luke 23:33 "And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left." Now look at Luke 23:53 "Then he [Joseph] took it [Jesus' body] down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before." and v. 56 "Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment." He was crucified like a criminal, in the place of criminals. We are people covered in crimes, and He, being completely without sin, suffers in our place. That is a great God. He was killed like a sinner and buried like a king, just like Isaiah predicts.
Isaiah 53:12 "Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." This means that because He laid down His own life to save us sinners He shall be glorifed. Jesus spoke to His disciples about the gospel in Luke 24:46-47, "[46] Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, [47] and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Everything the prophets ever said about Him was true, and everything Jesus ever said is true. God wants us to live by faith, so He makes sure we have reasons to believe.
Think about His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how Judas betrayed Him, and how His disciples fled during His arrest. Think about how the Pharisees hated Him, how they mocked Him on the cross, and even how people run from Him today. Jesus suffered in every way, to make a bridge between little us and a great God we can never deserve. And look at Him now: He is glorified for who He is, seated with the Father in heaven. I hope and pray that one day I can see Him smile and say I've served Him well. He is all kinds of amazing, all the time. I pray we can all live with the Lord's Table in our hearts, constantly remembering Him and glorifying Him in our lives as the Holy Spirit lives in us and through us.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
About Psalm 40
THIS WEEK has been a good week. I'm enjoying the cool fall weather and the orange butterflies around my house. The butterflies love the big passion flower vine which climbs on the side of the house. There are fantastic purple passion flowers, and little black-and-red caterpillars that eat lacy holes into the green leaves. The butterflies and the flowers remind me of God. Why else would they be so beautiful other than to make us happy?
God makes me very happy. Yesterday I had a very happy moment with Him when I was looking at Psalms 38-40. I was happier than I've been in a while. That page caught my eye while I was flipping to an entirely different place in the Bible - I was headed for Luke, where I went a little later instead - and I felt what can only be described as thirstiness to read it.
I read Psalm 38. The speaker laments because he is so full of sin and so threatened by his enemies that his entire body seems to be falling apart. He suffers in every way. He calls out to God to help him and not to forsake him. So I kept reading, to see when God comes to the rescue. I love when the saddest, most desperate Psalms are turned around when God answers the prayer.
Then I read Psalm 39. The speaker still waits for God, and he confesses his own monumental weakness. He recognizes that a man's life is very short, and he continues to beg for deliverance and mercy. God's wrath is a very fearsome thing, and His mercy is mindblowing. I continued to read.
Finally, I read Psalm 40. God came to the rescue, like He always does. This one is mostly about the fact that God cares enough to listen and to guard those who trust in Him. The speaker has faith that He will deliever him from his enemies and help him.
Now, I don't know how closely together these Psalms were written, or whether they were written in this order. But they were written by the same man, about the same life, and it brings me joy to see over and over how God sees our needs and provides for us. He pours out mercy like a waterfall when we don't deserve a drop, and that's called grace. Psalm 40 was my favorite out of the three because it says a lot about what God is like.
Verses 1 and 2: "[1] I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. [2] He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps." I can think of many times when I felt like I was in a pit, or stuck in some clay. Can't you? A time when we just can't seem to get out of a horrible situation or break a bad habit. If you read the Psalms you see that this man, David, was often begging for mercy and demonstrating a desperate desire for holiness. Just as often he was celebrating God's faithfulness and glory. God heard this man, and He hears us all.
Yesterday I also read Luke 18 (just a while after I red Psalm 40, actually) where Jesus tells a parable about a woman who begged an unjust judge to help her to get justice from her enemy. Because she was persistent he helped her. Jesus' point was that if even an unjust person responds to persistent pleading, then God, who loves us, will certainly answer us quickly. He won't leave us hanging. I love the fact that at the end of this same chapter He gives sight to a blind man who called on Him persistently despite the discouragement of the crowd.
Psalm 40 also discusses how to please God. This part is really great. Verses 6-8: "[6] Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears you have opened. Burnt sacrifice and sin offering You did not require. [7] Then I said, 'Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. [8] I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart."
We could give Him all the presents in the world and it would not show whether or not we love Him. He has the whole universe anyway. What He wants is our love, honor and obedience. It's like marriage. He wants us to be willing to conform our will to His and to trust in Him in all circumstances.
In Mark 12 Jesus says that the most important commandment is that which tells us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. He says the second most important is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Verse 32 - 34: "[32] So the scribe said to Him, 'Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. [33] And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. [34] ow when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' But after that no one dared question Him."
Psalm 40 ends with verses 16 and 17: "[16] Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, 'The Lord be magnified!' [17] But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God."
Do you know how big the universe is? It's too big to even understand. It has more stars than we can count. It's full of things exploding and being born and spinning and stretching outside the range of our tiny vision. And God holds it all in His hands. He also has the number of our hairs counted. He carved our fingerprints into our hands so that we are all unique. He holds the whole universe. Yet when you whisper a prayer into the empty air in a room with closed doors, even while there are things exploding in the iniverse and oceans crashing all over the world and cars racing over the land, He hears you. That is a glorious God. That's the God we worship.
God makes me very happy. Yesterday I had a very happy moment with Him when I was looking at Psalms 38-40. I was happier than I've been in a while. That page caught my eye while I was flipping to an entirely different place in the Bible - I was headed for Luke, where I went a little later instead - and I felt what can only be described as thirstiness to read it.
I read Psalm 38. The speaker laments because he is so full of sin and so threatened by his enemies that his entire body seems to be falling apart. He suffers in every way. He calls out to God to help him and not to forsake him. So I kept reading, to see when God comes to the rescue. I love when the saddest, most desperate Psalms are turned around when God answers the prayer.
Then I read Psalm 39. The speaker still waits for God, and he confesses his own monumental weakness. He recognizes that a man's life is very short, and he continues to beg for deliverance and mercy. God's wrath is a very fearsome thing, and His mercy is mindblowing. I continued to read.
Finally, I read Psalm 40. God came to the rescue, like He always does. This one is mostly about the fact that God cares enough to listen and to guard those who trust in Him. The speaker has faith that He will deliever him from his enemies and help him.
Now, I don't know how closely together these Psalms were written, or whether they were written in this order. But they were written by the same man, about the same life, and it brings me joy to see over and over how God sees our needs and provides for us. He pours out mercy like a waterfall when we don't deserve a drop, and that's called grace. Psalm 40 was my favorite out of the three because it says a lot about what God is like.
Verses 1 and 2: "[1] I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. [2] He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps." I can think of many times when I felt like I was in a pit, or stuck in some clay. Can't you? A time when we just can't seem to get out of a horrible situation or break a bad habit. If you read the Psalms you see that this man, David, was often begging for mercy and demonstrating a desperate desire for holiness. Just as often he was celebrating God's faithfulness and glory. God heard this man, and He hears us all.
Yesterday I also read Luke 18 (just a while after I red Psalm 40, actually) where Jesus tells a parable about a woman who begged an unjust judge to help her to get justice from her enemy. Because she was persistent he helped her. Jesus' point was that if even an unjust person responds to persistent pleading, then God, who loves us, will certainly answer us quickly. He won't leave us hanging. I love the fact that at the end of this same chapter He gives sight to a blind man who called on Him persistently despite the discouragement of the crowd.
Psalm 40 also discusses how to please God. This part is really great. Verses 6-8: "[6] Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears you have opened. Burnt sacrifice and sin offering You did not require. [7] Then I said, 'Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. [8] I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart."
We could give Him all the presents in the world and it would not show whether or not we love Him. He has the whole universe anyway. What He wants is our love, honor and obedience. It's like marriage. He wants us to be willing to conform our will to His and to trust in Him in all circumstances.
In Mark 12 Jesus says that the most important commandment is that which tells us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. He says the second most important is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Verse 32 - 34: "[32] So the scribe said to Him, 'Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. [33] And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. [34] ow when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' But after that no one dared question Him."
Psalm 40 ends with verses 16 and 17: "[16] Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, 'The Lord be magnified!' [17] But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God."
Do you know how big the universe is? It's too big to even understand. It has more stars than we can count. It's full of things exploding and being born and spinning and stretching outside the range of our tiny vision. And God holds it all in His hands. He also has the number of our hairs counted. He carved our fingerprints into our hands so that we are all unique. He holds the whole universe. Yet when you whisper a prayer into the empty air in a room with closed doors, even while there are things exploding in the iniverse and oceans crashing all over the world and cars racing over the land, He hears you. That is a glorious God. That's the God we worship.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Maintaining our Relationship with God
THIS WEEK on Wednesday I read John 15 again, the chapter in which Jesus describes Himself as the True Vine on which all branches depend for life, and in which He commands us to love one another and promises that His Holy Spirit will bear witness of Him. He also tells us about the relationship we could have with God.
Pastor Ryan used John 15 that night in his sermon. It really gets my attention when God teaches me out of the same place in His word twice in a day or a week, because I don't believe in coincidences. Anyway, Pastor Ryan emphasized the necessity of our maintaining our relationship with God. Real ones, not just nominal ones. Our relationship with Him is to be full of communication and growth, not complacency and inconsistent behavior.
This is what Jesus says in John 15 about a relationship with God:
v. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me."
v. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire,and they are burned."
v. 8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
v. 15 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."
I know I already blogged about John 15, but this is different. This is not about the meaning of the chapter alone. This is about maintaining the most important relationship we will ever have. Something that really spoke to me while I listened to Pastor Ryan was that we should not approach our quiet time like homework. I try to be pretty regular about my quiet time. I read one chapter of the New Testament before or during school, write in my journal and pray, read the reference in my devotional book when I get home, write in my journal and pray, and sometimes I read a chapter of the Old Testament at night.
Sometimes, especially in the morning, it is very hard to find time to just sit alone with God and listen to Him speaking to me in His word. I want to meet Him every morning and become more personally familiar with Him. But lately the best I can do is in the car on the way to school or in the courtyard surrounded by other people. It's better than nothing, but I'd rather pray privately and that is not easy to do around other people. I'm trying and praying to be better at separating myself from others for a few minutes while I do this, because I want to hear God.
I think it's good to be regular about quiet time, but I'm afraid that if I start doing it just to get it finished I'll forget the amazing things I just read when I go to do my history homework.
I'm thinking about Mary and Martha, the famous sisters whose actions tend to reflect the attitudes of many Christians.
Luke 10:38-39, "[38] Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word."
Mary sat and listened to Jesus. Martha was (from v. 40) "distracted with much serving." Martha got angry because Mary was not helping her serve Jesus in the kitchen, but Jesus told her that she doesn't need to be so troubled and that Mary was doing the right thing. Quiet time is the time to do exactly what Mary was doing. Sometimes we need to take a moment and just listen. Relationships absolutely cannot survive without healthy communication. We must pray as well as hear Him speaking. His words are full of wisdom, truth, healing, and promises that will be kept, like "I love you."
But what about the serving? Though Martha was wrong to put the serving before the Master, she was not wrong to want to serve. A relationship with Jesus suffers not only from a dull, inattentive quiet time life but also from an inactive, disobedient lifestlye.
It's not enough to just say we believe in Jesus and to associate with Christian people. Christianity is discipleship, not a hobby. It's Jesus as Lord, not Jesus as a buddy. This is something we all need to remember. In Luke 6:46 Jesus asks "But why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" What kind of message does it send non-Christians when even those whose lives He has utterly transformed, or who claim He has changed them, do not obey Him? A bad one.
The FISH club has been praying for revival at Stanton. We pray for boldness to share Christ with our friends and for a revolution to occur on our campus. What I learned from Pastor Ryan's message on Wednesday is that we need to actually go about obeying Him, whatever it takes, and then we will actually grow in our relationship with Christ because of it. If He is our Lord, we will act like it. And if we act like He is our Lord, He is going to be so present and so real in our lives that we begin to know Him more personally and to serve Him more faithfully.
This week I invited someone to church, and although she found out she could not come she was sincerely glad that I had invited her. I am encouraged by this because a lot of the time I am nervous to ask anyone to go anywhere, What will she say? What will he think? But no - many people actually want to come.
And shouldn't we want them to come? People aren't going to make it without Jesus. The branches that are apart from Him with wither away and be burned up. Any of us would be. But instead we can be attached to this True Vine who promises that if we stay with Him we will bear much fruit, and that He will come and stay with us and never leave. We will be with Him forever.
John 14:22-23 "[22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, 'Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?' [23] Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'"
Romans 8:38-39 "[38] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor thigns to come, [39] 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."
He wants a relationship with us that will last forever. We are the bride of Christ. This is a relationship worth maintaining, a relationship worth letting it take over our very lives. And it will be worth it to know God.
Pastor Ryan used John 15 that night in his sermon. It really gets my attention when God teaches me out of the same place in His word twice in a day or a week, because I don't believe in coincidences. Anyway, Pastor Ryan emphasized the necessity of our maintaining our relationship with God. Real ones, not just nominal ones. Our relationship with Him is to be full of communication and growth, not complacency and inconsistent behavior.
This is what Jesus says in John 15 about a relationship with God:
v. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me."
v. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire,and they are burned."
v. 8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
v. 15 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."
I know I already blogged about John 15, but this is different. This is not about the meaning of the chapter alone. This is about maintaining the most important relationship we will ever have. Something that really spoke to me while I listened to Pastor Ryan was that we should not approach our quiet time like homework. I try to be pretty regular about my quiet time. I read one chapter of the New Testament before or during school, write in my journal and pray, read the reference in my devotional book when I get home, write in my journal and pray, and sometimes I read a chapter of the Old Testament at night.
Sometimes, especially in the morning, it is very hard to find time to just sit alone with God and listen to Him speaking to me in His word. I want to meet Him every morning and become more personally familiar with Him. But lately the best I can do is in the car on the way to school or in the courtyard surrounded by other people. It's better than nothing, but I'd rather pray privately and that is not easy to do around other people. I'm trying and praying to be better at separating myself from others for a few minutes while I do this, because I want to hear God.
I think it's good to be regular about quiet time, but I'm afraid that if I start doing it just to get it finished I'll forget the amazing things I just read when I go to do my history homework.
I'm thinking about Mary and Martha, the famous sisters whose actions tend to reflect the attitudes of many Christians.
Luke 10:38-39, "[38] Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word."
Mary sat and listened to Jesus. Martha was (from v. 40) "distracted with much serving." Martha got angry because Mary was not helping her serve Jesus in the kitchen, but Jesus told her that she doesn't need to be so troubled and that Mary was doing the right thing. Quiet time is the time to do exactly what Mary was doing. Sometimes we need to take a moment and just listen. Relationships absolutely cannot survive without healthy communication. We must pray as well as hear Him speaking. His words are full of wisdom, truth, healing, and promises that will be kept, like "I love you."
But what about the serving? Though Martha was wrong to put the serving before the Master, she was not wrong to want to serve. A relationship with Jesus suffers not only from a dull, inattentive quiet time life but also from an inactive, disobedient lifestlye.
It's not enough to just say we believe in Jesus and to associate with Christian people. Christianity is discipleship, not a hobby. It's Jesus as Lord, not Jesus as a buddy. This is something we all need to remember. In Luke 6:46 Jesus asks "But why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" What kind of message does it send non-Christians when even those whose lives He has utterly transformed, or who claim He has changed them, do not obey Him? A bad one.
The FISH club has been praying for revival at Stanton. We pray for boldness to share Christ with our friends and for a revolution to occur on our campus. What I learned from Pastor Ryan's message on Wednesday is that we need to actually go about obeying Him, whatever it takes, and then we will actually grow in our relationship with Christ because of it. If He is our Lord, we will act like it. And if we act like He is our Lord, He is going to be so present and so real in our lives that we begin to know Him more personally and to serve Him more faithfully.
This week I invited someone to church, and although she found out she could not come she was sincerely glad that I had invited her. I am encouraged by this because a lot of the time I am nervous to ask anyone to go anywhere, What will she say? What will he think? But no - many people actually want to come.
And shouldn't we want them to come? People aren't going to make it without Jesus. The branches that are apart from Him with wither away and be burned up. Any of us would be. But instead we can be attached to this True Vine who promises that if we stay with Him we will bear much fruit, and that He will come and stay with us and never leave. We will be with Him forever.
John 14:22-23 "[22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, 'Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?' [23] Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'"
Romans 8:38-39 "[38] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor thigns to come, [39] 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."
He wants a relationship with us that will last forever. We are the bride of Christ. This is a relationship worth maintaining, a relationship worth letting it take over our very lives. And it will be worth it to know God.
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