What God created us for March 4, 2009

As I’m beginning to read through John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life, I thought it would be only necessary to highlight poignant passages in the book such as this one:

God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.

Are you living a wasted life?

From earthly pilgrims to heavenly princes February 17, 2009

If you ask my son what he did this weekend, he’ll quickly tell you that he went to a princess party. Hmmm, you might wonder, what exactly is this 3-year-old talking about? Of course, my husband or I would expound by saying that he went a princess-themed birthday party for one of his friends who is a girl. Flowing gowns and shiny tiaras (not to mention a pink castle moonwalk) were all the rage at this birthday bash and my son quickly picked up on princess theme. Thankfully, he was much more interested in bouncing in the moonwalk than attempting to play the role of Prince Charming.

But for a little while, the birthday girl was treated as royalty since it was her day to shine. Turning 3 is a big deal and you should be able to don a Cinderella gown and glass slippers if only for a little while. You go from pre-schooler to princess in a matter of minutes and all the attention is on you. Even if all you want are the presents.

I was reminded of this weekend’s party while continuing to read The Pilgrim’s Progress and came upon an interesting paragraph that clearly describes Jesus Christ. At this point, the main character, Christian, has had his burden removed by leaving it in a grave at the foot of the cross and has been saved by his Savior. He must continue on his journey of faith along the straight and narrow path despite discouragement and doubt. However, he receives some refuge in what is called Palace Beautiful where he learns more about the Lord of the Hill, Jesus, who is described as…

“a brave warrior, who, at great cost to himself, fought and killed the one who had the power of death…He stripped himself of his glory in order to give eternal riches to the poor and humble, and to make heavenly princes out of earthly pilgrims.”

How beautifully John Bunyan (translated into modern English) described the Prince of Peace, the King of Glory. He exchanged all the riches He knew for us, in order to save us, to turn us into royalty. The Bible clearly describes this in Philippians 2:5-11:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And what was the outcome of His humility and obedience for us, the earthly pilgrims? First Peter 2:9-10 says is succinctly:

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, a royal PRIESTHOOD, a HOLY NATION, a PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

Those who believe Jesus Christ died for their sins and rose from the grave, those who claim Jesus as Lord, are chosen, are royalty, are holy. We are set apart for Him! We are truly heavenly princes (and princesses!) who have received eternal riches because of God’s great love and mercy. We are heavenly princes for more than just a day – for eternity! And because of that we are to proclaim the excellencies of our Lord and Savior, to tell other earthly pilgrims that they too can become heavenly princes because of what Christ has done on the cross and because He overcame death. At a great cost to Himself and a great benefit to us.

Does God have a sense of humor? August 2, 2008

Have you ever wondered why God, through His Holy Spirit, was bringing to your mind specific Bible verses or passages of Scripture? This usually happens to me while I’m going through some sort of ordeal and I am reminded of people in the Bible who have faced similar circumstances, and then I find comfort in those verses.

Other times, which I’ve noticed this week, God sends me to sections of Scripture to prepare me for something. This has been happening with Psalm 23 and a book I’m reading called A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. It’s a fascinating book that vividly portrays the life of a shepherd in protecting, caring for and loving his sheep, and relates how this is our God, the God of the Bible. “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

The author, a former shepherd himself, describes wonderfully how Christians can rest in their Lord and Savior knowing He is ultimately in control and genuinely cares for the well-being of His children. As a person prone to anxiety, this is the most peaceful thought for me.

However, I didn’t realize until a day ago how important it would be for me to grasp these truths about my Heavenly Father. Through a phone call early Friday morning, I learned that my part-time at-home freelance writing job would take a hit. Cutbacks are expected at this certain publication and I would be restricted to the amount of stories I can write, therefore restricting the amount of money I can earn. Not good news in a lagging economy with high gas and food prices (although I was quite excited to pay $3.69 per gallon for gas – in Texas.)

After I hung up the phone, I expected to go into panic mode but didn’t. It could have something to do with the fact that I was hanging out with my son and didn’t want him to see an emotional response to a situation that God had allowed to come into my life. But more than that, I realized that I had taken to heart (and mind) what God had been teaching me about Himself through Psalm 23.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not be in want.

God is all I need. Everything else is just well everything else. The Lord is my Shepherd – He is guiding me, caring for me, providing for me. I need not worry about a change in income or work because God is in control. What else was fascinating to me was my next thought – God knew long before I found out about this cutback that there would be a bit of a drought. He knew! So, how would I respond?

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

Amazingly, God brought these verses into my life through a devotional. And I had these verses written on a note card stuck to my fridge. Trust. Would I choose to trust God in this circumstance knowing that He had allowed it, knowing that He is MY Shepherd? Could I possibly be that tree described in Jeremiah that does not fear when the heat comes, that will not be anxious in a year of drought?

The easy answer is yes; but as I stated before I am a person prone to worry. Could I relinquish my anxiety and worry, and truly allow God to do what He does best? Provide for me through fire and drought? For what purpose does worrying have? None, according to Corrie Ten Boom:

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

So, unbeknown to me, God had been preparing me through His word and specific Scriptures, for a trial to come. He allowed me to meditate upon His word and come to know better His characteristics so I could put into practice what I learned. This is a situation, no matter how scary it may seem to decrease your income, that was only able to come to me by passing through the hands of my loving, Sovereign Heavenly Father. It almost seems funny to me that God would work in this way. Coincidence, no, because God is in control. There are no coincidences for the believer in Christ.

Does God have a sense of humor? My God does.

The Sinless for the Sinner September 10, 2007

As I continue trekking through Luther’s commentary on Galatians, a paragraph he wrote about verse 4 in the first chapter has kept me thinking. Luther just finishes describing why Paul writes both ‘God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ when he goes on to tell the significance behind the next verse – (Christ) who gave Himself for our sins. Luther explains:

Again, this sentence makes it clear that our sins are so great and so invincible that it is impossible for the whole world to atone for even one of them. Surely the greatness of the ransom (namely, Christ the Son of God, who gave Himself for our sins) is enough to show that we can neither atone for sin nor have dominion over it. The force and power of sin is made quite clear by these words: who gave Himself for our sins. Here we must note the infinite price given for our wickedness, and then it will be clear that its power is so great that it could not be put away by any means except by the Son of God giving Himself for it.

He is the sinless for the sinner. He is the ransom for all. He is Christ, the sinner’s hiding place. In whom are you placing your trust?

To know God is to know Jesus September 4, 2007

Now that I have completed my Bible study on the book of Proverbs, I move on to my next challenge: an in-depth study on Galatians and reading Martin Luther’s commentary on the “freedom” letter written by Paul.

And it is quite the challenge. I’m only into the first chapter, page 34 to be exact, and I’m already pondering a statement Luther made about knowing God. Expounding upon Galatians 1:3, which says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” Luther asks why Paul includes both God and Jesus Christ in this verse. Why does Paul not just say “God our Father?”

Luther explains:

A principle in the Scriptures that we must note carefully is this: we must abstain from wrongly seeking God’s majesty. “No one may see me and live,” says the Lord (Exodus 33:20). Those who trust in their own merits disregard this rule, and therefore they remove the mediator Christ out of their site and speak only of God; to him alone they pray and do all that they do.

Of course, I wondered what Luther meant by wrongly seeking God’s majesty. How does one do that? Luther mentions followers of other religions, including Jews and Muslims, who strive to be accepted by God through works and rules and commandments. But, he says, there is only one way to know the true God:

But true Christian religion does not first present God in his majesty, as Moses and other teachers do. It commands us not to search out the nature of God, but to know his will presented to us in Christ, whom he wanted to take on flesh and be born and die for our sins; and he wants this to be preached among all nations. “For since in the wisdom of God the world in its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21)

This began to make a bit more sense to me and I realized how often I read parts of the Old Testament or other sections of Scripture without seeing Christ weaved through those holy words. He is on every page and part of every story, for He – the Word of God – was in the beginning and was with God and the Word was God. To know the true God is to know Christ, the Savior, the majesty of God.

No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27

Anyone searching to know God and to know who He is must start with Christ, Luther says. And this is the reason Paul so often writes in his letters about God our Father and Jesus our Lord. Luther says:

He (Paul) is teaching us what true Christian religion is, which begins not at the highest, as other religions do, but at the lowest.

Do you know the Christ? The only One under whom salvation belongs? It is faith in Him and His sacrifice, and nothing else, that leads us to God and eternal security.

Why we worry, fret and fear August 5, 2007

We all do it – some more often than others. Worry – it’s defined as being worried, concerned, anxious, troubled or uneasy. We tell others about our worries (we usually call them ‘concerns’ thinking it doesn’t sound as bad) and we sometimes lose sleep because of it. It takes over our life, especially when times get tough. We worry about imminent situations, we fret about future decisions and we fear unforeseen circumstances.

For Christians, it is actually a sin to worry and be anxious. For unbelievers, they have no other way to respond to trials because they don’t know God and therefore can’t trust Him. What is the reason for our worry?

Jerry Bridges explains the source of Christians’ anxiety in his book, The Practice of Godliness:

So why do we worry? Because we do not believe. We are not really convinced that the same Jesus who can keep a sparrow in the air knows where our lost luggage is, or how we are going to pay that auto repair bill, or how we can get to our destination on time. Or if we believe that He can deliver us through our difficulties, we doubt if He will.

Does this sound like you? It certainly is hard to hear that my source of worry is distrust and doubt. I believe that Bridges has it right, though. We don’t actually believe God will do what He says in His Word He will do. We don’t trust that He will guide us through every situation that He has willing allowed to come into our life.

It comes back to trust. Do we really trust God? Is He trustworthy? Can He handle our problems?

Lately, every time some tempting thought about an overwhelming situation consumes my mind I consciously push it aside and reassure myself that God will give me the strength and ability to handle that issue when the time comes. Bridges also says in his book that we must pray for peace and God will be more than happy to give it. We are actually commanded to pray about everything (see Philippians 4:6) – this is the way to release our worries into the loving hands of our Father.

God is trustworthy. Give Him your troubles and allow Him to give you His strength for each of your circumstances.