Our Awesome God

Your love is extravagant 

Your friendship it is intimate 

I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace 

Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place 

Your love is extravagant 

Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin 

No greater love have I ever known You considered me a friend 

Capture my heart again

~"Your Love is Extravagant" by Darrel Evans (Song by Casting Crowns)

God is awesome.

So why do we have to say "capture my heart again"? Shouldn't it be "You have already captured my heart and now it's yours for eternity"? Yes, in a certain sense, but the reality is more like "You have captured my heart, but I have forgotten just how much purpose your love brings to my once-filthy heart, so would You capture it again...and again...and again?" It sounds like a sad truth, but it is in fact one of the many things about us that makes God so awesome: the less capable we are of finding God's love extravagant, the more His grace opens our eyes to the truth of His sacrifice on our part. So as long as we are in search of His glory, God will continue to reveal Himself to us in new ways. As long as we seek to do His will with joy and utter satisfaction, He will honor it one way or another. It pleases God to satisfy us with Himself. And the comforting part about it is that He is the only one who can intimately know and have a friendship with each and every person that lives, has lived, and will live on this earth.

God's love covers our sin. What does that mean exactly? It means that our righteousness comes from Jesus alone. When we stand before the judgment seat of God someday, nothing we have ever done will get the slightest bit of merit. Only what is sinless will remain, and if Jesus is within us, he will remain as our first and only righteous identity. That is true grace, incredible love, and one simply awesome God for you!

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. ~2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)

Something < Eternal

Sin and truth have no place together and are in fact near opposites. All that sin is is false security, pleasure, indulgence, hope, and joy—all of which can never satisfy apart from God. So many people around us practice these false comforts all the time. Even Christians. Even ourselves! And these things often lead to sin and/or departure from God’s truth. When we get to the place where we recognize the areas in our lives that hold some sense of identity apart from Christ, even in the smallest way imaginable, and we seek out God’s wisdom and help in changing our desires to focus more on Him—only then can we truly thrive, and only then can we justifiably judge others for the purpose of discipling them, helping them, and pushing them on toward a renewed relationship with Christ. This is part of the reason why it is so important to be in constant fellowship with other Christians.

As long as we continue hoping in and trust God's truth, there will be no room for sin in us, but as soon as we give in to sin, we are declaring "a different gospel" by our actions and we are then suppressing God's truth. So it is good to be discerning in order that we might realize the areas of our life where false joy has the opportunity to lead to sin. Standing firm on God's truth makes us stand out because nobody realizes the difference between living for God and living for something non-eternal. Let us never turn from the true hope we have, and may our joy be always be found only in Christ. May we spur one another on and not allow our brothers and sisters to live and strive for anything less than eternal.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ~Romans 1:18-19 (ESV)

Anti-Anxiety Disorder

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. ~John 16:33 (ESV)

Not too many people are like this (and I have no intention of bragging here except on the name of Jesus), but I believe I have been gifted with something you might call anti-anxiety disorder. It means that I don't generally react to tragedies, sudden life-changes, financial crises, surprise trauma, etc., at least not the way most people would. I take it as it is. God's in control, right? Of course, the only reason I call it a disorder is because I'm in the minority (and of course I have my own ways of failing to trust God, if it looks a little different), but God offers everyone this selfsame disorder: His peace.

Nothing but encouragement can come to us as we dwell upon the faithful dealing of our Heavenly Father in centuries gone by. Faith in God has not saved people from hardships and trials, but it has enabled them to bear tribulations courageously and to emerge victoriously. ~Lee Roberson

Is it possible that living for Christ means more than giving your life (your career, your income, you successes and failures) to Him? What if the things life gives you only effects who you end up ministering to? If we are all called to bring God's kingdom to reality, then it shouldn't matter where we end up in life or where we are right now. God is in control, true, but that doesn't always mean he "orchestrated" things to happen in your life a certain way. Sometimes things just happen and God calls us to react rightly according to how Jesus would. If everything about us is to be an example to unbelievers, then there should be no surprise big enough in life that would allow us to break down and give up. Rather, let us stand strong and train ourselves to react to tragedies with love and peace, pointing to the greater cause and not focusing on our depression.

Not of this World

It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and look—he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is still empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and look—he drinks; but he awakes, and indeed he is faint, and his soul still craves: so the multitude of all the nations shall be, who fight against Mount Zion. ~Isaiah 29:8 (NKJV)

"It is significant that the sleeping men are dreaming only about eating and drinking. In the same manner, those whose interests and desires are centered in this world only will find all their objectives have turned to nothingness." (Quote by Henry Morris)

"The fact is that this world is not the real world, but only a temporary world which, like a dream, will soon fade away in the light of God’s eternal day when we awake in His presence to experience the world as God intended it." (Quote by Henry Morris)

So take a moment to consider what your dreams often consist of. What are they founded in? If they are not founded in the next life and don't necessarily have eternal value, why not? True satisfaction is guaranteed by God to be found in putting our hope and joy in the things of heaven. If it can be said of you that you are not of this world...except when you play too many video games or wear too much makeup or pursue school more than God, or a million other things...then maybe you should reconsider how you can find joy in things that will last--before they fail you!

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ~1 John 2:16-17 (ESV)

The Real Good

"I will stand firm, however, in the belief that although God can give me more, His goodness doesn’t depend on it, because He gave me everything when He gave me Him." ~Joey Svendsen (from a great blog post you can view here)

God is good. He delights in blessing us with earthly comfort, and we are not always suffering (in the physical sense) while we await his return. At the same time though, sometimes we can get caught up in the earthly comforts and forget that God doesn't always choose to bless us with them. When things go badly we might blame it on several different things: God, a lack of His blessing, our own disobedience/sin, the world, etc. What we forget is that this lack of physical comfort is just a part of life. So again, God does not always choose to bless us with earthly comforts, but what we can know for sure is that God always chooses to bless us with Himself.

People die every day, especially people of faith being martyred in second and third world countries--the types of deaths that have a better chance of catching our attention. We might look at the situations of other people in those third world places and understand that God has not necessarily blessed them physically. But that's why one little fact about God and man can be made so much more clear: it is simply awesome that God's kingdom is completely other, or separate, from this worldly kingdom and it has nothing to do with fleshly comfort. We have been given eternal life, and more than that, we have God's love and His wonderful attributes to comfort us until we get to the other side. The problem of dissatisfaction in the life of a Christian only comes around when we forget our priorities. True life doesn't revolve around God providing our next meal or getting us a new job or the multitude of other things we pray for daily (even healing for a sick family member)! True life revolves around us being satisfied in knowing, growing in, and sharing Christ; nothing else. So let's remember this week where our priorities lie and consider praying for peace, wisdom, strength, and faith before (not necessarily instead of) fleshly deliverance both for us and those around us.

God's Lawnmower

You are not God's lawnmower. Many people want to be just that however; let me explain.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

If you ever went up to your father as a kid and asked him what he thought you should be when you grow up, what should he have told you? Maybe he told you to be whoever you wanted to be and to follow your heart. We hear it all the time today: choose a career that you will enjoy doing for the rest of your life and the rest will fall into place! I think that this is a similar situation to the way God "calls" us. We often times want to wait for Him to tell us what to do with our lives, but I think God simply wants us to be ourselves. We want to invert Matthew 6:33 and say "give me this work to do and I'll do it" or "give me these things first and then I'll seek Your kingdom" but God tells us to find the work we enjoy and do it for Him. He tells us to go out there with His kingdom in mind and He will give us the strength to bring it into reality.

We want to say "give me a push in the right direction and I'll do the mowing" but God wants to do the mowing through us; it doesn't matter as much where we mow.

Matthew 16:19

You might have heard it before, but God calls us to the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion. He gives us the keys to his kingdom so that we can share the future glory with others. We, as Christians, should have the greatest stories to tell by the end of our lives because our testimonies should be that we found the most joy in living by faith and following God's calling while living even the normalest of lives. God's calling is simple: Seek the kingdom I have already given you access to. Now let's stop over-complicating that calling!

Pre-Die Yourself

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ~Romans 6:5 (NIV)

What you are obedient to most is what you are a slave to. We should be slaves to neither sin nor grace, but rather to Jesus Christ, meaning we must obey him as he once did what we must do--He died to self and saved us from our own sins; now we must shed our sin, die to self, and live for Him! Thus we shall be united with him in a death like his.

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation...indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." ~Luke 17:20-21 (NKJV)

What does it mean to be a people of the future? In 1 Thessalonians, Paul said of the church in Thessolanica that they had become a model to other believers. We too should model ourselves for others....but how? When we look at the Bible, the Gospel in particular, we see that it is a message about the past, but also a vision of the future. Because of this, we should be learning about God's Kingdom past and modeling our lives on the Kingdom future. The Kingdom of God is within us, and whenever we share the gospel with others, we are opening their eyes to an entirely new world--the Kingdom of God. So the question is: Where in your life are you living in line with the present and not with the future?

Just as we are to die (now) to self, we should live in a way that represents the lives we will have when our physical bodies fail. Thus we shall pre-die, because when someday we pass from this life to the next, sin will no longer be a problem, and it will be impossible to be slave to it.

Let us pre-die ourselves with the blood of Christ.