World View Shift #1

Ok, so I think I'm going to try and take a stab at the worldview shift that the church at large needs as well as myself.

When we read scriptures like “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” (Romans 2:4) and “How foolish can you be? He is that Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say to the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid?” (Isaiah 29:16) These are just a couple examples of the overarching message in the Bible - simply, God is of chief importance and deserving of all glory. My conclusion, ultimately, God is ALWAYS right and the only time that we are as mankind is if we are on his side.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) God is first, mankind is second. God is creator, mankind is created. Very simply and very plainly God provides food, shelter, relationships, and eventually clothing to mankind. After creation and absolute provision, mankind sins against the creator God in the Garden of Eden. When man, of his own volition, sins and disobeys God he is deserving of death. God clearly told Adam, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Here we IMMEDIATELY see the grace of God! He could have, justly, killed both Adam and Eve right after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

After the sin of Adam and Eve as well as the serpent, God carries out His judgment. The serpent is told, “You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.” Notice the serpent, which initiated the sin, is told that it would crawl on its belly as long as it lives. The judgment is meant for all serpents as they all crawl on their bellies, but is addressed specifically to this serpent. In the same way when the judgments on Adam and Eve are laid out, they are for all men and all women. The judgment for Eve, and women, we are told, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” The judgment for Adam, and men, we are told, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food and eat until you return to the ground from which you were made…” In the same way the judgments of Adam and Eve were passed down to every man and women, so was the nature of sin passed down to all mankind. The sin nature is a part of human nature, we are born with it. This is obvious if you are around small children at all. (“That’s mine!” “Give me!” “No, I don’t want to!”) These children aren’t taught this type of language, or desires. They naturally want to be selfish and to be mean to anyone that comes in between them and what they want.

Remember not only is mankind effected by the sin here, but the serpent. In the same way, all of creation is negatively effected by this sin. Paul says it like this, “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” (Romans 8:20-21) He later mentions, “for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.” Again, here we are staying with this idea that we are in bondage to this sinful nature that has been passed down from Adam and Eve in the beginning.

To be continued...

No Quit in Me

This is part of my effort to shift some worldview...

Have you ever been so tired and exhausted that you just wanted to quite? So frustrated with your “performance” as a Christian that you want to throw in the towel? So aware of the wickedness of your heart that you really question the ability of the Holy Spirit to help you “be holy as I AM holy?”

If you think about such things I would behoove you to dwell on the character of God. A God that “is Love” has not only decided to create you, but desires to be sincerely involved in your life. (1 John 4:16) So intimately and so closely…”O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me... And when I wake up you are still with me!” (Psalm 139:1-18) Remember this is a God that doesn’t need anything, for “all the world is mine and everything in it.” (Psalm 50:12) He doesn’t have mixed motives. He doesn’t need you to help Him or to be his friend. Yet He chooses for whatever reasons that He may, to create us and step down from a lofty heaven to us. He chooses to, He doesn’t have a responsibility to us after the miracle work of creation. This is His personal choice.

We read “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless.” (Psalm 18:30) Here we have a perfect God that desires to be a part of our lives every second of every day, a God that has never quit on us and has put up with all of our imperfects. What should be our response to such a God? Our response should be to honor a God that hasn’t quit on us by not being discouraged by people or circumstances, by striving for perfection in thought and action, by continuing to press into Him even if we don’t feel that He is attentive, by having no quit in us.

True Happiness

Happiness for the believer and for the non-believer is very different. When someone is granted by God eyes to see and the faith to believe we are, at that point, redeemed. One thing that happens when you are redeemed, is your desires change. You shift from secular worldly desires that might have to do with money, sex, or some kind of altered state of self medication from drugs or alcohol, but I would contest that if you truly assessed these habits you would agree that they aren’t nearly as enjoyable as they may once have been. Truth is, they probably have the opposite effect.

Your happiness begins to be found in things that are lasting and selfless. Accomplishing things for others becomes attractive. You start to value people and have more of a desire to be productive with your time. There tends to be a conflict here because you have old habits and ways that you remember enjoying and people around you still enjoy, but you no longer enjoy. You’re basically trying to combat your mind telling you where to find happiness and your heart telling you where you’re really going to be happy.

The reason I write this, is because we can go back and forth on happiness between the two for our whole time on this earth! We can miss it! We can be infants in the faith for the remainder of our time here or we can GROW UP. There must be a point where, like Peter in John 21, we leave the fishing boat, where we feel comfortable, and jump in to what Jesus really has for us. There comes a time where we have to “forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead. To win the prize to which God called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14)

Ultimately God holds your happiness and what this world holds is just a temporary imitation. Why would you continue to seek after the imitation? Don’t you want the real thing?

Nothing

So it appears its been a little while sense I posted last... Ouch, like a year and a half.

Definitely have been feeling that I need to get back into a little teaching and this is a good opportunity for that so...

FYI - this thought was originally designed to "preach" to me, but maybe someone else can relate.

Nothing

True Gospel…

We are finally starting to hear the real gospel, that we can do nothing of ourselves to be saved, that it is by God’s grace alone. Interestingly, we still seem to have a problem understanding that we don’t continue in our salvation on our own. We approach Christianity as though we are saved by grace, but then after the point of redemption it’s about us being good people. We still don’t understand the whole gospel. Nothing we ever do is deserving of salvation, or the Father’s approval but he chooses to love us anyway. (“After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Gal 3:3)

Even Worse…

We expect God to “bless us” with our desires. “Bless us?” What are we really looking for there anyway? We’re looking for our own selfish desires. We are looking for the pay raise, the spouse, the great job, the amazing church, those godly friends so that we can have the life we think a Christian or “blessed” person should have. Christianity isn’t designed by God to have nice cars and houses, perfect families, the best job, and no problems in any relationships. Christianity is designed by God to be like Jesus. Who didn’t have a nice big house and sports car, a perfect family situation, the dream job, or relationships that didn’t need work. Jesus lived a hard life! At the end of His hard life, he then told us that we were going to have a hard life! (“Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. John 15:20)

Peace…

In the midst of telling us about this hard life, God is sure to let us know that peace is freely given. He even clarifies that this peace is superior to the peace that the world gives. (“I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” John 14:27)

Nothing owed…

Know that in the middle of grace for salvation and peace for your life on this earth, God owes you nothing. Nothing! Your salvation and peace of mind is a gift from Him. You don’t stock-up good works and then expect your prayers, with personal desires, to be answered. You don’t get an amazing spouse because you think the scripture “he who finds a wife finds a good thing” entitles you to one. You don’t receive money, cars, and houses so that following God looks attractive. He owes you none of these things, so for you to expect them is absolutely absurd and probably on the verge of blasphemy. What he truthfully owes you… (“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23)

The only reason you survived sense your first sin is because He sustains life. (Colossians 1:17) The reason you weren’t born into a third world country is by His orchestration. The reason you have food on the table, shelter, and clothes is because he is the provider. Get outside of the American sense of entitlement to two and a half kids and a great job with the perfect spouse. People around the world don’t have the basics and we are continually whining that we don’t have the cool accessories to life that we want. Nothing is of your own, the little parts of your life that you think you control and do yourself can be rightfully taken from you at any second with just a word from Him because He outright owns everything! (If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.” Psalm 50:12) Please don’t think you earned anything that is good in this world because of you. All talents and gifts are given by God. Did you build those gifts or talents? Did he not give you the resource to cultivate them?

In the end its all Him, and we could all profit from making all of our lives more about Him and less about us. (“For from him and through him and to him are all things.” Romans 11:36)

-This is a little attempt to shift some worldview, so... some more on this later.