Mighty is our God in Creation: Part 1

The Might of God displayed in creation...Is something that anyone who believes in God will whole-heartily acknowledge, however do we really grasp the magnitude of His might?

Firstly, we need to arrive at a working definition of might. The greek word in the Bible for might is Dynamis, which is an awesome word meaning the power, strength, and ability that resides in a thing by virtue of its nature. With this in our minds we can now move forward and explore God's incredible might in creation.

This idea of the Might of God grasped me last week while I was at the beach. We went to the Atlantic coast of Florida, and for someone who normally goes to the Gulf Coast when he goes to the beach at all, I was awed at the powerful surf, waves, and undertow of the Atlantic. I was surprised as I waded out barely15-20 feet before I could feel the invisible currents begin to tug at my legs and the 3-5 foot waves would begin to batter me back towards the land. The farther I walked out into the water, the stronger the currents became. I reached a point where I had to essentially walk sideways up-current to keep my footing. I pushed my way out into the water until I reached a sandbar where I could at least hold my ground against the current's strong pull. I was far enough out that the waves had grown to 5-10 feet.

Wave after wave hit me and I was blown backwards time and time again. I was fighting one of those battles that I could never hope to win. Ten times out of ten the ocean's strength will overcome my own. I just stood there fighting the current and waves and gazing out at the endless ocean with the blinding sun reflecting off the beautiful white caps of the waves. As I stood there, it struck me how these very waves that battered me spoke literal volumes about the incredible might and power of God displayed in His creation; and in that moment I truly saw how inadequate my view of God actually was.

Maybe Success is Measured Best by Nothing Less than Our Obedience?

How do we measure our success in the moment? Over a life-time? It could be any number of things: wealth, education, knowledge, fame, prestige, power; or in the opposite direction: wife, kids, a family, serving others, helping the poor and desperate, giving to charity; or in some other direction altogether. We find meaning in so many things...but which actually lead to a life of success?
I was sitting at work at few days ago listening to some music when I heard this line in a song by Jimmy Needham:

"Maybe success is measured best by nothing less than obedience..."

This particular song “The Reason I Sing,” is about his journey and struggles as a musician. When I heard that line, it was as if a montage of life experiences, lessons, and Bible verses flashed before my eyes.

It was kind of like what happened to me the other night as I was watching The Usual Suspects.

Have you ever watched one of those confusing, suspense movies where you don't quite know what's going on until the credits roll? That’s how it was for me with The Usual Suspects. At the very end, one of the main characters, a police detective, finally pieced together the puzzle that the entire movie is centered around and the movie flashed through all of these images that were going through his mind, and I had an “aha” moment, I got it.


Well that is exactly what I experienced as that simple, poignant line was sung; everything at once came together and made sense. I am convinced that we have this awful habit of overcomplicating things that don't need to be overcomplicated. Ponder with Jimmy Needham and myself the definition of a successul life, maybe it's not as complicated as we make it...maybe it is incredibly simple.
 

Nightlights

Here is a powerful and convicting poem from Jimmy Needham called Nightlights:

Be Thou exalted over my reputation

Cause applause is a poor form of soul medication

And I've tried it for years but my symptoms remain

Still fretting the day that they'll misplace my name

Still selling my soul for American fame

Treating the promotion of Jesus like a well oiled machine

Advancing His kingdom just to snag some acclaim

Now, I'm both comforted and haunted that it isn't just me though

I see a nation of people needing to feed their own egos

Parading status like steeples

Do we not know it's evil to love ourselves more than both God and His people?

But see, here's where you turn this poem on it's head

Cause the greatest among us came as servant instead

And You humbled Yourself to the point of Your death

Apparently love for the Father's glory runs red

So friends, will we point to the Son till our own flames grow dim?

Will our bright lights become merely nightlights near Him?

Words echo once, let them echo again

Be Thou exalted over my reputation

Will we allow our bright lights to become merely nightlights near Him? Will we allow our desire for prestige and glory to fade while allowing His prestige and His glory to radiate through our lives?

Be thou exalted over my reputation

What will I choose to live my life for?

A few days ago I was sitting at a red light, while I was waiting for the light to change, I began to read the bumper stickers on the cars around me. The car directly in front of me had a Twilight movie bumper sticker on the rear windshield which said,

"When you can live forever, what will you live for?"

That question is one of those fun, conversation starting questions that people ask as a great ice breaker for large groups. If you asked that question to 10 different people, you would probably get 10 different answers:

Love, relationships, marriage, family, physical pleasure, success, prestige, respect, money, career, adventure, service, others, God, and the list goes on and on.

However, this question is not just a surface, "get-to-know-you" question, it makes a very profound statement directed right at the heart of each and every person:

What will you live for?

That got me thinking, what will I live for...what will you live for? Our very lives are defined by this simple yet powerful question. Religious or secular, no one can escape this one question if they desire to find meaning and purpose in their life.

In one sense, we don't live forever. We are born, we grow old, and we die. On the other hand, God through the Bible tells us that we will live forever. We will all most certainly die a physical death, but that death is not the end but the beginning. Death ushers the Christian into heaven where we will see, experience, and worship God for all eternity; while death ushers the non-Christian into an infinite separation from God. This is an in-escapable truth.

In light of eternity and an eternal God, what will you and I choose to live our lives for?

What we will live for is centered upon what we value most; what we value most is what we will desire most; what we desire most is what we pursue hardest; and all of these things combine to define what our purpose in life will be.

Will we choose to focus on that which is eternal or on that which will perish and end someday?

What will matter beyond this life? Not success, prestige, wealth, respect, careers, physical pleasures, adventures, no not even family or friends. There are so many amazing, wonderful things this life has to offer and many bad as well, but do we realize that they all, no matter how good or meaningful, will come crumbling down at the end? When we get to the end of our lives there is going to be one thing, and one thing alone that matters and that is God and our relationship with him. This is why Jesus says in Luke 14:26-27, 33:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple...So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus is not saying is, "Hate everyone you ever knew including yourself, leave everything, and carry your cross or else you cannot be my disciple." What he is saying is, "Do you love me enough that you are willing to abandon everything for my sake; do you love me so much that it makes your love for your family appear to be hatred; and do you love me enough to suffer as I have suffered and even die for my sake?" He is in reality asking the very same question we have been asking above,

Are you willing to give up everything and everyone for my sake because in the context of eternity nothing else really matters?

Jesus is asking, Am I worth it to you? Is he? Is he worth more than all your dreams, desires, goals, pursuits, and possessions? When we ponder our lives what will we choose to value most?

When we gaze at the cost of discipleship that Jesus demands, it is very easy to say, "That is a lot to ask, Jesus!" or "It seems like I'm giving more than I'm receiving." or "This is an unreasonable cost, that it doesn't appear to be worth it." Haven't we all said or thought something along those lines? The amazing truth is that Jesus is absolutely worth it; and when we see him for who he really is we will be gripped with the absurdity of our previous questions and doubts, and be consumed with his magnificent worth and beauty! Jesus reveals this truth in a simple parable,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Don't miss the amazing truth in this verse, the man finds something that is of great value and so he goes and sells all he has in order to buy the field that the treasure is hidden in. Imagine the ridicule that he would have received from his friends and family, because from the outside it appears absurd to sell everything you have to buy one field. It is the exact opposite of what any Wall Street stock trader would advise. They would say never put all of your eggs in one basket, but that is exactly what the man does. Why does the man do this? Because he alone understands that the treasure in the field is worth more than all of his possessions combined. Therefore he is no longer a fool, but the smartest man in the world. He has seen the treasure and knows that he gives up essentially nothing in order to gain everything. The cost of discipleship is nothing compared with the gain we have in Christ.

We do live in the context of eternity whether we like it or not, so what will you and I choose to live for? What will we value most, desire greatest, and pursue hardest? Will we continue to live for things that perish or will we grasp on to the one thing that matters beyond this life, God? We have such a warped sense of worth, in view of eternity, we so often choose to settle for things that are momentary and finite. Jesus has placed himself opposite all of the momentary things this world has to offer and said,

Am I worth more to you?

Am I worth giving up virtually nothing, your life, in order that you may gain absolutely everything, Jesus Christ?

Heart Idolatry

This is an extremely challenging quote from Timothy Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods.

Archbishop William Temple once said, “Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” In other words, the true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement? Or material goods such as a dream home? Or a relationship with a particular person? One or two daydreams are no an indication of idolatry. Ask rather, what do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?

Just think and ponder this quote for a little while and see if you have any idols in your life that you did not realize that you had. Sometimes we get caught up in searching for physical idols and forget that the heart is the root of those physical idols. Let us go to the root and destroy these idols from our lives!

Righteousness by Grace through Faith

"Righteousness by grace through faith," those very words resonate throughout church sanctuaries across America every Sunday morning. May I invite you to set out on a journey to explore this momentous statement, and the freedom we have to pursue Christ woven within those incredible words? What do the words "by grace through faith" mean? A brilliant Christian theologian and writer, John Stott aptly states

In consequence Christ has no sin but ours, and we have no righteousness but his.

Walk with me as I ask the question, "How can a statement that is at the very heart of Christianity, be so far from the hearts of many Christians?" We seek to gain a more complete understanding of this root of the Christian Gospel so that it can begin to transform our everyday lives into lives that truly embrace our grace bestowed righteousness, and result in unhindered pursuit of the Most High.

Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. One or two weeks before my appointment, I began to take excellent care of my teeth. I made sure to brush three times a day, flosh every evening, and drink 2-3 glasses of milk every day. I became devoted to the cleanliness of my teeth on a level that I had not been in months. Then it occurred to me how ridiculous my actions were. What is the purpose of the dentist? To clean your teeth. So why on earth, was I so concerned with having great looking, clean teeth when I got there? Don't we all do that though? We are so obsessed with making our teeth presentable that we lose sight of why we go to the dentist in the first place. We try and try to make ourselves clean when the reality is that as much as we try to make our teeth white, we can only do so much.  Once I gotten my teeth cleaned, my dentist said, "You are all cleaned up, I've given you a nice fresh start."   The dentist's tools (ones that we only dream about in our worst nightmares) clean our teeth to a point that we could never attain on our own.

How often have you approached God in this same manner? So focused on cleaning yourself up, making yourself right, picking yourself up off the ground, that you have forgotten the very essence of your faith. In the same way that the dentist is in the business of teeth cleaning, God is in the business of life clean-up,  restoration, and redemption. We can try to grit our teeth and grunt our way up to God, but the truth remains as Isaiah 64:6 says,

Our righteousness is as filthy rags...

No matter how hard we try to make ourselves righteous in God's sight, compared to his righteousness, all we can produce on our own is like filthy rags. We often quote this verse, and reference it in Bible studies and church services; but stop for a moment and truly ponder the depth of this simple, yet powerful statement. To me it appears that the way many of us live our lives is not based on God's righteousness by grace through faith, but by our righteousness: works produced through our own strength. I want to let you in on a little secret, our righteousness is not sufficient...and praise God it's not. All we need to do to see where righteousness by works leads is to look at stories riddled throughout the Old Testament. As we read, we see the people of Israel, trying to earn righteousness according to the law and failing; trying again and again failing  over and over...God's point? Righteousness in his sight cannot be achieved apart from his grace.

Why are we ashamed to go to God with the messed-up-ness of our lives? With our sin, our shame, or our pain? Why do we feel as if God will not hear our voice or grant us an audience with him unless we fix ourselves first? We place the burden of our sin and our righteousness squarely upon our shoulders and begin the trek up Mount Everest and hope to reach the top someday. The good news is: this was never what God intended. Listen to the words of Ephesians 1:4-10:

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God doesn't expect us to climb the mountain to reach him, he descended the mountain to reach us, and then he carries us to the top to be with him. What a glorious truth that is! God grants us righteousness...how beautiful is that? How beautiful is he? Righteousness by grace through faith means that we receive the righteousness of God as a gift through the person of Jesus Christ, granting us immense freedom in Christ. We no longer have to feel the need to earn our righteousness in his sight, this allows us to throw aside the weight of self-righteousness and run towards Christ (Hebrews 12:1) freely and unashamedly.

Once we throw our self-righteousness aside, it brings us to the issue of our sin. So often when we sin, our first response is to run and hide; to wallow in self-pity, guilt, and fear. This is not the response of a Christian who has been set free from the weight of sin by receiving God's grace through faith.

Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Complete freedom in Christ. Not freedom to go on sinning as Romans 6:1 and 6:15 state, but freedom from sin. So often we feel as if we cannot escape the clutches of a particular sin in our lives, but the great news is we have already escaped the clutches of that sin through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are freed men and women but so often we forget to live and walk in that freedom.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

So how does this effect our approach to God? Listen to Hebrews 4:16:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

We may approach God with...

       ... boldness not shame,

       ...love not terror,

       ...completely secure, not insecure.

The truth is, sin no longer has dominion, but we often give sin power that it no longer has when we hide sin. When we do this, not only are we not living in God's grace, we are diminishing the person of Jesus Christ and his victory over that sin. John Newton, who was a slave ship captain and author of the song Amazing Grace, said,

I know two things to be true: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior.

He understood that his sin made the grace of God that much greater. As 2 Corinthians 13 states, "My power is made perfect in weakness..." When we accept in humility that we are sinners saved by grace, we make Christ look great. Martin Luther agrees,

Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.

We must be careful lest we interpret these truths to mean that we have license to sin, as Romans 6, 7, and 8 clearly speak against, however we can rightly interpret them as freedom from the chains of sin that shackle those people who are apart from Christ because we are his. Rejoice in Christ because Jesus has overcome sin, death, and the world.

We can therefore walk in the amazing freedom of God's grace, letting loose the sins which hold us in a bondage of guilt and shame. Our identity has been changed through Jesus victory on the cross, now let us pursue him as he desires. Let us walk boldy into the throne room of God. Freedom is ours, righteousness is ours, all because of God's grace. Let the very essence of Christianity, which is Righteousness by grace through faith, finally reign in your hearts and see the amazing work which God will do.

God Speaks through the little Things

        Last Friday morning I awoke to the sound of rain crashing against my window. I got in my car to begin the 45 minute commute to work in a driving rainstorm. My windshield wipers are basically broken; and when they work they have a mind of their own rarely deciding to do what they were created for, which is make the road visible for me. So I made sure to say a quick prayer for them and myself as I left my house. Driving down the highway in the horde of everyday commuters heading to their jobs, I happened to glance down at my speedometer and noticed that I had been going a steady 60 miles per hour for almost the entire trip. I asked myself, "why that speed?" Because with the condition of my windshield wipers, headlight visibility, and the rain, 60 miles per hour was the safest, most reasonable speed for me to be going. However, I could not keep myself from thinking about how to push that limit, just one more mile per hour, just one less minute off travel time and then I would be content.

        Then I realized that we often do the vary same thing with God. We so often feel discontentment when we cannot see further down the road than is currently possible, or cannot get to our destination a moment faster. We then begin to push the gas pedal down and to increase the speed of our lives and pretty soon we have exceeded the speed that God had originally intended for us. It doesn't even have to be something bad that we are running towards; there are plenty of great things that God has given us passion to pursue.

Ephesians 2:10, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

However, when we move ahead and increase the speed without God's consent, we are doing exactly the opposite of his desire for our lives. We don't stop to think that maybe in the rainstorm of life God has limited our visibility so that we might rely on his sight and not our own. We don't stop and think that just as my windshield wipers are weak, broken, and can only handle moving so fast; we too are weak, broken human beings who cannot function correctly outside our Creator's hand. He desires that we walk in step with him, trusting in him alone to be our sustainer, guider, protector, and provider.

Why then are we so preoccupied with getting to our destination our way?

Why then are we so gung-ho in whatever we do that we forget to ask God for direction and then wait for his response?

We forget that God has a plan that he is working out and he reveals to us exactly enough to keep us following him and moving toward his destination. In Acts chapter 1, the disciples have just seen Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascend into heaven. They have gone through a virtual cornucopia of emotions and before Jesus' ascension they recieved the command in Matthew 28:18 from Jesus:

All authority in heavn and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

So here we find them in Acts 1. Can you imagine how pumped up they might be? They had gone from believing Jesus, their Savior, was dead, to seeing him resurrected and alive again. If the risen Christ showed up on your doorstep and gave you a command, I'm pretty sure we would all obey without a moment's hesitation or a second thought. However, Jesus, before he departs has one more command for them.

Acts 1:4, And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be batized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

They are told to wait, to be patient, until the Holy Spirit arrives. As we gaze and ponder our lives, one of the words we tend to fear and hate most is the word "wait." It has such a bad connotation in our culture today and leaves many of us with a bad taste in our mouths. Can you imagine what might have happen if the disciples received Jesus' first command "Go and make disciples of all nations..." and immediately ran out the door speaking to any and everyone about Jesus but with out the empowerment of the Holy Spirit" Without being "baptized with the Holy Spirit?" No doubt God would have used their efforts for the infinite glory of his name; but do you think Acts 2 would have happened? The disciples instead choose to wait for the Holy Spirit as Jesus commanded; only when they had received the "go" from God, did they leave their houses and teach the Word of God. Their waiting to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Acts 2, resulted in Pentecost, one of the greatest single moments in the history of Christianity. Thousands upon thousands of people came to know Christ on that day. Consider how amazing it would have been to take part in an event such as that, where God saves thousands in a single day; what if that had not happened because the disciples decided to fulfill God's commands their way and not His?

I would like to ask us all, what would our lives look like if we actually chose to walk in step with God?

How many things have we sought to accomplish in the name of Jesus but have not waited for his timing or blessing? Consider the successes and failures, would they have been different had we waited and trusted God?

Instead of always questioning his plan, what would your life look like if you sought God, and rested in his plan?

When I ask myself these questions, the answer I come up with is: My life would look significantly different. What about yours?

So I urge us to trust God's plan and pace for our lives and ministry. I extol us to let our feet off of the gas pedal and allow God to take us where he wills. God is sovereign and in complete control. Believe it our not, God actually knows what's going on and everything is subject to his will. Let us seek him with our whole hearts, placing our full faith in him regardless of the cost or what that may look like. I promise you, if we abandon ourselves in this pursuit, God is going to do incredible, unimaginable, amazing things in our lives!