The more time I spend with someone in a relationship, whether it is romantic or friendship or partnership or teachership or whatevership, if I spend enough time in it, there will be times where I am angry and unsatisfied with that relationship. And it seems like the longer they go on, the better you get to know the person, and the more things start to hurt your feelings, bug you, etc. Part of having a relationship of any kind is times of misunderstanding, confusion, and conflict. It’s just a hard fact of life and relationships. The more you invest in someone or something, the more it hurts when they (or you) fail.
I want to take this a step further into our relationship with God. Having been born and raised a church boy, God and I have spent quite a bit of time together over the last 20 (21 tomorrow) years. We have been through good times, rough times, all sorts of times, but in them I have felt bad, unworthy, etc. to ever get mad at God. God is the supreme mighty ruler of the universe, who am I to question him? He does not want to hear my complaints, my confusions, my sorrows. I learned that I was supposed to praise God in all circumstances, and just suck it up and swallow it and deal with it when things don’t go like I understand they might. I guess what I am trying to remove is this misconception:
Questioning God means I do not have faith.
I think if we have a healthy, growing relationship with our Father in Heaven, then there better be times when we argue, fight, etc. or else the relationship is superficial. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying you are right and God is wrong, all I am saying is you have the right to scream at God sometimes. Yell at him, explode your emotions all over him, and get mad at him. It is ok. God is plenty big enough to handle it.
I feel like the more I experience God, the more I see he wants a genuine loving relationship for us. Yes He is sovereign and Holy, but Jesus knows what we have been through, he has lived a life that was completely human. He has questioned God while he was here. In the Garden, while Jesus was praying to God, he pleaded with God to make sure there was no other way but the cross. While Jesus hung on the cross, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” This is a reference to Psalm 22, one of the most powerful passages of Old Testament scripture.
There is no other way to speak to God than to be completely honest. Tell God you are hurt, tell God you don’t like what He did. He will bless you for your honesty and may even show you a little glimpse of why these things are happening to you. The following list is a few of the Psalms that are known as laments. These are a beautiful photograph to the dark side of emotion, the painful side of Christianity, that we don’t spend much time singing or talking about. And these are only a few, for the majority of the Psalter is Psalms of Lament. But pay close attention to how all of them end.
Psalm 13
Psalm 22
Psalm 32
Psalm 42-43 (read them together)
Psalm 38
Psalm 86
Psalm 130
David, the man after God’s own heart, struggled and pleaded and yelled and begged with God many times. And God loved him for it. His relationship with God was so intimate, so personal, so vital to his being that he wanted to know why things were wrong when they went wrong. Sometimes it was for sin, sometimes for just no particular reason at all, but God listens. God hears.
Be honest with God. He hurts when you hurt.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Enough is Enough
God has saved us from an eternity apart from His Glory in hell. Not because of anything we have done, not because we are worth it, not because he was bored so he created us to save us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
That verse needs no reference, its on every sign and bumper sticker and written in the memory of every Christian who has read it. But do we really love that verse? Do we really fully comprehend the love our God has for each and every one of us?
Sure we do, that’s why we complain and argue and throw a fit and “get busy”. We are such self-centered creatures that God saving us from an eternity of suffering is not enough for us. We want that and an easy perfect care-free life that goes exactly how we plan it. We want a cure for cancer, we want no pain, no suffering, no “trouble”, no mistakes. Because of course all of those things are stuff God needs to get rid of. Saving our souls from eternal damnation is not enough.
Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23
How hard is it to accept the gift of God? Easy. But shouldn’t that be enough for us in our lives? Do we even have the right to ask for anything else? Of course God wants to give us what we want, but I think sometimes we love God for his blessings more than we love God for just being God! Is God being God not enough for us? Here are a couple more scriptures about what Jesus said the cost of our following him, and Paul’s powerful piece on the cost of being a disciple:
Matthew 16:21-28
Matthew 10:32-42
I Corinthians 9
This life is not supposed to be easy.
God was enough for Jeremiah. He spent his entire life preaching the word to people who would hear none of it. And he never gave up: I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24. God was enough for Jeremiah.
God was enough for Paul to spend his life as a Roman fugitive under constant pursuit and persecution. God was enough for Steven to die of stoning, praying for his murderers as they ended his life. God was enough for Esther to call an entire city not to eat or drink for 3 days, then approach the throne of a king and risk her life for a nation. And the stories continue.
There is a song, I believe Chris Tomlin wrote called Enough. I will put a link to the music at the bottom, but the chorus goes like this:
All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI9RIbaa87I
Shouldn’t we be able to pray this prayer to God? Is God more important to us than food? What about Sunday when the preacher goes too long? Is God more important to us than water? Is God more important to us than a dying loved one? A broken relationship? Shattered plans? Money?
Is God enough?
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
That verse needs no reference, its on every sign and bumper sticker and written in the memory of every Christian who has read it. But do we really love that verse? Do we really fully comprehend the love our God has for each and every one of us?
Sure we do, that’s why we complain and argue and throw a fit and “get busy”. We are such self-centered creatures that God saving us from an eternity of suffering is not enough for us. We want that and an easy perfect care-free life that goes exactly how we plan it. We want a cure for cancer, we want no pain, no suffering, no “trouble”, no mistakes. Because of course all of those things are stuff God needs to get rid of. Saving our souls from eternal damnation is not enough.
Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23
How hard is it to accept the gift of God? Easy. But shouldn’t that be enough for us in our lives? Do we even have the right to ask for anything else? Of course God wants to give us what we want, but I think sometimes we love God for his blessings more than we love God for just being God! Is God being God not enough for us? Here are a couple more scriptures about what Jesus said the cost of our following him, and Paul’s powerful piece on the cost of being a disciple:
Matthew 16:21-28
Matthew 10:32-42
I Corinthians 9
This life is not supposed to be easy.
God was enough for Jeremiah. He spent his entire life preaching the word to people who would hear none of it. And he never gave up: I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24. God was enough for Jeremiah.
God was enough for Paul to spend his life as a Roman fugitive under constant pursuit and persecution. God was enough for Steven to die of stoning, praying for his murderers as they ended his life. God was enough for Esther to call an entire city not to eat or drink for 3 days, then approach the throne of a king and risk her life for a nation. And the stories continue.
There is a song, I believe Chris Tomlin wrote called Enough. I will put a link to the music at the bottom, but the chorus goes like this:
All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI9RIbaa87I
Shouldn’t we be able to pray this prayer to God? Is God more important to us than food? What about Sunday when the preacher goes too long? Is God more important to us than water? Is God more important to us than a dying loved one? A broken relationship? Shattered plans? Money?
Is God enough?
Monday, January 18, 2010
My Body is My Slave
The older we get, the less important it becomes in our lives to exercise. For one reason or another, usually because of the lack of time, exercise becomes less and less important on our priority list. Bills, work, school, life, children, having to have a membership to a gym, etc. all are major inconveniences that happen and keep us from getting the exercise and proper diet we need. It’s easier a lot of times to just grab a quick bite of fast food, and tastes better too. It is yet another convenience in this time and day and culture that have made us fat. Literally.
But is there another way to look at this? Is there something to exercise in the spiritual sense? Paul uses training, exercise, and athletics in I and II Timothy as analogies of faith and ends his life with this from II Timothy 4:7-8:
7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
His farewell address compares life to a great “course” or “fight”. But this just means a spiritual journey, right? I want to challenge that thought for a second. In I Corinthians 9, Paul talks about his rights as an apostle of Christ, and concludes with this powerful statement in verses 25-27:
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others; I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Pay attention to verse 27, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Could spiritual health and discipline be connected to physical discipline and exercise? Now don’t get me wrong here, I am as bad about exercising as the next guy, but there could be something to this. I feel like God has blessed me with this small revelation.
What if we looked at exercise not as something to get us back into shape or lose weight, but as an encounter with the Most High God and an opportunity to worship Him and improve our spiritual discipline? What if our diet was not to make us skinnier and more appealing to the eye of man, but to show God we have discipline and want more of it? I think this is a prime opportunity to work on our self-discipline and learn some things from God.
Here are some other passages that might provide some insight into what I am trying to explain:
Daniel 1 (The diet of the men of the LORD and its results)
I Corinthians 6:19-20 (usually seen through the lens of sexual morality, but I think it speaks to it)
I Corinthians 9
Romans 12:1
This is very encouraging to me and gives being healthy a much deeper meaning.
But is there another way to look at this? Is there something to exercise in the spiritual sense? Paul uses training, exercise, and athletics in I and II Timothy as analogies of faith and ends his life with this from II Timothy 4:7-8:
7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
His farewell address compares life to a great “course” or “fight”. But this just means a spiritual journey, right? I want to challenge that thought for a second. In I Corinthians 9, Paul talks about his rights as an apostle of Christ, and concludes with this powerful statement in verses 25-27:
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others; I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Pay attention to verse 27, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Could spiritual health and discipline be connected to physical discipline and exercise? Now don’t get me wrong here, I am as bad about exercising as the next guy, but there could be something to this. I feel like God has blessed me with this small revelation.
What if we looked at exercise not as something to get us back into shape or lose weight, but as an encounter with the Most High God and an opportunity to worship Him and improve our spiritual discipline? What if our diet was not to make us skinnier and more appealing to the eye of man, but to show God we have discipline and want more of it? I think this is a prime opportunity to work on our self-discipline and learn some things from God.
Here are some other passages that might provide some insight into what I am trying to explain:
Daniel 1 (The diet of the men of the LORD and its results)
I Corinthians 6:19-20 (usually seen through the lens of sexual morality, but I think it speaks to it)
I Corinthians 9
Romans 12:1
This is very encouraging to me and gives being healthy a much deeper meaning.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Fasting
Fasting seems to be a bit of a weakness in a culture with so much. So much opportunity, so much food, so much money, it’s no wonder our fasting habits have become anemic. When we have all this access to so much “stuff”, the temptation to fast from things we really like (television, chocolate, caffeine, etc.) and we feel like it is a Holy and tough experience. While these things are not bad, have we gotten a little fat with our fasting? Are we blessed with so much that when we give up just a small part of our immense blessing, we are now fasting?
Was this the fasting God designed for us to be an act of worship for him and an experience to see him? Why fast? What is the proper way? Jesus had something to say about the process in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:16-18 says
16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Here are some other scriptures that tell more aspects of fasting and examples of it:
Isaiah 58
Daniel 9:1-19
Jonah 3
Zechariah 7
Mark 2:18-22 (Story in Luke also)
Acts 13:1-2
Acts 14:21-24
These passages helped me dig for a deeper understanding of fasting. I hope they inspire some discussion
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