June 2007 - Posts
I feel like God is trying to teach me something. I don't know what, but I'm ready to learn. In order to focus on what it is, I'm gonna take a break from writing in Steeple for a while. No, I'm not mad at anybody. I just need to focus all my energies on my walk right now. I will be visiting Steeple still, to see what's going on with all your party people. Road work ahead, please be patient.
It's harder to do than it is to say. It's a life twister, not a tongue twister. How do we give God His ever-increasing glory? How do we live in such a way that people go ooooh and aaaaah over our God? Good question. You assign the worth and value to God. That is as simple as I know how to put it. That's also a good way to explain to people who don't go to church what worship is. The old English word for worship is "worthship", it's the state of having worth or value. Think of all the thoughts, words, and images that come to your mind when you think of God and His Son Jesus and what He did for you....that's worship. Pretty vast huh? We'll dig some more later.
From my previous posts some of you may be asking... Why is God so obsessed with getting glory? Is He insecure? Is he arrogant? When people demand glory and honor, we call them stuck up and snoody. Why shouldn't we think the same thing about God? Good question. It's a tough one. A lot of people stumble here because God demands his own glory and demands his people to praise Him, when the Bible teaches us not to be like that, so....., how can God be so...for himself?
God is unique as an all-glorious, self-sufficient being. It's sounds weird, but it's almost like He has to be for Himself in order to be for us. Does that make sense or did I loose you? The rules for us, as humans, can't be the same for their Creator. If God were to try to turn away from himself and toward something else for joy and happiness, he would no longer be God. He would then be denying his worth and Glory. It would mean that there is something out there more valuable than Him. It's kind of like God would be commiting idolatry. This wouldn't be good for us. Where would we then turn to if God became unrighteous? Does that make sense? That's why it's all about Him, and should be all about Him.
You would have thought that we would have figured this out by now, a planet busting with six billion, self-abosorbed, self-centered people, each thinking that it's all about me! When you think about it, that's nothing more than total chaos. Look around and what do you see? Cuttthroat people. Wounded people. Bitter people. Restless people. Lonely people. Frusterated people. Disillusioned and unfulfilled people. There is a much better way to go about this, if you have the ears to hear it and the heart to follow it. Are you ready? Life can begin to make sense, if we will accpept our proper place in the universe. We've got to begin to see everything-our pleasures, problems, gifts, and talents as ALL being for the One who created us. Only then will we gain what we've been missing and find what we've been seeking. It's the only path to discovering the meaning-charged life our souls hunger for. It's the transforming premise that it's NOT ABOUT YOU OR ME! It's the revolutionary notion that we have been created by Him; for Him. "It's ALL about HIM!"
"Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
When God looks at His entire universe and see's what is in the center of it, He doesn't look at you. When the spotlight is directed on star of the show, I need no sunglasses. No light falls on me. Lesser beings, that's us. Appreciated? Yes. Valued? Yes. Loved dearly? Yes. Central? Nope. Critical? No. Sorry. The world does NOT revolve around us. Our comfort is NOT God's priority. If it is, something has gone terribly wrong. If we are the main event, how do you explain challenges like death, disease, or earthquakes? If God exists to please us, then shouldn't we always be pleased?
What I have to say in this post is not going to be any fun, at all. But it will be the truth. I won't get many comments on this post or the next few. What I have to say is what God has been teaching me for the last four years, and it's been a hard pill to swallow. So, here goes.
You find it in advertising campaigns, political promises, egotistical, pampered athletes and big-headed performers. From music to movies, we are bombarded with self-centered messages. We hear that the world revolves around us and our needs. We are all vunerable to this message, espcially young people. I have come to learn from teaching today's youth, that they often expect parents, teachers, coaches, youth leaders, friends, and everyone else to be sensitive to their desires and schedules. Are you kidding me? Despite what the world tells us countless times daily, life is NOT about US. WE are NOT the point. The world does NOT revolve around YOUR desires or MY goals, and it was never meant to.
When the police get in a jam, what is it that they do to get some help? Very good, that's right, they call for back-up. I was thinking about this yesterday and thought that as christians, we don't do this enough. When we are being harrassed by Satan or even tempted, we need to call for back-up. Stand strong in God's power. James 4:7 says, "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Notice it doesn't say that we are to submit to God and hang out with Satan from time to time. We want to keep our distance from Satan. We've got to be careful not to give in to him. When you stray from God and continually go down a path that you don't need to go, you are giving Satan ground to influence you and attack. Don't blow it like the Israelites did, they got to see some pretty awesome things that showed the miraculous power of God, but turned from Him anyway, and they had to face some serious judgment for that. Even angels in heaven that turned against God had to become demons in an eternal hell. Sodom and Gomorrah heard the word preched, straight up, and they turned from God and rebelled. Are you in the love of God today? Need some help? Call for back-up.
Everybody wants to be loved. And when we're not, it makes us feel upset, lost, lonely, and....well, unloved. In this world, people are going to turn against you, betray you, dissapoint you, and let you down. They may even love you first, then let you down. That hurts the worst. A lot of people wonder too, if I let God down, will He turn against me? No. God showed us that he loved us by putting on an earth suit(Jesus) and came down to earth physically show us that he loved us. I don't care who you are, that is stinkin' cool right there. God doesn't treat us the way we treat Him, He loves us no matter what. No matter what we do or where we go, God will ALWAYS love us. If that don't light your fire...your wood is wet. Amen?