"In Himself, God is love; through Him, love is manifested, and by Him, love is defined." -Burk Parsons
This morning as I was listening to the radio a song came on that reminded me of the oh so amazing love of our God and I couldn't help but smile; I think I so often am not amazed enough, not overwhelmed enough, and not thankful enough for the great love of God. As I stood there and repeated the song in my head I realized that I don't focus on the love of God in my life as often as I should, that I don't ponder it enough, and all of that comes from my great lack of understanding...if I could only begin to fathom the deep deep love of Jesus I would never be able to stop praising Him for it. A line in the song played, "You're love is extravagent"...the word itself only began to describe the reality. The word extravagent means abundant, exceeding the bounds of, exceeding the limits, excessive, and unrestrained...what a taste of Truth that really is, the love that our God showers upon us is an extravagent love. What a love!
As I thought more I couldn't get Romans 8 our of my mind, especially the verses towards the end of the chapter v 38-39 where we read, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a crazy kind of love that really is, one that leaves me dumbfounded everytime I think about it, yet how often do I...I mean really think about it? I could just reiterate over and over again this crazy kind of love but no matter how much I do to myself or to you, or how much I plead with you or myself to just SEE it for what it is, we will fail to meditate on it, we will fail to respond rightly to it, and we will fail to stand in amazement the way we should to it. So what you might ask? What am I supposed to do? What should this love motivate me to do? As James reminds us we are to be more than just merely hearers of the words, but doers as well. So here are some helpful tips that I am prayerfully putting into practice to better understand God's love and in turn live a life that brings Him more glory. Afterall He deserves and demands His glory!
1. Be In The Word:
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." -2 Peter 1:3
"Scripture is like a working museum of which the Spirit is the Curator, showing us around and explaining the wonders of the mind of the Maker. In this museum we are taken behind the scenes to learn from God Himself. In growing to know God, therefore, there is no substitute for the discipline of Bible study and Scripture reading and meditation. We cannot bypass the handbook God has given to us and then expect that we can know Him in our own way. The only god we can know in our own way is a god that we make in our own image." -Sinclair Ferguson
The Big Book aka the Bible is the resource, the greatest resource we have, and were given to know God. By it we are transformed through the working of the Spirit as He conforms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is through time in the book, time of study, and prayer coupled with it that we are able to begin to comprehend the love of God. Being in the Word is crucial to our walk and our growth! We must develop a daily discipline in order to grow. If we are not in the Word we are starving so to speak; I love how Paul equates the Word to our food, that truly is what it is...our spiritual food and we must eat daily just as we must physically eat daily too! I love Peter's explanation for us above in which we see that God's Word gives us EVERYTHING we need for not only godliness but for life as well, what a reassuring and exciting Truth. Let's be committed to being in the Word...and I promise you will fall more in love, it is only natural.
2. Meditate on The Cross:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:13
"By the cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us." -John Chrysostom
Oh the cross, and the mystery of it, that God would come and die for us! What a true reality that is so tough to understand...it makes no logical sense to our finite human brains and yet it is the central theme of all of biblical and redemptive history. The cross of Christ is the definition of love. If we had a picture dictionary next to love would be a cross. During Easter I am always more aware of God's love for me and that is directly correlated to the fact that I am meditating on the cross more than usual. If that became a regular practice, a daily practice I can only imagine how great my understanding of His love would be. May it be a goal of ours to not only think about the cross on occassion, but daily, yet that it would never become common or simple but always leave us in amazement!
3. Manifest Love to All:
"Here is a spiritual principle: We cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God’s love for you is unconditional, based solely on the merit of Christ, not on your performance. John said, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love, either to God or to others, can only be a response to His love for us." -Jerry Bridges
If we have been saved we now have the regenerated ability to love as Christ loved us! That is a truth that is foundational to the Bible...non Christians don't have the ability to love this way. This kind of love is not selfish, it is the 1 Corinthians 13 type of love, one that is manifested most perfectly again in the cross of Christ. But what does our witness say if we don't love in this way? It is one of two things: 1. We really are not saved 2. We don't understand God's love for us for if we did we couldn't help but love others. Think about that for a moment, think about how the more you have grown in your understanding of God's love the more you have sought to love those, especially the lost around you, as Bridges says, it is a natural response. We as Christians must be the biggest lovers! Now sometimes our love may not appear as love to an unbeliever (for example in sharing the Gospel and being rejected) but when our goal is to love like Christ and win souls for Him we will radiate His love in all we do!
Just a taste of what has been going on in my head today and thought I would share in hopes that we would as brothers and sisters partner together in our pursuit of Him with our goal being to know God, love Him and love others to Him!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Evangelism...NOT an Option
I recently have been thinking about how blind we tend to be to the reality of the lost around us; how we go about our everyday routines with littler or no thought at all of the fact that the many faces we encounter throughout the day don't know the saving power of grace. Even more than that we fail to open our eyes to the reality that there is a world around us as well, conditions in countries that we cannot even fathom, and lost souls throughout all the ends of the earth! K.P. Yohannan said, "Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story. " What I think many of us don't take seriously, is that God's great comission is a COMMAND not an option.
What does it mean to fulfill the great commission? What does it mean when Paul talks about walking worthy of our calling? Why did God leave us here after He redeemed us anyways? Why has God not returned yet? The answer to all of these is simple yet often overlooked, let us look at Matthew 28:18-20 "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." God is exhibiting patience, my Pastor has said before that he is "long fused" so to speak so that the all those whom He has called will come to repentance and faith. You see, God has a perfect and divine plan of redemption for throughout all the ages in which He will call those whom He forknew (Romans 8:29 says, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.") will come to repentance and faith and once the last person comes we are going home!! My pastor often says, "lets get our job done and then go home!" and isn't that the truth! We are aliens on this earth, simply passing through and fulfilling the command to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples and then we are going home!
Back to the lack of our passion for the great commission and our utter failure to fulfill that...God didn't give us a choice or an option in the matter yet we treat it exactly like that, we think that as long as we are "good" Christians in all the other areas we are doing okay, I mean after all I don't have the gift of evangelism, I'll just pray for those who do...or maybe I'll just share with the people who are easy to talk to? Whatever our excuse we have to stop, we need to stop making excuses! We need to gain a greater understanding of the power of the Gospel, the power of salvation and the reality of what is to come come judgment day when the wrath of God is spewed forth on unredeemed mankind. Our compassion for the lost should compel us to spread the good news wherever we go, whether it be in our own backyard, to our family, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, our friends, our teachers, our kids, the lady at the store, to the person we sit next to on an airplane or in some foreign country: God gives us countless opportunities and open doors all the time, the problem is we either fail to see them or selfishly ignore them. We need to be passionate about the Truth we possess and that passion should in turn motivate us to sharing with everyone around us. IF you are dwelling on the Truth of Scripture (the Word daily) you are going to grow in your passion to share the Truth of Jesus Christ.
In Luke 10 Jesus Himself explains to us that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few and that is the truth; the truth is that there is a world full of lost people from here to China and there are but a handful of passionate followers of Jesus Christ who have counted the cost and left it all to follow Jesus Christ (Luke 14)...the time has come for us to stop ignoring reality and get on with our purposeful task, the command of our Lord Jesus Christ and evangelize to all. I urge you brothers and sisters, fulfill the command the Lord gave and see the joy in the harvest!!
What does it mean to fulfill the great commission? What does it mean when Paul talks about walking worthy of our calling? Why did God leave us here after He redeemed us anyways? Why has God not returned yet? The answer to all of these is simple yet often overlooked, let us look at Matthew 28:18-20 "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." God is exhibiting patience, my Pastor has said before that he is "long fused" so to speak so that the all those whom He has called will come to repentance and faith. You see, God has a perfect and divine plan of redemption for throughout all the ages in which He will call those whom He forknew (Romans 8:29 says, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.") will come to repentance and faith and once the last person comes we are going home!! My pastor often says, "lets get our job done and then go home!" and isn't that the truth! We are aliens on this earth, simply passing through and fulfilling the command to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples and then we are going home!
Back to the lack of our passion for the great commission and our utter failure to fulfill that...God didn't give us a choice or an option in the matter yet we treat it exactly like that, we think that as long as we are "good" Christians in all the other areas we are doing okay, I mean after all I don't have the gift of evangelism, I'll just pray for those who do...or maybe I'll just share with the people who are easy to talk to? Whatever our excuse we have to stop, we need to stop making excuses! We need to gain a greater understanding of the power of the Gospel, the power of salvation and the reality of what is to come come judgment day when the wrath of God is spewed forth on unredeemed mankind. Our compassion for the lost should compel us to spread the good news wherever we go, whether it be in our own backyard, to our family, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, our friends, our teachers, our kids, the lady at the store, to the person we sit next to on an airplane or in some foreign country: God gives us countless opportunities and open doors all the time, the problem is we either fail to see them or selfishly ignore them. We need to be passionate about the Truth we possess and that passion should in turn motivate us to sharing with everyone around us. IF you are dwelling on the Truth of Scripture (the Word daily) you are going to grow in your passion to share the Truth of Jesus Christ.
In Luke 10 Jesus Himself explains to us that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few and that is the truth; the truth is that there is a world full of lost people from here to China and there are but a handful of passionate followers of Jesus Christ who have counted the cost and left it all to follow Jesus Christ (Luke 14)...the time has come for us to stop ignoring reality and get on with our purposeful task, the command of our Lord Jesus Christ and evangelize to all. I urge you brothers and sisters, fulfill the command the Lord gave and see the joy in the harvest!!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Indescribable
Instead of writing a typical blog I thought I would encourage you with some of the names of Jesus in the Bible...
The Almighty- Revelation 1:8, Alpha and Omega- Rev 22:13, Amen- Rev 3:14, Ancient of Days- Daniel 7:9, Beginning and End- Revelation 22:13, Beloved- Matthew 12:18, Blessed- Psalm 72:17, Blessed Hope- Titus 2:13 . Bridegroom- Mark 2:20, Christ- Mark 8:29, Cornerstone- Isaiah 28:16, Counselor- Isaiah 9:6, Deliverer- 2 Samuel 22:2, Emmanuel- Matthew 1:23, Everlasting- Isaiah 63:16, Faithful and True- Revelation 19:11, First and Last- Revelation 2:8, Fortress- 2 Samuel 22:2, Sure Foundation- Isaiah 28:16, God Almighty- Exodus 6:3, God my Rock- Psalm 42:9, God of Heaven- Daniel 2:19, God of our Salvation- Psalm 79:9, God of Truth- Psalm 31:5, I Am- Isaiah 48:17, Mighty God- Psalm 50:1, True God- Jeremiah 10:10, Heir- Mark 12:7, Holy- Isaiah 57:15, Horn of Salvation- 2 Samuel 22:3, Which Is- Rev 1:8, Jehovah- Exodus 34:14, King- Psalm 89:18, Key of Knowleddge- Luke 11:52, King of Kings- Revelation 17:14, Lamb- Revelation 5:6, Lamp- 2 Samuel 22:29, The Last- Revelation 1:11, The Life- John 14:6, Everlasting Light- Isaiah 60:19, Lion- Hosea 5:14, The Lord- Jeremiah 16:21, Lord of Lords- Psalm 136:3, Majesty- 2 Peter 1:16, Maker- Isaiah 17:7,, Messiah- Daniel 9:26, Mighty One- Isaiah 30:29, Peace- Micah 5:5, Physician- Luke 4:23, High Priest- Hebrews 8:1, Prophet- Deuteronomy 18:15, Redeemer- Isaiah 49:7, Refuge- 2 Samuel 22:3, Rock- Matthew 7:24-25, Savior- Isaiah 19:20, Servant- Isaiah 42:1, Shepherd- Psalm 80:1, Shield- 2 Samuel 22:3, Bright Star- Revelation 22:16, Stone- Isaiah 28:16, Sword- Isaiah 49:2, Strong Tower- Proverbs 18:10, The Truth- John 14:6, Upright- Isaiah 26:7, Was- Revelation 1:8, The Way- John 14:6, Witness- Revelation 3:14, Wonderful- Isaiah 9:6, The Word of God- Revelation 19:13, Yes- 2 Corinthians 1:19
We cannot even begin to fathom the greatness of our God and King...His power, His holiness, His love, His majesty; it should leave us speechless for He truly is indescribable!
The Almighty- Revelation 1:8, Alpha and Omega- Rev 22:13, Amen- Rev 3:14, Ancient of Days- Daniel 7:9, Beginning and End- Revelation 22:13, Beloved- Matthew 12:18, Blessed- Psalm 72:17, Blessed Hope- Titus 2:13 . Bridegroom- Mark 2:20, Christ- Mark 8:29, Cornerstone- Isaiah 28:16, Counselor- Isaiah 9:6, Deliverer- 2 Samuel 22:2, Emmanuel- Matthew 1:23, Everlasting- Isaiah 63:16, Faithful and True- Revelation 19:11, First and Last- Revelation 2:8, Fortress- 2 Samuel 22:2, Sure Foundation- Isaiah 28:16, God Almighty- Exodus 6:3, God my Rock- Psalm 42:9, God of Heaven- Daniel 2:19, God of our Salvation- Psalm 79:9, God of Truth- Psalm 31:5, I Am- Isaiah 48:17, Mighty God- Psalm 50:1, True God- Jeremiah 10:10, Heir- Mark 12:7, Holy- Isaiah 57:15, Horn of Salvation- 2 Samuel 22:3, Which Is- Rev 1:8, Jehovah- Exodus 34:14, King- Psalm 89:18, Key of Knowleddge- Luke 11:52, King of Kings- Revelation 17:14, Lamb- Revelation 5:6, Lamp- 2 Samuel 22:29, The Last- Revelation 1:11, The Life- John 14:6, Everlasting Light- Isaiah 60:19, Lion- Hosea 5:14, The Lord- Jeremiah 16:21, Lord of Lords- Psalm 136:3, Majesty- 2 Peter 1:16, Maker- Isaiah 17:7,, Messiah- Daniel 9:26, Mighty One- Isaiah 30:29, Peace- Micah 5:5, Physician- Luke 4:23, High Priest- Hebrews 8:1, Prophet- Deuteronomy 18:15, Redeemer- Isaiah 49:7, Refuge- 2 Samuel 22:3, Rock- Matthew 7:24-25, Savior- Isaiah 19:20, Servant- Isaiah 42:1, Shepherd- Psalm 80:1, Shield- 2 Samuel 22:3, Bright Star- Revelation 22:16, Stone- Isaiah 28:16, Sword- Isaiah 49:2, Strong Tower- Proverbs 18:10, The Truth- John 14:6, Upright- Isaiah 26:7, Was- Revelation 1:8, The Way- John 14:6, Witness- Revelation 3:14, Wonderful- Isaiah 9:6, The Word of God- Revelation 19:13, Yes- 2 Corinthians 1:19
We cannot even begin to fathom the greatness of our God and King...His power, His holiness, His love, His majesty; it should leave us speechless for He truly is indescribable!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The Power of Your Tongue
“The tongue is the spiritual thermometer of the human heart.”~John MacArthur
It is always interesting to me how the Spirit brings into light specific sins in our lives that we have seemed to overlook in the past; regardless of the fact that they have always been sin, throughout our life He reveals more and more clearly the wickedness of our own hearts and our desparate need for the righteousness of Christ. I think sometimes I feel as though the mounds of sin in my life only seem to grow larger but I am soon reminded that the grace of God covers a multitude of sin and my dependence on Him to fight these sins.
Recently I have been wrestling with my own sinfulness in the area of the tongue. The Spirit has recently, in the past month, seemed to be drilling my conscience with the reality of this sin, I have read a lot of books, been going through James and heard a handful of messages from the Word in regards to the power of the tongue. James 3 has been the ever present meditation of my heart, in specific v 9-12 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. " I don't think we understand the power of our tongue. I would argue that it is the most powerful thing on our body, with it we can condemn, control and confuse and on the other end we can encourage, spur on, and praise. It is how we choose to use it. Words are so powerful thing, with them we can heal and with them we can hurt, we can provide hope and we can discourage, we can build someone up and we can tear someome down.... "Yet controlling what we say from moment to moment is perhaps the most daunting challenge of Christian living. It’s the closest most of us will ever come to trying to tame a wild beast. "
If you open your eyes and your ears for a moment and look around you will realize that the tongue is most often used in negative ways. We hear gossip, slander, coarse joking and the list goes on from not only the "world" around us but even in our own Christian circles. And that is what burdens my heart and takes me back to James...how can I as a believer worship the Lord, tell of His glory, share the Gospel, and yet slander my brothers and sisters in the Lord, gossip about the latest happenings, laugh at jokes that are anything but honoring to the Lord and others, and condemn those around me?! What a hypocritical life that is! In James we also read, “But no man can tame the tongue…” (James 3:8a) That means that only through the power of God and His working in our life can we control our tongue. Afterall, “... with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26b) We must pray and beg the Lord to enable us to exhibit self-control in the area of our mouth. We must think before we speak...is what we are saying going to do that person any good to hear? Is it encouraging to them and the person you are talking about? Chances are it is not and you are only sinning...this is a tough lesson to learn and I believe a battle that we will endure until we are in glory with God but may we strive for holiness in our weakness and trust in His enablement. Our tongue is powerful and even more so as we carry the message of salvation with it as well.
John MacArthur said it well, "If we want to focus our Christian life on one thing, if you and I want to get our act together, if I want to bring my whole spiritual life in control, I should work on… the tongue.”
It is always interesting to me how the Spirit brings into light specific sins in our lives that we have seemed to overlook in the past; regardless of the fact that they have always been sin, throughout our life He reveals more and more clearly the wickedness of our own hearts and our desparate need for the righteousness of Christ. I think sometimes I feel as though the mounds of sin in my life only seem to grow larger but I am soon reminded that the grace of God covers a multitude of sin and my dependence on Him to fight these sins.
Recently I have been wrestling with my own sinfulness in the area of the tongue. The Spirit has recently, in the past month, seemed to be drilling my conscience with the reality of this sin, I have read a lot of books, been going through James and heard a handful of messages from the Word in regards to the power of the tongue. James 3 has been the ever present meditation of my heart, in specific v 9-12 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. " I don't think we understand the power of our tongue. I would argue that it is the most powerful thing on our body, with it we can condemn, control and confuse and on the other end we can encourage, spur on, and praise. It is how we choose to use it. Words are so powerful thing, with them we can heal and with them we can hurt, we can provide hope and we can discourage, we can build someone up and we can tear someome down.... "Yet controlling what we say from moment to moment is perhaps the most daunting challenge of Christian living. It’s the closest most of us will ever come to trying to tame a wild beast. "
If you open your eyes and your ears for a moment and look around you will realize that the tongue is most often used in negative ways. We hear gossip, slander, coarse joking and the list goes on from not only the "world" around us but even in our own Christian circles. And that is what burdens my heart and takes me back to James...how can I as a believer worship the Lord, tell of His glory, share the Gospel, and yet slander my brothers and sisters in the Lord, gossip about the latest happenings, laugh at jokes that are anything but honoring to the Lord and others, and condemn those around me?! What a hypocritical life that is! In James we also read, “But no man can tame the tongue…” (James 3:8a) That means that only through the power of God and His working in our life can we control our tongue. Afterall, “... with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26b) We must pray and beg the Lord to enable us to exhibit self-control in the area of our mouth. We must think before we speak...is what we are saying going to do that person any good to hear? Is it encouraging to them and the person you are talking about? Chances are it is not and you are only sinning...this is a tough lesson to learn and I believe a battle that we will endure until we are in glory with God but may we strive for holiness in our weakness and trust in His enablement. Our tongue is powerful and even more so as we carry the message of salvation with it as well.
John MacArthur said it well, "If we want to focus our Christian life on one thing, if you and I want to get our act together, if I want to bring my whole spiritual life in control, I should work on… the tongue.”
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