"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will."
-Ephesians 1:11
I'll just touch on the first half of the verse very quickly. We were chosen. Oh, so what about the people who weren't chosen? I wholeheartedly believe that everyone is chosen by God. That isn't the part that needs to be questioned. The only part that leaves room for question is whether or not we choose Him.
The second half of this verse is the one that God really spoke to me through. We've heard plenty of times the question: "How can God let bad things happen?" I've asked the question myself. "Well it was just God's will. You have to accept it as it is." Thats ridiculous.
I have never seen a verse that says, "Everything that happens is God's will." Was it God's will that Adam and Eve sinned? If everything that happens is God's will, then we don't really have free choice. If everything that happens is God's will, then sin is God's will. I find that pretty hard to accept.
This verse doesn't say that God works out everything to his will, it says "...who works out everything in conformity with the PURPOSE of his will..."
Well what is the purpose of his will? The purpose of God's will is relationship. So what about when Adam and Eve sinned? Did God work everything in conformity with the purpose of His will there? Absolutely. The purpose of His will is relationship. If God had stepped in and stopped them from sinning, that takes away their choice. You take away choice and freedom in a relationship, you take away the relationship. God doesn't want a relationship with us if he forces us to love him. That isn't relationship that is abuse of power, and forced love isn't really love.
So, is bad stuff that happens God's will? I don't know what is God's will or what isn't God's will. I do know that God is ALWAYS good. Something one of our speakers said on my DTS was "We have to stop judging our God based on our circumstances, and instead judge our circumstances based on our God." That is something that radically redefines how we look at life.
So why do we blame God when bad things happen? We don't have a good understanding of who God really is. When we begin to grasp who God really is, we can begin to trust Him. And when we trust Him, we stop trying to pin all of our problems on Him, and we begin falling madly in love with Him.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Victory
What does victory mean? Well victory is when one team beats another team. Victory is when the other side surrenders. This is talking about the physical realm.
What about spiritual victory? We know that Satan is already defeated. So why do we struggle with him? We struggle with him, because we believe that he still has a chance to beat us. We say, "Well God wins in the end, but right now, Satan is really beating me up." Satan has already lost. He's trying to score after the whistle has been blown. He is trying to fight after he has been forced to surrender. His only power is in deception, and as long as he has us deceived to believe that we can lose to him, he has power over us.
As soon as we recognize that he really has no authority over us, then he loses the little power that we have given him. He will still try and tempt us, he will still try and deceive us, but in all reality he has no power, because he has lost.
I catch myself arguing with Satan sometimes. It doesn't make sense, but it happens. I don't have a full understanding of victory, but as God reveals more of His victory, the more I recognize my power over Satan.
What about spiritual victory? We know that Satan is already defeated. So why do we struggle with him? We struggle with him, because we believe that he still has a chance to beat us. We say, "Well God wins in the end, but right now, Satan is really beating me up." Satan has already lost. He's trying to score after the whistle has been blown. He is trying to fight after he has been forced to surrender. His only power is in deception, and as long as he has us deceived to believe that we can lose to him, he has power over us.
As soon as we recognize that he really has no authority over us, then he loses the little power that we have given him. He will still try and tempt us, he will still try and deceive us, but in all reality he has no power, because he has lost.
I catch myself arguing with Satan sometimes. It doesn't make sense, but it happens. I don't have a full understanding of victory, but as God reveals more of His victory, the more I recognize my power over Satan.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Trusting God
What would happen if I walked out the door today totally trusting God? How would that look? Would it look any different than what I'm walking out now?
It would look like Jesus' life. Jesus walked out in total trust of God the Father because he knew God's character and he knew God intimately and perfectly. When God asked Jesus to reach down, spit in the dirt, and rub it on some random guys eyes, he had a choice to make. He could either obey what God told him to do, or he could decide that ignoring Him would be better. He stepped out in obedience because He trusted that what God told him was in line with His perfect character.
If I walked out the door today with a full understanding of God's character and a full trust in Him, my life would look pretty similar to the life that Jesus led. I want that. How do I get that? The closer I get to God the more I trust Him. It's not always an easy journey of stepping out, in fact the way we grow is by stepping out a bit more than what we are comfortable with. Never be settled in being comfortable with what God is telling you to do.
I love God. He is always ready to walk life with me. Even if I step back in how much I trust Him. He picks me up right where we were and starts going at it again right beside me. I cannot wait to be in perfect relationship with HIm!
It would look like Jesus' life. Jesus walked out in total trust of God the Father because he knew God's character and he knew God intimately and perfectly. When God asked Jesus to reach down, spit in the dirt, and rub it on some random guys eyes, he had a choice to make. He could either obey what God told him to do, or he could decide that ignoring Him would be better. He stepped out in obedience because He trusted that what God told him was in line with His perfect character.
If I walked out the door today with a full understanding of God's character and a full trust in Him, my life would look pretty similar to the life that Jesus led. I want that. How do I get that? The closer I get to God the more I trust Him. It's not always an easy journey of stepping out, in fact the way we grow is by stepping out a bit more than what we are comfortable with. Never be settled in being comfortable with what God is telling you to do.
I love God. He is always ready to walk life with me. Even if I step back in how much I trust Him. He picks me up right where we were and starts going at it again right beside me. I cannot wait to be in perfect relationship with HIm!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Light and Darkness
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
-2 Corinthians 4:6
God showed me something really cool about the difference between light and darkness and in that is an incredibly strong metaphor for the difference between God and Satan, between good and evil. Darkness has no existence in and of itself, or any power, or anything at all in itself. Darkness has no source. Darkness only exists in the absence of the light. The light has a source. God is the source of the light. Satan loses power when the light comes.
What does that mean for us? We want to be filled with the light of God. What does that mean though? All it really means is to be consistently pursuing God. When you are consumed in a relationship with someone you start to reflect some of the things about them. When you are around someone with a southern accent for a while, you start to mimic it without thinking, or maybe slipping a “ya’ll” in there every once in a while.
This principle is the same with God. The more time we spend with Him, the more we start to reflect Him. Reflect His glory, reflect His character, reflect Him. Now, we aren’t the source of this glory, or the source of His character, but we begin to take on those characteristics. Darkness still has to run from a reflection of light.
The only way Satan can come at you is by imitating the light, and even in the 1000’s of years time, He hasn’t gotten really very good at that. When we are spending time with the true light we aren’t going to fall for a less radiant, less brilliant, fake light.
God is the source of life and is the source of the light. When we live in His life and His light, darkness has no power over us.
-2 Corinthians 4:6
God showed me something really cool about the difference between light and darkness and in that is an incredibly strong metaphor for the difference between God and Satan, between good and evil. Darkness has no existence in and of itself, or any power, or anything at all in itself. Darkness has no source. Darkness only exists in the absence of the light. The light has a source. God is the source of the light. Satan loses power when the light comes.
What does that mean for us? We want to be filled with the light of God. What does that mean though? All it really means is to be consistently pursuing God. When you are consumed in a relationship with someone you start to reflect some of the things about them. When you are around someone with a southern accent for a while, you start to mimic it without thinking, or maybe slipping a “ya’ll” in there every once in a while.
This principle is the same with God. The more time we spend with Him, the more we start to reflect Him. Reflect His glory, reflect His character, reflect Him. Now, we aren’t the source of this glory, or the source of His character, but we begin to take on those characteristics. Darkness still has to run from a reflection of light.
The only way Satan can come at you is by imitating the light, and even in the 1000’s of years time, He hasn’t gotten really very good at that. When we are spending time with the true light we aren’t going to fall for a less radiant, less brilliant, fake light.
God is the source of life and is the source of the light. When we live in His life and His light, darkness has no power over us.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Dependence on God
God is trustworthy, God is faithful, God is good, and thus we can depend on Him. What can we depend on Him for? Can we depend on Him for everything? Naturally our response is yes. God will provide for our needs. Why do we get so shaken up when things go wrong then?
A lot of times we look to God to only meet our physical needs. We have money, food, water, and housing and that means God provides for all of our needs. Out of that a lot of times we only look to Him for our physical needs. What about our spiritual needs? Does God meet those?
Oh, of course God meets those needs, He is spirit. So maybe we look past God just meeting the physical and look into the spiritual. Then we let God sustain us spiritually. We let Him speak to us. We let Him meet us. We worship Him. We let Him meet our spiritual needs. Then we can be complete. Right?
Maybe not. What about our emotional needs? Emotions aren’t from God though so can God meet them? Wait…God created everything and we as people, as humans are created in the image of the living God. We have emotions so naturally that means God has emotions. God feels pain, God feels sad, God has joy, Jesus wept when His friend died. Our God has feelings. So why wouldn’t He be able to meet our emotional needs. So many times this is the hardest one for us to trust God in. Most of the time we look to our friends to meet our emotional needs. When we are close to them, when everything is going well in our relationships, we can feel good, we can be joyful, we can have “positive” emotions. But as soon as we have conflict, or we feel pain in the relationship, or we feel pushed away from someone, we turn from that person and we look to another. We turn that loving friendship into a rivalry, or a hatred sometimes. Even when someone isn’t pushing you away, or they aren’t trying to have conflict, we feel neglected and hurt, so we turn to someone else that might not let us down. Surprise, surprise, but that person is going to let you down to. People are not supposed to meet your emotional needs.
People are a blessing, friends are a blessing, family is a blessing, but we will NEVER get the fullest blessing from them while we are looking to them to meet our needs. God will NEVER let you go, He will never let you down. God isn’t going to push you away, He isn’t going to neglect you, He will never choose someone else over you. God loves you no matter what you’ve done, what you are doing, or what you will do. He doesn’t love you more because you served at the homeless shelter, or because you tithed the most. He loves you because you are you. He doesn’t love you because you act like a good Christian. And on the flip side, He doesn’t love you any less because you didn’t serve at the homeless shelter, or because you didn’t do something He asked you to do. God loves you more than anything and out of that love comes the ability to be dependent on Him, because He will supply for your needs.
Trusting God is one of the most freeing things in the world, but you won’t trust Him fully until you give Him the chance to prove trustworthy. Until you give Him the chance to reveal His trustworthiness, you won’t be able to grasp how truly trustworthy He is. Let go of your concepts of God letting you down. That time you felt left out to dry. It wasn’t God leaving you. God doesn’t do that. He is always trustworthy, always good, always loving, and always faithful. Trust Him, depend on Him, live out what He calls you to live out. Give God the opportunity to come through, He will.
A lot of times we look to God to only meet our physical needs. We have money, food, water, and housing and that means God provides for all of our needs. Out of that a lot of times we only look to Him for our physical needs. What about our spiritual needs? Does God meet those?
Oh, of course God meets those needs, He is spirit. So maybe we look past God just meeting the physical and look into the spiritual. Then we let God sustain us spiritually. We let Him speak to us. We let Him meet us. We worship Him. We let Him meet our spiritual needs. Then we can be complete. Right?
Maybe not. What about our emotional needs? Emotions aren’t from God though so can God meet them? Wait…God created everything and we as people, as humans are created in the image of the living God. We have emotions so naturally that means God has emotions. God feels pain, God feels sad, God has joy, Jesus wept when His friend died. Our God has feelings. So why wouldn’t He be able to meet our emotional needs. So many times this is the hardest one for us to trust God in. Most of the time we look to our friends to meet our emotional needs. When we are close to them, when everything is going well in our relationships, we can feel good, we can be joyful, we can have “positive” emotions. But as soon as we have conflict, or we feel pain in the relationship, or we feel pushed away from someone, we turn from that person and we look to another. We turn that loving friendship into a rivalry, or a hatred sometimes. Even when someone isn’t pushing you away, or they aren’t trying to have conflict, we feel neglected and hurt, so we turn to someone else that might not let us down. Surprise, surprise, but that person is going to let you down to. People are not supposed to meet your emotional needs.
People are a blessing, friends are a blessing, family is a blessing, but we will NEVER get the fullest blessing from them while we are looking to them to meet our needs. God will NEVER let you go, He will never let you down. God isn’t going to push you away, He isn’t going to neglect you, He will never choose someone else over you. God loves you no matter what you’ve done, what you are doing, or what you will do. He doesn’t love you more because you served at the homeless shelter, or because you tithed the most. He loves you because you are you. He doesn’t love you because you act like a good Christian. And on the flip side, He doesn’t love you any less because you didn’t serve at the homeless shelter, or because you didn’t do something He asked you to do. God loves you more than anything and out of that love comes the ability to be dependent on Him, because He will supply for your needs.
Trusting God is one of the most freeing things in the world, but you won’t trust Him fully until you give Him the chance to prove trustworthy. Until you give Him the chance to reveal His trustworthiness, you won’t be able to grasp how truly trustworthy He is. Let go of your concepts of God letting you down. That time you felt left out to dry. It wasn’t God leaving you. God doesn’t do that. He is always trustworthy, always good, always loving, and always faithful. Trust Him, depend on Him, live out what He calls you to live out. Give God the opportunity to come through, He will.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Needs
What do we really need? Do we need the new car? Do we need the TV? Do we need a refrigerator? Do we need money? Do we need food? Do we need relationship? Do we need God?
We know that God will provide for all of our needs, but we still wonder what He is going to provide because we don’t know what our needs are. There are a lot of things that we legitimately need. We need air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. Those are all obvious physical needs. Well we don’t really need God to provide those do?
Air is always going to be there, so God doesn’t have to provide that. And God only has to provide water to people in Africa, because everyone else has access to clean water, so I don’t need Him to provide water for me. Food, well all we need for that is for God to give us money and then we can take care of that. So, basically on those assumptions we only really need God to provide money and we can take care of the rest. Well, I can go and get a job and provide money, so I guess we don’t really need God for money either. So now we only need God when we don’t have a job.
Maybe we missed something in these assumptions about what we can do, or maybe we missed something in the assumptions that all of our needs revolve around money. We so many times limit our wants and needs to materials.
Too many people come to God asking for Him to provide money for something. Money is such a huge deal to us. Our lives revolve around money. Money has become what provides for us. Money is so so so insignificant to God. When God said He would provide for our needs, maybe we missed something. Maybe our only needs don’t revolve around money. Maybe God isn’t just there to provide us with money.
What about relationship? Yeah we need relationship, but only with God. We just need to seclude ourselves and have a relationship with God. God is a jealous God, we need to have more amounts of quiet time than we have hang out time. Hanging out with friends can’t be part of God’s plan. Hanging out is such a “secular” thing to do.
Where on earth did we learn that? God made us for relationships, not only relationship with Him, but relationships with others. This world was created out of God’s relationship in Himself (the Trinity), it was made for relationship, and it was made because of relationship. We were created to relate to one another and to relate to our God. Relationship is one of our needs. We need friends. We have to stop believing that everything outside of church is secular and not from God. We think God is in the church and He just stays there. He doesn’t like to come out of the church building, so we better go to church, because that is the only place that is “Godly.” Everything else is so “secular.”
We have to stop judging stuff based on whether it is Godly or secular. I wholeheartedly believe that God enjoys hanging out with you just as much at a football game as He does hanging out with you at church. Why do I believe that? Because we were not created for church. We were created for relationship, and God is so much bigger than the church building. Church has become a place to meet with God and friends. Church is such a good thing, but we have turned church into a box, into a building and we have tried to house God in it.
God cannot be confined by anything. We try to put Him in a box so we can understand Him, so we can be comfortable because we can see all of Him. We have to learn to stop confining Him to our imagination, because our imagination is limited and He is limitless.
We know that God will provide for all of our needs, but we still wonder what He is going to provide because we don’t know what our needs are. There are a lot of things that we legitimately need. We need air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. Those are all obvious physical needs. Well we don’t really need God to provide those do?
Air is always going to be there, so God doesn’t have to provide that. And God only has to provide water to people in Africa, because everyone else has access to clean water, so I don’t need Him to provide water for me. Food, well all we need for that is for God to give us money and then we can take care of that. So, basically on those assumptions we only really need God to provide money and we can take care of the rest. Well, I can go and get a job and provide money, so I guess we don’t really need God for money either. So now we only need God when we don’t have a job.
Maybe we missed something in these assumptions about what we can do, or maybe we missed something in the assumptions that all of our needs revolve around money. We so many times limit our wants and needs to materials.
Too many people come to God asking for Him to provide money for something. Money is such a huge deal to us. Our lives revolve around money. Money has become what provides for us. Money is so so so insignificant to God. When God said He would provide for our needs, maybe we missed something. Maybe our only needs don’t revolve around money. Maybe God isn’t just there to provide us with money.
What about relationship? Yeah we need relationship, but only with God. We just need to seclude ourselves and have a relationship with God. God is a jealous God, we need to have more amounts of quiet time than we have hang out time. Hanging out with friends can’t be part of God’s plan. Hanging out is such a “secular” thing to do.
Where on earth did we learn that? God made us for relationships, not only relationship with Him, but relationships with others. This world was created out of God’s relationship in Himself (the Trinity), it was made for relationship, and it was made because of relationship. We were created to relate to one another and to relate to our God. Relationship is one of our needs. We need friends. We have to stop believing that everything outside of church is secular and not from God. We think God is in the church and He just stays there. He doesn’t like to come out of the church building, so we better go to church, because that is the only place that is “Godly.” Everything else is so “secular.”
We have to stop judging stuff based on whether it is Godly or secular. I wholeheartedly believe that God enjoys hanging out with you just as much at a football game as He does hanging out with you at church. Why do I believe that? Because we were not created for church. We were created for relationship, and God is so much bigger than the church building. Church has become a place to meet with God and friends. Church is such a good thing, but we have turned church into a box, into a building and we have tried to house God in it.
God cannot be confined by anything. We try to put Him in a box so we can understand Him, so we can be comfortable because we can see all of Him. We have to learn to stop confining Him to our imagination, because our imagination is limited and He is limitless.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Destiny
What are we here for? What were we really put here on earth for? What is our personal call for this life?
Is it our destiny to be a doctor, or a nurse, or a preacher, or a mom, or a wife, or a husband? Is that our ultimate destiny for this world? I don’t believe that destiny is limited to a career path, a title, or a position. Even though we are in this world and our call for this life involves this world, our destiny is higher than this world. I believe that our ultimate destiny is intimate relationship with God and shining God’s glory on other people.
When you spend time with someone you start to reflect part of them. You start to take on their accent, you start saying things that they say, and you start to be more and more like them. That is a natural thing that happens. It works the same way in the supernatural. The more we are interacting with God, talking to God through our daily routine, spending time with God, we start to reflect His glory, His glory starts to shine through us.
I think that that is more along the lines of our destiny than a career path, a soul mate, or anything that this world has to offer. By limiting our destiny to something natural, we miss out on opportunities to see the supernatural at work in your life. God wants to be more than your decision maker, more than your master, more than your friend. God wants to be your life.
And as we gain a passion for Christ and as we pursue Him, remember that He is more passionate for you than anything anywhere. He pursues you more urgently than anything else. Not only is He our prize, our goal, and our love, but we are His prize, His goal, and His love. Find your destiny in a relationship with Him, not in what you do, because God is most interested in you.
Is it our destiny to be a doctor, or a nurse, or a preacher, or a mom, or a wife, or a husband? Is that our ultimate destiny for this world? I don’t believe that destiny is limited to a career path, a title, or a position. Even though we are in this world and our call for this life involves this world, our destiny is higher than this world. I believe that our ultimate destiny is intimate relationship with God and shining God’s glory on other people.
When you spend time with someone you start to reflect part of them. You start to take on their accent, you start saying things that they say, and you start to be more and more like them. That is a natural thing that happens. It works the same way in the supernatural. The more we are interacting with God, talking to God through our daily routine, spending time with God, we start to reflect His glory, His glory starts to shine through us.
I think that that is more along the lines of our destiny than a career path, a soul mate, or anything that this world has to offer. By limiting our destiny to something natural, we miss out on opportunities to see the supernatural at work in your life. God wants to be more than your decision maker, more than your master, more than your friend. God wants to be your life.
And as we gain a passion for Christ and as we pursue Him, remember that He is more passionate for you than anything anywhere. He pursues you more urgently than anything else. Not only is He our prize, our goal, and our love, but we are His prize, His goal, and His love. Find your destiny in a relationship with Him, not in what you do, because God is most interested in you.
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