| I have been reading through Exodus lately. I have read through it many times before and know the Exodus story pretty well. This time however, God has shown me His awesome power and holiness. When I think of God, I see Him as a loving Father, Someone that I can pray to when I am in trouble and thank for the blessings He sends into my life. I often fail to recognize that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is all powerful and I seem to live my life in a way that I fail to think about His greatness and that when I pray I am entering the throne room of the Mighty God. Throughout Exodus, God clearly displays His power and the Israelites clearly treat Him with respect. Since God is the same yesterday, today and forever I need to remember how powerful He is. He holds my very life in His hands. He is worthy of great respect. I have been convicted that when I come before the Lord in prayer, often times I come in a casual manner. I need to realize just Who I am talking to. Not one of my buddies, but the Most Holy God who is sitting on His throne. I also realize that when I do pray to Him, I often do it without faith that He can or will do something about my circumstances. After all He has already done for me, I sometimes doubt His ability and willingness to help me with much smaller things. This must make Him sad. Over the past several years, God has graciously taken care of me and has been very close to me. Now, when things seem to be better, I don't think so much about those times and I feel like I am saying to God: I can do it myself. But, I know that I can't do anything myself. I need the Lord. I am thankful that God has shown me my sin in this area. I plan to picture myself bowing at the feet of the Most Holy God from now on when I pray. I look forward to the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and He makes all things right. Come Lord Jesus! |
Monday, February 8, 2010
A Mighty God
Friday, February 5, 2010
Looking Forward to Heaven Part 2
Yesterday we talked about the anticipation that we should have for heaven - for spending an eternity with God. Today we will go a little deeper into our discussion.
Philippians 1 gives us an excellent example of the fine line we walk here. Verses 21-24 read, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." If you notice, every time Paul mentions his own personal preferences, what would be better for him, he speaks of going home to Christ. Notice the phrase "very much better." Not just kind of better, or theoretically better, but "very much better." He equates death with gain, not with loss.
And what does he mention as his purpose in continuing to live? Is it that he wants to have children first? Is it that he wants to retire first? No! Rather, the only purpose he can come up with is fruitful labor, for ministering to others and spreading the gospel. Consider the final phrase "to remain on is more necessary for your sake." What? This statement is huge!
Paul's life is so devoted to servitude that he equates his very reason for living as serving others. There is no reason for himself to stay alive and he has no problem in saying that he would much rather just go and be with Christ, but he recognizes that the work the Lord has him doing is important for others. This statement by Paul should cause us to think on two different levels.
First, how many of us think this way? If we are honest, probably very few of us. Paul obviously has a very big view of who God is. We should be continually praying that God would reveal more of Himself to us (and more of ourselves to us!) until we, like Paul, can cry out that going to be with Christ this exact second is so much better than anything we would be 'missing' here on Earth!
Second, how many of us could honestly say that our single greatest reason for living is to serve others? How many of us can pray, "Father, I want to come home! But perhaps allow me to linger on to continue to do this work in your name!" What impact would your death have on the world? God has not called us all to be Paul, but He has called us all to live our lives in complete abandon for Him and His Word.
The Lord blesses us in many ways while we are on this Earth. Every child is a gift from God. Beautiful weather is a gift from God. Delicious food is a gift from God. Good sleep is a gift from God. But all of these gifts are completely blown away by the ultimate gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and eternity with God.
Just like the children in our example, we should be preparing. We are only on this Earth for a short time and we need to be making the most of it - especially if we are praying that Christ would come back soon! Just as they took joy in picking their favorite outfits to wear for their friends, so should we be clothing ourselves with holiness and the fruits of the spirit.
Now, this is all very interesting to talk about and read about. But how many of us are really sitting on the edge of our seats every minute of every day wondering, "Will this be the day I get to go home??" As I mentioned earlier, this is due to our lack of knowledge of God. If we truly knew God for who He was, this world would sicken us. If we truly understood our salvation this would not be a struggle. But we are sinners and our minds are still clouded by sin. Let us join together today in prayer that God would make Himself known to us more every day. That He would so grow in majesty in our minds that we are willing and eager to count it all as loss for the sake of Christ and His gospel!
Philippians 1 gives us an excellent example of the fine line we walk here. Verses 21-24 read, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." If you notice, every time Paul mentions his own personal preferences, what would be better for him, he speaks of going home to Christ. Notice the phrase "very much better." Not just kind of better, or theoretically better, but "very much better." He equates death with gain, not with loss.
And what does he mention as his purpose in continuing to live? Is it that he wants to have children first? Is it that he wants to retire first? No! Rather, the only purpose he can come up with is fruitful labor, for ministering to others and spreading the gospel. Consider the final phrase "to remain on is more necessary for your sake." What? This statement is huge!
Paul's life is so devoted to servitude that he equates his very reason for living as serving others. There is no reason for himself to stay alive and he has no problem in saying that he would much rather just go and be with Christ, but he recognizes that the work the Lord has him doing is important for others. This statement by Paul should cause us to think on two different levels.
First, how many of us think this way? If we are honest, probably very few of us. Paul obviously has a very big view of who God is. We should be continually praying that God would reveal more of Himself to us (and more of ourselves to us!) until we, like Paul, can cry out that going to be with Christ this exact second is so much better than anything we would be 'missing' here on Earth!
Second, how many of us could honestly say that our single greatest reason for living is to serve others? How many of us can pray, "Father, I want to come home! But perhaps allow me to linger on to continue to do this work in your name!" What impact would your death have on the world? God has not called us all to be Paul, but He has called us all to live our lives in complete abandon for Him and His Word.
The Lord blesses us in many ways while we are on this Earth. Every child is a gift from God. Beautiful weather is a gift from God. Delicious food is a gift from God. Good sleep is a gift from God. But all of these gifts are completely blown away by the ultimate gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and eternity with God.
Just like the children in our example, we should be preparing. We are only on this Earth for a short time and we need to be making the most of it - especially if we are praying that Christ would come back soon! Just as they took joy in picking their favorite outfits to wear for their friends, so should we be clothing ourselves with holiness and the fruits of the spirit.
Now, this is all very interesting to talk about and read about. But how many of us are really sitting on the edge of our seats every minute of every day wondering, "Will this be the day I get to go home??" As I mentioned earlier, this is due to our lack of knowledge of God. If we truly knew God for who He was, this world would sicken us. If we truly understood our salvation this would not be a struggle. But we are sinners and our minds are still clouded by sin. Let us join together today in prayer that God would make Himself known to us more every day. That He would so grow in majesty in our minds that we are willing and eager to count it all as loss for the sake of Christ and His gospel!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Looking Forward to Heaven Part 1
Oh no. You did it again. You volunteered to watch some kids from the church for the weekend and you told your own children about it. And now they won't stop talking about it! They are bouncing off the walls, running up and down the stairs and, worst of all, asking repeatedly if it is the weekend yet. "How much longer to Friday, mom?" "Hey mom, is it almost the weekend?" "Ma! How much longer 'till Sammy comes over?" Every five minutes the subject comes up until you wish you hadn't told them until after the visitors arrived!
They begin to rearrange their rooms, planning where each person will sleep. Favorite toys are brought out to display proudly. Outfits are planned and activities are organized. Everything they come in contact with suddenly relates, in some way, to the upcoming weekend.
You try to distract them with other things but each idea fails. You put in a movie but all they do is talk about how much fun it will be to watch movies with their friends on the weekend. You take them to the park but all they do is ask if they can go again on Saturday. You tell them one morning that they can have ice cream for dessert after dinner (because by this point you'd rather hear about ANYTHING but the upcoming weekend!) but all they do is ask if they can have ice cream with their friends on Friday.
No matter what you do or how hard you try to distract them, your kids' minds are focused on that weekend.
This is how we should feel about Heaven. We should be so excited over the prospect of spending eternity in Heaven with God that our excitement is barely containable. We should be so utterly focused on it that our joy and anticipation is readily apparent to anyone we see. Everything in our life should point to it.
Do you love singing hymns and praises? Anticipate the day when you will be singing praises continually! Do you love studying and learning more of the Lord? Imagine the day when you will see Him face to face! Do you loathe the sin that constantly encroaches upon your life? Bounce with excitement that one day this will no longer be an issue!
Just as the children set up their rooms and picked the toys and games they would want to use with their friends, so should we be preparing ourselves for Heaven. The time of our sanctification is now and we should take full advantage of it.
The excitements and events of this world should not cause us to lose our focus for one minute. Graduation, boyfriends/girlfriends, marriage, jobs, kids, cars, vacations, houses, grandkids, retirement - nothing should be held in higher anticipation than Heaven. You find out in a doctors visit a week before you were to be married that you have cancer and three days to live? It's been nice knowing you, honey, but I'm going home!
I know this sounds awful, and I almost didn't type it but I chose to anyway. If we had a right view of God and of Heaven and of our sinful state here on Earth then we would have no problem with that example, we would wholeheartedly agree! We should hold nothing in comparison to spending eternity with Christ in His glory! Our death should be a much anticipated event and our joy should rise exponentially with each year we live for we know that we are that much closer to Heaven.
Come back tomorrow to read more about this.
They begin to rearrange their rooms, planning where each person will sleep. Favorite toys are brought out to display proudly. Outfits are planned and activities are organized. Everything they come in contact with suddenly relates, in some way, to the upcoming weekend.
You try to distract them with other things but each idea fails. You put in a movie but all they do is talk about how much fun it will be to watch movies with their friends on the weekend. You take them to the park but all they do is ask if they can go again on Saturday. You tell them one morning that they can have ice cream for dessert after dinner (because by this point you'd rather hear about ANYTHING but the upcoming weekend!) but all they do is ask if they can have ice cream with their friends on Friday.
No matter what you do or how hard you try to distract them, your kids' minds are focused on that weekend.
This is how we should feel about Heaven. We should be so excited over the prospect of spending eternity in Heaven with God that our excitement is barely containable. We should be so utterly focused on it that our joy and anticipation is readily apparent to anyone we see. Everything in our life should point to it.
Do you love singing hymns and praises? Anticipate the day when you will be singing praises continually! Do you love studying and learning more of the Lord? Imagine the day when you will see Him face to face! Do you loathe the sin that constantly encroaches upon your life? Bounce with excitement that one day this will no longer be an issue!
Just as the children set up their rooms and picked the toys and games they would want to use with their friends, so should we be preparing ourselves for Heaven. The time of our sanctification is now and we should take full advantage of it.
The excitements and events of this world should not cause us to lose our focus for one minute. Graduation, boyfriends/girlfriends, marriage, jobs, kids, cars, vacations, houses, grandkids, retirement - nothing should be held in higher anticipation than Heaven. You find out in a doctors visit a week before you were to be married that you have cancer and three days to live? It's been nice knowing you, honey, but I'm going home!
I know this sounds awful, and I almost didn't type it but I chose to anyway. If we had a right view of God and of Heaven and of our sinful state here on Earth then we would have no problem with that example, we would wholeheartedly agree! We should hold nothing in comparison to spending eternity with Christ in His glory! Our death should be a much anticipated event and our joy should rise exponentially with each year we live for we know that we are that much closer to Heaven.
Come back tomorrow to read more about this.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Psalm 73:25-28
I just wanted to share what I am meditating on and praying through today.
Psalm 73:25-28
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.
Psalm 73:25-28
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.
Monday, February 1, 2010
February
Today is the first day of February. When I think of this month I think about Valentine's Day and how it is a special time of the year to let people you love know how special they are.
This year I am not only thinking about earthly relationships but, also of my relationship with God. I think about the best Valentine there ever was: Jesus gave His life for me! I think about how Jesus died a horrible death to pay the penalty for my sin. Now that is love!
I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to show your love to others on Valentine's Day, and every other day of the year. But, please take some time to reflect on the greatest Valentine this year. Jesus our Savior.
This year I am not only thinking about earthly relationships but, also of my relationship with God. I think about the best Valentine there ever was: Jesus gave His life for me! I think about how Jesus died a horrible death to pay the penalty for my sin. Now that is love!
I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to show your love to others on Valentine's Day, and every other day of the year. But, please take some time to reflect on the greatest Valentine this year. Jesus our Savior.
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