"Because we are in Christ, we have all we need to be missionaries. We are always looking for more boldness or wisdom, but the truth is that we are already ready. God has already fully prepared us for ministry."
All I have to say to that is "Wow." I went to Snelling after Freshley tonight, and this was what one of the Freshley small group leaders said to me. We had been talking about mission trips and preparing for them, and he gave me these wise words of advice. Ministry is not a job for an elite group of people who have been "properly trained" to share the Holy Spirit with other people. The Spirit has been poured out on all of God's children, and all of us are servant's of the Lord, called to do His work. "God will never call us to do something He has not equipped us to do." He has equipped all believers to share the gospel, so we are to do what He has given us the power to do. Ministry isn't something we learn to do; it's something the Spirit does for us, through us. So we have no reason to wait to start.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
"Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?'"
Luke 14:3
I was flipping through my Bible to get to Romans earlier when I came to the page this verse was on, and I stopped. Something about the question caught my attention, so I had to postpone my study of Romans to take some notes on this verse. So I decided I'd share my findings.
—————————————————————————
Here Jesus is testing the Pharisees, although the Pharisees had been plotting to test Him. Healing is something only God can do, so Jesus is essentially asking, "Is it lawful for God to be God on the Sabbath or not?" The Pharisees couldn't perform healings unless God willed it, but they had never tried to heal someone on the Sabbath. If it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath, God would have made their efforts fail. If it was unlawful, Jesus would not have been able to heal the man with the withered hand. By healing his hand, Jesus answered His own question: "Yes, it is lawful, but you Pharisees make things unlawful that are actually, not only lawful, but also encouraged and expected by God." Jesus repeatedly revealed His identity as God because, if any of His claims about Himself had been false, God would not have allowed Him to perform the miracles He did. Because He claimed to be God and continued to be successful in performing miracles, He had to be telling the truth.
In this passage, Jesus is, in a way, making fun of the Pharisees because they aren't all-powerful and they aren't favored by God, even though they think they are. No mortal man can heal another apart from the hand of God. So by asking His question, not only is Jesus asking if they believe God is allowed to be Himself on the Sabbath, but He is also asking if they believe they can perform healings without God, making them equal with God.
So how does this apply to us today? Well, we often rely on our own strength, our own abilities to get things done. It seems clear from this single verse that the Pharisees were doing the same thing. But in John 15:5, Jesus says, "[Apart] from Me you can do nothing." We can't succeed in anything unless God has willed it, even if we have prepared so much that it would be nearly impossible to fail; if we try to live apart from God, outside of His will, we will fail like the Pharisees. So we have to rely fully on God for everything, because only then will we have success.
We also have to just let God be God. We get so caught up in what we're doing that we forget to ask God what He wants us to do. Isaiah 55:8 says, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord." When things aren't going your way, remember that they're going God's way, and God's plan is perfect, so much bigger than any of our plans could ever be. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Since the creation of the world, God has been moving, acting on everything that has happened in order to bring us into His perfection. When I was looking up Isaiah 55:8, I read on and came upon Isaiah 55:10-12, which I really liked: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." There is nothing on earth that happens that God cannot work with; His purpose will be fulfilled, and there's nothing we can do to mess it up. So that gives us all the more reason to seek God's will and act on it, so that we can claim to have been a part of carrying out God's will. When we live in God's will, He can't help but want to make us succeed. After all, our success is His success.
I was flipping through my Bible to get to Romans earlier when I came to the page this verse was on, and I stopped. Something about the question caught my attention, so I had to postpone my study of Romans to take some notes on this verse. So I decided I'd share my findings.
—————————————————————————
Here Jesus is testing the Pharisees, although the Pharisees had been plotting to test Him. Healing is something only God can do, so Jesus is essentially asking, "Is it lawful for God to be God on the Sabbath or not?" The Pharisees couldn't perform healings unless God willed it, but they had never tried to heal someone on the Sabbath. If it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath, God would have made their efforts fail. If it was unlawful, Jesus would not have been able to heal the man with the withered hand. By healing his hand, Jesus answered His own question: "Yes, it is lawful, but you Pharisees make things unlawful that are actually, not only lawful, but also encouraged and expected by God." Jesus repeatedly revealed His identity as God because, if any of His claims about Himself had been false, God would not have allowed Him to perform the miracles He did. Because He claimed to be God and continued to be successful in performing miracles, He had to be telling the truth.
In this passage, Jesus is, in a way, making fun of the Pharisees because they aren't all-powerful and they aren't favored by God, even though they think they are. No mortal man can heal another apart from the hand of God. So by asking His question, not only is Jesus asking if they believe God is allowed to be Himself on the Sabbath, but He is also asking if they believe they can perform healings without God, making them equal with God.
So how does this apply to us today? Well, we often rely on our own strength, our own abilities to get things done. It seems clear from this single verse that the Pharisees were doing the same thing. But in John 15:5, Jesus says, "[Apart] from Me you can do nothing." We can't succeed in anything unless God has willed it, even if we have prepared so much that it would be nearly impossible to fail; if we try to live apart from God, outside of His will, we will fail like the Pharisees. So we have to rely fully on God for everything, because only then will we have success.
We also have to just let God be God. We get so caught up in what we're doing that we forget to ask God what He wants us to do. Isaiah 55:8 says, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord." When things aren't going your way, remember that they're going God's way, and God's plan is perfect, so much bigger than any of our plans could ever be. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Since the creation of the world, God has been moving, acting on everything that has happened in order to bring us into His perfection. When I was looking up Isaiah 55:8, I read on and came upon Isaiah 55:10-12, which I really liked: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." There is nothing on earth that happens that God cannot work with; His purpose will be fulfilled, and there's nothing we can do to mess it up. So that gives us all the more reason to seek God's will and act on it, so that we can claim to have been a part of carrying out God's will. When we live in God's will, He can't help but want to make us succeed. After all, our success is His success.
"Take me into the Holy of holies."
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" ~ 1 Corinthians 3:16
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." ~ 1 Peter 2:9
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." ~ John 4:23
I never noticed how these verses connected until last night at Fortnight, an event the UGA Wesley Foundation put on just for guys. I was only there for a little over an hour, but the message I heard was really insightful. The message was about prayer and worship, the only two things that we will take with us from this life on earth into the next in heaven. When the speaker mentioned these verses together, something seemed to click for me.
We are God's temple, the house of the Lord, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. At a designated time every year, the high priest of Israel would go into the Most Holy Place inside the temple, which was where God's Spirit resided and where offerings of sacrifice and praise were presented to the Lord. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and only at a specific time each year.
We are a royal priesthood, the Levites who were set apart to be the priests of Israel to present offerings to God on behalf of the people. We are now all called to enter into the Most Holy Place, into the presence of the Spirit. We offer up our lives to God because it's all we have to give.
We are no longer required to worship in a specific place because the temple moves wherever we go, because we are the temple. So whenever we come to God to worship, we enter into the tabernacle—into ourselves—to praise Him. That's why we often close our eyes when praying or when singing in church: we are withdrawing into ourselves, into the temple. That's also why quiet time is so important: we need the time to separate ourselves from the rest of the world and enter into God's presence, where nothing can distract us. It was in solitude that Moses entered God's presence on Mount Sinai and learned His will for the Israelites. It was in solitude that Abraham showed his devotion by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, and it was in solitude that God came to him and confirmed His covenant with Him. It was in solitude in Arabia that Paul entered into God's presence and learned the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he then shared with the Gentiles, eventually coming to us today. And it was in solitude that Jesus Himself prayed to the Father for perseverance to carry out His will; He was in constant communion with the Lord, frequently withdrawing to spend time alone with God in order to discern His will and receive a willing Spirit to carry it out. Jesus, although He was God in the flesh, chose to live as a human, setting an example for us to follow; with this mindset, He displayed for us the way to know God, rather than simply acting on His identity as God to instantly complete His plan. Because He set the example for us, we are to imitate Him, being in constant prayer and worship, withdrawing into the temple frequently to speak with God. Yes, there is a reason for fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but there is also a purpose for spending time alone with God; there's a reason God made Eve for Adam, but there's also a reason He made her separate and independent from him instead of attaching them like Siamese twins.
I've been hearing a lot lately about the advice one president gave to his successor: "Use Camp David." This president frequently withdrew to Camp David to remove himself from the rush of life in the White House. Although a president cannot lead from Camp David, the rest Camp David provided for him was essential for his success as a leader. In the same way, although we cannot serve the world from our withdrawn state inside the temple, frequent visits to the house of the Lord are crucial to our understanding of God's will and our success in carrying it out. So "use Camp David"; use your alone time wisely.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." ~ 1 Peter 2:9
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." ~ John 4:23
I never noticed how these verses connected until last night at Fortnight, an event the UGA Wesley Foundation put on just for guys. I was only there for a little over an hour, but the message I heard was really insightful. The message was about prayer and worship, the only two things that we will take with us from this life on earth into the next in heaven. When the speaker mentioned these verses together, something seemed to click for me.
We are God's temple, the house of the Lord, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. At a designated time every year, the high priest of Israel would go into the Most Holy Place inside the temple, which was where God's Spirit resided and where offerings of sacrifice and praise were presented to the Lord. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and only at a specific time each year.
We are a royal priesthood, the Levites who were set apart to be the priests of Israel to present offerings to God on behalf of the people. We are now all called to enter into the Most Holy Place, into the presence of the Spirit. We offer up our lives to God because it's all we have to give.
We are no longer required to worship in a specific place because the temple moves wherever we go, because we are the temple. So whenever we come to God to worship, we enter into the tabernacle—into ourselves—to praise Him. That's why we often close our eyes when praying or when singing in church: we are withdrawing into ourselves, into the temple. That's also why quiet time is so important: we need the time to separate ourselves from the rest of the world and enter into God's presence, where nothing can distract us. It was in solitude that Moses entered God's presence on Mount Sinai and learned His will for the Israelites. It was in solitude that Abraham showed his devotion by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, and it was in solitude that God came to him and confirmed His covenant with Him. It was in solitude in Arabia that Paul entered into God's presence and learned the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he then shared with the Gentiles, eventually coming to us today. And it was in solitude that Jesus Himself prayed to the Father for perseverance to carry out His will; He was in constant communion with the Lord, frequently withdrawing to spend time alone with God in order to discern His will and receive a willing Spirit to carry it out. Jesus, although He was God in the flesh, chose to live as a human, setting an example for us to follow; with this mindset, He displayed for us the way to know God, rather than simply acting on His identity as God to instantly complete His plan. Because He set the example for us, we are to imitate Him, being in constant prayer and worship, withdrawing into the temple frequently to speak with God. Yes, there is a reason for fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but there is also a purpose for spending time alone with God; there's a reason God made Eve for Adam, but there's also a reason He made her separate and independent from him instead of attaching them like Siamese twins.
I've been hearing a lot lately about the advice one president gave to his successor: "Use Camp David." This president frequently withdrew to Camp David to remove himself from the rush of life in the White House. Although a president cannot lead from Camp David, the rest Camp David provided for him was essential for his success as a leader. In the same way, although we cannot serve the world from our withdrawn state inside the temple, frequent visits to the house of the Lord are crucial to our understanding of God's will and our success in carrying it out. So "use Camp David"; use your alone time wisely.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
"Before Abraham was, I AM!"
John 8:58.
I was thinking about this verse the other day and planned on writing something, but I never got to it, so I decided to write about it now.
There's something about this verse that just emanates power. That's probably how I'm supposed to feel when reading it because God Himself, in the Person of Jesus, is declaring His eternity, His everlasting power. "Before Abraham was, I AM!" Before Abraham was even born, God exists. From a grammatical standpoint, we all know that this sentence is very wrong. Jesus should have said, "I was before Abraham," or something similar, but instead, He said, "I AM before Abraham was." Why? Well, for one thing, God gave Moses "I AM" as His name in Exodus 3:14. But I think there's more to it than that, something extra behind why "I AM" is His name. In order for God to know everything that has happened in the past and everything that is happening now and everything that will happen in the future, and in order for Him to be in control of the future and be able to remember the past so that He can fulfill everything He promised, God must be outside of time. If God existed within time, He would not be able to know the future; therefore, God must exist independent of time. He makes this clear by saying, "Before Abraham was, I AM." In this one statement, Jesus condensed the name of His glory: the One "who was and is and is to come." He exists from beginning to end; nothing precedes Him, and nothing succeeds Him.
"I AM!" God exists! He is everywhere at all times. He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Bread of Life. He is the Living Water, the Living One who sees us (Lahai Roi; Genesis 16:13-14) and knows us. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, God Almighty (El Shaddai). He is our Savior. He is Yahweh. And He is, for all eternity, above all things. To God be the glory!
I was thinking about this verse the other day and planned on writing something, but I never got to it, so I decided to write about it now.
There's something about this verse that just emanates power. That's probably how I'm supposed to feel when reading it because God Himself, in the Person of Jesus, is declaring His eternity, His everlasting power. "Before Abraham was, I AM!" Before Abraham was even born, God exists. From a grammatical standpoint, we all know that this sentence is very wrong. Jesus should have said, "I was before Abraham," or something similar, but instead, He said, "I AM before Abraham was." Why? Well, for one thing, God gave Moses "I AM" as His name in Exodus 3:14. But I think there's more to it than that, something extra behind why "I AM" is His name. In order for God to know everything that has happened in the past and everything that is happening now and everything that will happen in the future, and in order for Him to be in control of the future and be able to remember the past so that He can fulfill everything He promised, God must be outside of time. If God existed within time, He would not be able to know the future; therefore, God must exist independent of time. He makes this clear by saying, "Before Abraham was, I AM." In this one statement, Jesus condensed the name of His glory: the One "who was and is and is to come." He exists from beginning to end; nothing precedes Him, and nothing succeeds Him.
"I AM!" God exists! He is everywhere at all times. He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Bread of Life. He is the Living Water, the Living One who sees us (Lahai Roi; Genesis 16:13-14) and knows us. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, God Almighty (El Shaddai). He is our Savior. He is Yahweh. And He is, for all eternity, above all things. To God be the glory!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Up and Up
"To be prosperous would not require much of me. You see, contentment is the one thing it entails—to be content with where I am and getting where I need to be. I'm moving past the past where I have failed."
I was listening to a Relient K playlist last night, and the lyrics of a lot of songs caught my attention. So I went back to listen to them again today, and this one, "Up and Up," seemed particularly interesting. This verse was what really got me thinking.
"To be prosperous would not require much of me." The world looks at fame and fortune as something you earn for yourself. If you succeed in school and in your career, you will have (or at least, be able to afford) all you could ever want. But if you just fail at life, you have nobody to blame for your poverty but yourself. But Relient K seems to think differently. They take the godly view of success: all success and failure, victories and hardships, are given or allowed by God to ultimately bless us. In the difficult times, it can be hard to see how God is blessing us through our trials, but when we emerge from them, we come out stronger than before, rejoicing and thanking God. And when God gives us success, He gives it to us so that we would glorify His name and make His power known to those who have not experienced it. So according to the Bible, prosperity comes from God, and only God; however, that does not mean that we should sit back and let Him do everything. He has given us talents and abilities so that we would use them. The success we achieve with those abilities comes from God because He gave us the abilities in the first place.
But the song doesn't stop there: "You see, contentment is the one thing it entails—" Let's look at Job for a minute. Job was a wealthy man by all standards; he had many children, he had abundant livestock, he had plenty of slaves, he was wise and thoughtful, he was strong in health, and he was very deep in his relationship with the Lord. But then Satan attacked him, stealing everything he had from him: he took his family and his earthly riches; he took his health; he attacked his thoughts by challenging him, through his own wife, to give up God. But he could not take God from him. Job remained faithful to God, and because of his faithfulness, God blessed him with more than he had had before Satan attacked. He became even wealthier than before. But even in his trials, Job remained the wealthiest man alive. How? He remained content. He trusted that God would bring him through his trials stronger than before, and he knew that God would never abandon him; God was all he needed. When you have God, and God is all you need, you will never be disappointed.
So to be prosperous—wealthy, successful—contentment is all we need. The song continues: "—to be content with where I am and getting where I need to be." Job knew where he was, all the trials he was facing; but he also knew that God was with him through it all. And he also knew that God was going to take him above and beyond where he had been before. He was content with where he was, and he was content to be moving toward his final destination, no matter how difficult the journey.
"I'm moving past the past where I have failed." Another song by Relient K, "Getting Into You," says, "You say You will not dwell on what I did, but rather what I do." What this means is that what's past is past; if you have repented, God has forgiven you. There's no point in dwelling on the mistakes of the past, so we move ahead. God has forgiven our past. What He cares about most is what you do now, how you act on what you learned from your past. Contentment lies not only in accepting where you are and where you are going, but also in accepting where you were and knowing that you're not there anymore.
It's amazing what God can teach us through music.
I was listening to a Relient K playlist last night, and the lyrics of a lot of songs caught my attention. So I went back to listen to them again today, and this one, "Up and Up," seemed particularly interesting. This verse was what really got me thinking.
"To be prosperous would not require much of me." The world looks at fame and fortune as something you earn for yourself. If you succeed in school and in your career, you will have (or at least, be able to afford) all you could ever want. But if you just fail at life, you have nobody to blame for your poverty but yourself. But Relient K seems to think differently. They take the godly view of success: all success and failure, victories and hardships, are given or allowed by God to ultimately bless us. In the difficult times, it can be hard to see how God is blessing us through our trials, but when we emerge from them, we come out stronger than before, rejoicing and thanking God. And when God gives us success, He gives it to us so that we would glorify His name and make His power known to those who have not experienced it. So according to the Bible, prosperity comes from God, and only God; however, that does not mean that we should sit back and let Him do everything. He has given us talents and abilities so that we would use them. The success we achieve with those abilities comes from God because He gave us the abilities in the first place.
But the song doesn't stop there: "You see, contentment is the one thing it entails—" Let's look at Job for a minute. Job was a wealthy man by all standards; he had many children, he had abundant livestock, he had plenty of slaves, he was wise and thoughtful, he was strong in health, and he was very deep in his relationship with the Lord. But then Satan attacked him, stealing everything he had from him: he took his family and his earthly riches; he took his health; he attacked his thoughts by challenging him, through his own wife, to give up God. But he could not take God from him. Job remained faithful to God, and because of his faithfulness, God blessed him with more than he had had before Satan attacked. He became even wealthier than before. But even in his trials, Job remained the wealthiest man alive. How? He remained content. He trusted that God would bring him through his trials stronger than before, and he knew that God would never abandon him; God was all he needed. When you have God, and God is all you need, you will never be disappointed.
So to be prosperous—wealthy, successful—contentment is all we need. The song continues: "—to be content with where I am and getting where I need to be." Job knew where he was, all the trials he was facing; but he also knew that God was with him through it all. And he also knew that God was going to take him above and beyond where he had been before. He was content with where he was, and he was content to be moving toward his final destination, no matter how difficult the journey.
"I'm moving past the past where I have failed." Another song by Relient K, "Getting Into You," says, "You say You will not dwell on what I did, but rather what I do." What this means is that what's past is past; if you have repented, God has forgiven you. There's no point in dwelling on the mistakes of the past, so we move ahead. God has forgiven our past. What He cares about most is what you do now, how you act on what you learned from your past. Contentment lies not only in accepting where you are and where you are going, but also in accepting where you were and knowing that you're not there anymore.
It's amazing what God can teach us through music.
Monday, February 14, 2011
"With all creation I sing"
I don't regularly close my eyes during worship, but when I feel especially moved or when I feel especially detached and desperate for a Spirit of worship, I'll close my eyes to get into a posture of prayer. So tonight during worship at Freshley, I had my eyes closed when we started singing Revelation Song. When we got to the line, "With all creation I sing, 'Praise to the King of kings! You are my everything, and I will adore You,'" an image of birds chirping and the famous UGA North Campus squirrels flashed through my mind, and I thought of something. "With all creation I sing"— "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20). All of creation is constantly testifying to who God is, revealing His power and bringing Him glory. When birds sing in the morning, most people think they are calling to each other or sounding out mating calls. But I believe they have another motive behind their singing. Dogs bark, cats meow, cows moo. All animals have their unique calls, and with those unique calls, all of creation praises the Creator. Sure, animals have mating calls, but consider this: Could it be possible that an animal's mating call is nothing but a song of worship to God that attracts the opposite gender of its species? I think animals show an even greater understanding than we do of the quote, "A woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man has to seek Him to find her."
Anyway, my point is that all of creation is always in a state of worship, bringing praise to God with their mere existence. Shouldn't we be the same way? God has made us unique and set us apart from the animals, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from them. After all, the Bible makes plenty of references to animals as examples when giving advice. The reason for our existence is to bring glory to God and to bring others to desire to do the same, and that's exactly what God's creation does, but we have fled from our purpose. "Go to the ant, you sluggard," Solomon says in Proverbs 6:6; "Go to creation, you servant of God!" We need to learn what it means to worship, and according to creation, to live is to worship and to worship is to live.
"With all creation [we] sing, 'Praise to the King of kings! You are my everything, and I will adore You!"
Anyway, my point is that all of creation is always in a state of worship, bringing praise to God with their mere existence. Shouldn't we be the same way? God has made us unique and set us apart from the animals, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from them. After all, the Bible makes plenty of references to animals as examples when giving advice. The reason for our existence is to bring glory to God and to bring others to desire to do the same, and that's exactly what God's creation does, but we have fled from our purpose. "Go to the ant, you sluggard," Solomon says in Proverbs 6:6; "Go to creation, you servant of God!" We need to learn what it means to worship, and according to creation, to live is to worship and to worship is to live.
"With all creation [we] sing, 'Praise to the King of kings! You are my everything, and I will adore You!"
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Lean on Me
Today's message in the college Bible study at Watkinsville First Baptist was on Mark 8:1-21. I learned a lot, so I want to share my notes.
We come to Mark 8:1-13, the feeding of the four thousand, in Gentile territory. How do we know that? Well, Mark 7:24-37 takes place in Tyre and "the region of the Decapolis" (v. 31). The Syrophoenician woman was a Greek; in other words, she was a Gentile. And when we go back to the healing of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5:1-20, we see that the man went into the Decapolis (the Ten Cities) and told what Jesus had done for him; this was Gentile territory, as hinted at by the fact that there were pigs in the area, which are considered unclean to Jews.
So what's so great about the fact that Jesus was back among the Gentiles? For one thing, the Pharisees hated it when this "religious leader" chose to spend so much time with "unclean" Gentiles. They were expecting the Messiah to come with power to overthrow the authorities of the world and establish the kingdom of the Jews on earth, but Jesus clearly wasn't doing that. But the main point is this: Jesus told His disciples to give food to the crowd of four thousand, something which they were far from being able to do. They had seven loaves of bread, enough to feed themselves and maybe a handful of the preferred Gentiles in the crowd. But Jesus took the little they had and made plenty out of it, making enough to satisfy the entire crowd of Gentiles. It may just be because Perspectives has given me an eye for God's missionary heart in Scripture, but this picture of Jews giving the bread Jesus blessed to all the Gentiles present looks to me like a pre-crucifixion display of God's love for all peoples. For too long, the Jews had believed that being the "chosen people" meant that they were to be the only ones saved by the Messiah, but they had forgotten what God said in Isaiah 49:6: "He says: 'It is too small a thing for You to be My Servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Jesus made it clear that the blood of His sacrifice was to be sufficient to cover the sins of all peoples, and that includes Gentiles.
An interesting point that was brought up is that this passage in Mark deals with the danger of self-sufficiency. Jesus warns in verse 15 against the "yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod." The Pharisees relied on their own abilities to uphold the Law of Moses, while Herod, being king, simply had to call on his authority as king to get away with anything. The disciples discussed among themselves on their boat that they had forgotten to bring bread, but they had just seen Jesus provide enough bread and fish to feed thousands. Twice. The disciples had had seven loaves of bread for the four thousand, but Jesus was able to make enough to feed everyone; yet the disciples still argued among themselves because they had only one loaf of bread. They were relying on their own self-sufficiency instead of on Christ. Jesus could have produced a month's worth of bread from that single loaf, but they failed to remember His identity as the Son of God. So Jesus' warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod is a warning against self-sufficiency: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). If we rely on God and not on ourselves, only then will we succeed in carrying out God's will.
I also find it interesting how many loaves the disciples brought to Jesus to feed the five thousand and the four thousand and how many baskets full of leftovers they brought back from each crowd. For the four thousand, the disciples brought to Jesus seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, and they came back with seven baskets of leftovers; for the five thousand, the disciples brought five loaves and two fish and returned with twelve baskets of leftovers. To me, this shows how God works: when we come to God in faith, He can turn the little we have into plenty and produce a bountiful harvest from it. The less we have when we come to Him, the greater harvest He can produce for Himself; the weaker we are, the stronger He shows Himself to be; the more astonishing the success, the more glory He receives. We just have to trust Him to lead us in His will.
Nothing we have can add to the success of God's ministry, so give God all control and let Him use the little you have to bring many to salvation.
We come to Mark 8:1-13, the feeding of the four thousand, in Gentile territory. How do we know that? Well, Mark 7:24-37 takes place in Tyre and "the region of the Decapolis" (v. 31). The Syrophoenician woman was a Greek; in other words, she was a Gentile. And when we go back to the healing of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5:1-20, we see that the man went into the Decapolis (the Ten Cities) and told what Jesus had done for him; this was Gentile territory, as hinted at by the fact that there were pigs in the area, which are considered unclean to Jews.
So what's so great about the fact that Jesus was back among the Gentiles? For one thing, the Pharisees hated it when this "religious leader" chose to spend so much time with "unclean" Gentiles. They were expecting the Messiah to come with power to overthrow the authorities of the world and establish the kingdom of the Jews on earth, but Jesus clearly wasn't doing that. But the main point is this: Jesus told His disciples to give food to the crowd of four thousand, something which they were far from being able to do. They had seven loaves of bread, enough to feed themselves and maybe a handful of the preferred Gentiles in the crowd. But Jesus took the little they had and made plenty out of it, making enough to satisfy the entire crowd of Gentiles. It may just be because Perspectives has given me an eye for God's missionary heart in Scripture, but this picture of Jews giving the bread Jesus blessed to all the Gentiles present looks to me like a pre-crucifixion display of God's love for all peoples. For too long, the Jews had believed that being the "chosen people" meant that they were to be the only ones saved by the Messiah, but they had forgotten what God said in Isaiah 49:6: "He says: 'It is too small a thing for You to be My Servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Jesus made it clear that the blood of His sacrifice was to be sufficient to cover the sins of all peoples, and that includes Gentiles.
An interesting point that was brought up is that this passage in Mark deals with the danger of self-sufficiency. Jesus warns in verse 15 against the "yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod." The Pharisees relied on their own abilities to uphold the Law of Moses, while Herod, being king, simply had to call on his authority as king to get away with anything. The disciples discussed among themselves on their boat that they had forgotten to bring bread, but they had just seen Jesus provide enough bread and fish to feed thousands. Twice. The disciples had had seven loaves of bread for the four thousand, but Jesus was able to make enough to feed everyone; yet the disciples still argued among themselves because they had only one loaf of bread. They were relying on their own self-sufficiency instead of on Christ. Jesus could have produced a month's worth of bread from that single loaf, but they failed to remember His identity as the Son of God. So Jesus' warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod is a warning against self-sufficiency: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). If we rely on God and not on ourselves, only then will we succeed in carrying out God's will.
I also find it interesting how many loaves the disciples brought to Jesus to feed the five thousand and the four thousand and how many baskets full of leftovers they brought back from each crowd. For the four thousand, the disciples brought to Jesus seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, and they came back with seven baskets of leftovers; for the five thousand, the disciples brought five loaves and two fish and returned with twelve baskets of leftovers. To me, this shows how God works: when we come to God in faith, He can turn the little we have into plenty and produce a bountiful harvest from it. The less we have when we come to Him, the greater harvest He can produce for Himself; the weaker we are, the stronger He shows Himself to be; the more astonishing the success, the more glory He receives. We just have to trust Him to lead us in His will.
Nothing we have can add to the success of God's ministry, so give God all control and let Him use the little you have to bring many to salvation.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
SPAM Prep
For those of you who don't know, last year I did something called SPAM, which stands for Spiritual Preparation and Meditation. You can read about it here.
Last Saturday, I spent four hours trying to read through all the Minor Prophets. I started in Hosea and got through Nahum. Then after failing to find a ride to church on Sunday, I spent that morning finishing Habakkuk through Malachi. So today I decided to try to read through Paul's letters, Romans through Philemon. I failed. Really badly. But what came from that failure probably benefited me more than I could have hoped.
I started in Romans, but after five chapters of mind-blowing grammar and heavy preaching, I decided I couldn't keep going the way I was moving. It was obvious that simply reading through Paul's letters was going to get me nowhere, so I started over. I went back to the beginning of Romans, and this time I took notes. I only got through Romans 1:15, but I felt like I got much more out of that time than I would have if I had just continued plowing ahead with no regard for what the words meant. Quality over quantity.
So now I have a new plan. After two Saturdays of spending four hours reading the Bible, I've decided to make Saturday my SPAM prep day. Since early last semester, I've been planning to start SPAM shortly before spring break—the Freshley mission trip to Jamaica. But I feel like that's too far away. It feels like a short time until the trip, but it seems like SPAM is a long way off. So as a way to bring SPAM around early, I want to devote four hours each Saturday to reading and studying the Bible. Those four hours will be completely devoid of "unnecessary use of technology." It's less than a month away, so three Saturdays shouldn't be a problem.
So... yeah. I don't have anything else to say. If anyone would like to help me stick to this plan and keep me accountable, that would be great. Thanks.
Last Saturday, I spent four hours trying to read through all the Minor Prophets. I started in Hosea and got through Nahum. Then after failing to find a ride to church on Sunday, I spent that morning finishing Habakkuk through Malachi. So today I decided to try to read through Paul's letters, Romans through Philemon. I failed. Really badly. But what came from that failure probably benefited me more than I could have hoped.
I started in Romans, but after five chapters of mind-blowing grammar and heavy preaching, I decided I couldn't keep going the way I was moving. It was obvious that simply reading through Paul's letters was going to get me nowhere, so I started over. I went back to the beginning of Romans, and this time I took notes. I only got through Romans 1:15, but I felt like I got much more out of that time than I would have if I had just continued plowing ahead with no regard for what the words meant. Quality over quantity.
So now I have a new plan. After two Saturdays of spending four hours reading the Bible, I've decided to make Saturday my SPAM prep day. Since early last semester, I've been planning to start SPAM shortly before spring break—the Freshley mission trip to Jamaica. But I feel like that's too far away. It feels like a short time until the trip, but it seems like SPAM is a long way off. So as a way to bring SPAM around early, I want to devote four hours each Saturday to reading and studying the Bible. Those four hours will be completely devoid of "unnecessary use of technology." It's less than a month away, so three Saturdays shouldn't be a problem.
So... yeah. I don't have anything else to say. If anyone would like to help me stick to this plan and keep me accountable, that would be great. Thanks.
Reflection
Well, it's been a few days since I've written anything, so I decided I needed to write something in all the free time I have today.
It's kind of funny—well, not really funny; maybe curious is a better word—that when I stopped writing, my spiritual growth and my desire to grow closer to God came to a standstill. This entire week, I have been getting up late in the morning, so I haven't been able to do my devotions and morning Bible reading before class; my prayer life has become less active; and I've been easily distracted from reading my Bible. Now, I don't mean to say that this happened because I stopped writing. But I think that had something to do with it: my daily writing kept me focused on God and my relationship with Him, and when I stopped writing, I stopped my constant thinking about Christ, and I started to slip. So I'm renewing my challenge for myself to write something in my blog every day in order to keep my eyes fixed on the cross. And even now, as I'm writing this, I already feel like I'm coming back out of the rut I was in this past week.
The realization that I was getting nowhere with God finally hit me last night. I had heard about a special "prayer room" on campus, so I became curious. I needed somewhere to have some time alone with God, and it's open to semi-public access, so it sounded like a good idea. But that was the problem: it's only semi-public; it's open for anyone to use, but you have to have access to the building to use it. I don't have access to the building, so I waited for someone who did have access, and I followed them in. My first mistake. After getting to the floor the prayer room is on, I had trouble finding it. (I thought it would be obvious, with signs all over the door, but it wasn't.) So I had to sneak around, avoiding being seen because I felt out of place; even though I knew nobody would say anything if they saw me, being a stranger in the building felt uncomfortable to me. When I finally found the room, I felt much safer, but I wasn't able to get much studying done. I had planned on reading the material for this week's Perspectives class, but instead, I read my Bible. I didn't get very far though; I read the first couple chapters of Ezra, then decided to listen to Perspectives podcasts. I got through one podcast, then moved on to studying Galatians, but I only got through one verse. I was too out of it to focus on anything, so I left.
When I got back to my room, it finally hit me: I had lied to get into the prayer room. I didn't belong in the building, but I had walked in as if I did. Something didn't feel right, and I knew why: I had sinned to spend time alone with God. I could have used any ordinary room, but I had to sneak into a special room I didn't have access to instead.
But now that I have that off my chest, I feel better. I know what I did wrong, and I don't plan on doing it again; next time I want to go to the prayer room, I'll just have a friend let me in instead of sneaking in. Now I have the rest of the day ahead of me, and I'm going to devote it to the Lord. Last weekend I set aside four hours to read through the Minor Prophets, Hosea through Malachi, and I got through Nahum. I don't have a car on campus, so I had to find a ride to church, but everyone was busy; so I spent Sunday morning finishing Habakkuk through Malachi. So this weekend my plan is to read through Paul's letters, Romans through Philemon. I've read the entire New Testament before, but it's been a long time since then, so I feel like God is telling me to go through it again. After all, I have plenty of time today.
It's kind of funny—well, not really funny; maybe curious is a better word—that when I stopped writing, my spiritual growth and my desire to grow closer to God came to a standstill. This entire week, I have been getting up late in the morning, so I haven't been able to do my devotions and morning Bible reading before class; my prayer life has become less active; and I've been easily distracted from reading my Bible. Now, I don't mean to say that this happened because I stopped writing. But I think that had something to do with it: my daily writing kept me focused on God and my relationship with Him, and when I stopped writing, I stopped my constant thinking about Christ, and I started to slip. So I'm renewing my challenge for myself to write something in my blog every day in order to keep my eyes fixed on the cross. And even now, as I'm writing this, I already feel like I'm coming back out of the rut I was in this past week.
The realization that I was getting nowhere with God finally hit me last night. I had heard about a special "prayer room" on campus, so I became curious. I needed somewhere to have some time alone with God, and it's open to semi-public access, so it sounded like a good idea. But that was the problem: it's only semi-public; it's open for anyone to use, but you have to have access to the building to use it. I don't have access to the building, so I waited for someone who did have access, and I followed them in. My first mistake. After getting to the floor the prayer room is on, I had trouble finding it. (I thought it would be obvious, with signs all over the door, but it wasn't.) So I had to sneak around, avoiding being seen because I felt out of place; even though I knew nobody would say anything if they saw me, being a stranger in the building felt uncomfortable to me. When I finally found the room, I felt much safer, but I wasn't able to get much studying done. I had planned on reading the material for this week's Perspectives class, but instead, I read my Bible. I didn't get very far though; I read the first couple chapters of Ezra, then decided to listen to Perspectives podcasts. I got through one podcast, then moved on to studying Galatians, but I only got through one verse. I was too out of it to focus on anything, so I left.
When I got back to my room, it finally hit me: I had lied to get into the prayer room. I didn't belong in the building, but I had walked in as if I did. Something didn't feel right, and I knew why: I had sinned to spend time alone with God. I could have used any ordinary room, but I had to sneak into a special room I didn't have access to instead.
But now that I have that off my chest, I feel better. I know what I did wrong, and I don't plan on doing it again; next time I want to go to the prayer room, I'll just have a friend let me in instead of sneaking in. Now I have the rest of the day ahead of me, and I'm going to devote it to the Lord. Last weekend I set aside four hours to read through the Minor Prophets, Hosea through Malachi, and I got through Nahum. I don't have a car on campus, so I had to find a ride to church, but everyone was busy; so I spent Sunday morning finishing Habakkuk through Malachi. So this weekend my plan is to read through Paul's letters, Romans through Philemon. I've read the entire New Testament before, but it's been a long time since then, so I feel like God is telling me to go through it again. After all, I have plenty of time today.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Perspectives: Day 5
"I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." ~ Psalm 119:11
Last night's Perspectives class was incredible! It was different in a way I never would have expected. Instead of the usual sermon based on the readings from the Perspectives textbook, this week the speaker gave his testimony. But this was no ordinary testimony, and it didn't stop at his conversion to Christianity. There was so much more to it than that.
For safety, I'm going to refer to the speaker as Mr. Tim. (I can't give his full name because the government in his country could have him killed for what he's doing.) Mr. Tim was born into a Muslim family in a small country in south Asia. As a descendant of a line of imams (Muslim spiritual leaders), he was expected to continue the family "business." (Being an imam in his country was a very lucrative business.) But when he went to Muslim "seminary," something happened that changed his life: he found Jesus in the Qur'an. The Qur'an says that Jesus was the Word, but this was confusing to Mr. Tim because he had always been taught that the Qur'an was the word of God. How could a Man be the Word of God? After much searching, Mr. Tim met a missionary who introduced him to the life and mission of Jesus Christ, and he became a Christian. Unfortunately, being a Muslim-to-Christian convert is very difficult. Among all people, he was considered a traitor of the Islamic faith, even among Christians. The local Christians didn't want him because he was a traitor, and if they baptized him, they could all be killed by the government; and his Muslim family excommunicated him.
Eventually, after years of training abroad, Mr. Tim became a leader at a church in his country. He was blessed when the missionary who had taught him sent six young men to him; these young men were also Muslim, but they, like Mr. Tim, had found Jesus in the Qur'an and had become very interested. They wanted to have Jesus in their lives, and they wanted to become Christians. But Mr. Tim, to the indignation of the missionary, told them, "You don't have to become a Christian to have Jesus in your heart. Go back to your family. Go to the mosque with them when they go. But when you go, pray in your heart to God in the name of Jesus. Pray continually, and your life will be changed, so much so that those around you will notice and become curious. Share your faith in this way, and you will still be accepted by your friends and family, and you will have a greater impact on them than if you simply publicly declared your conversion to Christianity." So the six young men went home. A month later, they came back to Mr. Tim with sixteen elderly men, their fathers and uncles. Another month later, they returned yet again with another group of men. And again the next month. And the next. This continued for several years until the Christian movement became a national movement. This explains the title of this week's topic: Unleashing the Gospel.
About twenty years after his conversion, Mr. Tim decided to give something to his country to help them and to aid in the spread of Christianity. With the help of some foreign technology, Mr. Tim and his team turned the least profitable industry in his country into the most profitable. His team of Muslim Christians trained other Muslim Christians in the business, and they went out into the country to plant more production sites. The industry now gives the Muslim Christians a way to witness to Muslims in the country, and it also allows them to provide money for themselves and for all the people.
To wrap things up, Mr. Tim closed with two prayer requests. First, please pray for the Muslim Christians as they continue to live out their faith in a way that would make others see the light of Christ. Pray that the foreign Christians in the country would accept them as their own brothers and sisters in Christ.
And second, pray for the translation of the Bible. There is currently a translation of the Bible in Mr. Tim's native language, but their are several errors that make it impossible for Muslims to even consider listening to anything a Christian might have to say. So Mr. Tim and his team are translating the Bible into a more "Muslim friendly" dialect. But they continue to face persecution from Christians: the Christian publishing company claims to have a copyright on the Bible. (As Mr. Tim said, "You can't have a copyright on the Bible. It's public domain!") So pray that the Christian publishing company in his country would allow him and his team to publish their translation of the Bible so that the gospel can be preached to all people throughout the country.
Basically, both prayer requests add up to this: Pray for the reduction of persecution in Mr. Tim's country, mainly from Christians who don't understand what it really means to be Christian.
The point of Mr. Tim's testimony was this: Christianity = Jesus + nothing. Faith in Christ is all that is required for salvation. There are no legalistic rules that can add to or take away from our salvation. Mr. Tim and the Muslim Christians give a new meaning to the term coexist.
Last night's Perspectives class was incredible! It was different in a way I never would have expected. Instead of the usual sermon based on the readings from the Perspectives textbook, this week the speaker gave his testimony. But this was no ordinary testimony, and it didn't stop at his conversion to Christianity. There was so much more to it than that.
For safety, I'm going to refer to the speaker as Mr. Tim. (I can't give his full name because the government in his country could have him killed for what he's doing.) Mr. Tim was born into a Muslim family in a small country in south Asia. As a descendant of a line of imams (Muslim spiritual leaders), he was expected to continue the family "business." (Being an imam in his country was a very lucrative business.) But when he went to Muslim "seminary," something happened that changed his life: he found Jesus in the Qur'an. The Qur'an says that Jesus was the Word, but this was confusing to Mr. Tim because he had always been taught that the Qur'an was the word of God. How could a Man be the Word of God? After much searching, Mr. Tim met a missionary who introduced him to the life and mission of Jesus Christ, and he became a Christian. Unfortunately, being a Muslim-to-Christian convert is very difficult. Among all people, he was considered a traitor of the Islamic faith, even among Christians. The local Christians didn't want him because he was a traitor, and if they baptized him, they could all be killed by the government; and his Muslim family excommunicated him.
Eventually, after years of training abroad, Mr. Tim became a leader at a church in his country. He was blessed when the missionary who had taught him sent six young men to him; these young men were also Muslim, but they, like Mr. Tim, had found Jesus in the Qur'an and had become very interested. They wanted to have Jesus in their lives, and they wanted to become Christians. But Mr. Tim, to the indignation of the missionary, told them, "You don't have to become a Christian to have Jesus in your heart. Go back to your family. Go to the mosque with them when they go. But when you go, pray in your heart to God in the name of Jesus. Pray continually, and your life will be changed, so much so that those around you will notice and become curious. Share your faith in this way, and you will still be accepted by your friends and family, and you will have a greater impact on them than if you simply publicly declared your conversion to Christianity." So the six young men went home. A month later, they came back to Mr. Tim with sixteen elderly men, their fathers and uncles. Another month later, they returned yet again with another group of men. And again the next month. And the next. This continued for several years until the Christian movement became a national movement. This explains the title of this week's topic: Unleashing the Gospel.
About twenty years after his conversion, Mr. Tim decided to give something to his country to help them and to aid in the spread of Christianity. With the help of some foreign technology, Mr. Tim and his team turned the least profitable industry in his country into the most profitable. His team of Muslim Christians trained other Muslim Christians in the business, and they went out into the country to plant more production sites. The industry now gives the Muslim Christians a way to witness to Muslims in the country, and it also allows them to provide money for themselves and for all the people.
To wrap things up, Mr. Tim closed with two prayer requests. First, please pray for the Muslim Christians as they continue to live out their faith in a way that would make others see the light of Christ. Pray that the foreign Christians in the country would accept them as their own brothers and sisters in Christ.
And second, pray for the translation of the Bible. There is currently a translation of the Bible in Mr. Tim's native language, but their are several errors that make it impossible for Muslims to even consider listening to anything a Christian might have to say. So Mr. Tim and his team are translating the Bible into a more "Muslim friendly" dialect. But they continue to face persecution from Christians: the Christian publishing company claims to have a copyright on the Bible. (As Mr. Tim said, "You can't have a copyright on the Bible. It's public domain!") So pray that the Christian publishing company in his country would allow him and his team to publish their translation of the Bible so that the gospel can be preached to all people throughout the country.
Basically, both prayer requests add up to this: Pray for the reduction of persecution in Mr. Tim's country, mainly from Christians who don't understand what it really means to be Christian.
The point of Mr. Tim's testimony was this: Christianity = Jesus + nothing. Faith in Christ is all that is required for salvation. There are no legalistic rules that can add to or take away from our salvation. Mr. Tim and the Muslim Christians give a new meaning to the term coexist.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
"This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: 'Seek Me and live.'"
Amos 5:4.
All throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly running after His people Israel, calling them to return to Him. But every time they come back, they get distracted and turn away again. So God turned to the Gentiles, saying, “I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not My loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My people,’ ‘You are My people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’” (Hosea 2:23).
But now God has sent Jesus Christ to be the Savior of all who believe in Him; He has called Israel, once again, to return to Him along with all the peoples of the earth. As the prophet says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” If you are seeking righteousness, God will reveal it to you in His Son. All who desire to be consumed by the Holy Spirit will receive the Spirit in full power. But we have to offer up our lives to God and be willing to follow Him, even to death.
Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.” Seek God’s righteousness in your life. Pursue it relentlessly. Then you will receive all the benefits God has promised to His people. And when you have experienced His love and faithfulness, open up to Him the areas of your life that you have never unlocked before so that He can fill your entire life with His Spirit. Then You will be righteous in His eyes, covered in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Perspectives: Day 4
Yes, I realize I never wrote anything for Day 3. I was sick last week and wasn't able to make it to class. But I did listen to the podcast of the national Perspectives speaker, so I'll give a quick overview of what Section 3 was about.
The title for Section 3 was Thy Kingdom Come. The main idea is that God's "kingdom" is not the geographic area He has power over, but the the power itself. God's kingdom is His reign, His sovereignty; anywhere His name is known and glorified and His will is being done, that is where His kingdom is being established. In the end, the kingdom of God will consume the entire earth, and all peoples will acknowledge Jesus as God and will worship Him. Our purpose in life is to expand God's kingdom by bringing the gospel to the unreached. All nations will know His name, His power will be made complete, and evil will be completely eradicated. But that is the end point of a work in progress. We resist temptation to eliminate sin and give Christ power over that area of our lives. We preach so that more people would have the opportunity to be a part of God's kingdom and to worship our King. And we worship Him because He is the only One worthy of praise. "Thy kingdom come" is a prayer that God would rule all the earth in His awesome power.
Section 4 is titled Mandate for the Nations. When I read the title, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was just going to be an explanation of why we are commanded to go to all nations with the gospel. It was that, but it was so much more. The speaker systematically picked apart the foundations of the gospel, of missions and showed just how messed up American Christianity has become.
The speaker presented an iceberg as an analogy for the foundations of missions: if an iceberg has a foundation below the water, the cap of the iceberg isn't necessary; if the Titanic has run into the foundation of the iceberg without the part that was above water, it still would have sunk. With Christianity, the mandate is represented by the cap of the iceberg: we have so much foundation in the Bible that if Jesus had never given His disciples the Great Commission, the ultimate conclusion the disciples made still would have been to take the gospel to all peoples. But because so many American Christians aren't going to the nations with the gospel, something is wrong; we obviously don't have a very strong foundation. If the foundation of a pyramid is weak, it won't stand for very long, so we have to go back and reinforce the foundation of our gospel pyramid. That's not to say that the gospel is weak and not enough to motivate us; I'm saying that our foundation is not based on the gospel at all, and we have to rebuild with the gospel as the foundation.
In China, Christians meet together in underground house churches, dodging government officials who would have them killed for gathering in secret to worship God; yet they risk their lives because they know eternal life is worth more than this temporary life. In Korea, Christians meet together in the dead of night in stadiums to praise God because they know He deserves all the glory at all times. In many Asian and Middle Eastern countries, Bibles have to be smuggled across borders in order to bring the gospel to the unreached. And in America, where the gospel is readily available for all people to hear, we Christians attend church on Sundays—some people attend Bible studies and/or youth groups at other times throughout the week too, while others don't attend church at all—and then continue with our lives. We Americans don't know what it means to worship God; we don't know what it means to pray; we don't know what it means to witness to others. Here in America, the most "Christian" nation in the world, where Bibles are more readily available than clean water in some countries, we don't know how to respond to the gospel. In Africa, people will beg missionaries to stay with them and continue teaching the Word to them. In India, native missionaries are being trained to be sent out into the rest of the country and the world to spread the gospel. And most astonishing of all, China, one of the most anti-Christian countries in the world (when it comes to the government), is mobilizing missionaries to come here. Chinese missionaries coming to America to preach to us what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Missions is not only supported by the Bible, but it is also the purpose of the Bible; God gave us the Scriptures so we would come to know Him and His great love for us, so that we would go out into the world and tell others about Him. We have more Bibles, more churches, and more people who claim to be Christians than China does, and yet they see us as still being lost in the world. And it's true. America is full of Christians, but the majority of them are lukewarm Christians, and God says that He will "spit [lukewarm Christians] out of [His] mouth" (Revelation 3:16). The speaker at Perspectives last night quoted an Arab proverb that explains the motivation of Jesus' disciples, then and now: "The greatest crime in the desert is to find water and keep silent." If you have found life in Christ, yet you don't tell anyone about it, you are committing a crime; as James 4:17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
We blow off Christianity as just one of many paths to heaven. One analogy I've heard is this: Religions are like spokes on a wheel, all leading from several points on the outside to a single point in the middle. But that view of religion could not be any more wrong. Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No on comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). Jesus was (and is) the Son of God. If the SON OF GOD says He is the only Way, you'd better believe He's telling the truth. I would describe religion—specifically, Christianity—like this: Life is a maze, and Jesus is the only path that will lead you out of the labyrinth; all other paths will get you lost.
The great thing about the maze analogy is this: Even if you get lost in the maze of sin and false religions, you can always find your way back to the one Way. God forgives us when we repent and turn to Him. But unless you get back on track, you will be trapped in the labyrinth forever.
Now imagine that you and a group of your friends are placed in the middle of this labyrinth. You find your way out of the maze, only to discover that your friends are still lost inside. If a giant platform is being lowered on top of the maze, slowly crushing it with everyone inside, what would you do: run inside to lead your friends out, or leave them to die? Let me make that easier: You have an hour to find your friends and show them the way out; will you sit and wait for them, or will you run back in, marking out your path so that you don't get lost on the way, and find your friends and show them the path marked out for them? I hope the answer is obvious and convicting.
The kingdom of God will include all peoples of the world. Not all people, meaning every single person will go to heaven; all peoples, meaning at least one person from every nation, people, language, and tribe will go to heaven (Revelation 5:9). The end will not come until all peoples have been reached (Matthew 24:14), so it is our responsibility to take the gospel to the entire world. Our job is not complete until we, as the body of Christ, have done so.
We monitor the progress of missions by the people group system. A people group is a specific people in a certain country, with one particular language out of the many in existence in that country, and a certain tribe or neighborhood of people that speak that language. The speaker explained it like this: We can't say that, once the gospel has reached every country, our work is done because not everyone in the same country speaks the same language. If you throw a rock in a pond, the ripples won't affect a neighboring pond separated by a barrier of land. In missions, language is the barrier between "ponds," or people groups, not geographic boundaries that are constantly being disputed.
97% of all missionaries go to areas where the gospel has already been preached. The remaining 3% are the brave few who are bold enough, who have been convicted by the Spirit, to take the gospel to those who have never heard it before. There's something wrong with that. The gospel MUST be preached to ALL peoples, but we're keeping it to ourselves and to those who have heard it but haven't accepted it yet. The Bible is readily available here in America, but where the Bible is illegal, the gospel is not being preached. But that's exactly where it's needed. If Americans want to hear the gospel, they can knock on their neighbor's door or drive down the street to a local church.
Our foundation in missions is not solid. We need to reinforce it, rebuild it on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Worship must precede mission"—until we have a proper understanding of the gospel and the reason we worship God, well will never have a proper understanding of missions. We need to come back to Christ, and then we need to take Him to the world. That's why we were made: to make His name known in all the earth.
The title for Section 3 was Thy Kingdom Come. The main idea is that God's "kingdom" is not the geographic area He has power over, but the the power itself. God's kingdom is His reign, His sovereignty; anywhere His name is known and glorified and His will is being done, that is where His kingdom is being established. In the end, the kingdom of God will consume the entire earth, and all peoples will acknowledge Jesus as God and will worship Him. Our purpose in life is to expand God's kingdom by bringing the gospel to the unreached. All nations will know His name, His power will be made complete, and evil will be completely eradicated. But that is the end point of a work in progress. We resist temptation to eliminate sin and give Christ power over that area of our lives. We preach so that more people would have the opportunity to be a part of God's kingdom and to worship our King. And we worship Him because He is the only One worthy of praise. "Thy kingdom come" is a prayer that God would rule all the earth in His awesome power.
Section 4 is titled Mandate for the Nations. When I read the title, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was just going to be an explanation of why we are commanded to go to all nations with the gospel. It was that, but it was so much more. The speaker systematically picked apart the foundations of the gospel, of missions and showed just how messed up American Christianity has become.
The speaker presented an iceberg as an analogy for the foundations of missions: if an iceberg has a foundation below the water, the cap of the iceberg isn't necessary; if the Titanic has run into the foundation of the iceberg without the part that was above water, it still would have sunk. With Christianity, the mandate is represented by the cap of the iceberg: we have so much foundation in the Bible that if Jesus had never given His disciples the Great Commission, the ultimate conclusion the disciples made still would have been to take the gospel to all peoples. But because so many American Christians aren't going to the nations with the gospel, something is wrong; we obviously don't have a very strong foundation. If the foundation of a pyramid is weak, it won't stand for very long, so we have to go back and reinforce the foundation of our gospel pyramid. That's not to say that the gospel is weak and not enough to motivate us; I'm saying that our foundation is not based on the gospel at all, and we have to rebuild with the gospel as the foundation.
In China, Christians meet together in underground house churches, dodging government officials who would have them killed for gathering in secret to worship God; yet they risk their lives because they know eternal life is worth more than this temporary life. In Korea, Christians meet together in the dead of night in stadiums to praise God because they know He deserves all the glory at all times. In many Asian and Middle Eastern countries, Bibles have to be smuggled across borders in order to bring the gospel to the unreached. And in America, where the gospel is readily available for all people to hear, we Christians attend church on Sundays—some people attend Bible studies and/or youth groups at other times throughout the week too, while others don't attend church at all—and then continue with our lives. We Americans don't know what it means to worship God; we don't know what it means to pray; we don't know what it means to witness to others. Here in America, the most "Christian" nation in the world, where Bibles are more readily available than clean water in some countries, we don't know how to respond to the gospel. In Africa, people will beg missionaries to stay with them and continue teaching the Word to them. In India, native missionaries are being trained to be sent out into the rest of the country and the world to spread the gospel. And most astonishing of all, China, one of the most anti-Christian countries in the world (when it comes to the government), is mobilizing missionaries to come here. Chinese missionaries coming to America to preach to us what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Missions is not only supported by the Bible, but it is also the purpose of the Bible; God gave us the Scriptures so we would come to know Him and His great love for us, so that we would go out into the world and tell others about Him. We have more Bibles, more churches, and more people who claim to be Christians than China does, and yet they see us as still being lost in the world. And it's true. America is full of Christians, but the majority of them are lukewarm Christians, and God says that He will "spit [lukewarm Christians] out of [His] mouth" (Revelation 3:16). The speaker at Perspectives last night quoted an Arab proverb that explains the motivation of Jesus' disciples, then and now: "The greatest crime in the desert is to find water and keep silent." If you have found life in Christ, yet you don't tell anyone about it, you are committing a crime; as James 4:17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
We blow off Christianity as just one of many paths to heaven. One analogy I've heard is this: Religions are like spokes on a wheel, all leading from several points on the outside to a single point in the middle. But that view of religion could not be any more wrong. Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No on comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). Jesus was (and is) the Son of God. If the SON OF GOD says He is the only Way, you'd better believe He's telling the truth. I would describe religion—specifically, Christianity—like this: Life is a maze, and Jesus is the only path that will lead you out of the labyrinth; all other paths will get you lost.
The great thing about the maze analogy is this: Even if you get lost in the maze of sin and false religions, you can always find your way back to the one Way. God forgives us when we repent and turn to Him. But unless you get back on track, you will be trapped in the labyrinth forever.
Now imagine that you and a group of your friends are placed in the middle of this labyrinth. You find your way out of the maze, only to discover that your friends are still lost inside. If a giant platform is being lowered on top of the maze, slowly crushing it with everyone inside, what would you do: run inside to lead your friends out, or leave them to die? Let me make that easier: You have an hour to find your friends and show them the way out; will you sit and wait for them, or will you run back in, marking out your path so that you don't get lost on the way, and find your friends and show them the path marked out for them? I hope the answer is obvious and convicting.
The kingdom of God will include all peoples of the world. Not all people, meaning every single person will go to heaven; all peoples, meaning at least one person from every nation, people, language, and tribe will go to heaven (Revelation 5:9). The end will not come until all peoples have been reached (Matthew 24:14), so it is our responsibility to take the gospel to the entire world. Our job is not complete until we, as the body of Christ, have done so.
We monitor the progress of missions by the people group system. A people group is a specific people in a certain country, with one particular language out of the many in existence in that country, and a certain tribe or neighborhood of people that speak that language. The speaker explained it like this: We can't say that, once the gospel has reached every country, our work is done because not everyone in the same country speaks the same language. If you throw a rock in a pond, the ripples won't affect a neighboring pond separated by a barrier of land. In missions, language is the barrier between "ponds," or people groups, not geographic boundaries that are constantly being disputed.
97% of all missionaries go to areas where the gospel has already been preached. The remaining 3% are the brave few who are bold enough, who have been convicted by the Spirit, to take the gospel to those who have never heard it before. There's something wrong with that. The gospel MUST be preached to ALL peoples, but we're keeping it to ourselves and to those who have heard it but haven't accepted it yet. The Bible is readily available here in America, but where the Bible is illegal, the gospel is not being preached. But that's exactly where it's needed. If Americans want to hear the gospel, they can knock on their neighbor's door or drive down the street to a local church.
Our foundation in missions is not solid. We need to reinforce it, rebuild it on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Worship must precede mission"—until we have a proper understanding of the gospel and the reason we worship God, well will never have a proper understanding of missions. We need to come back to Christ, and then we need to take Him to the world. That's why we were made: to make His name known in all the earth.
20. Are you ready if Jesus were to come tomorrow?
Yes and no. I'm confident that I will be going to heaven when Jesus returns for His people, so in that sense, yes, I'm ready for Him to come back. I'm ready for heaven, where imperfection doesn't exist. But I'm not ready because I'm still young, and assuming He doesn't return in my lifetime, I still have several decades ahead of me. I'm not ready to be taken away to heaven, but not because I want to live out my life on earth first. Those decades ahead of me are all the years I have to devote to bringing the gospel to people who have never heard it before. The purpose of all Christians on earth is to make the name of Jesus known in all the earth, and we should not be ready for heaven until we have done so. Luckily for us, Matthew 24:14 says, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." So until the whole world has heard of Jesus, the end won't come, so it's our responsibility to usher in the return of the Messiah. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
In other words, yes, I'm ready because Christ has begun a work in me that He has promised to finish. But I am not ready because His work through me has not been finished yet.
In other words, yes, I'm ready because Christ has begun a work in me that He has promised to finish. But I am not ready because His work through me has not been finished yet.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
19. How do you bring prayer into your daily life? What are your views on healings and praying in tongues?
How? I don't know. I Nike... er... I just do it. God reminds me to pray for things I need to pray for when I need to pray for them. Like the Freshley Jamaica mission trip: I'm trusting God to remind me every day to pray for the people going on the trip, for the people who will be receiving us in Jamaica and hearing from us/receiving the benefits of the service projects we do, and that the Holy Spirit will move both in us and in the Jamaicans over the course of the week while we're there. Last semester I prayed every day for my friend Sarah, who was on a mission trip in Cameroon. I have a prayer card, an index card with different prayer requests written on it, but it doesn't seem to catch my attention very well. Even when I use it as a bookmark in my Bible, seeing it every time I read my Bible makes me start ignoring it. So all I can do is rely on God to remind me to pray and to tell me what to pray for.
For a while, I would walk halfway across campus to get to my classes last semester, and every time I went outside to walk (to class, to the dining hall, wherever), the scenery and the sensation of going for a long walk triggered something in me that reminded me to pray. But prayer usually isn't something I need a conscious reminder for.
Now the second question. (What's with all these two-part questions? I thought I was supposed to answer one question each day. The questions aren't even related...) Healings are real. They happen. God does them. People can't heal people unless God empowers them to. And as for speaking in tongues, that also happens. It happened in the Bible; it happens now. Someone is probably speaking in tongues in Morocco right now. But it only happens when God enables someone to do it. It's not every day that you leave your house fluently speaking a language you've never heard before.
What exactly do you mean by "praying in tongues," though? I've heard stories of people praying in an unknown language that is thought to have been the language of the Holy Spirit. Like that? Well, I believe in that too. But only if God sees it necessary or useful for His purposes at a given place and time. I haven't heard of enough cases of praying in tongues to believe that it's something God uses often.
—————————
Update (8/3/11): Yes, I believe in praying in tongues. After talking to someone in the Wesley Foundation about it this past year, God taught me my "prayer language," which I use every now and then. For me, it's something that can be switched on and off, but I know that there are cases where it just happens as the Spirit leads. To see my full thoughts on praying in tongues, check out my Authority and Gifts post.
For a while, I would walk halfway across campus to get to my classes last semester, and every time I went outside to walk (to class, to the dining hall, wherever), the scenery and the sensation of going for a long walk triggered something in me that reminded me to pray. But prayer usually isn't something I need a conscious reminder for.
Now the second question. (What's with all these two-part questions? I thought I was supposed to answer one question each day. The questions aren't even related...) Healings are real. They happen. God does them. People can't heal people unless God empowers them to. And as for speaking in tongues, that also happens. It happened in the Bible; it happens now. Someone is probably speaking in tongues in Morocco right now. But it only happens when God enables someone to do it. It's not every day that you leave your house fluently speaking a language you've never heard before.
What exactly do you mean by "praying in tongues," though? I've heard stories of people praying in an unknown language that is thought to have been the language of the Holy Spirit. Like that? Well, I believe in that too. But only if God sees it necessary or useful for His purposes at a given place and time. I haven't heard of enough cases of praying in tongues to believe that it's something God uses often.
—————————
Update (8/3/11): Yes, I believe in praying in tongues. After talking to someone in the Wesley Foundation about it this past year, God taught me my "prayer language," which I use every now and then. For me, it's something that can be switched on and off, but I know that there are cases where it just happens as the Spirit leads. To see my full thoughts on praying in tongues, check out my Authority and Gifts post.
Branching Out
A couple weeks ago I started thinking about something, probably in response to the Perspectives sermon on "The Story of His Glory," the foundational belief that God is the main character of the entire Bible, no matter who is involved in the various stories, and that all biblical events occurred to bring God glory as the end result. The thought I had was specifically about music: the rebellion against sacred music in order to branch out into secular music.
Today in my Biology class, we watched a video of a microscopic tour of a cell. As we watched it, I was in awe of how great our God is. He could have simply made Adam and Eve as single-cell organisms, with nothing extraordinary about the inner workings of the body. But no, He decided to work from the bottom up, from the smallest thing imaginable to the largest. He created cells—no, He invented them—and built all living things out of them in a design infinitely more complex than any human being could ever even imagine. As I thought about this, my thought processes brought me to the same conclusion that my thoughts on music did, which is what reminded me of my music conclusion.
Here's what I came up with (or more accurately, what God made me realize in order to bring me to a heart of worship). Today we have a huge variety of music, both sacred and secular. But it all had to come from somewhere. Music started out with the sole purpose of praising God. But all too soon, people began turning away from God to pursue their own desires. Eventually, this led to a movement among musicians who wanted to introduce secular music to the masses. After all, not everyone followed God anymore, so if the only music available was sacred music, the majority of people couldn't listen to music unless they wanted to endure singing songs about something they didn't believe in. So secular music was developed, and as years turned into decades and decades into centuries, more forms of secular music were invented. Today this rebellion against sacred music has come full circle, and now much of today's Christian music uses styles developed by popular secular musicians.
Now if everything happens in order to bring God glory, and the development of secular music falls under the category of "everything," then God must have used—or must be using—secular music to magnify His name. But how? Well, most people know those songs that send chills down your spine when the artist sings a certain line or when the orchestra crescendos dramatically into the climactic point of the piece. Those moments are impressive and moving to us. As a Music Education major, I'm coming to appreciate more and more styles of music and the different factors that go into music composition and performance. Musicians over the centuries have developed all sorts of new tricks to incorporate in their music to make it more interesting. But when you take the focus off of the musicians and put it on God, you begin to realize that God is using those impressive developments to make people see how awesome and creative He is. And it all goes back to the origin of secular music: If secular music had never been invented, most modern music wouldn't exist, and we wouldn't have the great variety of music we have today. Those dramatic moments in songs and pieces would not have that chilling effect on us because they wouldn't exist. So by allowing people to branch out from sacred music into secular music, God allowed for a greater variety of worship.
A similar thought process applies to science—not just biology, but all sciences. If people hadn't fled from God for their own selfish reasons, if we had all continued to obey God forever and ever, I doubt that anyone would have been curious enough to examine the microscopic components of life. After all, if everyone knew God created everything, why would we need to look for a source of life? Why would we need to know how life works? Wouldn't God be a good enough answer? But people did turn away from God, and people started looking for the source of life. Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution (which I don't plan on getting into right now), the atom was discovered, elements were discovered, the laws of physics were discovered and formulas were developed to explain movement, and more. Of course, scientists will use all of these things as proof that God doesn't exist, but I see them as proof that He does exist. How could cells come together randomly, forming a nucleus surrounded by a membrane that contains ribosomes to form proteins used to build, tear down, and rebuild the cytoskeleton that gives the cell shape? How could chance invent the perfect combinations of DNA necessary to allow cells to divide and form a bird or a cat, let alone a human being with the intelligence to explore and explain all these things? How could a collision of atoms in outer space cause an explosion that created not only the stars and planets of the universe, but also all the minute details of each planet: all the plant and animal wildlife of the earth, the mountainous terrain of Earth and Mars, the gaseous Jupiter, the asteroid rings of Saturn and Uranus, the toxic atmosphere of Venus? How was all of that created from a collision of atoms when nothing even existed before then? (Where did the atoms come from?) And how was Earth the only planet that came into existence (in our solar system) with the capacity for life? All of these questions have the same answer: God made everything. And as scientists continue to discover new arguments against God, God continues to reveal Himself to the world by showing His children His power in everything. We look at cells and see that laminin, the material that holds all cells together, is in the shape of a cross, the tool that killed our Savior Jesus Christ, the One in whom "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). We look at atoms and see that photons, which are essentially light particles, are the smallest particles in existence, even smaller than electrons, and they exist in all things; the first thing God did in the beginning of the creation of the earth was to invent light. The Bible even says that God Himself is light; He breathed the breath of life into Adam, so a part of Him was in the first man, which means that He (light) is in all people. I could go on, but I'm running out of time, so I'll just leave it at that.
Everything happens for a purpose, and that purpose is the glorification of God, our Creator, our Lord, and our Savior. Even when people fall away from Him, He is always using everything for the end purpose of bringing Himself praise. And you can't call Him selfish or prideful because He is perfect and He made everything. Nothing created is greater than its Creator, and since everything was made by God, He is above all things and the only One worthy of praise.
Thank God for the variety of worship He has allowed us to bring to Him!
Today in my Biology class, we watched a video of a microscopic tour of a cell. As we watched it, I was in awe of how great our God is. He could have simply made Adam and Eve as single-cell organisms, with nothing extraordinary about the inner workings of the body. But no, He decided to work from the bottom up, from the smallest thing imaginable to the largest. He created cells—no, He invented them—and built all living things out of them in a design infinitely more complex than any human being could ever even imagine. As I thought about this, my thought processes brought me to the same conclusion that my thoughts on music did, which is what reminded me of my music conclusion.
Here's what I came up with (or more accurately, what God made me realize in order to bring me to a heart of worship). Today we have a huge variety of music, both sacred and secular. But it all had to come from somewhere. Music started out with the sole purpose of praising God. But all too soon, people began turning away from God to pursue their own desires. Eventually, this led to a movement among musicians who wanted to introduce secular music to the masses. After all, not everyone followed God anymore, so if the only music available was sacred music, the majority of people couldn't listen to music unless they wanted to endure singing songs about something they didn't believe in. So secular music was developed, and as years turned into decades and decades into centuries, more forms of secular music were invented. Today this rebellion against sacred music has come full circle, and now much of today's Christian music uses styles developed by popular secular musicians.
Now if everything happens in order to bring God glory, and the development of secular music falls under the category of "everything," then God must have used—or must be using—secular music to magnify His name. But how? Well, most people know those songs that send chills down your spine when the artist sings a certain line or when the orchestra crescendos dramatically into the climactic point of the piece. Those moments are impressive and moving to us. As a Music Education major, I'm coming to appreciate more and more styles of music and the different factors that go into music composition and performance. Musicians over the centuries have developed all sorts of new tricks to incorporate in their music to make it more interesting. But when you take the focus off of the musicians and put it on God, you begin to realize that God is using those impressive developments to make people see how awesome and creative He is. And it all goes back to the origin of secular music: If secular music had never been invented, most modern music wouldn't exist, and we wouldn't have the great variety of music we have today. Those dramatic moments in songs and pieces would not have that chilling effect on us because they wouldn't exist. So by allowing people to branch out from sacred music into secular music, God allowed for a greater variety of worship.
A similar thought process applies to science—not just biology, but all sciences. If people hadn't fled from God for their own selfish reasons, if we had all continued to obey God forever and ever, I doubt that anyone would have been curious enough to examine the microscopic components of life. After all, if everyone knew God created everything, why would we need to look for a source of life? Why would we need to know how life works? Wouldn't God be a good enough answer? But people did turn away from God, and people started looking for the source of life. Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution (which I don't plan on getting into right now), the atom was discovered, elements were discovered, the laws of physics were discovered and formulas were developed to explain movement, and more. Of course, scientists will use all of these things as proof that God doesn't exist, but I see them as proof that He does exist. How could cells come together randomly, forming a nucleus surrounded by a membrane that contains ribosomes to form proteins used to build, tear down, and rebuild the cytoskeleton that gives the cell shape? How could chance invent the perfect combinations of DNA necessary to allow cells to divide and form a bird or a cat, let alone a human being with the intelligence to explore and explain all these things? How could a collision of atoms in outer space cause an explosion that created not only the stars and planets of the universe, but also all the minute details of each planet: all the plant and animal wildlife of the earth, the mountainous terrain of Earth and Mars, the gaseous Jupiter, the asteroid rings of Saturn and Uranus, the toxic atmosphere of Venus? How was all of that created from a collision of atoms when nothing even existed before then? (Where did the atoms come from?) And how was Earth the only planet that came into existence (in our solar system) with the capacity for life? All of these questions have the same answer: God made everything. And as scientists continue to discover new arguments against God, God continues to reveal Himself to the world by showing His children His power in everything. We look at cells and see that laminin, the material that holds all cells together, is in the shape of a cross, the tool that killed our Savior Jesus Christ, the One in whom "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). We look at atoms and see that photons, which are essentially light particles, are the smallest particles in existence, even smaller than electrons, and they exist in all things; the first thing God did in the beginning of the creation of the earth was to invent light. The Bible even says that God Himself is light; He breathed the breath of life into Adam, so a part of Him was in the first man, which means that He (light) is in all people. I could go on, but I'm running out of time, so I'll just leave it at that.
Everything happens for a purpose, and that purpose is the glorification of God, our Creator, our Lord, and our Savior. Even when people fall away from Him, He is always using everything for the end purpose of bringing Himself praise. And you can't call Him selfish or prideful because He is perfect and He made everything. Nothing created is greater than its Creator, and since everything was made by God, He is above all things and the only One worthy of praise.
Thank God for the variety of worship He has allowed us to bring to Him!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
18. What is the silliest prayer you have prayed? And oddest place you have prayed?
... Well, when prayer becomes a part of your daily life, something you do often, "silly" prayers stop being silly. At least, most of them, depending on what you're asking for. We're supposed to pray about everything. But anyway, I can't really think of a silly prayer right now. I know I've prayed for some dumb things in the last couple weeks, but I don't remember any of them. And why ask the weirdest place I've prayed? It doesn't really matter where you pray as long as you do it. But if I have to answer, the only place I can think of is the Melting Point in Athens, a... club? bar? where local bands go to perform. I went to hear the Half Dozen Brass Band with other UGA Redcoat Marching Band members, and people were drinking. I guess a bar qualifies as a weird place to pray; after all, if you're going to pray, why are you at a bar? But I was there for the concert not the beer, so...
Yeah... That was a weird question.
Yeah... That was a weird question.
17. If you could meet Jesus right now, what would be your first action and first question? How do you view Heaven?
Hmm. Not something I think about a lot. Obviously, I can't picture heaven in my mind because it's too amazing for my weak human mind to imagine, but I know that it will be perfect. As Philippians 2:10-11 says, "at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
As for my question for Jesus, I think we're given our names for a reason: God has assigned names to us, and that is how we will praise Him. My name, Michael, means, "Who is like God?" My name will be my question, and my question will be my praise.
As for my question for Jesus, I think we're given our names for a reason: God has assigned names to us, and that is how we will praise Him. My name, Michael, means, "Who is like God?" My name will be my question, and my question will be my praise.
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