Target shooters like to be able to hit the center of the target, called the "bull's-eye" or bullseye. And if they get especially sharp, they can hit the center of the bullseye. So if you wanted to know what the exact center
of God's will is, what would it be? You might not be too surprised if I tell you it's Jesus Christ himself. How would we know? Here are a few scriptures:
Heb 1:1-4 "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names." Now, if you had to guess, is this Son greater than the prophets of old? Greater than Moses? Greater than the angels and other spirits? Greater than the creation? Yes, all the above.
Col 1: 15-20 "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything...He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church...so he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself." So, is the Christ more important than anything or anyone else in the universe, under the Father? Yes. Has God already saved you through his Son? Yes!
John 1: 1, 14 "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God...the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son." Jesus the Christ, who by this description is also God, came to live with us humans, as our only Savior. The Center of God's entire work with humanity is found in him, and him alone.
Do you want to please God, or do the work of God? In John 6:29 we read "Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'" So, let everything else in life be seen in the light of Jesus. Center your life in him. Let him be to you what he truly is for the whole creation, the bullseye, the Center of the center. And see how that changes everything else.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Even a Little Light
We've all heard about the speed of light, but as my friend Kyle Bowen asked once, what's the speed of dark? Darkness is just the absence
of light, and it only takes a little light to conquer the darkness. Light a match or turn on a flashlight in a dark room, and suddenly what's around me becomes visible even in that small amount of light. What was a threat, in the darkness, becomes helpful instead. The chair I was about to trip over becomes a place to rest. I can grasp and drink the glass of water on the kitchen counter instead of knocking it over.
We can shine light into the lives of others and have a huge helpful effect. In Ephesians 5:8, Paul tells us "For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!" That light from God, as he tells us in verse 9, produces "only what is good and right and true." But like me, you may be thinking of all the reasons we don't believe that our light is good enough or is having the right effect or why God can't use our light because it isn't, well, 'whatever' enough. Our objections don't recognize the power of the God who is himself Light and Life, to be light in us.
A few quick ideas to help us live confidently as light:
of light, and it only takes a little light to conquer the darkness. Light a match or turn on a flashlight in a dark room, and suddenly what's around me becomes visible even in that small amount of light. What was a threat, in the darkness, becomes helpful instead. The chair I was about to trip over becomes a place to rest. I can grasp and drink the glass of water on the kitchen counter instead of knocking it over.
We can shine light into the lives of others and have a huge helpful effect. In Ephesians 5:8, Paul tells us "For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!" That light from God, as he tells us in verse 9, produces "only what is good and right and true." But like me, you may be thinking of all the reasons we don't believe that our light is good enough or is having the right effect or why God can't use our light because it isn't, well, 'whatever' enough. Our objections don't recognize the power of the God who is himself Light and Life, to be light in us.
A few quick ideas to help us live confidently as light:
- We may think we're not producing much light, but it only takes a teeny bit to conquer the darkness.
- Others see our light a lot more positively than we do.
- It's not our light anyway, but the light of Jesus in us.
- It's our job just to be the light God made us in Christ. It's God's job to create the results.
- When somebody compliments you on your light, point to the Light-giver.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Giving Grief to the Holy Spirit
It's easy for me to make my wife, The Lovely Joanne, upset. All I have to do
is say something unkind about the way the house looks, or about her cooking or driving. Truth to tell, we can each make the other upset, about all kinds of subjects. But it's not just the comment. The root of it, when we say or do the wrong things, is that we aren't paying attention to the desires and needs of the other. Nurturing our love, trying to love each other more deeply, means being sensitive to what the other one is thinking or might want at any certain point. It means for me to expend some effort to figure out what my wife would actually like me to do, and then to do that. And I appreciate it a great deal when she does the same for me.
Marriage is a very close relationship and takes ongoing attentiveness to work right. But guess what -- it's the same with our most intimate relationship, that is, with the Holy Spirit. Rather than leave us alone (John 14:18) to figure out how to understand and follow Jesus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and continue to teach us about Jesus and the Father (verse 17). That indwelling of the Spirit is the very heart of our ability to relate to God. His mind in us is real and can be felt.
We need to decide how we will live within that relationship. We can pay careful, constant attention to the Spirit's presence and will, as he leads us to live according to his mind; or we can be lax about his presence. Guess which gets better results? Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:30: "And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own." I puzzled over that instruction for many years before realizing that the Spirit, who is the mind of God, genuinely lives in me and is troubled when I go against his will for me.
In Rom. 8:6 we read: "Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." That sounds like the relationship between my wife and me. Putting attention to the reality of the Spirit's presence, and letting him have his way instead of stubbornly doing my own will, leads to a much more peaceful existence. If you're having stress and anxiety, maybe it's time to let go and let the Holy Spirit direct more. Why not give it a try?
is say something unkind about the way the house looks, or about her cooking or driving. Truth to tell, we can each make the other upset, about all kinds of subjects. But it's not just the comment. The root of it, when we say or do the wrong things, is that we aren't paying attention to the desires and needs of the other. Nurturing our love, trying to love each other more deeply, means being sensitive to what the other one is thinking or might want at any certain point. It means for me to expend some effort to figure out what my wife would actually like me to do, and then to do that. And I appreciate it a great deal when she does the same for me.
Marriage is a very close relationship and takes ongoing attentiveness to work right. But guess what -- it's the same with our most intimate relationship, that is, with the Holy Spirit. Rather than leave us alone (John 14:18) to figure out how to understand and follow Jesus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and continue to teach us about Jesus and the Father (verse 17). That indwelling of the Spirit is the very heart of our ability to relate to God. His mind in us is real and can be felt.
We need to decide how we will live within that relationship. We can pay careful, constant attention to the Spirit's presence and will, as he leads us to live according to his mind; or we can be lax about his presence. Guess which gets better results? Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:30: "And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own." I puzzled over that instruction for many years before realizing that the Spirit, who is the mind of God, genuinely lives in me and is troubled when I go against his will for me.
In Rom. 8:6 we read: "Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." That sounds like the relationship between my wife and me. Putting attention to the reality of the Spirit's presence, and letting him have his way instead of stubbornly doing my own will, leads to a much more peaceful existence. If you're having stress and anxiety, maybe it's time to let go and let the Holy Spirit direct more. Why not give it a try?
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Love of the Holy Spirit
The greatest human need is to know we are loved. And most of us try to love others as well as we know how. Most of the time. Unless
we're upset with the other person, or they said something stupid to us, or hurt us in some way, or they got on our last nerve, or we just don't feel like it. Then we retreat into our Fortress of Solitude, or sing Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock" to ourselves and pretend we don't need the other person anyway, so there.
The Holy Spirit changes all that. He is the very essence of the love of God., and the Father sends him to give you and me God's love, which is the only way we can love anyone else (1 John 4:19).
Do you believe the Father loves you? In fact, he loves you just like he loves his Son, Jesus! "May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." (John 17:23). He doesn't want you to live in fear and torment, but in a relaxed assurance of his complete love for you. Let's look at more of 1 John 4:
Are you ready to know God's love completely? Just ask him!
we're upset with the other person, or they said something stupid to us, or hurt us in some way, or they got on our last nerve, or we just don't feel like it. Then we retreat into our Fortress of Solitude, or sing Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock" to ourselves and pretend we don't need the other person anyway, so there.
The Holy Spirit changes all that. He is the very essence of the love of God., and the Father sends him to give you and me God's love, which is the only way we can love anyone else (1 John 4:19).
Do you believe the Father loves you? In fact, he loves you just like he loves his Son, Jesus! "May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." (John 17:23). He doesn't want you to live in fear and torment, but in a relaxed assurance of his complete love for you. Let's look at more of 1 John 4:
- "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins" (verses 9 and 10).
- "Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us" (verses 11-13).
- "We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect" (verses 16-17).
- And then John says, summarizing these verses, "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (verse 18).
Are you ready to know God's love completely? Just ask him!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Time for Change? Good News!
This morning, I heard a flock of geese flying by, headed for winter south of here. Their honking brings a smile to my face -- I think geese are magnificent creatures -- but it makes me realize
what their honking means: Change is on the way!
Most of us would like to see real, meaningful, permanent change in our habits. We'd like to be free from fear, doubt and temptation. Good news! Our first real change has already been given to us, at no charge. Colossians 1 tells us that we are the blessed recipients of God's unilateral actions:
"For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. (v. 19-20) This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. (v. 21) Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body {not through our repentance, faith, baptism or obedience}. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault" (v. 22). What a huge change!! But can we change the way we act?
I've had the experience of being harnessed to a strong rope and tackling an obstacle course twenty or thirty feet up (a lot higher off the ground than I like to be!). Since I was completely secured by that rope, I was given the courage to climb, jump, and work my way over obstacles I never would have tackled alone. God's love gives us the same courage. Paul tells us here to "continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it" (v. 23) as a moment-by-moment part of life. Leaving our old habits behind feels foreign, and we can hesitate in fear. Knowing we are completely loved and eternally accepted by God, gives us the courage to change our ways: to live another day without the false promises of alcohol, pornography, anger, lust, food, unforgiveness, or any other method we use to feel in control of our lives.
I can tell you from experience, this much change won't happen from sheer force of will. It's time to believe what God says, that he we are "holy and blameless," and to choose to live in that truth. God will always hold us securely, and will help us develop new habits of thinking, feeling, speaking and living, whether we take it one step at a time or all at once. Why not start today? If you need another person to know what you're doing and pray for you, just ask.
what their honking means: Change is on the way!
Most of us would like to see real, meaningful, permanent change in our habits. We'd like to be free from fear, doubt and temptation. Good news! Our first real change has already been given to us, at no charge. Colossians 1 tells us that we are the blessed recipients of God's unilateral actions:
"For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. (v. 19-20) This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. (v. 21) Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body {not through our repentance, faith, baptism or obedience}. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault" (v. 22). What a huge change!! But can we change the way we act?
I've had the experience of being harnessed to a strong rope and tackling an obstacle course twenty or thirty feet up (a lot higher off the ground than I like to be!). Since I was completely secured by that rope, I was given the courage to climb, jump, and work my way over obstacles I never would have tackled alone. God's love gives us the same courage. Paul tells us here to "continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it" (v. 23) as a moment-by-moment part of life. Leaving our old habits behind feels foreign, and we can hesitate in fear. Knowing we are completely loved and eternally accepted by God, gives us the courage to change our ways: to live another day without the false promises of alcohol, pornography, anger, lust, food, unforgiveness, or any other method we use to feel in control of our lives.
I can tell you from experience, this much change won't happen from sheer force of will. It's time to believe what God says, that he we are "holy and blameless," and to choose to live in that truth. God will always hold us securely, and will help us develop new habits of thinking, feeling, speaking and living, whether we take it one step at a time or all at once. Why not start today? If you need another person to know what you're doing and pray for you, just ask.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Are you struggling with something in your life, and want the power to overcome it? The ultimate source of power is God himself, and God gives us
his Holy Spirit to live in us (Eph. 1:13). The Spirit's power "is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 1:19-20). Awesome! I need that! Do you? Paul explains how, in his letter to the Ephesians.
God has identified us as his own (like putting a seal of approval on us) by giving us his Holy Spirit (1:13). Paul prays that God will give "spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God" (1:17), through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's power, as we saw in 1:19-20, is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and put him above every other power (1:21) -- which means God can do anything he needs to in us, to give us new spiritual life! Using that "up from the dead" idea in 2:4-6, Paul says that God gave us life, while we were still dead in our sins, when he raised Jesus from the dead.
Paul was an energetic, effective evangelist. But Paul insists it was by "God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News" (3:7), not by his own hard work, diligence or dedication. And so, one of his prayers to God for the church was that "from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit...And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is" (3:16-18). Then he asks that we "experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God" (3:19).
That power can do "infinitely more than we might ask or think" (3:20). One thing we all need the Holy Spirit to do for us, is to help us understand and experience "the love of Christ," and have "all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." If we understood , we wouldn't try to work things out ourselves. We wouldn't use political maneuvering and half-truths to get others to do our will. We wouldn't use food, pornography, alcohol, marijuana, drugs, shopping, tobacco or any other substance or activity to make us feel better about ourselves. Knowing how secure we are in Christ, through God's infinite power, would let us relax and trust God to take care of all our needs.
God loves us without conditions and gives us his powerful Spirit freely. It's up to us, to decide to live within the Spirit instead of struggling to succeed by ourselves. How about praying to God, giving up the struggle, and asking him to fill you completely with his power? Instead of struggling, you'll experience his peace, leave your cravings behind and be filled with his love instead. Too good to be true? You won't know unless you take that step of surrender! Need help surrendering? Just ask.
his Holy Spirit to live in us (Eph. 1:13). The Spirit's power "is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 1:19-20). Awesome! I need that! Do you? Paul explains how, in his letter to the Ephesians.
God has identified us as his own (like putting a seal of approval on us) by giving us his Holy Spirit (1:13). Paul prays that God will give "spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God" (1:17), through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's power, as we saw in 1:19-20, is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and put him above every other power (1:21) -- which means God can do anything he needs to in us, to give us new spiritual life! Using that "up from the dead" idea in 2:4-6, Paul says that God gave us life, while we were still dead in our sins, when he raised Jesus from the dead.
Paul was an energetic, effective evangelist. But Paul insists it was by "God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News" (3:7), not by his own hard work, diligence or dedication. And so, one of his prayers to God for the church was that "from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit...And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is" (3:16-18). Then he asks that we "experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God" (3:19).
That power can do "infinitely more than we might ask or think" (3:20). One thing we all need the Holy Spirit to do for us, is to help us understand and experience "the love of Christ," and have "all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." If we understood , we wouldn't try to work things out ourselves. We wouldn't use political maneuvering and half-truths to get others to do our will. We wouldn't use food, pornography, alcohol, marijuana, drugs, shopping, tobacco or any other substance or activity to make us feel better about ourselves. Knowing how secure we are in Christ, through God's infinite power, would let us relax and trust God to take care of all our needs.
God loves us without conditions and gives us his powerful Spirit freely. It's up to us, to decide to live within the Spirit instead of struggling to succeed by ourselves. How about praying to God, giving up the struggle, and asking him to fill you completely with his power? Instead of struggling, you'll experience his peace, leave your cravings behind and be filled with his love instead. Too good to be true? You won't know unless you take that step of surrender! Need help surrendering? Just ask.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Spiritual Experiences vs A Spiritual Life
The curriculum at last week's summer camp, SEP Rockies, was "Rooted" and was beautifully delivered by our chapel speaker, Anthony Mullins. He talked about the life
cycle of a tree, starting with a seed that dies in the ground in order for the tree to sprout, the seedling struggling to push out of the ground to sunlight and then to push its roots deep in the soil to get nourishment and to hold on during storms; and finally to the point of maturity, which is bearing fruit and seed in order to start the cycle again.
I found a book called "Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Spiritual Transformation" by Joshua Choonmin Kang, a Korean pastor in Los Angeles. It ties right in with that "Rooted" camp curriculum. I read these comments in chapter 5, and was reminded of the "mountaintop experiences" we have at our camps: "Spiritual experiences and spiritual disciplines are similar, but they have different outcomes...Spiritual formation isn't like a quickly spreading fire; it's like a tree with deeply descending roots, establishing a foundation for future growth and fruitfulness." (The book is $10 at christianbook.com, if you're interested).
Kang's point is important. Most of us like spiritual experiences, because they're exciting, they give us energy, and they're memorable. But like birthday cake, we can't make them our entire diet. Growth and health, both spiritual and physical, need intentional and balanced nutrition. When we feel spiritually weak, seeking yet another mountaintop experience won't deepen our contact with and our reliance on Jesus. A steady, day-by-day diet of spiritual habits will feed our understanding of God and of our own needs.
Here are some examples of habits we can use to deepen our spiritual lives: Self-examination, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, shows us how we fall short of God's best for us and can help us see a way toward peace. Silence and solitude (turning away from all our distractions so we can focus on God) gives God space to hold an extended conversation with us. Generosity helps us release our fervent hold on our possessions and remember they all belong to God anyway. Memorization of scripture -- several verses at a time -- nourishes our thinking and cooperates with the Holy Spirit as he teaches us (John 16:13).
How about trying one of these practices today, and see how it helps you? If it's helpful, why not make it a daily, weekly or monthly habit? These and many others will help you be "Rooted" in God's love and life.
cycle of a tree, starting with a seed that dies in the ground in order for the tree to sprout, the seedling struggling to push out of the ground to sunlight and then to push its roots deep in the soil to get nourishment and to hold on during storms; and finally to the point of maturity, which is bearing fruit and seed in order to start the cycle again.
I found a book called "Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Spiritual Transformation" by Joshua Choonmin Kang, a Korean pastor in Los Angeles. It ties right in with that "Rooted" camp curriculum. I read these comments in chapter 5, and was reminded of the "mountaintop experiences" we have at our camps: "Spiritual experiences and spiritual disciplines are similar, but they have different outcomes...Spiritual formation isn't like a quickly spreading fire; it's like a tree with deeply descending roots, establishing a foundation for future growth and fruitfulness." (The book is $10 at christianbook.com, if you're interested).
Kang's point is important. Most of us like spiritual experiences, because they're exciting, they give us energy, and they're memorable. But like birthday cake, we can't make them our entire diet. Growth and health, both spiritual and physical, need intentional and balanced nutrition. When we feel spiritually weak, seeking yet another mountaintop experience won't deepen our contact with and our reliance on Jesus. A steady, day-by-day diet of spiritual habits will feed our understanding of God and of our own needs.
Here are some examples of habits we can use to deepen our spiritual lives: Self-examination, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, shows us how we fall short of God's best for us and can help us see a way toward peace. Silence and solitude (turning away from all our distractions so we can focus on God) gives God space to hold an extended conversation with us. Generosity helps us release our fervent hold on our possessions and remember they all belong to God anyway. Memorization of scripture -- several verses at a time -- nourishes our thinking and cooperates with the Holy Spirit as he teaches us (John 16:13).
How about trying one of these practices today, and see how it helps you? If it's helpful, why not make it a daily, weekly or monthly habit? These and many others will help you be "Rooted" in God's love and life.
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