Layoffs an the grace of God

Well,

We had layoffs in the past week or so at my work and it makes you really evaluate things.  Inserts some unrest into your life also.  It also makes me think about how richly the Lord has blessed me.

I have work, family, home, and many more material possessions than I need for daily living.

Still I end up anxious.  The Lord has delivered me from every difficult time and every trying situation.

He has always provided for every financial need we have ever had in our life, from medical bills to any other unexpected turn of life.

This is what has sunk into my head since the layoffs passed and I still have my job.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving bring your requests to God, and the Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:5-7)

Sign Posts and Fences Part A

We are sign posts for God.

Sounds simple enough, and indeed we are. Some would say we are Christ's ambassadors. That is true too. We really fall short in this way. Do you know I don't' have a phish or bumper sticker on my car, because I am afraid that the way I drive sometimes may make my sign post say "Do Not Enter"? Now I am not making excuses for the way I drive (and with two little girls and a wife I am trying to work in it :) I am trying to make the point vivid. We fail to bring people to Christ sometimes because we don't live out the gospel truth that we love to talk about. God is real. He is alive, and walking among us as his spirit dwells in our bodies.

Do you know that we grieve the spirit sometimes? I am sure I do. Like when you are watching football and your favorite team just dogs the game. It is like they didn't even show up. Yeah like that. That is how God feels about us sometimes, but over something that really matters. The Word of God says so too. Do you know that in some places the bible says that God was sorry he made us? That hurts. But I think that is today a statement as much toward the people who claim to follow him as toward the ones who outright deny him.

Lets stand up and live out the life worthy of the calling which we were given.

Speek up for those who cannot speak for themselves

I received a letter from our compassion child today. JA is from Honduras and is one year older than our oldest. This verse was on the bottom of the back of the page.

If you have never received a letter like this. The top half of the letter is written in the native language by the child or their parents, then the lower half is translated into our local Language.

The full verse says,

• 8. "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

• 9. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

It just struck me. I don't think that we are doing that, we are just sending a little money their way, not that much to us, but we wanted the kids to have someone to think of other than themselves. See the world as a little bigger. But I guess that is the calling.

I hope they take it with them when they get older.

Two things everyone should watch

These are two things that everyone should watch/hear regarding Martin Luther King Jr.

I have a dream speech

The Mountain top speech which was given the night before he was assassinated.

What God's Will isn't

I was reading the Genesis Worship blog for Woodbury Lutheran Church and came across a fascinating question posed anonymously in response to a message they did on God's will a week ago.

A dialogue developed between two individuals with selected excerpts below.

I struggle with the words "Thy will be done"...But oftentimes when something bad happens, an unexpected death and cancer. Even when Hurricane Katrina hit or the Tsunami, people claim that it's "God's Will."...How do you explain to your teenage son that it was God's will that their friend was killed in a car accident? I don't believe it was God's will she died.

So what is Thy will be done?
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So do you think that spiritual maturity allows a person to surrender more completely to God's will particularly during the trials and tests of life?

Is there anything else besides good and evil? Is something always good or something evil?
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It's easy when things go right in our lives to say it is God's will. But if something goes wrong, is that God's will?
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This discussion really made me think. It made me think of how cliche and unloving we as Christians can be towards those hurting. The discussion did not go that way, but the questions seem posed from a heart that has been wounded by that kind of carelessness in the past. This is what I added at the end.

God has promised that we will suffer if we follow him. This is why it says we must take up our cross and follow him, and that if the world hated him, it will really hate us. Yet not everything that happens in this world has moral weight. Remember that Christ debunked the idea that a tower fell and crushed a group of men because they were any worse sinners than others who remained living. It was just tragic.

The world we live in is broken. And as the person above stated, the enemy of God wants to cause harm to both believers and non believers alike.

Yet in the midst of that we know what the will of God is. He wants that none of us should perish but that we should be redeemed by the blood of Christ. So those things that happen can be used to further God's will (if they lead anyone closer to Him) or they can be used to deceive us and draw us away (as the enemy would have it). To some extent it is our choice to respond to suffering with faith, or discouragement.

It should be the Christian's mission to encourage, and shore up the faith of those hurting so that their response can draw them closer.

I do agree with the first person who had some misgivings with how we use "God's will" God's will is going to be accomplished in this world. I believe he can accomplish it through tragedy even if he is not the cause of that tragedy. I have the same compliant with the way that Christians toss around the word "hope" We say "I hope it doesn't rain today," but that is the world's kind of hope.

Our hope is with certain confidence.

It is in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in the last day. It is guaranteed as sure as the sun rising tomorrow morning.

In that hope we can respond to suffering with faith not only to draw ourselves closer to God, but to encourage others who are hurting more than we are. As Paul said, we can comfort them with the comfort that we first received from God. And that is also why we suffer, so that we can serve those who are suffering through the comfort we have received.

balancing act

I am enjoying the discussion with the Sr. Pastor at our church about balancing the key priorities in Christianity today. We are talking about knowing and obeying what God wants, and living that out in a life of compassion.

He had a great quote from Mark Batterson (whom I don't really Know much about)

The true measure of spiritual maturity is not how much we know but how much we obey. And the truth is--all of us are educated way beyond our level of obedience!

Check out the post here.

My Final comment was challenging the conclusion that seems to be drawn from this. The conclusion appears to be that where we aren't obedient we should therefore stop trying to know more, and get out there an do it.

The Christian Church is not great about doing what they should do. But I think part of the problem is with new believers, sometimes they know what is good but don't know that God has really spoken with authority about that specific thing. They think they are "in the clear" by avoiding all the big no-no's. In really if we would pick up and read the bible, we would see all the ways we are lacking. I think that a frank correction from God's word will spur more people to action, than not.

Here is a quote from my last comment on that post

As the church (small groups) we should be doing so much more about meeting needs like that.

However I would challenge that at Five Oaks, where we fail to do compassion, it is not because we are distracted trying to "gain more and more information". I just don’t think that is the problem. I think it is because we are:

• Comfortable with all God has provided us
• Busy with our daily (over) commitments
• Happy socializing with friends
• Focused on our career
• Unaware of what the word of God says about our responsibility in compassion
• And hardhearted toward the "least" in our day

I think that taking the time we are already spending in study, and turning it to more convicting passages of God's word will break up the soil of our hard hearts. The Word it isn't just the seed, it is the plow. All of us in American Christianity need a little tilling.

Love them into the Kingdom

I agree with people who say that we need to love people into the Kingdom of God. And my heart is broken over all the bitterness that Christians have over the "world" and its woes. Remember the parable of the ungrateful servant? (Mt 18:21-35) There are many places in the bible where the same message is communicated. A servant is forgiven a great debt, and then turns around in ungratefulness to hold against others their sin. Recognize that this is the story of the church, of our lives. WE have been forgiven such a great debt. Yet we stand condemning others when we should be loving them as God loved us.

• The bible says that God is a God of Love Joe 2:13
• The Greatest Commandment is: Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Mt 22:34-40
  
• The Second is like it: Love your neighbor as your self
• Christ gave only one new commandment: Love as I have loved you Joh 13:34
• Our primary method for reaching the world with the gospel of god is Love: They will know you by our love
  

The thing we tend to forget is that Gods love is not a pampering love, it is a perfecting love. God wants us to be holy more than he wants us to be happy. 1 Pet 1 He would rather see us cold, lonely, depressed, and afraid than living happily in sin. Look at Jonah, David, Paul. God brings us low to draw us close. This is as true in marriage, in parenting, and in discipleship as it is in the church. God wants to accomplish so much through us.

Often what He is trying to accomplish comes thorough tough love. Blessing comes in through the gate of the lords discipline. Heb 12 For the Christian especially many times it comes through trials and suffering James 1. But the pain is not God's goal. It is meant to wear away those hard edges that keep us from useful service. It is meant to prepare the soil of our heart for the love of God. Both to give, and to receive his blessings.

The Myth of application?

I don't know if you have ever wanted to pour yourself over the word of God but just fealt like there were barriers. Am I alone here? More than once I have had people tell me it is "OK" if you study the Word in small group "if you apply it".

Have we lost the idea of what the Word of God is? Is there any power in it any more? It is sharper than a butter knife; isn't it?

Lets remind ourselves that faith comes by hearing the word of God. Let me suggest that it is the role of the Holy Spirt to apply the Word to our lives. Don't you remember that God will not let it return to him empty without accomplishing the puropose for which he sent it forth?

In the evangelical community are we letting life application displace conviction over sin? Isn't the real application of scripture, a changed life? My wife and I recently had the privlage to attend the downpour confrence in Minnesota. In one session the speaker suggested that if confession means to say the same thing as God, than wisdom means to see things the same way God sees them. God give us wisdom to see our own sins and turn from them, instead of seeing all the sin in the world and condeming them.