The best-selling author and preacher of the 20th century, A.W. Tozer, said that the most important thing about a person is what comes to mind when they think about God. This is true every moment of every day, compelling us to renew our minds according to the truth.
So, here is a popular question... Is your cup half empty or half full? In your estimation of God, is He good or not? Hold on, before you answer this question, make sure you are being honest.
Let me set up a scenario for you... Let's say you have been praying for God to do something in your life - something specific - that will be a miracle if it happens. And guess what! He does it! A miracle! Unbelievable! Indescribable emotion and victory!
Now, next thought - are you waiting for the good times to end believing that pain and sacrifice are just around the corner? And to make matters worse, now that God has thrown you a bone, you are even more obligated to act correctly. Or are you pressing in? Praying more fervently and passionately asking God for the focus and healing to live in His blessing well?
I think that often perspective makes all the difference in our lives. Too many Christians receive a gift from God half heartedly because behind it all they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. When God starts to work in greater ways in our hearts, we often get sidetracked by this "wartime" rhetoric of preparing for battle cause satan won't let that go unnoticed or untested.
Perhaps a better way to receive a blessing from God is to say that the new level of spiritual discipline isn't so much for preparing for battle. It is to have the ability to live in God's blessing well. The reality of the life that is lived out doesn't change much. But the ability to have peace in the midst of it changes a lot!
Some food for thought: I think that one of the hardest things about the blessing of God is living with a continued passion and fervor in it. It is easy to cry out in desperate times. It is hard to stay desperate before God when everything is great. There is a lot of things that the Bible says about this. Maybe an assignment for you would be to take a look at some of those Scriptures.
Complacency is the death nail to the Christian life. And the "battle" that we fight if you must use that term is not good versus evil or right versus wrong. It is temporary versus eternal. It is fervor versus complacency. It is maturing through blessing so that we can be good stewards of the gifts God has given us and have the kind of character to live in God's blessings well. This will draw people to a life of spiritual fervor. This will inspire people to a life marked by blessing. This will help people fight through pain to healing; through bondage to freedom; and through tragedy to restoration. This - at its core - is Kingdom living.
So may you be fully capable of receiving God's blessing well. May you be refined and mature enough to live in God's blessing well. May you see God for who He is. He is not waiting to flip the switch on you. He is a good God that loves you and calls you to the fullest life possible. May your cup be so overflowing that half full or half empty is never the discussion. May the discussions of your life be all about how to give away more and more of the blessing that God has so graciously given to you. He is such a generous God!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Changing the spiritual climate... #1
I am trying on a new idea... Please help me process:
The hypothesis is this: knowing truth doesn't change very much.
Jesus is true. He says He is the way the Truth and the life and no one comes to the Father accept through Him. Once He makes that claim, He is either right or He is wrong. I happen to believe with conviction that He was right. I believe it with so much conviction that I have given my life in full time service to that reality.
That being said, I am not sure that "knowing" that truth does very much for me. That prepositional reality is not the transformational power that I hoped it would be. There are lots of truths that I know to be true, but I do not follow them. Eating healthy is better for me. Exercising will give me more energy. From the way I spend money to the way I interact with others to how I fix things around the house, there are truths that I know, but do not follow.
Extrapolate this out to the average American Christian... We all know vast amounts of Scripture that we hold to be true. We hear sermons each week full of sound biblical truth. But are we changed?
Let me take a stab at where your mind is right now... But what about the verse that says, "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free...?"
That is just it.. In order for that to be correct, truth has to be more than a prepositional treatise that I ascribe to. Truth has to be a person. And that person is Jesus. So, then, knowing the truth is more about knowing how to interact with Jesus in a legitimate relationship than it is about being right. He said is the truth. Truth is a person, not a preposition or an idea.
But then that leads to a whole other set of questions. Not the least of which is: How do I have relationship with Jesus? Or what does relationship with Jesus look like? Or how do I know when I am in the kind of relationship with Jesus that He wants? Or how can I feel safe in how much I have done to be faithful to that relationship? Or how do I experience God's favor as an overflow of that relationship? Or any other of about a million other questions....
Now we move into the guts my thought. Jesus tells 38 stories that we have recorded in Scripture. Of those, 20 say this - the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is like... Somehow, Jesus is expressing this transformational reality of relationship with Him as living in a Kingdom. So, then, if we are going to understand how to be truly transformed by a relationship with Jesus, we are going to have to come to terms with what this whole Kingdom thing really is all about.
So, I am going to do a series of posts about the Kingdom, Our role in it, and how that can truly change the world. May we all be brought to life in a fresh way through this process.
The hypothesis is this: knowing truth doesn't change very much.
Jesus is true. He says He is the way the Truth and the life and no one comes to the Father accept through Him. Once He makes that claim, He is either right or He is wrong. I happen to believe with conviction that He was right. I believe it with so much conviction that I have given my life in full time service to that reality.
That being said, I am not sure that "knowing" that truth does very much for me. That prepositional reality is not the transformational power that I hoped it would be. There are lots of truths that I know to be true, but I do not follow them. Eating healthy is better for me. Exercising will give me more energy. From the way I spend money to the way I interact with others to how I fix things around the house, there are truths that I know, but do not follow.
Extrapolate this out to the average American Christian... We all know vast amounts of Scripture that we hold to be true. We hear sermons each week full of sound biblical truth. But are we changed?
Let me take a stab at where your mind is right now... But what about the verse that says, "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free...?"
That is just it.. In order for that to be correct, truth has to be more than a prepositional treatise that I ascribe to. Truth has to be a person. And that person is Jesus. So, then, knowing the truth is more about knowing how to interact with Jesus in a legitimate relationship than it is about being right. He said is the truth. Truth is a person, not a preposition or an idea.
But then that leads to a whole other set of questions. Not the least of which is: How do I have relationship with Jesus? Or what does relationship with Jesus look like? Or how do I know when I am in the kind of relationship with Jesus that He wants? Or how can I feel safe in how much I have done to be faithful to that relationship? Or how do I experience God's favor as an overflow of that relationship? Or any other of about a million other questions....
Now we move into the guts my thought. Jesus tells 38 stories that we have recorded in Scripture. Of those, 20 say this - the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is like... Somehow, Jesus is expressing this transformational reality of relationship with Him as living in a Kingdom. So, then, if we are going to understand how to be truly transformed by a relationship with Jesus, we are going to have to come to terms with what this whole Kingdom thing really is all about.
So, I am going to do a series of posts about the Kingdom, Our role in it, and how that can truly change the world. May we all be brought to life in a fresh way through this process.
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