"Do you feel loved by God because you believe He makes much of you, or because you believe He frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of Him?”
Is God a means to an end - or is it your goal to cherish Him above all?
John Piper
Pastor/ Bible Teacher
This is a great thought. Why do I follow God? Wrestling with God's goodness has some consistent results. Those results show up in different ways in our lives, but the motivations are always the same. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 says that the Macedonian churches were in extreme poverty and severe trial and it welled up in them as rich generosity because they gave themselves first to the Lord.
Most in today's church would be mad at God and leave because God didn't take their bad life away. I cannot say that I wish to be placed in that situation or that I would long to have extreme poverty or severe trials. But I do want to have my life well up in rich generosity. What do you want to be said of you? Do you want God to dote on you or are you so blessed that in the scope of the universe, God looks down and notices you? This was David's dilemma in Psalm 8 - What is man that You are mindful of him? And we see the results in David's life of a man that didn't overestimate his own importance in the universe or in God's eyes. Read 2 Samuel 9 and 2 Samuel 24 the stories are both great examples of David being gracious to others.
I believe with all of my heart that his ability to do that came directly from his heart's posture before God. David didn't over estimate his own importance. Therefore, he was willing to pay the price to worship God through his actions. Oh, that we would love God that way.
May we see our position in the universe as it truly is. And may we realize that that position magnifies the love of God for us. And that it should translate into how we give to and treat others. May we be known as a generous people - rich in good deeds (1 Timothy 6)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Security...
Proverbs 3:5,6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths
So, I memorized these couple of verses when I was a little kid in vacation Bible school. Since then, I have been subject to multiple renderings of this verse and this morning the Holy Spirit hit me with another one...
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: God will show you how to think when He is ready for you to think it. We don't need to cook up great logic or new ideas, God gives us access to the information we need at the right time.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths: When we do everything that we do for His purposes and His glory, He directs us in the direction that we should go.
Nothing revolutionary yet, but since this month we are talking about money at the church, this is where it got interesting. Like everyone else, I am terribly curious about the condition of our economy and the future prosperity of our nation. What are things going to look like for my kids? Or even for us in a few years? It is enough to make many people very afraid and they begin to wonder where God is in all this as if somehow God demonstrates His love for us in the ability to have things...
Here is my personal revelation: Many Christians love the first phrase of the verse - Trust in the Lord with all your heart... And because we don't care about money or we don't know about money and we don't want to educate ourselves, we choose to leverage that statement to stick our head in the sand. But we forget the last part of the passage - And He will direct your paths...
So, the point is this, God is not out of control in this scary economic time. And He is not surprised at it all. And He will show each of us what we are to do as we navigate this new economy. God will provide. But we have to be willing to follow what He says. Don't think that by saying, "I will just trust the Lord," that you have done your economic homework. God will direct our paths - but we have to be willing to walk on them.
God's principles for money are still true, and we should still manage our money the way God says to. The fear that comes during times like this are a direct reflection of where we get our security from. As the Psalms say, "Some trust in chariots, some in horses, we trust in the name of the Lord our God." (20:7)
So, may your security always come from the promises of God. May you be a shining beacon of holding to God's money stewardship principles. And may He richly bless your efforts as you walk down the paths that He lays out before you.
So, I memorized these couple of verses when I was a little kid in vacation Bible school. Since then, I have been subject to multiple renderings of this verse and this morning the Holy Spirit hit me with another one...
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: God will show you how to think when He is ready for you to think it. We don't need to cook up great logic or new ideas, God gives us access to the information we need at the right time.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths: When we do everything that we do for His purposes and His glory, He directs us in the direction that we should go.
Nothing revolutionary yet, but since this month we are talking about money at the church, this is where it got interesting. Like everyone else, I am terribly curious about the condition of our economy and the future prosperity of our nation. What are things going to look like for my kids? Or even for us in a few years? It is enough to make many people very afraid and they begin to wonder where God is in all this as if somehow God demonstrates His love for us in the ability to have things...
Here is my personal revelation: Many Christians love the first phrase of the verse - Trust in the Lord with all your heart... And because we don't care about money or we don't know about money and we don't want to educate ourselves, we choose to leverage that statement to stick our head in the sand. But we forget the last part of the passage - And He will direct your paths...
So, the point is this, God is not out of control in this scary economic time. And He is not surprised at it all. And He will show each of us what we are to do as we navigate this new economy. God will provide. But we have to be willing to follow what He says. Don't think that by saying, "I will just trust the Lord," that you have done your economic homework. God will direct our paths - but we have to be willing to walk on them.
God's principles for money are still true, and we should still manage our money the way God says to. The fear that comes during times like this are a direct reflection of where we get our security from. As the Psalms say, "Some trust in chariots, some in horses, we trust in the name of the Lord our God." (20:7)
So, may your security always come from the promises of God. May you be a shining beacon of holding to God's money stewardship principles. And may He richly bless your efforts as you walk down the paths that He lays out before you.
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