As Much God As You Want

Angela showed me a blog post one morning last week (http://www.aholyexperience.com/).  It just happened that the same morning I was finishing reading James 5.  Verses 1-12 were on my mind as I read the blog post.

And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.




All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You've looted the earth and lived it up. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.


Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.


Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.



Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.


And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don't add words like "I swear to God" to your own words. Don't show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.


Here is the excerpt from the blog post that stuck in my head:


Because there is no true happiness apart from holiness, and there is no true holiness apart from knowing what it means to suffer unhappiness. And there is no knowing how to suffer unhappiness apart from God.

You saw that today, saw it in the woman’s eyes on a front porch in Haiti, rain splattering off edge of that rusting tin roof. I simply pray you will not be apart from God. I don’t say this cheaply: It’s through suffering unhappiness that God may beckon you into deeper happiness in Him. Don’t be afraid.

Because the thing is: I don’t want you to get all A’s in life. I want you to get life. I want you to get God. A.W. Tozer said that you can have as much of God as you want.

It’s wild to think about that: How much of God do you really want? How happy do you really want to be? Why would you avoid Him and all your joy — when you could hunger for Him and have as much happiness as you want?

What I am trying to tell you is that no matter where you end up, where the road leads: You can have as much God as you want. As much joy in Him as you want. The real believers relentlessly believe that. The world or circumstances will try to dupe you differently– but it’s a law as irrefutable as gravity itself: no matter what — as much God as you want.

Is there anything else worth wanting or having?
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God is Good and His Timing Is Perfect

Relying on God

 

God has been trying to show me my need to rely on him.  I am pretty stubborn I guess because looking back I think He has been trying to show me this for several weeks now.  It has taken teaching lessons related to this twice now and being led back to reading "Radical" again for me to fully realize what a big deal this is.  I can fight all I want and try to rely on my own abilities, but it is evident that I can not get by in this way.  Why is it so difficult to turn things over to God and rely on his strength instead of mine?

Disobedience

From "Kisses from Katie"

   I would like to be to say that I always do exactly what the Lord asks of me.  I would like to say that I always seek Him first when a difficult situation presents itself.  While I am getting better at it, sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I still think what I do with my life should be my decision.  God asks, and reasons, and encourages.  He gently explains that I do not know what is best for me and that I do not always get what I want.  And I just look at Him, not understanding at all what He's trying to say.  Sometimes, I even whine and sob and shriek, just like a tired, angry three-year-old.
   So God picks me up, exhausted from struggling, and plops me in the center of His will for my life.  And then a funny thing happens.  As I kick and scream and struggle, I remember:  I like being in the center of God's will for my life.  God's plan is usually pretty great.  It is a whole lot better than mine anyway.  I am so glad that He does not allow me to win.

Vision Beyond Your Resources

Angela forwarded this devotion from Zondervan to me today.  Thought it was worth re-posting.
Seek and You Shall Be Surprised I almost said no to a miracle. A couple who had just started attending National Community Church requested a meeting, and I almost denied the request because they said they wanted to talk about church government. I  love talking about the mission and vision of the church. Church government? Not as much! Plus, I was fighting a book deadline, so I didn't have much margin in my schedule. So I almost said no, and if I had, I would have missed out on a miracle... After answering nearly ninety minutes worth of questions, they ended by asking me about our vision. I had so much pent-up passion after talking about policies and protocols that I just let it rip. I shared our vision of ... turning our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill into a chain of coffeehouses, with all the net profits reinvested in missions. I talked about launching our first international campus ... and our vision of launching multi-site campuses in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the greater Washington area. Then the meeting came to a rather abrupt and awkward ending. They said they wanted to invest in National Community Church, but they didn't say how or how much. They left, and I was left scratching my head. I wasn't sure anything would come of that meeting, but a few weeks later ... I received one of the most unforgettable phone calls of my life. "Pastor Mark, we wanted to follow up on our meeting and let you know that we want to give a gift to National Community Church." My mind immediately started racing... "We want to give a gift, and there are no strings attached. But before I tell you how much we're going to give, I want you to know why we're giving it. We're giving this gift because you have vision beyond your resources." ... Those four words, vision beyond your resources, have become a mantra for the ministry of National Community Church. We refuse to let our budget determine our vision. That left-brained approach is a wrong-brained approach because it's based on our limited resources rather than on God's unlimited provision. Faith is allowing your God-given vision to determine your budget. That certainly does not mean you practice poor financial stewardship, spend beyond your means, and accumulate a huge debt load. It does mean that you take a step of faith when God gives you a vision because you trust that the One who gave you the vision is going to make provision. And for the record, if the vision is from God, it will most definitely be beyond your means. Having vision beyond your resources is synonymous with dreaming big. And it may feel like you're setting yourself up for failure, but you're actually setting God up for a miracle. How God performs the miracle is His job... "We want to give the church $3 million dollars." I was speechless... It was one of those holy moments when time stands still. I heard it, but I could hardly believe it. I was blindsided by the blessing... God's provision came out of nowhere... It's not our man-made plans that move the Almighty; the Almighty is moved by big dreams and bold prayers. In the awkward silence of my speechlessness, I heard the still small voice of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit hit the rewind button and reminded me of a prayer circle that I had drawn four years before...

Truth and Grace

The last couple weeks I have been led to ponder the balance between truth and grace.  This started after attending a service at North Point in Atlanta with our middle school youth following the Believe conference.  Th sermon by Andy Stanly that day was entitled "When Gracie Met Truthy" (http://www.northpoint.org/messages/christian/part-5) and was about the embodiment of both grace and truth in equal measure through Jesus and the tension that ensues when we try to exhibit both grace and truth in the model of Christ.  Overall I liked the sermon, but the trouble arose based on the example Andy used to illustrate how this plays out at North Point ,which dealt with a homosexual couple and their attempt to serve in the church.  It was really a poor example to use to get his point across in my opinion, but the real problem came in what the example appeared to say about North Point's stance on homosexuality.  The story inferred that the gay couple could not serve because in fact one of the men was still married and therefore was now in an adulterous relationship, and failed to address the fact that the men were in a homosexual relationship which is also a sin but apparently did not preclude them from serving in the church.

So this raises the question which sins make you ineligible for positions of service or leadership in the church or for membership for that matter?  How do we confront people and their sin with both grace and truth?  Is this a question or issue of repentance?  What would happen if an openly gay couple came to West Towne?

I have since had discussions which I probably would not have had otherwise.  I have listened to other sermons (some intentionally and some by happen stance).  I have seen some blog discussions about this which are mainly from Southern Baptist sources it appears, so provide a good counter point of view (Andy Stanley, the Megachurch, and Homosexuality, Andy Stanleys Soft Landing on Homosexuality).  So, I believe this is a good thing and God is working.  I am interested to see where this leads.

A Different View of Heaven

Been reading Donald Miller's "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years" this weekend since I have a quite weekend of rest to get over my pneumonia.  It is a good book which I am enjoying very much and a timely read for where I am in life right now trying to figure out "my story".

One paragraph has stuck out to me though.  In a chapter in which Don talks about hiking to Machu Picchu the difficult four day trek across the Andes way as opposed to taking the easy one day hike along the valley or taking the bus and train there he ends the chapter talking about how he believes his view of Machu Picchu is different from those who came the other easier ways.  He describes this difference in this way:

"But the people who took the bus didn't experience the city as we experienced the city.  The pain made the city more beautiful.  The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way."

He then goes on to compare this to our view of heaven:

"It made me think about the hard lives so many people have had, the sacrifices they've endured, and how those people will see heaven differently from those of us who have had easier lives."

I have often worried I came to Christ too easily.  I was raised in the church, by Christian parents, had Christian friends and influences all my life, and never really considered not being a part of the church with the exception of a few years in college.  Yet, my faith was not my own and not meaningful to me until I started to truly seek God and his will.  This goes back to the previous post on seeking God's presence I guess.  I have been lucky that God has guided my life and blessed me beyond what I deserve despite the fact that I did not always realize it or acknowledge Him.  Now that I choose to acknowledge Him and seek His face, it seems his blessing and provision is only increased, although on His terms.  It is an exciting, scary, but interesting time.  I can't wait to see what He has planned.

God give me the strength and faith to turn it all over to you.  Let me live like you are truly in control.  Amen.

Searching for God's Presence

It seems that the idea of seeking the presence of God as opposed to just seeking God (his will, his plan, his blessings, etc.) has come up quite a bit of late.  This is the topic of a Catalyst talk by Francis Chan that Ron has been circulating, I have seen it in scripture (Psalm 27, 84), I have seen it in devotional readings (see below), I have seen it in the lesson I taught in Middle School Sunday School.  It keeps coming up.  Obviously there is something to this.

So, God, help me be more mindful of seeking your presence.  If I am in your presence, the other stuff will naturally fall out.  Help me to remember that you are in control and to truly live my life that way.  Help me to put it all on the table, to loose those things holding me back from you, to turn my back on the sin that is separating me from you and your kingdom.  AMEN

Devotional Reading from last week (Psalm 27)
The title of today's reading is A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God. It talks about seeking one thing. During this time of seeking, it's easy to focus on seeking things from God instead of just seeking God--to seek His hand and not His face. Think of the difference between approaching a king to kiss his hand and approaching a loving father to kiss his face. God is both our King and Father. He is capable of meeting your needs and answering your prayers. But He also loves you more deeply than you can ever know. When you seek His face, you end up in a much closer posture to Him. Pray today that you will seek God's face and get closer to Him than you ever have before.