Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘God’ Category

INDEPENDENT NO MORE (Part 2)

Posted in Bible, Dependence on God, Devotional, God, Gospels, John, New Testament, Walking with God, tagged , , , , on August 31, 2010|

THE LIE OF INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Independence from God is never equivalent to freedom.  It is in total dependence on God that we have freedom – freedom from sin, freedom from fear, freedom from worry and anxiety and most-importantly, freedom from judgment – the judgment of a holy God due sinful man.  All men are sinful.  The Bible teaches that none are righteous and that the wages of sin is death.  The only true freedom is that which comes from God.  Only He can promise a genuine and lasting freedom.

When I was sixteen, I obtained the first key to my “independence” from my parents.  I started working at the Jacksonville Pharmacy in Jacksonville, Maryland.  You might have a hard time understanding what a coup that really was.  Practically everyone in our loosely-defined town went into that Pharmacy at least once a week.  Some came in every day or evening on their way home from work.  It was a hub of activity and community news.

It was that $3.35 per hour that gave me my first real “independence” (so called).  From that point forward, I purchased my car, my gas, my insurance, my incidentals, etc.  I thought of myself as independent even though I was only 16 and still living at home.  I thought I was independent, but looking back now, I can see I really wasn’t totally free of dependence on my parents for the roof over my head, health insurance, food and other expenses of everyday life.

I can draw a parallel to my spiritual life.  During my college years, I turned from my relationship with God to assert my independence from His restrictions.  (I now see them as cords of love.)  I took on sin and tried to be its master.  I think you can guess how that ended.  It mastered me.  I sinned well and with frequency and depravity and thought little of God.  I had become “independent”, a place I would never recommend.  It was a place filled with emptiness and despair and darkness so heavy it can push all the air out of your lungs.  Independence from God was a place of slow death of my soul – a death that would have gone on for eternity, a death that would have separated me from God forever.  It is a law of nature that independence brings death.  What happens to the flower cut from the stem?  The branch cut from the tree?    Death.  Life is found and sustained only with connection to the vine.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jesus speaking)

Read Full Post »

INDEPENDENT NO MORE (Part 1)

Posted in Dependence on God, Devotional, God, Relationship with God, tagged , , , , , on August 27, 2010| 2 Comments »

Putting aside self-sufficiency for good

According to C. Hummel in Tyranny of the Urgent, “The root of all sin is self-sufficiency,  independence from the rule of God.  When we fail to wait prayerfully for God’s guidance and strength, we are saying with our actions, if not with our words, that we do not need Him.”

DEPENDENCE

According to 2 Corinthians 12:9, the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  The message is clearly, “Be as weak as possible, and I will make known my strength through you.”

We (mankind), were designed to depend.  If you go back to the garden, God’s design was that mankind should live his life forever (remember they were not prohibited from the Tree of Life) in fellowship with God.  He desired not that man rely on his own wisdom or knowledge of good and evil, but that man would make his decisions based on his close fellowship with God.  Several possible explanations for God’s design come to mind:

  • It could be that God knew that a moral standard of good and evil, right and wrong, would not be sufficient for us.  We, apart from fellowship with God, would choose evil over good.  It could be that God, for His sheer delight, desired to impart His wisdom and guidance to us, one by one and day by day.  The picture is one of a loving and involved father teaching and guiding a beloved son or daughter.
  • It could also be that God knew that we cannot keep very many rules or guidelines on our own without encouragement and reminder.
  • It could be He knew that our greatest need is the constant unconditional love of our Father.  It is the fuel for our human souls.  It is what keeps us healthy and able to move forward.
  • It could be that these reasons and purposes are only known to the Almighty.  In any event, a life of unbroken fellowship with the Father was God’s first choice for us.
It was a grasp at self-dependence that severed that fellowship in the garden of Eden more than 6,000 years ago.  You know the story.  Eve was deceived by the serpent.  She fell prey to two of his well-worn strategies:
  1. First, she was not clear on what God had said, so she was easily deceived by the serpent’s misrepresentation of God’s word.
  2. Second, she was lured into believing the lies of the serpent because of her desire to be independent of God (to be like a god herself).

    3. THE BAD NEWS . . . The root of all independence is that same desire in each of us. The consequence of Eve’s grab for independence was separation from God for herself and her family.

    THE GOOD NEWS . . . The cross is the provision for restored fellowship and dependence on God.  God has made a way to restore what was lost in the garden.  Hallelujah!

Read Full Post »

Lessons from the Book of Job (Part 2)

Posted in Bible, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, God, Job, Old Testament, tagged , , , on August 16, 2010|

As I read the book of Job each year, Job reminds me about my God, why He is worthy, oh so worthy to be served.

  • Everything under heaven is His.  He even sets limits for Satan.
  • He controls all of nature – that which is above and that which is below.
  • None came before Him, and He has no end, so it is not possible that any will come after Him.
  • Whatever He wills – that shall be done.  None can resist or successfully oppose Him.  None of His purposes can be thwarted.
  • In His presence, I see the wretch that I am, hopelessly self-focused and self-seeking, lacking in power and sufficiency, totally dependent on my God.

Although He might despise me for my inadequacies, my frailties, my pathetic efforts to be independent, He doesn’t. Instead He extends His loving arms to hold and comfort me.  He washes me in His blood, and I am clean.

Read Full Post »

Lessons from the Book of Job

Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, Devotional, God, Job, Old Testament, tagged , , , , on August 13, 2010|

The benefit of reading through the Bible each year from cover to cover is that every year, you must read the book of Job.  It is 37 chapters of men’s wisdom followed by 5 chapters of God’s.

When I read Job, I learn things about myself:

  • I am like Job’s friends, spending too much time trying to figure why another person faces severe or repeated suffering and trials.  I look for hidden sin in their lives.  I usually fail to consider the universal truth that God’s ways are far past my finding out or understanding.  How can finite man understand infinite God?
  • I am like Job.  I tend to think God is dealing unjustly with me.  I accuse God of being far from me, not remembering me, or forsaking me.  I am prone to think of God as a mere man, like me, capable of error, neglect, thoughtlessness.  I imagine He might need my insight, my vision, or my plans.
  • I am so relieved to hear from God.  After 37 chapters of the ramblings of those not much brighter than me, when I read the words, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,” it makes my heart quicken.  His truth washes over me, verse after verse confronting me with my impotency and my insignificance in stark contrast to His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

Like Job, my only response to the awesome power and knowledge of God is to mumble with my face in dirt, “I am vile . . . I have nothing to say.”

More on Job tomorrow . . .

Read Full Post »

Names of God

Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, God, Names of God, tagged , on August 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

I found a cool site that has some great information about the names of God.  Check out the link below:

Names of God

Read Full Post »

Stop and Smell the Roses

Posted in God, Relationship with God, worship, tagged , , , on July 30, 2010| 2 Comments »

It may seem a little odd for me to wax poetic given my usual steady fare of Bible studies and such, but I have found myself of late just thinking about my God and how sweet He is to me.

My God has delivered me from the battle and set me in a quiet meadow with sweet-smelling flowers (actually it is a 1/2 vegetable/ 1/2 flower garden in Southern California, but stay with me here).

He has led me beside clear waters that allow me to reflect on who I was, who I have become through my recent trials and who He would have me be and how He would shape me into that person (This, of course, means more trials).

He has given me to a godly husband and a child that desires to do well with the LORD.

He has set me in the company of quality women of faith to encourage and sharpen me.

He has given me the desires of my heart as best I have been able to figure them.

He has never left me or forsook me (not that I didn’t give Him plenty of reason), and His mercies are new every morning.  I get to wake up a daughter of the King and go to sleep in the shadow of the wings of the Most High God.

This is living!

Read Full Post »

More Proverbs on the Tongue

Posted in Bible, Books of the Bible, Genesis, God, Old Testament, Proverbs, Tongue, tagged , , , , , , , on July 26, 2010|

As we discussed in the last post, there is much to be learned in the Bible about the tongue, the lips, words, how we speak and related topics.  Last time, we looked at Proverbs 12,  and in Proverbs 15, we find more wisdom on this subject:

  • Gentle words can help diminish another’s anger  – “A soft answer turns away wrath, but  a harsh word stirs up anger.”  verse 1
  • Wise people use their speech to convey knowledge, but fools speak nonsense – “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.”  verse 2   See also verse 7.
  • A those who speak health and benefit bring life, but those who speak perversion sap energy and enthusiasm – “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”  verse 4

The words that we speak and the way that we speak them can bring life or they can cause death and despair.  Shall we speak life or death.  It is a choice.  If we model our speech after our great God, we will speak life.  Consider the following examples:

  • Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  Gen. 1:3
  • Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.  Gen. 1:9
  • Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.  Gen. 1:11
  • Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.   Gen. 1:14-15.
  • Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.  Gen. 1:24
  • Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”  And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. John 11:43-44
  • Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  Matt. 12:13
  • He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”   And he arose and departed to his house.  Matt. 9:6-7

Beloved, may we speak as our master spoke, and bring life to our listeners.   May God teach us the power of the well-disciplined tongue, fully yielded and bringing forth only pure, sweet water and with that water, life!

Read Full Post »

Psalm 84 – A Closer Look (Part 2)

Posted in Devotional, God, Pilgrimage, Psalms, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

Psalm 84, verse 5 says, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.” We looked at the first part of verse 5 of Psalm 84 in the last post.  We examined what it means for a man’s strength to be in God.   The second part of the verse is really the part that drew my attention as I was reading.  I began to think about what it means for one’s heart to be set on pilgrimage.

Usually, my heart is set on permanence.  I want to have a home, “to put down roots” in a community, to be part of something.   At first glance, permanence seems to be the opposite of what the “blessed man” seeks after.  That led me to explore the term “pilgrimage”.

“Pilgrimage” according to the dictionary is “a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion” or “any long journey, especially one undertaken as a quest or for a votive (dedicated in accordance with a vow) purpose, as to pay homage.”

The word “pilgrimage” packs a lot of meaning:

  • It is a type of long journey
  • Destination is a sacred place
  • Purpose is to show religious devotion or to honor a vow (to God)

What does the Psalmist mean when he uses “pilgrimage’ here?

  • What is the long journey?    Is he talking about a life lived walking daily with God, what Enoch, Abraham or Paul had?  Is this a journey that is never complete this side of eternity?
  • What is the sacred place to which the man is traveling or journeying?    Is it Heaven?  Eternal Life with God?
  • What is the devotion or vow which the man is to show by the journey?  Is it simply devotion to God?  Is it the promise to take up the cross of Jesus and follow after Him?

I think this idea of a heart set on pilgrimage requires more consideration and mediation.  I know that it speaks to traveling light and not being at home here in the world.  One who is on a pilgrimage has his primary focus on the object of his devotion.  As I live my life, my pilgrimage, I need to keep my primary focus on God, the object of my devotion, the one to whom I made the vow to be a bond servant.

I invite you to share any additional thoughts you might have regarding what it means to have your heart set on pilgrimage.  The blog is a two-way communication.  Send me a post!

Read Full Post »

Psalm 84 – A Closer Look

Posted in Devotional, God, Psalms, tagged , , on May 30, 2010|

I ran across a verse in Psalm 84 that I don’t remember noticing before.  I love that about the Bible.  I can read it from cover to cover every year, and still God has surprises and “new” things to show me.

In Psalm 84, verse 5, the Psalmist states, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”  I noticed two parts of the description of this blessed man:

  1. His strength is in God
  2. His heart is set on pilgrimage

I thought about what it meant to have one’s strength be in God.  It seems to me the strength here can be compared to the strength of an army:

  • God is his fortress
  • God is his strong tower
  • God is his rear guard
  • God is his shield and buckler (his weapons of defense)

It could also be that strength here has the meaning of the one who “strengthens” the man, who cares for and befriends the man, who makes sure his physical and emotional needs are met:

  • God is his provision
  • God is his guide, the light to his path
  • God is his comfort
  • God is his hope (gives him the will to go on)

It could also be that God is his strength because God makes him stronger:

  • God is the father who chastens his beloved son
  • God is the refining fire that purifies him

With God, strength can mean so many things.  When my strength is in God, I don’t rely on my own reasoning, my own resources or my own abilities.  I cast myself entirely on my God, keeping no area of my life in which I am “strong” apart from God.  May the LORD bless you and may He be your only strength.

I will have to save the discussion of the second part of the verse, “whose heart is set on pilgrimage”  for my next post.

Read Full Post »

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation . . .

Posted in Devotional, Hope, Psalms, the LORD, tagged , , on May 3, 2010|

In Psalm 27, the Psalmist says (and we often sing), the LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?

The LORD is my light

  • He guides me as a beacon from a lighthouse guides a ship in the night away from the rocks.
  • He illuminates my life as candle gives light to a dark room.
  • He shows me things in my life like a searchlight reveals things or people hiding in the darkness
  • He dispels darkness from my life as light, by its very nature, must.

The LORD is my salvation.

  • He is the key to my life and relationship with God.
  • He is the key to me having eternal life.
  • He is the key to me living the abundant life.

Whom shall I fear?  If I have God as my light and my salvation, is there really any other significant area of vulnerability in my life?

I am persuaded as Paul was and as I pray you are, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »