The Work of God's Storms

Just kind of sitting at the table this morning and listened to the sound of the little storm that passed by. It got kind of dark and the thunder rolled. Then came the rain. Though another storm seems imminent according to the radar, right now its just quiet. Looking out the windows it hit me. Not that I don't already know it because the Bible is clear, there will be storms in our lives.

But what really hit me was how that after the storm passed and the rain quit the land around my house, which is mostly sinkholes filled with various trees and brush, is so much greener. There is a word verdant, verdant is defined as a deep green of the plant world, and that describes my yard. We don't have really nice grass but it's all much greener right now. The world that surrounds me is verdant.

This is how God works. The storms of life aren't easy. Sometimes they are downright scary. The rain gets us wet and that can be cold and uncomfortable. But it is in these storms that God is making us fresh and green. He is growing us to be deep and rich in that which really matters. He is making us spiritually verdant.

As we go through the storms of life we must know that God knows what He is doing. None of this is random and out of control.

It is part of our growth.

What Does a Christian’s Attitude Look Like?

 

As Christians we are supposed to look differently than the rest of the world. No, the Bible isn’t talking about clothing (though some Christians do need to look in the mirror before going out in a lack of clothing that encourages lust).  The Bible is talking about how our minds and attitudes are adorned as the unsaved world far too often sees very little of Christ in us. The Apostle Paul is very clear in the letter to the Philippians about what our attitude should be. In Philippians 2:5 Paul says that, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”

These are strong words and a strong challenge to us. But the truth is God did not save us to just let us remain in our old ways. When one becomes “born again” it means just that; new life. That new life demands change and Jesus knew that our old nature, the flesh as the Bible refers to it, doesn’t die off without a lot of effort. The new life demands radical action. Galatians 5:24 tells us that “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” One of the vilest passions and desires we carry is our selfishness. We think way more of ourselves than we even realize. Going back to chapter two of Philippians we read what Paul instructs us to do in terms of our attitude.

Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Paul says do “NOTHING” out of selfish ambition or conceit. Then the words get even stronger. “In humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Talk about counter-cultural. Our culture is all about “me”. The selfie defines us today. Facebook has done more to promote self than anything in history. Troll through Facebook; most people’s posts and pictures are filled with themselves.

Jesus is the perfect example of humility. Jesus was, is, and will always be God, yet He willingly set aside His glory to be born in a stable. He lived thirty years in mostly obscurity on this earth and then when He did go public He allowed Himself to be humiliated and lived the life of a homeless drifter. Then came the cross; the emblem of suffering and shame that He willingly bore for all of us. Paul paints the picture very well.

Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

We cannot just ignore this scripture. No it must wake us up and it must inspire in us a new passion to live for God. But like Christ, we must face a death. We must take up a cross. We must crucify our flesh. We must change our attitudes toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must change our attitudes towards our families. We must change our attitudes towards our neighbors. We must change our attitudes towards those who call themselves our enemies. All of those people out there must become more important to us than ourselves. Maybe we need to break all our mirrors and disable the selfie functions on our phones. You know you can actually use that phone to call someone and ask they are and maybe offer some encouragement.

The Christian life is not about us. It is about glorifying God. None of this is easy. Even Jesus on the night before He went to the cross struggled with His trip to the cross.

Matthew 26:36-39
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”  And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

So which shall we choose? Our will? Or God’s will?

God’s will for us is that we humble ourselves and consider others as more important than ourselves. He did not leave us alone to battle with our selfish desires. Jesus promised in John 16:7 that He would send us a helper. The Holy Spirit lives inside each Christian and He came and will empower us to live like Jesus.  But we must take that one small step of humility and ask Him to do the work.

Will you? Will you consider others as more important than yourself?

Love Never Fails

Love is a choice not an emotion. When we enter into a relationship, especially a marriage, we don’t often understand this truth. Usually we are infatuated with the other person and we don’t really see them clearly. We don’t pick up on the little things they do that annoy us. Certainly in the early part of the relationship we also put up a façade. We show them our good side and hide any deficiencies that might jeopardize the relationship. Then later on, maybe even years later, the façade has come down and the infatuation is gone. We get weary of each other and even the littlest faults can become glaring ones. This is when the marriage is at a crossroads. This is when divorce becomes an option. If you are not a Christian then I get it. You lack the strength to carry on, but if you claim Christ then the Bible says you have the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God is love. This morning I think we all need a refresher on what God says about love in His Word.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

If you are struggling today in your marriage make this scripture reading your entire focus. Ask the Holy Spirit for patience. To be married you’re going to need it. Ask the Holy Spirit to remove any jealousy you have for your spouse’s happiness. Ask Him to take away your pride…all of it. Humility will defuse most problems. Ask the Spirit to remove your rudeness. It is rude to talk to our loved ones they way we so often do. Ask Him to remove all anger. Your anger will not help the situation; it will only exacerbate it. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to forget the past, even the immediate past. If you hold on to one iota of what already happened you cannot move forward. Ask the Spirit to let you rejoice in the truth and not to revel in evil.

Make a choice to love your spouse. Make a choice to love them always and forever. If you are a Christian then you are required to keep that vow you made. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love always perseveres.

Marriage is hard. Make a choice today to commit to your marriage and to love your spouse. Persevere in love.

Love never fails. We do if we don’t choose love. 

What Can We Do? It's All Falling Apart.

As I was spending my morning time in God's Word I was reminded of a very important point of the truth of scripture. I don't have time this morning to expand on this but I pray all of us Christians remember this truth. We see this in the life of Christ and this morning I was reminded that the Apostle Paul taught this as well.

These men also lived in a wicked and evil time and under the auspices of the Romans Empire. They were facing much of the same issues and fights we face today yet we don't see Jesus nor do we see Paul out there fighting the evil system or even really complaining much about it. Instead we see them completely focused on the Gospel.

Check this out:

Ephesians 1:7-10

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Do you see the plan? God's plan is " to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." We as Christians are supposed to be focused on that.

Have you checked your Facebook and Twitter posts lately? What are you saying around the water cooler at work? What do your children hear at the dinner table? Are these conversations centered on uniting all things in Christ? Or are they filled with criticism and worries about the government, the president, the gays and transgenders, and so on?

Jesus said this in Luke 6:45

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

This applies to social media. Meditate on this today. We could change the world by following Christ and then being a part of uniting the world under Him. Jesus changed the world, Paul changed the world, but not by focusing on the issues of the world, but by focusing on the Gospel.

This, my friends, is the answer to the social evils of our nation and our world, even our marriages and our children. This is not my opinion; this is God's Word.

The Prayer We All Need

The past several weeks have seen days in which many of us have flooded God with tearful prayers. All around my church family things are going on in our lives that are difficult. Nationally another terrible act of violence has occurred. In my personal family we have also had to cry out for God’s intervention. As I woke this morning and spent time in my Bible and my morning devotion, I found myself in Ephesians where Paul is praying for God’s people. Certainly we can and should call on God to answer our physical needs but this morning’s lesson is found within Paul’s prayer. Paul’s prayer is not for specific physical help, but is instead a prayer that focuses on our need for spiritual help. It is a prayer for our hearts and we must all bend our knees as Paul does in this scripture and pray the same things for each other so that we can lay hold of the deeper inner needs of our hearts. This will allow us to bear up under the pain and difficulty of life. Here now is the prayer of Paul.

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

So what can learn from Paul’s prayer? Let’s break it down.

Notice that Paul “bows” his knees before the father. We are not commanded in scripture to pray from any specific posture. In scripture we find many different men praying from various postures. Abraham stood before God when praying for Sodom, as did Solomon when praying for the dedication of the temple. We find that David “sat” before the Lord when praying for his kingdom. Jesus “fell on His face” in the Garden of Eden. There are many postures we can assume but here Paul bows before God as an act of humbling Himself before God. The most important posture of prayer is not physical but is the posture of our hearts. Let us come before Him in humility.

Paul also refers to God as Father. Again Paul is declaring God to be the one who is our father and has the ability to take care of all our needs. Fathers protect and provide and we have the greatest father of all in our God. And Paul prays according to the riches of God’s glory. We have a Father who has riches for us we cannot even fathom, but they are a better type of riches then the world knows of. We can pray in complete faith and confidence.

Notice the four requests in Paul’s petition. He asks for strength, depth, apprehension, and the fullness of God. These are spiritual requests for we need spiritual help.

When Paul prays for strength, notice it is not physical strength he requests; he asks we “be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being.” This power is the same as the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is the power to be born again in Christ and to live as He calls us to. This is how we can do the “greater” things Jesus spoke of in John 14:12.

Then Paul asks for depth. He prays this “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” This is the type of inner depth that allows us to know peace that transcends all understanding and the ability to praise God even when our world seems to be falling apart. This allows us to be rooted and grounded in our faith. When the storms come only trees that have deep roots and only buildings that are grounded on a solid foundation can stand. That is what we must have in the midst of life’s storms.

Paul prays we apprehend and what we must apprehend is this; “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Love covers a multitude of sin. Love can overcome all. And what we must apprehend is that the love of Christ is beyond our ability to apprehend it. It is a wonderful paradox that we understand a love so vast that we cannot even understand it. Paul prays we take hold of the knowledge of such a love.

Finally Paul prays, “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” What is the fullness of God? Again it’s not even possible to express it. I think it can be summed up though by suggesting it is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us for the Holy Spirit is God and when Christ ascended to be at the right hand of the Father He sent us the Holy Spirit to live inside of every Christian. We are the Temple of God and we must pray that we allow the Spirit to empower us and to help us die to ourselves and to live through Him. This, my friends, is how we persevere in the Christian life in spite of the trials and storms we face. It is how we live it out and defeat the schemes of the devil who comes to steal and destroy.

Paul finishes the prayer with a wonderful benediction. It stands on its own and needs no explanation.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Let this prayer be our prayer for each other and ourselves. God bless each who read God’s Holy Word.