Battle for the Throne

There is a battle for the throne.

Men and demons want it.

It's a battle for sovereignty.

It's a battle for control.

It's a battle that began in the garden.

No one can tell me what to do!

I'm the master of my fate,

I'm the captain of my ship.

My life is my own.

I can do as I please!

But do you realize the throne

is not available for purchase

or conquest?

Do you know that the throne 

is already taken?

We are witnessing man's

attempts to siege the gates of heaven,

to take the throne of God!

Man, in our day, is saying to God, 

"We will not bow, we can do as we please!

We can be whatever we wish.

We are accountable to no one!"

But God is not threatened.

He is still Lord of heaven and earth.

He is still the one who rules

EVERYTHING!

He made it all, it's all his...

including YOU!

That makes men angry.

David wrote about it in Psalms 2,

"Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
    against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
 “Let us break their chains
    and throw off their shackles.”

 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
 He rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
 “I have installed my king
    on Zion, my holy mountain.” Ps. 2

He is not threatened, he's not afraid.

His word is still true...

whether you like it or not.

HE made them male and female.

How can we now demand 

to be other than he made us?

HE made us to worship HIM.

How can  we now demand

to worship no one?

HE made it clear to everyone that 

creation is his artistry.

How can we say it just happened?

HE is King of heaven and earth.

You will worship him,

You will bow to him...

maybe not today, but one day...

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that 
Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2

Glorious artist

Sunset in Arkansas last night

What a glorious artist we have!

This God we worship loves the colors

he has created.

He arranges them in wonderful ways

just for us to enjoy,

just for us to say, "wow!"

I'm thankful that God loves color!

Fine tuning

I've been thinking a lot about my walk with God and what I communicate to others.

It's on my mind because I see so many Christians fussing and fuming about so many different things.  As a result they are losing their focus on the main thing.

As of today, as I work through my thoughts in this blog, I'm going to focus on just one thing-  Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Years ago I asked Major Ian Thomas what he was going to be preaching on that morning as he prepared to speak to our church.  He looked at me with a bit of disgust and replied, "I'm going to talk about Jesus, what else is there to talk about?"  

And so, beginning today, I'm going to fine tune my thoughts to just one theme-  Jesus Christ and his life in and through us.  

It's a fine tuning that I need and I hope you will walk with me as we talk about just one thing-  Jesus.

Serving Christ

Serving Christ and following him

makes us look like enemies

of a world that doesn't know Him.

Even Jesus was considered an outcast

to the world he lived in

because he lived a life

of complete obedience to God.

If you are going to serve Christ and follow him

If you are going to be like Him

You will be an outcast to a culture

living as it wishes.

Your walk with God and obedience to Him

draws you to a life of surrender to His will,

His desires, His love, His ways.

And when you walk that way, the path of love,

the path of a servant of Christ,

you will be hated by a world

living out its own desires.

Jesus gave us a wonderful game plan

for how to live in this kind of world.

It's the model I go back to again and again,

but it demands I lay aside my will, my wishes

and surrender to Him.

Here's what it looks like....

but don't read this if you aren't willing

to be convicted and challenged 

to live a different kind of life

in a fallen world.

Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30 Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. 31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! 33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! 34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

Refocusing

 "My old self has been crucified with Christ. 

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 

So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  

-Galatians 2:20

Living in our world today easily distracts us from the basics of faith and life in Christ.  The political race, wars, terrorism, the economy....and so much more easily takes our eyes off of the basics of living as Christ followers in a fallen and broken world.

This verse from Galatians 2 was one of the first verses I learned after coming to faith more than 50 years ago, but it's a verse I have to come back to over and over again.  It's a refocusing verse...a reboot verse, a way to get my life, heart, mind and attitudes once more on the important things.

"It's no longer I who live..."  In other words this life is no longer about me!  I have died and given up all right and title to me, but the world constantly invites me to reclaim my rights, my "needs", my desires.  It's easy to forget I died in Christ and now I am invited and encouraged to live a completely different kind of life...a crucified life, a life without demands or desires.  

It's a liberating life if you have lived it even for a moment.  But it goes against everything our culture advertises.  It's alien to the world we live in and it challenges me to live with open hands wanting nothing, demanding nothing, longing for nothing.

"but Christ lives in me."  I don't even know how to describe that.  Christ, the God man, the King of Kings now lives in ME.  That's amazing!  How could I ever demand my way, my will, my wishes when the king is in residence?  How could I not constantly live asking, "Lord, what do you want?"

"So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God"  Do I?  Do I really live trusting in the Son of God?  I must be honest....I don't do this well.  Apparently I struggle at this point because I haven't dealt with the earlier portions of this verse....but to live trusting the Son is profoundly liberating.  

Do I live in this body trusting the Son?  NO!  But I want to.  I want to want to.  Imagine what this would look like...it wouldn't matter who is president.  You wouldn't worry about the economy.  You would be one of the happiest people on the planet because you are trusting the Son of God.  I wonder how much we miss in life because we are focused on the things the world worries about?

"Who loved me and gave himself for me." This one who wants to live in my, take care of me, provide for my life proved his love by giving himself for me.  How could I do any less than give myself to him?

Refocusing.  We need it so badly in this day.  We need a refocus on the important thing.....Christ in you, the hope of glory.

If you struggle with the winds of culture, the storms of politics, the worries of the waves around you maybe you need a moment to refocus.  

The main focus of life is not

who is in the white house,

how the economy is doing,

how wars will affect us,

but

on this one thing-

Is Christ your King today?

Maybe it's time to refocus.

The hell of Hell

Hell is rarely discussed in our day.  To our secular world it paints the picture of a terrible cruel God punishing men and women for eternity simply because they didn't trust Christ.  

They maintain that sin isn't really that bad to deserve an eternal punishment and so they label God as cruel, mean and horrible.

Today I read a really great article on the topic of hell in Relevant Magazine.  The article is online if you wish to read it.  You can find it here.

As I thought about this article, our culture and my own understanding of God and hell I had a few thoughts.  Now, I have to say at the outset, like the author of the article I noted, I am not smart enough to see what God sees or to know what he knows.  

There is so much we simply don't know about ourselves and our natures that would frighten us if we really understood.   But, rather than addressing the flames and torture many describe let me approach it from another direction.  The picture I want to paint is even worse than flames, fire, torture and the devil....even more horrific than the worst punishment we can conceive.

For the man who wants nothing to do with God, the person who simply doesn't believe in him, there is a simple reality:  in the end God will give them their way.  

This, in my mind, is the worst part of hell.  Imagine with me, if you can, a place where God's presence, nature and influence is not...that's hell.  For those who want nothing to do with God, in the end they get their way, but they won't like it!

For you see, all we value, all we love...all that's desirable in our world is part of the nature and blessing of God.  Here's what I mean-  Love emulates from God. It's part of who he is.  If God's not in your world then this part of his nature, love, is missing too.  Imagine an eternity without love and all it offers.

The bible says God is light.  If God's gone then you find yourself in a place without light.  NO LIGHT AT ALL.  Utter darkness.  Years ago we were in a deep came in the Southwest and they turned off the lights to show us how dark it was.  I couldn't even see my hand right in front of my face!  That's hell without God.

As you look at the nature and gifts of God they include all the things we value and love- peace, joy, happiness, kindness, laughter, friendship and a hundred more.  If God is missing then none of these will be part of that reality.

The absence of God and all he is describes this thing called hell more graphically than flames and fire.  It's a terrifying place, a place without love, light, peace, kindness, peace, joy, ETC!  In that place flames would be a small annoyance!

The hell of Hell is that God is not there.  None of us have ever experienced such a place.  It's terrifying to me that I would be without all that God is, all that is part of his nature.  That's the hell of Hell.  If you are one who wants nothing to do with God realize what that means...it more terrifying than any horror film we have ever imagined.  

But if, in the end, you want nothing to do with God he will give you your way...... 

Amazed!

This morning I'm preparing to teach the first study in the book of Ephesians with a group of men.  I've taught this book many times, but each time I come to the first chapter I'm amazed!  I can't help it. To see what God has done and why he did it overwhelms me.  His love and grace, his plans and provisions are more than I can even imagine.  

How can I comprehend all this?  How can I teach it to others when it overwhelms me?  I stand before these first verses silent as I see that grand and wonderful work of God.

It begins in this way,  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with EVERY blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...."

In just the first passage, the first prayer of praise I have to stop and let those words cascade over me.  Who is this God?  Why did he do this?  How can he love us that much?  Doesn't he know what I'm like?

It's because of the answers to those questions that what he did is so wonderful.  This morning, as I read Ephesians 1, I'm left speechless and thankful for a God who overwhelms us with his great provision for all we need. 

What a wonderful glorious God and Father!

Struggling to trust

I wonder why it's so hard to trust God

He has always been faithful

He has always cared

Even as I write these words he holds my hand

But I struggle to trust Him

I think that's why he brings storms

A storm focuses my attention on two things-

my problem and a solution

When all hope is gone

when I have nowhere else to turn

and finally turn to God

I discover he is there

I think that's why he brings storms

They help me focus on him

When the disciples were in the boat

And Jesus slept in the back

He let them struggle

until all hope was gone

Only then did they come to him 

to ask for help

Only then did they lose all hope

only to find faith

"You are the trust of all the ends of the earth

and of the farthest sea.

You still the roaring of the seas

The roaring of their waves."

But you wait until I finally

in despair

come to you

I'm still struggling to trust

I wish I could tell you

I always trusted God

I don't

I'm still trying to do it myself

but when I fail completely

and all hope is lost

I come to Him and he 

is always there

It's a struggle to 

stop struggling

and trust

But gradually

I find

that as I completely fail

and come to him

He graciously calms my storms

His kindness and love

is always sweet

even when

I struggle to trust

Quote of the day

This quote comes to me today from a homeless friend of mine.  He's a great believer and walking with God.  Here was part of his note to me this morning,

"Every little act counts; all moments build up to that great moment."

-Rhett Vorster

Pleasing to God

I'm not responsible for you.  I don't have to make you think like I do.  I don't even need your approval.  And, most important, I'm not interested in winning an argument on issues of life with you.  You might love me or hate me, it doesn't matter.  You might think I'm too narrow minded or too religious, it doesn't bother me.  You might call me names, I don't mind.

And, I am not responsible to you.  I don't owe you an explanation of my life or views.  I don't owe you anything but to love you well.  

In fact....I have to tell you....I don't really care what you think of me.  You don't even have to like me.  I don't mind.  I can't live for you.  I must not live for you, I have to live for another.

The only one I want to please is the God who made me.  If by chance you agree with that great, but even if you don't like my life of trying to please God it doesn't change my course.  I'm not here to make you happy or make you feel like you won an argument with me because I don't intend to argue with you about anything.

I want to please only one, God.

I want to conform to his views, his nature, his heart.  I want to please God.

The author of Hebrews wrote these words about the life of another,

Hebrews 11:5-
"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God."

The commentary on his life was that he was pleasing to God.  

That's what I want too!

I want to live for him!  I want to please God.  That will mean I may not please you.  You might dislike me for my views and words, but I'm not here to please you, sorry, I'm trying to please God.

And, as our culture moves away from truth and God it will divide me from the culture around me.  Here's what it will look like- gradually I will be more and more politically and culturally incorrect.  As culture redefines "right and wrong" I will gradually be vilified, but I'm not trying to please the culture....I'm trying to please God.

So as you watch me lovingly be politically and culturally incorrect understand my goal....I want to be pleasing to God!