Don't worry, there is a king!

Daniel is one of my favorite books to read. It's rich with the sovereign rule of God on every page as Daniel and his friends live in a foreign land. In chapter 4 Daniel tells the king,

"Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.”

After the test and repentance of the king he says this,

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.

His dominion is an eternal dominion;
    his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
 All the peoples of the earth
    are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
    with the powers of heaven
    and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
    or say to him: “What have you done?”

Do you know there is a sovereign, a king ruling the affairs of earth? Do you know this is not out of control? Do you know he puts in office whoever he wishes?

There is a king ruling, he is the sovereign, will you take your fears to him and rest in his kind love for you? Regardless of who rules our country, any country, there is still only one king,

The Lord of heaven, YAHWEH, Jehovah, the God of the bible. He alone is God, he alone rules.

There is no other!

Early morning

Up at 4am. What a wonderful quiet morning. Reading, praying, and came to this quote, "All I have is 27 cents and all the promises of God." -Hudson Taylor. How often I forget, as I look at my checking account, that my resources come from the God who owns everything. My failure is that I do not pray enough, that I do not trust God for the needs around me. I wonder how much of God's blessing I miss because I don't ask him, don't trust him for what is needed.

Rabid worshippers

This morning I'm reading a portion of Revelation. 

As I read this amazing book of future history I 

realize we all worship someone or something. (Not a 

new insight.) The difference between us is what we 

worship, what we bow down to. 

We are all rabid worshippers. 

What do you bow before? Who do you worship? It 

will frame everything about your life and choices. It 

will determine how you live and how you respond to 

everything around you. Pick your God carefully 

because it really matters!

He sees!

"While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box.  Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.  For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”  

Often, when I'm honest, I will admit that I don't think I do much that matters for God.  And, even the little things I try to do are so small, so trivial, I wonder what difference I make at all.

We all feel that way!  When we look at the world around us and all that is happening we are tempted to ask, "So what difference can I make?  What I could do will change nothing."  

But, as I read this story this morning, once more I watch Jesus highlight the little things...the things we miss.   He tells the disciples, "Hey, did you see that?  That was amazing!"  And they reply, "What? What? We didn't see anything."  Jesus responds, "That woman who put two cents in the offering, did you see that?"  I'm sure they were thinking, are you kidding me?  What difference does that make?

To God it was big, to us it was nothing.  Could it be we miss the big things because they seem small to us?  Could it be that the deeds and actions that change eternity are invisible to a world looking the other way?

God sees the small things, the things done for him....even when no one else sees them he sees!  This morning God is asking the angels around him, "Did you see that?"  And they reply, as we do, "What? What? We didn't see anything."

But He sees.

The upside down world

"For the wisdom of this world 

is foolishness in God's sight."

1 Corinthians 3:19

... "For now we see through a glass darkly"

1 Corinthians 13:12

When you see things upside down how could you not be confused?

Welcome to our world!

This morning I was grieved to read about "pastors" "blessing" an abortion clinic.

How can we call good what God calls evil?

How can we "bless" murder?

How have we gotten this all so wrong?

We have done it by using our own wisdom and not God's wisdom.

We have wandered as we have created our own road maps and rejected the map God gave us, his word.

We have become fools, lost sheep, wandering mists, sad characters in a terrible play with a miserable ending.

Welcome to hell!

Grim words, aren't they?  But honestly, as we have demanded to do things our way, we have lost the only way to life.  Now, the wisdom of man rules the culture and it has proven to be foolish, empty and destructive.

Now the world around us looks a bit like this building in Poland.

Now, what was meant to be straight comes out crooked.

This is what it looks like when men depend on their own wisdom instead of God's wisdom.

This is the culture we get when we say "no" to God and yes to anything we want.

The only solution to turn this world right side up again is Christ.  

Only in him can we find life, only in him can we see things clearly once more. 

This morning I'm praying for our upside down world.

Perspective

He's God!

The author of Hebrews began his book with these words, they are profound and demand our attention,

"In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the 

prophets at many times and in various ways, but in 

these last days he has spoken to us by his 

Son,whom he appointed heir of all things, and 

through whom also he made the universe.  The Son 

is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact 

representation of his being, sustaining all things by 

his powerful word. After he had provided purification 

for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the 

Majesty in heaven." -Hebrews 1

This one, this Jesus Christ is 

Heir

Creator

Revealer

Reflection

Sustainer

Savior

and Sovereign

He is God in flesh.  He owns everything, it's all his! Why? Because he made it all.  And he reveals the nature of God to us. Want to know what God is like? Watch Jesus! And, while doing all of that he holds everything together. He's the only savior, the only sovereign.

He's God!

You can ignore him, dismiss him, deny him or claim he never existed, but you will one day deal with him because the one item I didn't list is this, He's also the judge!

One day we all, you and me and every human who has ever lived, will face this Jesus and he will judge us!

In fact, he's even the one who brings the dead back to life for that judgment!  Here's what Jesus said,

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear my voice  and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned."

Bold claim, isn't it?  While living here Jesus basically said this, "One day, when you are all dead, I won't be and when I call you all humanity will come back to life and then I will judge you."

Do you realize what he's claiming?  He is claiming to be GOD!  You can't ignore that, he won't let you.

One day you will see him.  Will you meet him as your judge or as your savior?

Impact

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. 

What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears for a little while 

and then vanishes." 

-James

As I read the news I'm bombarded by the claims that we are affecting the climate and must do something to fix it.  As if man can actually do anything!  I find myself amused at our self-importance, the idea that we caused this mess and it's our job to clean it up.

I think we see ourselves much bigger than we are.  In the Old Testament God declared that the nations are not enough to weigh in the scales, that the biggest forest are not enough for a good fire, that man in all his pomp is nothing.

Like the morning mist on a cool day which melts with the rise of the sun we too quickly pass and are forgotten.  So why do we worry about the things we cannot change and ignore the things we can change?

Why do we cry "the sky is falling" while we ignore the things we can change?

Why all the fuss about climate change as we let hungry children die?

Why wring our hands about ice melting as we kill each other in the streets?

What is wrong with us?  Have we gone insane?

Yes we have!

When we decided, as a race and culture, we no longer needed God we suddenly took responsibility for things we can't change while neglecting the things we should change.

Without God in the picture we have lost our way, lost our identity, and made much of nothing while making little of things that matter most.

Impact?  What's our impact on all of this?  Like the morning mist...none at all.

As I watch the media proclaim our destruction of the planet I see near me people who need love, food and God.  While they worry about the things they can't change I think I will focus on the things I can change.

At the center of this is a very simple guide-

Love God and love people.

All the rest is God's job.

If we only knew

If you only knew how God feels about you it would change everything about how you live, act and react. It would give you a peace you have never known. You would stand out as one of the happiest, calm, loving, sweet people to ever exist. 

If you only knew how God felt about you it would make you realize how silly you are to worry or complain about anything.

If you only knew....and that's what Paul prays for in Ephesians 3 for the church he wrote to and for us.  Slowly read the prayer in this passage and then let's talk.

Eph. 3:14 "When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen."

God wants you to know how much he loves you!  When you do, even a bit, it will calm you, focus you, clarify your vision, silence your fears and make  you more and more like Christ who understood the love of God like no one ever has.  

It's God's love that transforms me, that makes me trust him, that builds my faith in him.  When I grow in my knowledge of his love my faith grows as well.  A calm comes, a peace invades, a joy rises.  IF the sovereign creator God of the Universe loves me so completely how could I not trust him with everything?  How could I ever doubt him?  How could I ever worry again?

If we only knew it would change everything!

Quote of the day

"Lord, what will you have me do? Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God. Send forth your light, Lord, to guide me;

teach me to use the present time to your service. Forgive the

misuse of what is past, and may I never blindly count on an

uncertain future." -Francois Fenelon

Personal

There is a reason for my last post on "the guide."  I'm searching for paths in my own life.  It strikes me that it's not so much the path, although that's important, but who I am as I walk the path...whatever path I travel.  In other words I have to constantly revisit this issue-  it's not so much which way I go as it is the person I am as I go.  God's will for me, as I understand it better, is not about where I go, but about who I am as I go there...the kind of person I am as I encounter others.  Does my life draw them to God or make them think, "oh, there is another one of those pompous Christians."  My life, as I walk, is more important than where I walk.  Who I am is more important than where I am. As I watch Paul in the book of Acts and his letters I see a man not so concerned with where he is, but who he is while there. Whether in prison or on the road, whether floating in the ocean after a ship wreck or sitting by a fire to warm himself...for Paul it was who he was, not where he was.  More and more I'm looking at this as primary.  Some ask (a friend and I visited about this over coffee this morning) "what's God's will for my life?" I think now my response is simply this-  It's not a path or a plan, but a life lived by the Spirit of God regardless of where I am.  It's Christ in me, the hope of glory.  It's God loving others through me even when they mistreat me. It's trusting him even when I have no idea where we are going.  It's resting in him even when the storms are raging.  God's path is not a "somewhere" but a "someone."  His goal and plan for me is that moment by moment, day by day I become more like Christ.  That's God's plan!  And it's not about where you live or what you do or what car you buy, but it's about Christ....moment by moment, in every situation, you becoming more and more like HIM.  That is the path.  It's never a where. It's always a who. Christ.