You are the Lord of my life
The only on I see
You've given me more than I could earn
So I give you my everything
You Are Love, You are Grace
You are Mercy Divine
God almighty, Emmanuel
Jesus, The Lord
Lord I could never know
All the wonders of you
So I'll just kneel here at your feet
And offer my love song to you
You Are Love, You are Grace
You are Mercy Divine
God almighty, Emmanuel
Jesus, The Lord
10.29.2008
10.21.2008
No Words
No words can say what i want to say to you
There's no phrase to describe how I feel
When you bend down from your throne to kiss me
As the tears roll down my face
I feel joy I can't express
I feel passion beyond this world
There's no words to describe
My love affair with you
Oh, I can't resist
The love in your embrace
The lover of my soul
I can't deny this love
Who gave up so much
Just to be with me
There's no phrase to describe how I feel
When you bend down from your throne to kiss me
As the tears roll down my face
I feel joy I can't express
I feel passion beyond this world
There's no words to describe
My love affair with you
Oh, I can't resist
The love in your embrace
The lover of my soul
I can't deny this love
Who gave up so much
Just to be with me
10.13.2008
Slavery
I was continuing in my studying of Romans today and I got to Romans 6:15-23. I have always found these passages challenging to digest. I mean who want to be a "slave", right? I started thinking about slavery and how awful it is. I remembered images from history class and such. Then God told me to go look it up. I discovered that the images in my head and the definition are very different. A "slave" is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another" or another definition says "a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person". If you do some reading you can find several instances from American slavery and world slavery where the slaves said they actually enjoyed being slaves! Enjoy it, what? I started rolling all this about in my head and it occurred to me that the differences between the slaves who enjoyed their position and the slaves that didn't was their masters. If you really think about it we are all enslaved to something. Even the people we know that are seemingly happy are slaves to something. For some it is Christ, for others it's greed or alcohol or just themselves. In the world today we have an "egocentric gospel". We think we can know God and understand salvation without serving Him. But God wants to hold us to a higher standard, He wants more for our lives. WE fear the concept of slavery because we all have those images of abuse, we have a notion of what slavery is but when it come to God it is a much different concept. When God calls us to be His slaves it isn't because He needs our help it is because He know what we need to become and He knows what we need to get there. It's only when we become "wholly subject" to Him that he can get us there. What would happen in your life if you thought about God in everything you do? For me my first thought on many things is "how is this going to affect me?", "Is this something I want to bother with?" What if instead I said "How can I glorify God here?" "Is this what God wants" How much would that please the heart of God. The truth is that we are all human and when we serve our own lives and wants it is all bound to come crashing down around us, because we are imperfect in every way. But when we chose to serve God in all His might and wisdom our live are build on rock and will stand forever. When we surrender not just our hearts but our wills to God he can come in and show us what our lives are for. So often in our society people are searching for purpose. Only when we enslave ourselves to the will of God can we find out true purpose. What an awesome God we serve!
"15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:15-23 NKJV
"15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:15-23 NKJV
10.10.2008
Newness of the Spirit
Romans 7 was my spiritual food today. Is it me or is that chapter a particularly hard read. I had to read it in like three different translations before I could start getting it. I think this chapter is confusing for many because it is so loaded. If you really drink it in it could very well undermine your entire way of thinking about your spiritual life and church in general. I mean...yikes...who wants that? As I started to read it, I actually thought to myself, "Maybe I should go read Psalms instead, there's an easier book" Then I realized wow there must be something good in here if Satan is trying so hard to keep me from reading it. In this chapter Paul is talking about the Law, not the constitution, but the Law/Rules/ Traditions of the religious "right" of that time. I don't know much about Biblical history but I do know that these Laws and Tradition were essential to the way of life back then. People based their lives and careers around religious laws and traditions. In chapter 7, Paul basically says that the Law has no bearing on salvation and furthermore can become an open window for Satan. I began to think about this passage and how it pertains to the current western church. My father, for example, is a very traditional man in his belief system. he believes strongly in the doctrine of the Catholic Church because he was raised in it. He believes that is he follows all the rules and is "basically good" that he will go to heaven. This "living a good life" theory of salvation is shared by many people from all faiths. But my friends it is terribly flawed. Number one, that is nowhere in the Bible. Number two, that thoery is based on the concept that human nature is inherintly good. In Romans 7:24 Calls himself a "wretched man" To truly grasp the concept of salvation and being in a spiritual and real relationship with God we have to recognize and accept our own sinful nature. We have to admit to ourselves that without Christ there is no "Good" in us. I started asking people around me why they believe the things that they believe about God and I was able to break 90% percent of those people into two categories: One group who attends church said, "Because it just is, it what my parents told me. I don't want to go to hell, so I try to be good" and another group who tries to seek God outside the church. They ussually said "I don't believe that there is just one way to God and I don't like all the rules in church or I just can't relate to church". Wow..... how the "church" can undermine itself. This is what I got from the passage I read today. God's not about rules. God's law that he sets forth in the Bible is solid and meant for good, but those things are not the main idea behind God. He gives us commanments and wisdom through the Word to guide us in leading a good life. It when we start to interject or put our own spin on it that we give Satan that open door to come in and perverse the Laws that God created to help us. For example, I think that everybody can agree that we should pray daily as individuals, that's very Biblical. Here's where the perversion happens:
In our human need for structure we will start to ask ourselves "well, how much should I pray? If I forget to pray today do I have to make it up the next day?" So we start looking for the answers and instead of seeking God about it, we hear a pastor or a book or whatever tell us that we should pray for 30 minutes everyday. So we start making ourselves pray for 30 minutes a day. And it goes well for a while. Then we forget one day and we begin to feel guilty and like we've failed somehow, so we try to make it up. Then we continue to force ourselves out of this desire to do what is "right" until it become another chore in our day. One day we get fed up with the chore and we begin to ask our selves why we are even praying or who we are even praying to.
You see friends, we can set these rules without even knowing and most of the time it is out of a desire to do what is right. Paul says in Romans 7:11 "For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death." He saying that even when we try to do good Satan will try to decieve us. Satan knows that if he can convince us that all of our manmade rules are God's rules he can divide us. In closing Let me challege you to think about your life and ask God to show you what rules you follow are from Him and what are from you or the people around you. Begin to think about why you do or believe the things that you do. In romans Paul uses the term "newness of the Spirit" This really jumped at me. God's is steady and unchanging but He continuously uses the Holy Spirit to refresh and transform our minds and ideas about God. God is never old or outdated, only we can become irrelevant by refusing to allow God to set the rules.
Rob Bell has been heavily criticized by the more conservative sects of Christianity for his challenging thoughts of what it means to be spiritual. He challenges both believers and non to examine their belief and not take them without careful examination. Here is what he had to say in response to some of these attacks.
"When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened, Generally lurking below some of the more venomous, vitriolic criticism is somebody who's created a facade that's not working"
- Rob Bell to the Chicago Sun Times
In our human need for structure we will start to ask ourselves "well, how much should I pray? If I forget to pray today do I have to make it up the next day?" So we start looking for the answers and instead of seeking God about it, we hear a pastor or a book or whatever tell us that we should pray for 30 minutes everyday. So we start making ourselves pray for 30 minutes a day. And it goes well for a while. Then we forget one day and we begin to feel guilty and like we've failed somehow, so we try to make it up. Then we continue to force ourselves out of this desire to do what is "right" until it become another chore in our day. One day we get fed up with the chore and we begin to ask our selves why we are even praying or who we are even praying to.
You see friends, we can set these rules without even knowing and most of the time it is out of a desire to do what is right. Paul says in Romans 7:11 "For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death." He saying that even when we try to do good Satan will try to decieve us. Satan knows that if he can convince us that all of our manmade rules are God's rules he can divide us. In closing Let me challege you to think about your life and ask God to show you what rules you follow are from Him and what are from you or the people around you. Begin to think about why you do or believe the things that you do. In romans Paul uses the term "newness of the Spirit" This really jumped at me. God's is steady and unchanging but He continuously uses the Holy Spirit to refresh and transform our minds and ideas about God. God is never old or outdated, only we can become irrelevant by refusing to allow God to set the rules.
Rob Bell has been heavily criticized by the more conservative sects of Christianity for his challenging thoughts of what it means to be spiritual. He challenges both believers and non to examine their belief and not take them without careful examination. Here is what he had to say in response to some of these attacks.
"When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened, Generally lurking below some of the more venomous, vitriolic criticism is somebody who's created a facade that's not working"
- Rob Bell to the Chicago Sun Times
10.09.2008
Romans 5:3-5
"And not only that we also glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character,hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
This verse has been resonating with me for a about a year now. Every time it read it God grabs my heart and says "LISTEN!" this is for you. Life isn't easy for anyone, my life has been no exception to that rule. My life has been one hardship after another. About three years ago I was ground to nothing. I felt that hope was lost and I gave up. My heart was in such pain that I felt certain it would kill me. Then God gave me this verse. My life didn't get any better at that point but my perception of my life changed instantly. The word "tribulation" means grievous trouble; severe trial or suffering. It comes from the word trībulātiō or trībulāt which means to press and squeeze and that is pretty much what it feels like when our lives become unbearable and our hearts become weak. It feels as though the very air we breath is being squeezed from us slowly and painfully. And we're supposed to be happy about it? Glory in it? When God gave me that word my first thought was, "you've got to be kidding me?", "Do you even understand what this feels like?", "I'm suffocating here and you want me to be happy about it?" But the truth is that God does know what it feels like. The pain that he feels when we reject Him, the pain that He endured when He sent his Son to die for us, The agony that Christ felt as he hung up on the cross. God knows pain. He knows more pain than we can bear. As I realized this my heart began to change. What if instead of falling on our faces before God and saying "help me, help me!" We fell on out faces and said "I trust you, I trust you" or "Thank you, Thank you!" When we face hardship that is too big for us God must do big things to save us. God will not let us fall. We just have to sit tight and hold to his promises. In that place of tortured patience we develop a faith and peace that can only come from God. God uses these times as a catalyst to bring us to the next level of out faith in God. It is in that new faith, trust, and knowledge that God can shape out character into His image. It is in this broken place that God reshapes us into the masterpiece he wants us to be. God has to press us and squeeze us just like a sculptor must do to his clay to make his artwork fit together. After all this is over, and it always ends eventually, we have hope. When I look at my life, where I've been and where I am, I have deep abounding Hope and Joy in Christ. We can't understand the mysteries of why God puts us through things but we can know that we will survive and not just survive but actually thrive! Next time your life seems dark, next time you feel stuck or hopeless read this verse and praise God. Every trial, every sorrow is another chance for you to see God at work. It is a time for God to birth something new in your life. We serve an incredible God and he can, does and will continue to do mighty impossible things!
This verse has been resonating with me for a about a year now. Every time it read it God grabs my heart and says "LISTEN!" this is for you. Life isn't easy for anyone, my life has been no exception to that rule. My life has been one hardship after another. About three years ago I was ground to nothing. I felt that hope was lost and I gave up. My heart was in such pain that I felt certain it would kill me. Then God gave me this verse. My life didn't get any better at that point but my perception of my life changed instantly. The word "tribulation" means grievous trouble; severe trial or suffering. It comes from the word trībulātiō or trībulāt which means to press and squeeze and that is pretty much what it feels like when our lives become unbearable and our hearts become weak. It feels as though the very air we breath is being squeezed from us slowly and painfully. And we're supposed to be happy about it? Glory in it? When God gave me that word my first thought was, "you've got to be kidding me?", "Do you even understand what this feels like?", "I'm suffocating here and you want me to be happy about it?" But the truth is that God does know what it feels like. The pain that he feels when we reject Him, the pain that He endured when He sent his Son to die for us, The agony that Christ felt as he hung up on the cross. God knows pain. He knows more pain than we can bear. As I realized this my heart began to change. What if instead of falling on our faces before God and saying "help me, help me!" We fell on out faces and said "I trust you, I trust you" or "Thank you, Thank you!" When we face hardship that is too big for us God must do big things to save us. God will not let us fall. We just have to sit tight and hold to his promises. In that place of tortured patience we develop a faith and peace that can only come from God. God uses these times as a catalyst to bring us to the next level of out faith in God. It is in that new faith, trust, and knowledge that God can shape out character into His image. It is in this broken place that God reshapes us into the masterpiece he wants us to be. God has to press us and squeeze us just like a sculptor must do to his clay to make his artwork fit together. After all this is over, and it always ends eventually, we have hope. When I look at my life, where I've been and where I am, I have deep abounding Hope and Joy in Christ. We can't understand the mysteries of why God puts us through things but we can know that we will survive and not just survive but actually thrive! Next time your life seems dark, next time you feel stuck or hopeless read this verse and praise God. Every trial, every sorrow is another chance for you to see God at work. It is a time for God to birth something new in your life. We serve an incredible God and he can, does and will continue to do mighty impossible things!
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