We’re a pretty fickle people…. and it can get to be pretty irritating. At the drop of a pin, it seems, we readily abandon ideas, opinions, or convictions at the convenience of our own preference. This is problematic as followers of Christ, because it places us in a position that is compromising. At Super Summer this year, we talked about non-negotiable decisions and what those mean in our life. Decisions like eating when we’re hungry, or wearing clothes to school or work are what we call “non-negotiable.” The point of those discussions was coming to the conclusion that our decision to follow Christ, and our decisions to maintain the relationship we have with him should also be non-negotiable.

It’s hypocritical to tell ourselves that we have faith in God, when in reality, we drop the idea of trusting in God at the first sign of trouble or discomfort. Whenever life doesn’t seem to go happily for us, we feel like God has “forgotten us.” Or when a loved one passes away, or we lose our job, we blame God for “abandoning us.” And while all these things are sad, maybe tragic, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that God continues and will always continue to have a genuine love for us.

So I wanted to take a look at Psalm 89 today. Starting in verse 28…

“My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.
I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.
If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules,
if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes
but I will not remove from him my steadfast love
or be false to my faithfulness.
I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.”

Okay so at first we read a lot what appears to be punishment for turning away from God, which exists, however that’s not my main focus today. Here in Psalms it’s talking about the establishment God made with David as king over Israel. And what I find as the “beautiful promise” here is that even when things go “roughly” for us, or perhaps we’ve even turned away from God and pursued something else and considered it greater than HIM, God never removes from us his “steadfast love.”

This should be encouraging to us! We so easily tell ourselves that God no longer loves us, or that God has abandoned us, when the reality is we complained so much about having “free will” that God in His divine love gave it to us. And with our free will we chase after idol after idol after idol and place God on the back-burner, foregoing God’s provision and protection. And the result of our selfishness of free will, and as a result of our turning away from God, we become transgressors, and we reap the just reward for our actions. and YET:

“I will not remove from him my steadfast love.”

We carry ourselves in ways contrary to God’s will and YET:

“while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We deny God like Peter denied Christ, and silence his Spirit at school, work, or in public, and YET:

“God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

God loves you.
If you deny him, he will deny you. That’s scriptural: Matthew 10:33.

Love you guys.
thanks for reading.

I realized today that I need to stop being so occupied with the notion that there are things I desire which I do not have. In the end, everything we do have or don’t have is for Christ anyway! Today I want to take a look at a verse from 1 Peter 1:3-9:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

I love this passage of Scripture! It reminds of Ephesians where Paul talks about learning to be content with many things or with nothing at all. In 1 Peter, the author reassures us that our true inheritance is being held for is heaven – an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading one! This really struck me a little humorous because when you think about, whatever we receive here on earth, we defile. I know that might seem strong language to some, but isn’t it true? We automatically fall into our own sense of entitlement to the point where we feel like our house, our car, our money, and our family is all our own, and even thinking that defiles those things God has granted us as gifts and blessings! So obviously, “according to his great mercy,” God has reserved the greatest gift he could give us in heaven. Our salvation. How exciting!

We read on, though, because Peter also says that right now, maybe for a little while, we are grieved and downtrodden by the trials of life. This is usually where you hear the illustrations about “falling down so we can get back up” and “you have to lose some to gain some” and all… but look what he writes here:

“so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found! [Resulting in] praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ!”

Even gold perishes in enough fire, yet we are not to be discouraged. Faith produces righteousness. Faith that God knows what he’s doing. Even in a time where money’s tight it’s transparent, and life just beats you down more and more, and work isn’t fair, school isn’t easy, and friendships fall apart we shouldn’t be focusing on any of those things as the source of our happiness or righteousness! In 1 Peter it says despite being able to see Christ, we love him. Despite seeing Christ, we believe in him, and in doing so, “obtain the outcome of our faith: salvation.”

Does that blow anybody else’s mind? Wow…

So the things in life that don’t go my way… I should be too preoccupied about. You know why? Because my grievances during these sore excuses for “trials” exist so that my faith may be genuine. To be honest, an open, genuine heart is one of my greatest aspirations.

Love you guys.

-ᵯ

So recently I found myself in a conversation involving church constitutions and policies… a topic that I grew up never really interested in. But nevertheless, there I was….

The interesting thing about it all was the notion that our “church policy” could be simply stated by: “For God’s glory.” Sounds simple enough, right? As funny as that sounds, it really could be a simple as that. For instance, when a situation comes up about budget spending, or property use, or calendar planning, any scrutiny on the topic should really just fall under the precursor: “does this bring glory to God?”

Perhaps it’s too broad… or it seems so at least. See, we love to talk and hear about how stubborn the modern church is and how people hate change and all that… but it seems to take a pretty sharp turn when the focus really does shift towards us. I think we too constantly have justified our position perhaps without even knowing it. We feel like we are pretty open to new concepts, different ideas, or semi-radical philosophies on ministry, but what do we discover with a little inward examination? What are some of the traditions or ideologies in our own lives that we’ve somehow determined aren’t negotiable? And is standing firm in those things just because that’s the way we’ve always done it, is that glorifying God?

I had the extreme honor of serving at Texas Super Summer this year, and the theme was taken from Psalm 47:10,

“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

And during the week, we were really challenged to change the way our minds have always looked at certain things, like this very Bible scripture. We usually read be still and know that I am God and stop reading there. But the “bottom line” as Super Summer’s theme stated it, is not focused on us at all! The point of all of this is that God will be exalted!

I think we get all too focused on the fact that we’ve been commanded to be still, and so we focus way too much on our own actions, and if they coincide with whether or not that’s “being still and knowing” that He is God. While there may not be anything wrong with those things, we’re missing the point altogether! The point is that God will be exalted!

So in consideration of church policies, or planning your youth’s summer calendar, or organizing a worship service, or a family summer picnic at church, the central focus of questions should not be how much money it costs, or how many people will show up. I’m not saying these are irrelevant questions, because they are good questions to be asked. But they shouldn’t be the main focus. However, one thing to consider is whether or not the “investment” as we see it, displays God’s glory or not. That’s the bottom line, right? That should be the focus of our efforts – of our lives.