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 You can’t control the weather, you aren’t in charge of the economy, you can’t un-wreck the car. But you can map out a strategy. Remember, God is in this crisis. Ask God to give you two or three steps you can take today. Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge. Ask friends to pray. Reach out to a support group. Most importantly, make a plan. You’d prefer a miracle for your crisis? You’d rather see the bread multiplied or the stormy sea turned glassy calm in a finger snap? God may do this. Then again, He may say, “I’m with you. I can use this for good. Now let’s make a plan.” God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility, it just empowers it. So don’t let the crisis paralyze you. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can. You can’t control the weather, you aren’t in charge of the economy, you can’t un-wreck the car. But you can map out a strategy. Remember, God is in this crisis. Ask God to give you two or three steps you can take today. Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge. Ask friends to pray. Reach out to a support group. Most importantly, make a plan. You’d prefer a miracle for your crisis? You’d rather see the bread multiplied or the stormy sea turned glassy calm in a finger snap? God may do this. Then again, He may say, “I’m with you. I can use this for good. Now let’s make a plan.” God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility, it just empowers it. So don’t let the crisis paralyze you. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can.  You could read David’s story in the Bible and wonder what God saw in him. He fell as often as he stood, he stumbled as often as he conquered. Yet, for those who know the sound of a Goliath, David gives us this reminder: Focus on giants — you stumble. Focus on God — your giants tumble. You know a Goliath. You recognize his walk, his talk. David saw Goliath, yet he heard more. David showed up and raised the subject of the living God. He saw the giant, mind you, he just saw God more so. Listen carefully to David’s battle cry: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45). Lift your eyes, giant-slayer! The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you. You could read David’s story in the Bible and wonder what God saw in him. He fell as often as he stood, he stumbled as often as he conquered. Yet, for those who know the sound of a Goliath, David gives us this reminder: Focus on giants — you stumble. Focus on God — your giants tumble. You know a Goliath. You recognize his walk, his talk. David saw Goliath, yet he heard more. David showed up and raised the subject of the living God. He saw the giant, mind you, he just saw God more so. Listen carefully to David’s battle cry: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45). Lift your eyes, giant-slayer! The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you.  God occupies the only seat on the supreme court of heaven. He wears the robe and refuses to share the gavel. Paul wrote in Romans 12:19, “Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. ‘I’ll do the judging,’ says God. ‘I’ll take care of it.’” Vigilantes displace and replace God. “I’m not sure you can handle this one, Lord. You may punish too little or too slowly. I’ll take this into my hands, thank you.” Is this what you want to say? Jesus didn’t. No one had a clearer sense of right and wrong than the perfect Son of God. In 1 Peter 2:23 we’re reminded that “when He suffered, He didn’t make threats but left everything to the one who judges fairly.” Only God assesses accurate judgments. Perfect justice. Vengeance is His job. Leave your enemies in God’s hands.  Nick Vujicic stood atop a table and faced a room full of mesmerized high school students. Some of them wept silently as they listened to this man who was born with no arms or legs proclaim joyfully, “I love life.”1 If there is anyone who would seem to have a good reason to be joyless, it would be Nick. And yet he has chosen to embrace his life and the possibilities it offers as well as the gifts hidden in his suffering. I think people like Nick are so compelling to us because we all want to know the secret of joy like his — joy that doesn’t depend on physical perfection or life following some specific formula for success. We long for this because deep down we know that our journey throughout this life is fragile... inherently without guarantee. People like Nick show us that joy doesn’t need to be tied to circumstances. They hold out the possibility of unshakeable joy that transcends suffering. For many of us, joy is at a very low simmer. Even small disappointments — a canceled lunch date with a friend, an unexpectedly high bill, finding the last piece of pie gone — can rob us of whatever joy we have. What makes people like Nick different? I believe part of the secret to Nick’s kind of resilient joy is to consider life, all of life, as a gift. Every single day. We can choose to be thankful for the gift of life no matter how difficult our path is because we are assured that God is with us in the middle of it and that He continues to bring blessings to our lives, even in our most painful moments. I love this quote by Rowan Williams as he reflected on Jesus’ final night before the cross: “When Jesus gives thanks at that moment before the breaking and spilling, before the wounds and the blood, it is as if He is connecting the darkest places of human experience with God the Giver; as if He is saying that even in these dark places God continues to give, and therefore we must continue to give thanks.”2 Take some time today to reflect on a difficult season in which it wasn’t easy for you to experience joy. What gifts was God still giving you? Perhaps it was the comfort of His presence or a powerful truth He revealed to you during that time. Grab a pen and a journal, and list any gifts that come to mind. Then spend some time thanking and praising God for His faithfulness, rejoicing that He never stops giving to us, even when our way is marked with sorrow. Because God is good, we can worship Him always. Five Minutes in the Word Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. — James 1:17-18 ESV Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. — Psalm 103:1-5 ESV There was nothing attractive about Him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at Him and people turned away. We looked down on Him, thought He was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains He carried — our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. — Isaiah 53:2–5 The Message Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. — 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. — Colossians 3:15  “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature.” Genesis 1:26 MSG Recent racially charged incidents including the tragic death of George Floyd have stirred ensuing riots and torn open the rawest of wounds–racism. Judging a person according to skin color is an ancient sin. For that reason, God gave this ancient solution. In the earliest words of Scripture, God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth” (Genesis 1:26 MSG). Embedded in these words is the most wonderful of promises: God made us to reflect his image. No one is a god except in his or her own delusion. But everyone carries some of the communicable attributes of God. Wisdom. Love. Grace. Kindness. A longing for eternity. We are made in his image. Sin has distorted this image, but it has not destroyed it. Our moral purity has been tainted. Our intellect is polluted by foolish ideas. We have fallen prey to the elixir of self-promotion rather than God-promotion. The image of God is sometimes difficult to discern. But do not think for a moment that God has rescinded his promise or altered his plan. He still creates people in his image to bear his likeness and reflect his glory. Pop psychology is wrong when it tells you to look inside yourself and find your value. The magazines are wrong when they suggest you are only as good as you are thin, muscular, pimple-free, or perfumed. The movies mislead you when they imply that your value increases as your stamina, intelligence, or net worth does. Religious leaders lie when they urge you to grade your significance according to your church attendance, self-discipline, or spirituality. According to the Bible you are good simply because God made you in his image. Period. He cherishes you because you bear a semblance to him. And you will only be satisfied when you engage in your role as an image-bearer of God. Such was the view of King David. “As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). How much sadness would evaporate if every person simply chose to believe this: I was made for God’s glory and am being made into his image. Would you let this truth find its way into your heart? You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. You are not an accident. You aren’t a random fluke of genetics or evolution. You aren’t defined by the number of pounds you weigh, followers you have, car you drive, or clothes you wear. You are made in God’s image. Print that on your resume. You are a diamond, a rose, and a jewel, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the eyes of God you are worth dying for. Would you let this truth define the way you see yourself? Would you let this truth define the way you see other people? Every person you see was created by God to bear his image, and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This means that all people deserve to be seen for who they are: image-bearers of God. Imagine the impact this promise would have upon the society that embraced it. What civility it would engender! What kindness it would foster! Racism will not flourish when people believe their neighbor bears God’s image. The fire of feuds will have no fuel when people believe their adversaries are God’s idea. Will a man abuse a woman? Not if he believes she bears the stamp of God. Will a boss neglect an employee? Not if she believes the employee bears a divine spark. Will society write off the indigent, the mentally ill, the inmate on death row, or the refugee? Not if we believe, truly believe, that every human being is God’s idea. And he has no bad ideas.  1 Samuel 16:7 says, “. . .man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Those words were written for misfits and outcasts. God uses them all. Moses ran from justice, but God used him. Jonah ran from God, but God used him. Rahab ran a brothel, Sarah ran out of hope, Lot ran with the wrong crowd, but God used them all. And David? Human eyes saw a gangly teenager, smelling like sheep. Yet the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is the one” (1 Samuel 16:12). God saw what no one else saw: a God-seeking heart. David took after God’s heart because he stayed after God’s heart. And in the end that’s all God wants or needs. Others measure your waist size or wallet. Not God. He examines hearts. And when he finds one set on Him, He calls it and claims it. |
AuthorMy name is Cal, I'm the chief (and only person at this blog...I am a relatively new Christian and currently attend Union Church in Danville VA visit us online at https://www.unionchurch.co/ Archives
August 2020
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