Continuing this week with our look at the Sovereignty of God, we talked about the fact that God is all-powerful, or omnipotent. Again, just like the previous weeks, this is a statement that I think most any Christian would have no problems agreeing with. "Yes, of course God is all-powerful." It is easy for us to agree with...but what does that mean? Well...the obvious answer is that He has unlimited power. That is easy to see all through Scripture. Creation, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus, the Red Sea, provisions in the wilderness, Jericho, Samson, Elijah, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions den, Shadrach-Meshach-Abednego, the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus' miracles, Jesus' resurrection, Pentecost...just to name a few demonstrations of God's power. It is easy for us to point at those times where God showed up in a huge way, usually to rescue or deliver someone.
But what about Acts 7, where Stephen is stoned to death for his faith in Jesus...or Acts 12, where James is murdered by Herod for his faith...or the people described in Hebrews 11:36-37 which says "Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated...". Why were these believers not rescued or delivered from their afflictions? Is God not that powerful? Or what about the current situation in Libya and the rest of the Middle East...or the recent disasters in Japan and other places? Are these situations beyond God's power to control, or even prevent? Or could these also be demonstrations of God's power as well?
Another thought provoking question that our world puts forth today for us is that if God is all powerful, why doesn't He just save all people? Why do some people supposedly have to go to hell? It is an interesting question, but one that we must be very careful how we answer as it is very easy to emasculate our God with our answer. I think that a common Christian response looks something like this:
-because, if God is love, (and I think that Scripturally that is true, though maybe not in the context that we want to think of it), then He has to love all people and therefore He has to try and save all people as a demonstration of that love. If some choose not to be saved and accept Him, then that is their free choice.
But if all that is true, then the real power in that statement actually lies in our hands, thus making God no longer omnipotent but simply a cheerleader on the side lines routing, very enthusiastically, for us to call the right play. That does not seem very powerful to me (no disrespect to cheerleaders...you are all quite powerful...but not what I am looking for from an all-powerful God!). At the very least that seems to make God a spectator and we are the all-powerful ones.
As we discussed this idea last night, I shared my desire to be able to give an all encompassing understanding and articulation of God's power as a demonstration of His Sovereignty. But I unfortunately can't do that as I struggle myself to wrap my mind around this Sovereignty thing. The basic idea that I tried to communicate to the students regarding the omnipotence of God (which I must confess, comes from some reading of AW Pink) was that God does whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, where ever He wants to, how ever He wants to! That power may not always be obvious to us, or make logical sense to us, or feel good to us. Is God required to give us an account or a justification for His actions? Not if He is all-powerful (just ask Job). If He was required to give us an understanding of all His actions, that would again make us more powerful than Him.
The bottom line, as I see it...God is all-powerful and does what He wants to, when He wants to, where He wants to, and how He wants to. We can't fully comprehend all of the implications of that statement, but we would do very well to think long and hard about it. We need to also be careful about the way that we try to force God in to boxes that we can explain and/or feel good about as this creates a weak god (lower case g) that our world will have no desire to follow.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
All-Knowing God?
This week at BNX we continued to look at the Sovereignty of God by discussing the idea that God is "all-knowing". This is one of those things that I think most of us have no trouble buying into...at least in our heads and in our words. After all, who would ever say that they don't really believe that God knows everything. But do we really think about what that means, and more importantly do our actions really say that we truly believe it?
I shared from Genesis 12-16 where we see the account of Abram. He was given a promise of great blessing from God in 12:1-2. God tells Abram, a man with no son, that he was going to be the father of a great nation. What an incredible promise from God! And I am sure that Abram was pretty excited about this. Over time, that excitement turns to anxiety as Abram begins to question and doubt this promise as he does not "know" how God plans to make it happen...especially for an old man with no son. In chapter 15:2-3 Abram decides he needs to explain his situation to God...as if He did not really know the whole scenario? But God tries to give him a little reassurance and tells him that he will not only have a son but that his offspring will be so abundant it will be like trying to count the stars. Now that is a pretty serious promise! But as more time passed, and Abram and his wife Sarai got older, they just did not know how God would be able to keep his promise...they forgot that God knew exactly how He was going to do it. In chapter 16 They decided to take matters into their own hands rather than trusting in God's Sovereignty. They decided that they "knew" a better way. Sarai gives Abram her maidservant Hagar, to bear them a child. This one poor decision on their part is still impacting us today. Through his own plan (along with Sarai) Abram did bare a son, Ishmael, who is the father of Islam. They were not able to rest in the sovereignty of God and trust in the fact that God did "know" how He would achieve his promise.
We often have those same struggles. When we do not know how God plans to do something...we tend to doubt or at least question Him. When he tells us that we are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, we want to know step by step what that looks like. Where should we be going, when, with who, what safety protections will we have? We want to "know" all the details. Doesn't that reflect that we don't really trust that God "knows" all those details? Or maybe we want to do what we "know" will help and we just send our money. And this is a great thing...unless God wanted us to GO. I wonder if our lack of faith in the Sovereignty of God could have similar results to Abrams lack...and impact generations of people to come?
I shared from Genesis 12-16 where we see the account of Abram. He was given a promise of great blessing from God in 12:1-2. God tells Abram, a man with no son, that he was going to be the father of a great nation. What an incredible promise from God! And I am sure that Abram was pretty excited about this. Over time, that excitement turns to anxiety as Abram begins to question and doubt this promise as he does not "know" how God plans to make it happen...especially for an old man with no son. In chapter 15:2-3 Abram decides he needs to explain his situation to God...as if He did not really know the whole scenario? But God tries to give him a little reassurance and tells him that he will not only have a son but that his offspring will be so abundant it will be like trying to count the stars. Now that is a pretty serious promise! But as more time passed, and Abram and his wife Sarai got older, they just did not know how God would be able to keep his promise...they forgot that God knew exactly how He was going to do it. In chapter 16 They decided to take matters into their own hands rather than trusting in God's Sovereignty. They decided that they "knew" a better way. Sarai gives Abram her maidservant Hagar, to bear them a child. This one poor decision on their part is still impacting us today. Through his own plan (along with Sarai) Abram did bare a son, Ishmael, who is the father of Islam. They were not able to rest in the sovereignty of God and trust in the fact that God did "know" how He would achieve his promise.
We often have those same struggles. When we do not know how God plans to do something...we tend to doubt or at least question Him. When he tells us that we are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, we want to know step by step what that looks like. Where should we be going, when, with who, what safety protections will we have? We want to "know" all the details. Doesn't that reflect that we don't really trust that God "knows" all those details? Or maybe we want to do what we "know" will help and we just send our money. And this is a great thing...unless God wanted us to GO. I wonder if our lack of faith in the Sovereignty of God could have similar results to Abrams lack...and impact generations of people to come?
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Soveriegnty of God
Last Wednesday we started a new series on "The Sovereignty of God". This is a topic that I have been wanting to teach on for well over a year now. To be perfectly honest though....I have been struggling with just how to teach on this topic. I feel like this is a term that we use all the time in our Christian circles, and maybe we even think we understand what it means, but if we look at the way that we live our lives...most of us demonstrate in our actions a severe lack of understanding about the "Sovereignty of God". But then again, I also believe that this is a term that we will never be able to fully understand...at least not the scope and implications of such a term. So as I was preparing to teach on this topic I thought that I had figured out a good way to teach on it that would challenge the students to assess their own lives as a reflection of the Sovereignty of God.
And then the "Sovereignty of God" happened. March 11th saw one of the largest recorded earthquakes in history hit Japan. We have, of course, seen all the images of the devastation that resulted and continues to mount. As I was sitting last week, watching the news footage of this disaster, and each day hearing of the rising death tolls, I received an email from a close friend of mine and Tracy's who is a missionary from New Zealand. She was actually in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22nd when an earthquake rocked the city, causing significant damage and taking at least 166 lives. Her story of serving in that city over the next days and weeks was...heart wrenching. As I was reading her email it hit me...this is the Sovereignty of God. As I watched the footage on TV from Japan, and thought of this account from New Zealand, all I could think of is how these people must have thought that their world had gone completely out of control. Many of us are thinking that also as we see what seems to be a barrage of disasters happening around the world. Over 300,000 people killed in the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean...over 200,000 people killed last year in the earthquake in Haiti...20 million people losing homes and businesses in the floods in Pakistan last summer...chaos erupting throughout the Middle East...school shootings on the rise...terrorism all over the place...and now Japan and Christchurch. Has our whole world gone completely out of control? It certainly seems that way sometimes! And our fears often cause us to buy into that way of thinking.
But "God is Sovereign. He is in control." We say that all the time don't we? But do we mean it? I think we probably do mean it...at least to the extent to which we have thought about it. We believe that He is in control of the weather and the seasons in some way that we don't really have to fully understand or appreciate. We believe that He is in control of the spiritual world as it applies to angels and demons and the stuff we really can't see. And we probably believe that He is in control of all the blessings in life like when a child is born healthy, and when we get a raise, and when we arrive at our vacation spot safely. But do we believe that He is in control in Japan right now? Do we believe that this was not a surprise for Him and that He may have actually orchestrated these events or at the very least allowed them to happen? We have a hard time claiming and believing that don't we? We tend to think that this would paint God in a bad light and make Him look cruel and unjust. But if He is truly Sovereign...doesn't that mean He controls EVERYTHING? Good, bad, happy, sad, logical, illogical. He is in control of ALL things. Not just the good things. Not just the happy things. And certainly not just the things that make sense to us. We talked about Ephesians 1:11 that says that God works all things according to the counsel of His own Will. Basically...He does as he sees fit based on who He is. We are not a part of that equation at all. What we think is irrelevant (thank goodness for that).
We also talked about Job. He was a righteous man of great wealth and prosperity. God was proud of Job, but God not only allowed but orchestrated events in Job's life that look pretty to horrific to the human eye. He lost all of his material possessions. He lost all 10 of his children in a tragic accident. He lost his health. He even lost his wife who abandoned him emotionally at the very least. Job struggled with all of this. It made no sense. It seemed unjust. He began to question God and even accuse God. And God reminds Job of who He is. Job 42:5 reveals to us what I believe is the purpose behind all of what happened to Job. Job says "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you". Job knew of God. He had heard the stories. He even lived a good life seeking to follow this God. But through this whole process of heartache and tragedy, Job actually saw God. He was brought into a more intimate relationship with God. This is ultimately what God wants with all of us. No matter where we are right now. No matter how good we may be. God wants to know us more intimately. And ultimately, God may use some tragedy to bring us to that point.
God is truly in control of all things. No matter how out of control our lives may seem at times. No matter what tragedies occur...Hi is still in complete control. will we always understand...NO. Will it always make sense to us...NO. Do we have to always be happy about things....NO. But can't we take some level of comfort knowing that the things that don't make sense and disturb us, make total sense to Him and are all a part of His greater purpose? The pain is real and our heart still breaks for the people of Japan and other tragedies...but knowing and believing that He is ALWAYS in control of ALL things should give us hope to rest in.
And then the "Sovereignty of God" happened. March 11th saw one of the largest recorded earthquakes in history hit Japan. We have, of course, seen all the images of the devastation that resulted and continues to mount. As I was sitting last week, watching the news footage of this disaster, and each day hearing of the rising death tolls, I received an email from a close friend of mine and Tracy's who is a missionary from New Zealand. She was actually in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22nd when an earthquake rocked the city, causing significant damage and taking at least 166 lives. Her story of serving in that city over the next days and weeks was...heart wrenching. As I was reading her email it hit me...this is the Sovereignty of God. As I watched the footage on TV from Japan, and thought of this account from New Zealand, all I could think of is how these people must have thought that their world had gone completely out of control. Many of us are thinking that also as we see what seems to be a barrage of disasters happening around the world. Over 300,000 people killed in the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean...over 200,000 people killed last year in the earthquake in Haiti...20 million people losing homes and businesses in the floods in Pakistan last summer...chaos erupting throughout the Middle East...school shootings on the rise...terrorism all over the place...and now Japan and Christchurch. Has our whole world gone completely out of control? It certainly seems that way sometimes! And our fears often cause us to buy into that way of thinking.
But "God is Sovereign. He is in control." We say that all the time don't we? But do we mean it? I think we probably do mean it...at least to the extent to which we have thought about it. We believe that He is in control of the weather and the seasons in some way that we don't really have to fully understand or appreciate. We believe that He is in control of the spiritual world as it applies to angels and demons and the stuff we really can't see. And we probably believe that He is in control of all the blessings in life like when a child is born healthy, and when we get a raise, and when we arrive at our vacation spot safely. But do we believe that He is in control in Japan right now? Do we believe that this was not a surprise for Him and that He may have actually orchestrated these events or at the very least allowed them to happen? We have a hard time claiming and believing that don't we? We tend to think that this would paint God in a bad light and make Him look cruel and unjust. But if He is truly Sovereign...doesn't that mean He controls EVERYTHING? Good, bad, happy, sad, logical, illogical. He is in control of ALL things. Not just the good things. Not just the happy things. And certainly not just the things that make sense to us. We talked about Ephesians 1:11 that says that God works all things according to the counsel of His own Will. Basically...He does as he sees fit based on who He is. We are not a part of that equation at all. What we think is irrelevant (thank goodness for that).
We also talked about Job. He was a righteous man of great wealth and prosperity. God was proud of Job, but God not only allowed but orchestrated events in Job's life that look pretty to horrific to the human eye. He lost all of his material possessions. He lost all 10 of his children in a tragic accident. He lost his health. He even lost his wife who abandoned him emotionally at the very least. Job struggled with all of this. It made no sense. It seemed unjust. He began to question God and even accuse God. And God reminds Job of who He is. Job 42:5 reveals to us what I believe is the purpose behind all of what happened to Job. Job says "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you". Job knew of God. He had heard the stories. He even lived a good life seeking to follow this God. But through this whole process of heartache and tragedy, Job actually saw God. He was brought into a more intimate relationship with God. This is ultimately what God wants with all of us. No matter where we are right now. No matter how good we may be. God wants to know us more intimately. And ultimately, God may use some tragedy to bring us to that point.
God is truly in control of all things. No matter how out of control our lives may seem at times. No matter what tragedies occur...Hi is still in complete control. will we always understand...NO. Will it always make sense to us...NO. Do we have to always be happy about things....NO. But can't we take some level of comfort knowing that the things that don't make sense and disturb us, make total sense to Him and are all a part of His greater purpose? The pain is real and our heart still breaks for the people of Japan and other tragedies...but knowing and believing that He is ALWAYS in control of ALL things should give us hope to rest in.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Smoke
Just wanted to give everyone a quick update from this past weekends DNOW. We had a great weekend! Our theme was "SMOKE". The idea was that in scripture, where you find smoke, you find fire and where there is fire there is God. And the speakers talked about 'The Power of God', 'The Presence of God', 'The Provision of God', and 'The Priority of God'. The messages were powerful and I am confident that each student experienced some level of encouragement and conviction throughout the weekend. I know I certainly did. I encourage you parents to ask them about those sessions and what they learned and what the experienced from God.
I also wanted to let you all know about some ministry opportunities that the students were involved in. As a planning team we wanted to use this gathering of 25 churches and over 1500 students in our county to do more than just receive something from God. We wanted to leverage those numbers for ministry to our community and to the world, and we chose to do that by partnering with two organizations that are ministering in our world today. One partner was the Real Life Center in Tyrone. We collected hundreds of canned goods to be distributed by The Real Life Center to families in need in Fayette County. The other organization that we partnered with was charity:water which is an organization that is building wells in parts of the world where people have no access to clean drinking water. The students had the opportunity to learn that more than 1 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. One of the cool things about this organization is that 100% of the money that is given to them goes towards building wells. Not one cent is set aside for administrative needs or other purposes. The students at DNOW gave $5796 to go to charity water thus far. It takes $5000 to build one well that will supply water for 400 people for the next 20 years. You all can still give towards this event and cause by going to charitywater.org/dnow. You can also go here to get updates and see where the money is being used.
I of course have to thank the many people who were involved in making this weekend possible for our students. Thanks to our host homes...Rick and Valerie Ellis, Sonya Moste, and Tracy Davidson. Thank you to those who provided meals...Connie Huddleston, Joyce Kendrick, Elizabeth Highsmith, Melissa Nelms, Audrey Warr, Michelle Goergen and probably some others that I have forgotten (I am very sorry). And a special thanks to those who helped to lead small groups... Brittany Rampy, Matt Herget, Lindy Woodruff, and Kelli Bailey. These guys all did a great job with our students!
I also wanted to let you all know about some ministry opportunities that the students were involved in. As a planning team we wanted to use this gathering of 25 churches and over 1500 students in our county to do more than just receive something from God. We wanted to leverage those numbers for ministry to our community and to the world, and we chose to do that by partnering with two organizations that are ministering in our world today. One partner was the Real Life Center in Tyrone. We collected hundreds of canned goods to be distributed by The Real Life Center to families in need in Fayette County. The other organization that we partnered with was charity:water which is an organization that is building wells in parts of the world where people have no access to clean drinking water. The students had the opportunity to learn that more than 1 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. One of the cool things about this organization is that 100% of the money that is given to them goes towards building wells. Not one cent is set aside for administrative needs or other purposes. The students at DNOW gave $5796 to go to charity water thus far. It takes $5000 to build one well that will supply water for 400 people for the next 20 years. You all can still give towards this event and cause by going to charitywater.org/dnow. You can also go here to get updates and see where the money is being used.
I of course have to thank the many people who were involved in making this weekend possible for our students. Thanks to our host homes...Rick and Valerie Ellis, Sonya Moste, and Tracy Davidson. Thank you to those who provided meals...Connie Huddleston, Joyce Kendrick, Elizabeth Highsmith, Melissa Nelms, Audrey Warr, Michelle Goergen and probably some others that I have forgotten (I am very sorry). And a special thanks to those who helped to lead small groups... Brittany Rampy, Matt Herget, Lindy Woodruff, and Kelli Bailey. These guys all did a great job with our students!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Good Resource
Hey Parents....
This morning I was looking through a site that I occasionally go to to see some info and thoughts about a variety of "pop culture" issues. As I was reading through this article and researching some of the info myself I had a couple of thoughts.
Thought #1 -How many of you are out there trying to find out the truth and reality of what your kids are daily being bombarded with? If you are...awesome...what resources are you using? Please comment and share those resources. The rest of us could probably use them. If you are not trying to learn about this stuff...why?
Thought #2 -I realized just how "uncool" I have become. Do you remember the days when you did not have to "research" pop-culture? You just knew it...and you actually were a part of pop culture. Those days are long gone for us...but that does not excuse us from trying to understand it. Once we have become so uncool that we no longer get pop-culture we tend to either try to ignore it or we paint it as 100% bad and a detriment to society. But isn't that the very same thing that we despised about adults when we were that age? I for one would rather be "uncool" and try to research this stuff some in order to better understand the world that these guys live in. That does not mean we condone or accept it all...but we at least try to understand it.
Thought #3- I thought that maybe this site that I was reading might be useful to some of you... as always, I do not endorse or agree with everything that these guys say...but I have found it useful and thought provoking and maybe you will also.
http://interlincresources.wordpress.com/
This morning I was looking through a site that I occasionally go to to see some info and thoughts about a variety of "pop culture" issues. As I was reading through this article and researching some of the info myself I had a couple of thoughts.
Thought #1 -How many of you are out there trying to find out the truth and reality of what your kids are daily being bombarded with? If you are...awesome...what resources are you using? Please comment and share those resources. The rest of us could probably use them. If you are not trying to learn about this stuff...why?
Thought #2 -I realized just how "uncool" I have become. Do you remember the days when you did not have to "research" pop-culture? You just knew it...and you actually were a part of pop culture. Those days are long gone for us...but that does not excuse us from trying to understand it. Once we have become so uncool that we no longer get pop-culture we tend to either try to ignore it or we paint it as 100% bad and a detriment to society. But isn't that the very same thing that we despised about adults when we were that age? I for one would rather be "uncool" and try to research this stuff some in order to better understand the world that these guys live in. That does not mean we condone or accept it all...but we at least try to understand it.
Thought #3- I thought that maybe this site that I was reading might be useful to some of you... as always, I do not endorse or agree with everything that these guys say...but I have found it useful and thought provoking and maybe you will also.
http://interlincresources.wordpress.com/
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