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Tag Archives: the gospel and everyday life

Hope In God

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Hope in God who is trustworthy as the only living and true God. He is our Rock, Refuge and Salvation. Our trust in the strength and kindness of God assures us of the hope of our deliverance, and allows our hearts to find its security, rest and joy in the all-satisfying-ness of God.

As bad as the times may be, as desolate as our lives seem, as insulting as are our enemies are, as hopeless as we appear in the sight of man, there is no true cause for despair. There is only one in whom our souls can trust and find rest. We have a promise of restoration; he is as good as he is powerful; hope therefore in God, our great King and Creator, the source of all joy.

God is Adorable

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When people adore others, they rarely, if ever, speak negatively about them. They only have good things to say about them. The phrase “singing it praises” comes from this idea. To adore something so much that you constantly and incessantly speak well of it is to “sing its praises.”

God is worthy of our praise and adoration. More than anyone else, God is “adorable.” He is more than able to be adored; he is worthy to be adored. That’s what Paul says is most important. Of all the things that we can do in service to God or on behalf of God, the most important thing is to praise God.

Praising God is not merely a mouthing of words; it is much bigger than that. Our words of praise should flow from a heart of adoration. Our praise should be the direct result of a genuine affection for God; affection for God is true worship.

In Isaiah 29:13 God says, “This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.” Empty ritualism is not true worship of God. Praising God with your lips while your heart pursues joy in status or stuff is hypocrisy. That is why Jesus himself used this verse against the Pharisees of his day (Matthew 15:7-9). The Pharisees were experts in putting on a show. They could appear on the outside to be devoted to God, but their hearts were consumed with self. They were preoccupied with getting praise and respect from others. All of their acts of righteousness were done to serve themselves; to make themselves appear great and thus win the praise of men.

The problem with the Pharisees was not that they didn’t praise God enough, or give God enough credit for the good things in their life. The problem with the Pharisees was that everything they did and every word of praise they uttered to God was done out of a heart that worshiped (valued and treasured) themselves more highly than God.

How God is Blessed

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” – Eph 1:3

Three times in this short verse Paul uses some form of the Greek word εὐλογέω (yoo-log-eh’-o). This word is where we get our modern English word “eulogy.” When someone dies, it is usually the responsibility of a close relative or friend to give a eulogy at the funeral. They will say something nice about or speak well of the deceased. In a sense, they are “praising” the person as having lived a “good life” as a “good person.”

When the ancient authors of the New Testament wrote Greek they put the words that they wanted to emphasize or the words that were most important at the beginning of the sentence. While the English translators of the Bible translate the sentence correctly, the English sentences sometimes fail to communicate the importance that the original writers intended to convey. The first word Paul uses in the sentence is “Blessed” (εὐλογητός). He wants his readers to understand what is so significant about their God. Eὐλογητός is actually made up of two words “εὐ” (eu), which means “good”, and λόγος (logos), which means “word.” So this compound Greek word can literally be translated “to speak a good word” or more loosely, “to praise.”

Another word that we get from εὐλογέω is the English word “adorable.” I have often used this term many times to describe my own nieces and nephews. However, the original meaning of this word has changed over time. The word “adorable” comes from two words meaning “able to be adored.” We use the word “adore” a lot in modern English. I’ve heard young teenage girls say something like, “I simply adore him” when referring to their favorite pop star.  This is actually getting closer to the original meaning.  To “adore” something means “to have a strong affection for.” Little children are adorable (able to be adored) because often their innocence stirs our hearts with love and affection for them. Young teens “adore” their favorite pop stars. Their hearts prize and value them very highly and often more than anyone else. For us it is God who is to be adored, treasured, and worshiped above everything and everyone else.

Humilty: A Goal for Our Identity

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I’m not humble. Few of us actually are. But the crazy thing about the gospel is that when God looks at us through Christ, he sees us as perfectly humble. In Philippians 2 Pauls says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Christ is the ultimate model of humility. He was God, yet became a human. We are human, and we strive our hardest to be a god, to be worshiped and adored by others. But Christ, who was God, did not come demanding to be served and worshiped (even though he had every right to). Christ came to serve and give the glory he deserved to his Father. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on thing and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.” If we perceive ourselves to be the lowest, then we can look up and see and serve everyone.

As Christ himself said, “He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Identity Crisis: Stuff (Part 3)

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The clearest example of how this is true (what you treasure and look to for satisfaction and joy will be what overtakes the affections of your heart) can be seen in Mark 10:17-27.

“As he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.”’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’”

Notice something here. The rich young ruler wants to know what he must “do” to inherit eternal life. He comes to Jesus with a question loaded with assumptions. He assumes that eternal life is attained by something he must do. Jesus immediately takes aim at his heart. He exposes the man’s self righteous, self-reliant heart using the law by quoting him the Ten Commandments. But the rich young ruler, blinded by his self-righteousness, defends his moral prowess by proudly declaring that he has perfectly kept the law.

Jesus is not fooled by the young man’s reply, he presses in further by challenging the young man to act on what he has professed to be true. In essence Jesus is saying to the man, “If you have kept all the commandments, you must have kept the first one that says not to have any other gods besides Yahweh. So then, since you do not love all the stuff in your life more than God, go sell it all and come follow the Son of Yahweh.” Of course we all know what happened next. The young man goes away very sad “for he had great possessions.” The truth is, this rich young ruler was putting his faith in himself (status) as being able to “do” something to inherit eternal life, and, as a result, his heart grew to treasure his “stuff.

Jesus summarizes this seen in Matthew 6:24 when he says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The young ruler didn’t just love his stuff more than God, he loved himself and his stuff so much that it made his love for God look like hatred. His treasure was his himself and his wealth; he valued and treasured them as more satisfying than anyone or anything else.

Identity Crisis: Stuff (Part 1)

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Besides status, people also worship stuff. They treasure earthly possessions above all else, sincerely believing that things can bring joy. The writer of Psalm 115 continues in verses 2-9:

“Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.

They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.

They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.

Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.”

Those who do not trust in God trust in idols. The picture of a modern day businessman, athlete, or scientist bowing down before a graven image can seem a little comical. Our world is becoming less and less “religious.” However, what is not so funny is seeing the businessman bow before the idol of wealth, the athlete bow before the idol of fame and glory, and the scientist bow before the idol of knowledge.

There is nothing inherently evil about wealth, popularity and knowledge. Abraham was so wealthy he had his own personal army, Solomon was not only the wisest, but riches and most famous man in the world in his day. However, it is the love and pursuit of these things as treasured possessions with the hope and belief that they will somehow produce satisfaction and joy that is sinful; it’s called idolatry. Treasuring anything other than God with your heart’s highest affection is idolatry.

Continue with part 2 on Monday . . .

The Great Exchange That Needs to Change

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Before the fall of Adam man lived in perfect harmony with God. His whole heart pursued pleasure and was satisfied in God alone. Unfortunately, after the fall, the world was plunged into sin and darkness. Man’s affections were twisted and depraved. Instead of loving and serving God as the Creator of all things, man began to worship the things that had been created. Paul gives us the gory details in  Romans 1:21-25:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Paul says that men know God, but they simply choose to ignore him. Because they choose to live with out him they become foolish and exchange living for God’s glory for living for their own glory. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie. What is this “truth” and “lie” exchange? The key to understanding what truth is exchanged for a lie, is in the subsequent phrase “and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” What would cause men to exchange this truth for a lie? What would cause men to turn from worshiping an eternal God to worshiping temporal things? Sin certainly plays a role, but how? What men exchange is the truth that God is all that man will ever need or want to find soul satisfying pleasure and delight. And what they believe instead is the lie that status and stuff can satisfy just as much, if not more, than God.

This precedent was set for us in Genesis chapter three:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Satan’s line of reasoning was simple. “God is a liar; he is holding out on you. He is not everything you need for your soul to be satisfied. There is something else, something created that can give you real joy.” Satan convinced Eve that God was not enough, and Eve fell for it hook, line and sinker. She exchanged the truth that the paradise, which God had created for her with its rules to protect her and keep her best interest in mind, was no longer enough. God was no longer enough. Instead she gave herself completely to the lie that by eating the forbidden fruit she would become like God; perhaps she could make a paradise that was even better with her own rules of right and wrong and where she could look out for her own interests. She wanted to be the god of her world; that would be just as good if not better than obeying God, right? We’ve been feeling the effects of that kind of thinking ever since.

Worship: The Heart of Our Identity

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When we use the word “worship” in modern evangelical circles it invokes images of Sunday morning congregations singing hymns or praise and worship songs to a piano, organ, or even electric guitars and drums. When you first read the title of this post you may have thought that it was about singing and playing music on Sunday mornings. But when I use the word worship I am speaking of what every person ever created was born to do.

What one thing occupies your thoughts? What drives you to be the person you are? If you were to ask yourself what the single most important thing in your life is, what one single thing your treasure in your heart above everything else, would you say that it is God? It would be tempting to say, “God” as your answer because years of preconditioning in Sunday school has taught you that nine times out of ten that is the right answer. Be honest with yourself. Most of us know that the answer should be “God.” But the truth is that God is not occupying the center of our lives. Moreover, we don’t know how to make him the most important thing in our life. Most of us have been taught the “what” of Christianity, but few of us seem to understand the “how.” Simply knowing that God should be the prized possession of our hearts doesn’t make him so.

Worshiping God is about more than what style of music you have on Sunday mornings. Worshiping God is living daily at setting God as the highest object of your affection and ultimate source of joy through faith in Jesus Christ. It is through knowing and trusting in Christ by faith as the perfect image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) that we experience all that the Father is and has done for us, and thereby engage in true worship.

The Gospel and Everyday Life

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I love what David Powlison has to say about how the gospel relates to everyday life. So I’ve included his words below.

One criterion for evaluating proposals about how we should live as Christians is this family of questions, “Does this work for peasants and factory workers? Would this be plausible for a mother of pre-schoolers or a lonely man who is dying?” Jesus has a way with people facing trouble. The Bible works with people who get sweaty, weary or teary, who worry about money, who find pain and sickness a long hard road. It is for war-weary sufferers. Ministry works to make unassuming warriors with quiet courage and perseverance.

Here’s a companion question: “Does this work for strugglers?” Jesus has a way with people who feel their sins, who are tempted to drink too much, who get too angry too easily and can’t let it go, who are consumed by irrational fears and can’t even imagine an exit strategy. Scripture works with people who find it hard to walk in the light, and too easy to stumble and fall. Ministry works to make unsung heroes who learn to make small, difficult choices.

These problems of daily life are the flashpoint for our life in Christ—the places we need him, the places we seek him, the places we find him, the places where faith walks out into love. We meet Jesus in our troubles and in our struggles, our vulnerability to suffering and tendency to sin.

Jesus meets you in your pressures and preoccupations.

His underlying foundation sounds so unassuming: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus meets you in your obsessions and compulsions.

His overarching goals sound so basic: “Love is patient. Love is kind. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.”

Jesus calms drivenness and lightens burdens. He is making you a person of peace, peaceable, at peace, a maker of peace, abiding in the peace that passes all understanding. He’s good for the long hard road in the right direction. Jesus meets you every day and helps with everyday things.

CyberChimps