Even the Waves Obey Him

On August 31, 2011August 31, 2011 By BrianIn God & His Glory

Last night I read with my children how Jesus and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee by boat (see Mark 4:35-41). Jesus was sleeping as a gigantic storm came up. The wind began to blow. The waves began to rise. The boat began to fill. The disciples began to panic. And Jesus was still sleeping. The terrified fisherman woke Jesus. Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves, “Peace! Be still!” The wind became still. The sea became still. And the fisherman were still terrified – but now for a different reason. “Who is this who commands the wind and waves?”

I recently wrote about how Lake Superior gives me a glimpse of God’s power. As I see the powerful waves, I am reminded of God’s greater power. And yet this story from Jesus’ life reminds me that the powerful waves of Lake Superior are no match for God’s power. The waves of Lake Superior at their greatest are nothing compared to God. With just a word, Jesus could instantly calm the waves of Lake Superior. With just a word, God could calm the wind and waves and water of the hurricane that just soaked the east coast. Peace! Be still! This is real power. No wonder the disciples were afraid. No wonder we are told to fear God. We would be fools not to fear.

Amazingly, this great power comes along side of us. When we are weak and hurting, God’s great power that calms the wind and waves rests upon us, calming our hearts and giving us strength to endure (II Corinthians 12:9-10). And that great power that terrified the disciples long ago is now transforming his disciples today, powerfully changing our hearts (Ephesians 1:19). With such great power at work in our lives, anything is possible.

Glimpses of God’s Power

On August 29, 2011 By BrianIn God & His Glory

Every summer my family goes camping along Lake Superior. I love this lake. It reminds me of God.

It reminds me of God’s power. There are days when the waves come crashing in ready to knock you over if you choose to wade out into them. I see the power of the waves, and I think of God’s power. I think of his power which made those waves, the lake, the earth, the entire universe. I think of his power of which these waves give only a small glimpse.

I need that glimpse of God’s power. In my weakness, I need to see his strength. In my weariness, I need to see his great power that can renew my strength.

As I see people hurting from great tragedies, I need to see God’s power which is sufficient in our weakness and is greater than anything that can come against us.

As I see people wounded from their past, I need to see God’s power that can bring healing.

As I see people on the brink of despair, I need to see God’s power that can bring hope.

As I see people in turmoil, I need to see God’s power that can bring peace.

As I see people wrestling with depression, I need to see God’s power that can bring joy.

As I see people caught in the strong bonds of sin, I need to see God’s greater power which can break those bonds and bring freedom.

As I see people morning the loss of a brother or sister in Christ, I need see God’s power that will one day raise the dead.

I need to see God’s power. And I get a glimpse in the waves.

Saved to Give Thanks To God

On August 4, 2011March 30, 2019 By BrianIn Church Life, God & His Glory

…so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
– II Corinthians 4:15b

Why does God save us? This verse tells us at least one reason. He saves us so that we might give thanks to God. He saves us for his glory. As more people are saved, more thanksgiving is offered up to God – and he is glorified. Here is a radical God-centered view of salvation.

A few questions follow:

Are we giving thanks to God? Are we reminding ourselves and each other of our great salvation so that, continually amazed by his love, we can’t stop praising God?

Are we sharing the good news so more people can be saved and give thanks to God?

And tying those questions together, are we preaching the gospel in our churches? The gospel needs to be preached because lost people need to be saved, and because saved people need to be continually reminded of what God has done for them so that they will give thanks to God.

If you are his child, his grace has extended to you. You don’t deserve it. You are not worth it. But he loves you. He chose you. He died for you. He forgave you. He changed you. He saved you. So let us join the the Psalmist and:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
– Psalm 100:4-5

Where Is My Worth Found?

On August 2, 2011March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Identity

In my last post I asked whether we are really worth dying for. I concluded that Jesus died for us not because of our own worth, but because of his love. To go further: Christ didn’t die because of my worth; my worth is found in Christ’s death. My worth is found not in myself but in Christ.

Jeremy Pierre addresses this issue of worth in his post on insecurity. Insecurity is the failure to grasp our worth, but the critical issue is where do we find our worth. He compares our culture’s view of insecurity with God’s view:

Our cultural instructors disapprove of our insecurity because it is an offense to individual worthiness. God disapproves of our insecurity because it is an offense to his Son’s worthiness.

And it is His Son’s worth that gives us worth. Pierre goes on to point out four reasons that insecurity is sinful:

Insecurity keeps us from loving God and others because we are too distracted with self.
Insecurity indicates a dissatisfaction with God.
Insecurity reveals a desire for justification from people rather than God.
Insecurity shows that we are still seeking justification from works.

So we need to flee insecurity, but not by clinging to some sense of our own self-worth. Rather we need to “abandon finding our worth in anything other than Christ and his redemptive work on our behalf.”

You can read Pierre’s entire post here.

Someone Worth Dying For?

On August 1, 2011March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Identity1 Comment

I heard a song on Christian radio recently called “Someone Worth Dying For.” It had some good lyrics, and even a good purpose of encouraging those who are discouraged. My purpose here is not to critique the song but rather just this idea that each of us is somebody worth dying for. Are we? Really?

Starting at creation, we find that God makes us in his image. As image-bearers we are higher than the rest of his creation. It is wrong to kill or hurt another human being. As people in God’s image, we have great worth.

Then we sinned. God’s image in us was warped. We are still valuable as God’s image-bearers, but we are also sinners, depraved, and under God’s judgment. We deserve to die.

Which brings us to the cross. Listen to Paul’s thoughts on this:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8

Does Jesus die for us because we are worth dying for? No. According to Paul we are weak, ungodly, sinners. We don’t deserve to have someone die for us; rather we deserve to die for our sins. So why does Jesus die for us? Because God loves us. We aren’t worth it, but he loves us anyway.

Think of it this way. If we are worth dying for, then God kind of owes it to us to die for us. We are worth it after all! But if God dies for us even though we are not worth it, even though we are weak, ungodly sinners, then this is real love. And this is Paul’s point. Jesus died for us because he loves us, not because we are worth it.

But let’s go further. Consider Psalm 103. In this psalm, David celebrates God’s love, and it is found in two ways, both of which are related not to our worth but to our unworthiness.

First, we see God’s love in his forgiveness of our sins (v6-13). He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. We deserve his judgment, but we get forgiveness. This is the same thread of thought we saw in Romans 5.

Second, we see God’s love in his care for us though we are like dust (v14-19). Compared to God we are nothing. Are we worth God dying for? Even apart from our sin, we are not worth as much as God. To suggest that we are worth God dying for is to suggest that we have greater worth than God. It is essentially to make an idol of ourselves. And it is to miss the point that God loves not because we are worth it, but despite the fact that we are not worth it, that we are but dust compared to him.

To sum up, we are valuable as God’s image-bearers. But we are not worth dying for. Jesus died for us despite our sins and despite our frailty. He died because he chooses to love us. We can magnify ourselves by thinking Jesus died for us because we are worth dying for. Or we can magnify God’s love as we recognize that Jesus died despite the fact that we are not worth dying for.

Amazing love! How can it be? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me! – Charles Wesley

How To Prepare for Worship

On July 29, 2011 By BrianIn Church Life

Sunday is coming. The day when you gather together with other believers to worship God. Have you ever considered the importance of preparing? What would it look like to prepare for worship? A couple of suggestions:

First, get a good night’s sleep. If you stay up until all hours of the night, it is no wonder you are groggy during the service and struggling to stay awake during the sermon. God deserves our best. Get enough sleep so you will be alert and able to give your all.

Second, deal with your sins. Examine your life. Are there sins you need to confess to the Lord? Sin hurts our fellowship with God; deal with them so you can worship God without hindrance.

Third, preview the passage you will be studying together. If your pastor is working through a book of the Bible, this should be relatively easy. If not, ask your pastor if he can put the next Sunday’s passage in the bulletin. Reading and pondering the passage ahead of time will prepare you to hear the message. (It is also a great help for your children, but that is another post.)

Fourth, pray. Pray that God would speak to you. Ask God to help you praise him as you should. Ask him to help you encourage others. Pray for the pastor, teachers, ushers, musicians, nursery workers, etc. If possible, meet with some others before the service to pray together for God to work among you.

Fifth, come with expectation. Come eager to hear the Word. Come excited to sing praises to God. Come cheerfully to give your gifts to the Lord. Come ready to build up others and serve. Come with expectation of what God might do in you and through you.

Remember that these are suggestions, not laws. I don’t do all of them every week. Sometimes some of them just aren’t possible. But they can help us come ready to worship. Imagine if we all came ready to worship God together! Let it begin with you.

How will you prepare for worship this weekend?

Do Christians Have To Be Part Of A Church?

On July 9, 2011July 9, 2011 By BrianIn Church Life

This brief video is a great reminder for Christians who are part of a local church and an appropriate challenge for those who are not.

Do Christians have to join a church? from Crossway on Vimeo.

God Loves You

On July 7, 2011March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Book of Luke

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ – Luke 15:4-6

You were that lost sheep. You had lost your way, were wandering without hope, living in sin, easy prey for the devil.

But God loves you, and he looked for you. He didn’t leave you lost, he came looking for you. Maybe it was through a friend or your parents, maybe through VBS, Camp, Sunday School, a sermon, a tract, or some other way. However he did it, God didn’t leave you lost. He came looking for you.

And when he found you, he carried you home. You were too weak to go home, too sinful to go home. It was not by your own effort or works that you came home. It was not your own goodness that led you home. On your own you wouldn’t have made it. You would still be lost, wandering, hopeless. But he carried you home. It was the work of Christ that brought you home. It was the goodness of Jesus that brought you home. It was the power of the Spirit that brought you home. God carried you home.

And then, he rejoiced over you. When you got saved, there was a celebration in heaven, a party in paradise. God was excited, thrilled, rejoicing over you. Have you ever lost something? Maybe your keys, the remote, or something else. You looked for it and when you found it, you rejoiced. In a greater way, God rejoiced over you. You were lost, but now you are found, and God threw a party.

Why would God come looking for people like us? Why would he care to carry us home? Why would he rejoice over the likes of us? Because somehow, someway, in his incredible mercy and grace, God loves us. He loves you. There is a love we can rest in.

Prayer – A Matter of Love

On July 1, 2011April 15, 2017 By BrianIn All About Love, Habit of Prayer

We have been considering the importance of prayer the last few weeks. As we conclude, I want to briefly think about how prayer relates to love. Or put another way, how does prayer relate to this blog’s theme of three passions?

Christ’s Passion For Us

It is because of Christ’s love that took him to the cross that we can pray at all. We were separated from God because of our sin. But now through Christ’s death we are reconciled to God. Through the cross we can come boldly before the throne of grace. And it is not just Christ’s love that makes prayer possible. The Holy Spirit must apply the work of Christ to our lives, making us God’s children who call out to God as Father. This application too is an act of love. And then the Father loves us enough to hear our prayers. He actually cares about what we say. It is the love of the Triune God that makes prayer possible.

Passion for God

If we love someone, we will communicate with them. In the same way, if we love God, we will pray. We will want to spend time with him. We will want to bring him our praises as well as our cares. Our love for God can in many ways be measured by our prayer life.

Compassion for People

If we love people, we will pray for them. The biggest need people have is God. God is the solution to every problem. If that is so, then bringing people before God in prayer is one of the most loving things we can do for them. If we love people, we will want to pray with them too. What can be greater than getting together with friends that we love to commune with the God that we love?

Three Passions

Which brings me to my final thought: Praying together ties all three strands of the three passions together. We lovingly come together to lovingly approach a loving Father through the work of a loving Son and the application of the loving Spirit. Me, you, and God communing in love. What an incredible opportunity!

Prayer is a matter of love. How is your prayer life? How is your love?

Prayer and the Holy Spirit

On June 23, 2011April 20, 2019 By BrianIn Habit of Prayer2 Comments

We have been considering the place of prayer in our lives. Today I want to sketch how the Holy Spirit is directly related to prayer in at least four ways.

Prayer through the Spirit

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” – Romans 8:15

Before we were God’s children, we were alienated from God and unable to approach him. But through the Spirit’s work in our lives we become God’s children so we can cry out to God as our Father. Our prayer is possible through the Spirit.

Prayer in the Spirit

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. – Romans 8:26-27

The Spirit can help us overcome our weaknesses in prayer – whether it be a wandering mind, temptation to give up, or any other weakness we might struggle with. He helps us overcome a lack of passion by adding his groanings to our groaning, adding his own fervency to our prayers. He helps us overcome our ignorance of God’s will. This may be by helping us to know God’s will better. Or it may be as I pray the best I can for God’s will, that the Spirit comes alongside conforming my prayers to God’s will. The Spirit helps us to pray. We pray in the Spirit.

Prayer by the Spirit

These verses not only tell us that the Spirit helps us to pray, but that the Spirit actually fervently prays for us according to God’s will. When we are too weak to pray or too clueless to know how to pray for our own good, the Spirit is there interceding for us. And note that it is by the Spirit’s intercession for us that all things work together for our eternal good. There is prayer by the Spirit.

Prayer for the Spirit

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! – Luke 11:13

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:11

We are to ask for the Holy Spirit. In a parallel passage we are to ask for good things. I suggest it is the same request. Consider good things you might ask for. You ask for guidance – you are really asking for the Holy Spirit because he is one who guides (Romans 8:14). You ask for boldness – you are really asking for the Holy Spirit because he gives us boldness (Acts 4:23-31). You ask for more love or joy or peace, but you are really asking for the Holy Spirit because all those things come from him (Galatians 5:22-23). When you ask for something good, you are asking for the Spirit. When you ask for the Spirit, you are seeking his work in your life for your eternal good. You should pray for the Spirit.

From just this brief sketch, we can see how the Spirit is intimately involved in prayer. Through the Spirit, may we grow in praying in the Spirit and for the Spirit, even as we appreciate prayer by the Spirit.