As long as he was looking at himself, he seemed enormous, and there was no room for God at all. But once he looked to God, he shrank back down to his proper size.– Philip Graham Ryken in Discovering God
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Practical Suggestions for Cultivating Communion with God – Kelly Kapic (Crossway)
But interpersonal relationships are not “things” to be accomplished. They are more about “being” than “doing,” and they need attentiveness, mutual exchange, and care to flourish. Relationships cannot be life-giving sources of strength if we are not present in and to them. Communion with God is a deep need for every human, whether we acknowledge the need or not. Communion with God is how we were made to function, and it is ultimately about a loving and very present relationship with the triune Creator.
The Hidden Power in Every Idol – Tim Challies
If we worship the idol of the perfect body, the sweeping curves or the chiseled abs, we will become as vain and self-focused as the models in the magazines. If we worship the idol of money, we will become as greedy, selfish, and cut-throat as the worst wolf on Wall Street. If we worship athleticism, we will imitate superstar athletes in their arrogance, their moral depravity, their self-obsession. If we worship the idol of power we will mimic the flip-flopping, anything-goes, popularity-obsessed politician. On and on it goes.
5 Reasons Not to Waste Your Leisure Time– Jeff Robinson (TGC)
In today’s work force, some researchers have found the average work week for an American man is creeping beyond 50 hours. Thus, after a long and laborious work week, our finite bodies and minds often stand in need of refreshment. God set a pattern in the created order (evening/morning/end of the day) for six days, and then established a day of rest on the seventh.
Why the Local Church Really Matters – Tim Challies
As we prepare to worship God tomorrow, it may do us good to pause for just a few moments to consider the local church. What is the church? Why has God called us into these little communities? Does the local church really matter? It does! The local church is foundational to God’s plan for his people.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
The right way to study God is to worship him for his attributes, so that our theology become our doxology.– Philip Graham Ryken in Discovering God in Stories from the Bible
God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people.– Jerry Bridges in God Took Me by the Hand
People have such slight and superficial views of sin because they have such slight and superficial views of God!– Ian Hamilton in What Is Experiential Calvinism?
The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast.– Jonathan Edwards
To love God is the first and highest duty in life. – Maurice Roberts in What Does It Mean To Love God?
Our passage today teaches us about God and how we should respond to him.
The Bible teaches that God created the world. As the Creator, God defines what is real. God alone determines reality.
But of course our culture has rejected God as Creator, and so rejects his claim to define what is real. And so now we will define reality based on our own personal perceptions. We will become mini-gods and define reality as we see fit. Objective created reality doesn’t matter. All that matters is what I perceive to be real.
And so as a recent video shows us, a short white man can think he is a tall Chinese woman, and we will accept him as such because his personal perception defines his reality regardless of what is really real. If this same adult claims to be a seven-year-old, we will affirm him in his personal perception of himself, and even allow him to attend first grade. Personal perception determines reality – even if we must throw out mathematics (the man’s height), biology (the man’s gender), and history (the man’s ancestry).
If I think I am a penguin, then I am, and I should be able to swim with the penguins at the zoo. Because personal perception determines reality. That is the teaching of our culture.
And so our president’s recent directive, that every public school must allow their students to define their gender regardless of their biological sex, should not surprise us. That each school must allow boys claiming to be girls to shower in the girls’ locker room should not surprise us. That so many people are willing to go along with this should not surprise us. This is merely one symptom of this false way of thinking – that my personal perception defines reality.
I recently attended one of my daughter’s soccer games, and the school hosting the game provided programs with the names and numbers of all the players. And at the bottom of the program was this little gem: “If you believe it, you can do it.” In other words, your perception determines reality. So if I believe I can fly, I can jump off a cliff and fly away. But will my personal perception really determine my reality?
The fact is that the hard rocks of real reality lie at bottom of the cliff. Reality often won’t bend to my perception. And this attempt to redefine reality based on our own perceptions will leave many bloody and hurting at the bottom of the cliff. And as people grow weary of the carnage and wreckage that their own perceptions of reality will ultimately bring, the church needs to be ready to lovingly point them back to Jesus. We need to be ready to point them to the real Savior who died on a real cross to pay for their real sin of trying to become gods who determine reality for themselves.
God alone defines reality. Instead of trying to bend reality to our own perceptions, we must bend our perceptions to reality as God has defined it, reality as God has created it, reality as it really is.
Moses continues to intercede and asks to see God’s glory. Consider:
Brian J. Mikul 