Some Reasons to Praise God

Are you looking for a reason to praise God this day? Sometimes our minds just stop thinking clearly, and we find that, because we don't feel an affinity to God at the time, we also don't know how to praise Him. I find that at these times the Bible is, as always, our best guide.

1 Peter 1:3-5 gives us a few of the very best reasons to praise or bless God. Peter writes,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

As you look for things for which to praise God, this list is at the top:

If you have faith in Christ, he has caused you to be born again. Your rebirth is a source of living hope. In other words it is real, and it is focused on something that is certain. Your rebirth has made you an heir of God. Your inheritance is imperishable: it cannot be destroyed. It is undefiled: it is a perfect inheritance. It is unfading: it will never cease to be a source of joy for you. This inheritance is being kept for you and guarded by God's power so that you are certain of receiving it.

To God it is said, “At your right hand are pleasures forevermore” Psalm 16:11b

Meditate on these things and see what a great God it is that you call Father. I think you will find reason enough to bless God. May God's word be a source of rekindled hope and increasing joy for you as it points you to the riches of His mercy.

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A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

This book tells of a man whose life transformed from meaningless to meaningful. There are two ways to approach life. The way of stagnation is the way of most. Donald found meaning in life when he began to write a story with his life that involved risk. He talks about the need to react to “inciting” events in life by taking risks to enter those events and seek one's desires through conflict.

I found this book helpful. Put in a Christian context, it confirms that the Christian life is one of conflict. The most fulfilled Christian is the one who seeks his greatest desire, God, through great conflict. Thus, he tells an amazing story with his life. The least fulfilled Christian avoids conflict even when such avoidance keeps him from great fellowship with God. Donald's book only disappoints me in that when he has the opportunity to point people to the gospel of Jesus Christ, he stops short. God, Jesus and prayer are in the book. But, a clear evangelical gospel message is missing. The book can easily be read and the message of the greatest pursuit in life, God through Christ, can still be missed.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

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Pondering on Leadership

I have been thinking about Leadership lately. I am wondering why organizations sometimes flounder and loose momentum. There are two possibilities that I can think of: either the people in the organization are lazy and don't want to do the work that is necessary to carry the organization along, or the people are not being led by effective leaders. As I think about that idea, it is clear to me that the burden is really on the leaders all the way. Let me explain.

If the mass of people in an organization are exhibiting signs of apathy or laziness, I believe that apathy is a reflection on the leadership of that organization. I believe this is true, because I believe people generally want to be lead, they want to follow someone. This is how people typically find their identify and course in life. We don't often set our own course or define our own identity. (Perhaps through good leaders, we may change).

But, even though people generally want to follow someone, they have some rules in their makeup that tell them who they will follow. Here are the rules I have identified.

• People will only follow you if they perceive that you are going somewhere
• People will only follow you if where they perceive that you are going is somewhere that they want to go
• People will only follow you if you give them clear, meaningful, actionable directions on how to follow you
• People will only follow you if you define the cost of doing so and convince them of the worth or value of paying that cost

You see, I think people need leaders who have a destination, know how to get there, can tell them exactly what they need to do to get there and can express to them what they should expect along the journey and at the destination. Organizations begin to flounder when leaders have no destination, don't know how to reach the destination, can't guide the mass of people in the organization toward the destination, can't give the people meaningful actions to take in order to reach the destination and can't communicate the costs of going there and the benefit of getting there.

What this tells me is that leadership is a very hard task and should not be lightly undertaken.

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Why Praise God?

Have you ever wondered why you should praise God? Sometimes as people we are so self absorbed and so earthly bound that we can't really think of a good reason to praise God. Frankly, we really don't even think about God enough to think about praising him. We are so human. We can't begin to imagine how foolish it is to miss God's greatness and therefore, forget to praise him.

In Psalm 100 we are told, "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve Him with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing." This is the duty or obligation of every person. Our attitude before God should be joy and gladness and it should come out of us through shouts and singing. It should come out of us in service to him. We should attend God as a servant attends a benevolent master, with gladness. We should bow before Him with a smile on our face. This is the essence praise.

But why? Why be joyful before God? Why be so overcome with gladness that we shout and sign in His presence? Verse three gives the answer. You praise God with shouts, gladness and singing simply because He is God and He made you. You did not make yourself. You and I, we are like sheep in His pasture. We are helpless without his presence. If God were not the shepherd in the field, we would be consumed by lions, grow sick and weak and be picked on and killed by the other sheep, or get lost and fall of a cliff to our deaths. He is God. He has the power to create life and protect it, and He created your life, and He watches over you.

You may say, "my life isn't great; the shepherd isn't doing so hot." My response: it is only God's hand that holds death at bay, that keeps you this very moment from plunging into the abyss. Sometimes the God who created us needs us to see that He is God, He needs us to know that we are weak and in need of Him. He needs us to grow weary of trying to make sense of our lives without Him so that we will turn to Him and enjoy the full blessings of His shepherding ways. Therefore, He gives us some room to roam, some freedom to discover, some opportunity to realize that without God, without His grace, life is a truly scary and dark thing. And when we turn back to this God and run into his fold, it will be with shouts of joy, bowing before Him with gladness and singing with our full voices the song of his redeeming love.

May it be so for you, oh doubter of his praiseworthiness.

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SBFC-SW, "The Foolishness of Preaching"

via ustream.tv

This is a link to the live stream of the Southern Baptist Founder's Conference that will take place next week. The theme of the event is "The Foolishness of Preaching." The argument: Preaching that puts the Word of God at the center is the only means to recover the church.

"The Foolishness of Preaching" Southern Baptist Founders Conference - SW

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The Gospel Message Explained

What is “The Gospel”

One person defined it as “good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.”

Must of us can relate to this definition. At least we may have had news come to us that filled us with gladness, made us laugh and perhaps even jump for you. But, “The Gospel is more specific than just any good news that makes us happy.

Another person defines The Gospel as “the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of humans enslaved by sin.”

This is a little more specific. It talks about God's redemptive activity, about Jesus performing that activity and about humans and sin. There is a reason The Gospel is considered “Good News.” It addresses a huge problem in a perfectly effective way.

Isa 60:1-2 – While they were captives in Babylon, God told the Jews,

Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples
But the Lord will rise upon you
And His glory will appear upon you.

The “Good News” addressed a difficult, consuming problem. The people were in darkness, banging and stumbling in the night and they were told that the glory of the Lord, a great and brilliant light was coming over them and bringing light into their lives.

We have all had dark nights in our lives. Periods of great disappointment, sorrow, shame, regret, dispair, hopelessness, consuming depression and God says, “Arise, shine: for your light has come.”

But “The Gospel” is even more specific than just turning our darkness into light and sorrow into rejoicing. The darkness is only symbolic of a real problem that feeds the darkness and gives it its power over you.

Luke 4:18-19 – Jesus said,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
Because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind
To set free those who are oppressed
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

That sounds like good news, but how does it apply to you and me? Am I poor, captive, blind, and oppressed? The answer to that question is “Yes” on all counts.

These words describe more clearly our darkness. Our problem is that we cannot escape our darkness for our darkness is a result of our own nature and action. Our darkness is caused by our sin.

Our Problem

Isaiah 53:6 - “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way....”

Rom 3:10-12

as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”

Eph 4:18 – says all people are “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.”

We have turned away from God, we do not seek God, we do not do good, and our heart's are hardened. Therefore we are excluded from the life of God. I can think of no poorer man than the man who is excluded from the life of God.

1 Cor 2:14 - “But a natural man does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritual appraised.”

It is not just that we won't accept God, the Bible tells us that because of our sin nature, our natural inclination to reject God, we cannot accept God.

The result of this is that we are held captive by our sin; it enslaves us; we can't get away from it or overcome it. Therefore we are held captive by death for the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). God is a just God and must deal with sin justly.

I truly am poor for I do not have the life of God, I am captive because sin and death enslave me, I am blind because I cannot my own captivity or the God that I have rejected, and I am oppressed by a devil who hates me and wants to keep me in my darkness.

But there is hope!

God's Solution

“The Gospel” applies to me in that I need it, but how is it possible, how can I be released, given sight and relieved from oppression?

Isa 53:6 – “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity (the sin) of us all to fall on him (Jesus).”

That sin that enslaves and makes my death and separation from God for all eternity a necessity: God puts it on Christ and Christ pays the debt for it. That is what it means to be redeemed – to be bought back – in this case Christ, by dying for us, he buys us back from or out of our enslavement to sin and death.

Rom 3:24 says that God in Christ justifies us – makes us right before God – the result of this is that we are no longer separated from the life of God, instead, we are included in God's life, and therefore, we are no longer in darkness, for our light (Christ Jesus) has come.

How does this work of God get applied to me?

Rom 3:24 – it is a gift given to us by God's grace

Rom 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Rom 3:28 – We are not justified by our works – we are justified by our faith in the work of Christ, i.e. His death, burial and resurrection – his redemption of me from my enslavement to sin and death, his payment of my debt to God, his acceptance of my just penalty for my sin.

Acts 2:37-39 – When confronted with the exact same message by Peter, the people in Jerusalem

were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

What should you do?

This is simple – Jesus said, and I will say it.

Matt 1:15 - The time is fulfilled – now is the time – the Kingdom of God is at hand – Christ is coming soon – Repent – turn away from your sin – and believe in the gospel – trust in the work of God in Christ to redeem you from your captivity and to give you new sight and new hope.

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Fearless, by Max Lucado

In his book Fearless, Max Lucado reminds us that “we are the most worried culture that has ever lived.” We worry about not fitting in, our children, violence, death, the unknown, and that somehow life is meaningless and God is not the answer. We are gripped and paralyzed by fear. However, Lucado does not just diagnose the problem. He also prescribes the remedy: “Listen to the voice of God calling through Scripture, “Fear not!”

This book was a blessing. In it I found the evidence of countless counseling sessions where a pastor cares for the souls of those gripped by innumerable fears. With every word I was drawn into the event and driven to God's word, which with clarity, Lucado formed the lens through which we should read the story and face the darkness. He showed me that God is everywhere and in everything and that the words, “Fear not” are not empty when they come from the lips of the one who has dominion over all things, even the darkness.

I hope you will read this book and find encouragement to overcome your fears and live with true courage being rooted in Christ.

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SBTS – Resources – Panel - N.T. Wright and the Doctrine of Justification

via sbts.edu

If you have read or are thinking about reading N.T. Wright's book on Justification you should watch this.

http://www.sbts.edu/resources/chapel/chapel-fall-2009/panel-nt-wright-and-the-doctrine-of-justification-2/

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The Blessings of an Inescapable God!

I return today to the thought of hiding from God and the fact that the one who calls God, Father and his Son, Lord; that one has no need nor even desire to hide from God. I take as my example David who said:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

 Psalm 139:1-6 ASV

As David contemplated God's Omnipresence and His Omniscience he realized that it meant no hiding from God was possible, no avoiding God's sovereign decree could take place. Now some might complain about this. Some might consider God's practice of enclosing us and laying his hands upon us as too much. They might say, "give me some room God, let me live my own life, do not smother me so with your overbearing character." But this is not the thought of David or any other believer. For the child of God, it is a thought too wonderful and too high that one so awesome and holy, would care to consider him.

And it is more than this. David knew that if God considered him, thought about him, listened to him all to such a degree that he knew David's thoughts, knew when he lay down and where he walked, then God also would be with him in the darkness that so often is this life.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:11-12 ASV

Oh, what a joy it is to know that God, my Father truly is inescapable!

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Man's Condition Without Christ

Why doesn't God destroy the world and all that is in it and begin again as he did in the days of Noah. Is it because man is not a bad as he once was in those days? Did God somehow destroy something when he sent the flood such that man is at least a little better off and more worthy of God's mercy?

How proposterous is that thought. How God saw man in the days of Noah has not changed one bit, with but one exception, for as in those days so today "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The only exception to this fact, the only difference that stays God's hand now, is the promised redeemer. Not my goodness, but the righteousness of Christ, the fact the God has adopted children here on earth, children who appear before him as holy is the one thing that keeps him from reigning down his just wrath and destroying all of creation.

That is better mercy than I could ever hope to earn.

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"We were never created to be our own source of wisdom" Paul David Tripp

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Can You Hide From God? Would You Want To?

We fool ourselves if we think we can hide from God. The psalmist showed that he understood this when he recorded these words:

"Am I a God who is near,' declares the Lord
"And not a God far off?
"Can a man hide himself in hiding places
"So I do not see him?' Declares the Lord
"Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" Declares the Lord

Psalm 23:23-34 ASV

There is no way to hide from a God who is near, who sees all things, and who fills the heavens and the earth. But why would we want to hide from God? Adam and Eve found a reason, they had sinned and guilt made them fear God and so they hid themselves from him. Jonah had a reason, he wished to disobey the will of God, and so, he fled thinking he might leave God behind. In the end we want to hide from God because we are sinners, because we fear that he will condemn us, look with disfavor upon our faces and shower us with his great disappointment, and so, like a child we turn our heads away, try not make eye contact, run to our rooms, and slam the door cowering in our beds, hoping that he won't open the door.

But wait! There is a blessing in having a Lord who is near, who sees all things, and who fills the heavens and the earth. When we trust in Christ to save us, in running to our room we will find God there full of love and mercy. We think we cannot flee his wrath, but we have no need to do so. Christ took his wrath. Now, we cannot flee his mercy. We cannot go anywhere where he does not know us and love us and call us his children.

Praise Him for always being near for that is where I need him today!

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