Have a Heart

So, the world didn't end on December 21, 2012. Shocker. While I would have loved to have been able to go see Jesus, I'm not upset that the world didn't end. After all, "to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21)." Life is a good thing. In fact, it's a great gift of God.
The truth is, though, that the world as we know it will end. Some unknown day (Mark 13:32), the world will end. With that end of the world will come a judgment day.
Every person will be judged on their deeds. Since we are all sinners that have rebelled against our great God, the verdict for every single one of us, left to ourselves, will be guilty. Some, however, have received the gift of salvation in this life, and will be declared "not guilty" before God on judgment day (courtesy of the blood and death of Jesus Christ).
Unfortunately, not everyone will come to Christ. There will be lots of people who will die between now and judgment day, and those people will not have received grace. They will not have let Jesus' blood cover their sins and they will not have believed in Jesus as Lord. They will die, be judged guilty before the holy God of the universe, and will be sentenced to an eternity in Hell. That's a never-ending future in a literal Hell.
And you and I know what can keep them from this. You and I, fellow Christ follower, know the great gospel of Christ. You and I know the truth of Jesus. You and I know the sweet goodness of our Lord and Savior. Yet, like a kindergartner on the playground, we want to keep it to ourselves and fail to share the greatest gift we could ever receive.
Oh, that we would have a heart for the damned and doomed like is described in Ezekiel 21! Read with me please:
"Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that is coming.'" -Ezekiel 21:6-7a, NIV

Oh Church, may we groan! May we groan before the lost with broken heart and bitter grief. We know that bad news is coming! Let us actually care! Oh Lord, please help us to have this heart for those who are hurtling toward destruction! Please let us legitimately have broken hearts, weeping for those who don't know Christ. Please let us bitterly wail into the night for those that do not know our Lord. Pray that we feel this way! We have the truth of Christ, let us want to share it and prevent this impending doom!

Who Is Your Confidence In?

Ever feel like God wants you to do something, but you feel you aren't capable of doing it? Welcome to the life of Moses.

In Exodus 4, Moses claims that he is not "eloquent..because I am slow and hesitant in speech." He said this to God because God had decided that Moses needed to be a spokesman for Him before Pharaoh. Moses tried to tell God that this wasn't a great idea, but God wasn't feeling the same way. God told Moses that He was in charge, that He gives people the ability to see and hear and speak. Moses still didn't buy it, and God allowed Aaron (Moses' brother) to speak for him.

Yet, in Acts, I found an interesting passage. In the middle of a sermon on Israeli history and God's goodness, Stephen drops an interesting line:

"So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in his speech and actions." -Acts 7:22, HCSB

Here, we have an intriguing tidbit of Moses' backstory. Before he was the "slow and hesitant speaker" in the desert, Moses had been trained in Egypt growing up, and was considered a great speaker. Moses claimed he had never been a good speaker, but he was lying. He was, in fact, a good speaker. HIs problem wasn't in his ability; his problem was where he placed his confidence.

Moses was putting his confidence in speaking in himself, and the idea of speaking before one of the most powerful people in the world will make anyone "slow and hesitant." Instead, as God tried to make him see, he should have put his confidence in God.

God makes us how we are, and gives us gifts that we can use. We may not think we have them, but if we put our faith and confidence in God, we will allow us to be able to do whatever He has called us to do.

Who are you putting your confidence in? Yourself and your skills, or the One that gave them to you?

Do It All For His Glory

"Now this is what the Lord says—
the One who created you, Jacob,
and the One who formed you, Israel—
'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.

For I Yahweh your God,
the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior,
give Egypt as a ransom for you,
Cush and Seba in your place.
Because you are precious in My sight
and honored, and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations instead of your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north: Give them up!
and to the south: Do not hold them back!
Bring My sons from far away,
and My daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone called by My name
and created for My glory.
I have formed him; indeed, I have made him.'"

-Isaiah 43:1-7, HCSB

 

This, my friends, is a beautiful passage. It was written as God speaking to His nation, Israel, but I believe it can be extended to His current nation, the Church (1 Peter 2:9-12).

 

There are a lot of great things in this passage, such as the fact that God is always with us, or that He redeemed us, but I want to focus on a line at the end: "everyone called by My name and created for My glory."

 

If you are called by the Name of God (which is another focus for another post), then you are created for His glory. Actually, everything is ultimately for God's glory, but we aren't going to get into that right now. Let's just focus on the fact that Christians, who are "those called," are "created for God's glory."

 

Christians, our task is to glorify God. Not to be a good Christian, but to glorify the God of the universe. We are to do everything with the goal of glorifying Him. When we do our jobs, it's to His glory. When we take finals (looking at you, college students like myself), we do it for the glory of God. When we do anything, it is all for the glory for God.

 

It is by Him and for Him that we do all things. Whatever we do, whatever talents and gifts we have, we do it for Him. So let's give Him the credit, gang! Let's do everything with the purpose of lifting up the Name of God and glorify Him!

Hearing Doesn't Mean A Thing

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous." -Romans 2:13, New International Version

When you were a child, how often did your parents/guardians say "go clean your room?" Probably a lot, right? Every parent has to tell their kids to clean their room. I've yet to meet a kid that regularly just does his chores.

This is similar to how God's Word works at times. He tells us how to be holy in our lives, because we won't do it otherwise. Just like a kid with a messy room, we will walk around in our filth until our Father tells us not to.

There's a catch, though. How many times did your parents tell you to clean your room, only for you to ignore them? You see, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to just hear the direction from our Father; I can hear my boss at work give me things to do all day, but if the milk is never stocked, he may as well have never told me.

It's the same way with our righteousness. We can listen and hear God's righteousness all we want. We can attend Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday night church. We can attend conferences and simulcasts. We can bring a composition book to takes notes for all of those events in. Yet, if we never obey what God says, it doesn't matter; we're just wasting time and paper. We're killing off the rain forest, one wasted sermon note at a time. Simply hearing God doesn't mean a thing. He intends for us to obey.

Just like a good Father on Earth, there is punishment if we ignore His commands. At the end of this age, there will be a massive trial. Some people will be like OJ, getting away with murder. Literally. For eternity.

Some other people will have heard God's commands, including the one that says "follow me," and all they did was compose a clever tweet or Facebook status. A tweet with no action that acted as a smoke screen, blinding them to the impending doom.

So, let me ask: do you hear, or do you obey?

The Difference Between Good and God's

Ever feel like God is asking you to do one thing, and in order to do it, you'll have to miss out on something else that could glorify Him? It happens all the time- you simply cannot do everything. You may be wanting to go with the youth out to a baseball game on Friday, but God may be asking you to stay home instead and meet with a friend for some discipleship. You may be wanting to start a new Bible study on Wednesday nights, but God is asking you to get involved with the children's ministry instead. We often don't understand the reasoning at the moment, but it happens all the time in this busy world. The problem with finding what God is asking for happened in the Bible, too. Let's look in 1 Samuel.

In the book of 1 Samuel, King Saul of Israel has been told by God through the prophet Samuel to attack the Amalekites. The Amalekites are a group of nomads that roamed into Israel's land and caused problems for the locals. God tells Saul to lead the troops against the Amalekites, and destroy them. No one is to be left alive, and no stuff is to be kept.

Saul leads the men into battle, and they follow God's orders... for the most part. They kill all but one person, the king, and then they destroy all the enemy people's stuff except their best livestock.

Samuel learns that Saul didn't follow directions, and confronts him. Saul says that the reason the animals were kept for sacrifice for God, and is confused as to why Samuel is calling him out for sacrificing. That's when Samuel says this:

"22 Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king." -1 Samuel 15:22-23, NIV

Samuel doesn't say that the sacrifices were bad things to do. He says that sacrifices become bad and sinful when they go against what God tells you to do. When you do something that is against what God tells you to do, you are sinning and rebelling against the God of the universe. You are being arrogant enough to tell God that you know better what He wants you to do for Him than He does. That doesn't even make good sense, and it is often costly. Look at Saul: due to his rebellion and arrogance, he became rejected by God as the king of Israel. In the next chapter, Samuel would anoint David as king, and Saul's reign would deteriorate until his death in the ensuing years.

You see, you can think that you are doing something that God wants you to do, but if that something gets in the way of doing something that you know God wants you to do, the price can be costly.

Are you willing to listen to what God wants you to do, no matter what that may keep you from doing? Even if it keeps you from doing something that is a good thing, and perhaps even a godly thing?

For more on obedience when two good things present themselves, check out David Platt's new book, Radical Together.