Does He Still Feel the Nails

Once in a while a song gets stuck in my head and this is the current one by Ray Boltz

They tell me Jesus died for my transgressions
And that He paid that price a long long time ago
When He gave his life for me on a hill called Calvary
But there's something else that I want to know:

Does He still feel the nails every time I fail?
Can He hear the crowd cry crucify! again?
Am I causing him pain?
Then I know I've got to change
I just can't bear the thought of hurting Him

It seems that I'm so good at making promises
And I treat His precious grace so carelessly
But each time He forgives, what if He relives
The agony he felt on that tree?

Does He still feel the nails every time I fail?
Can he hear the crowd cry CRUCIFY! again?
Am I causing him pain?
Then I know I've got to change
I just can't bear the thought of hurting Him

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord

Do you still feel the nails every time I fail?
Have I crucified you Jesus with my sin?
Oh, I'm tired of playing games
I really want to change
I never want to hurt you again

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!

Almost always I find other people who are a whole lot better at expressing themselves than I am.  This is my prayer for today

Busy, Busy, Busy

Yesterday and this morning I sit almost unable to move due to the high volume of things that must get done.  My mind has struggled to get a handle on how to maneuver for everyone's best interest.  The business people will say that it is good because it means you're making money, but what they don't know is I really don't care about making money.  Maybe I should care, but money is just an idol that has effectively proven it can take you away from focusing on God.  What I do care about is spending time with my wife, my kids, and being wherever God purposes for me to be.  Everyone else can just go to the next guy for an answer.

One author said that "Satan may be the Prince of Darkness, but he is also the Duke of Distraction."

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."  Did I read that right?  Did Paul just say that "I" may prove what is the ... will of God?  I can be transformed by renewing my mind and not conform to this world?  Whoa!

I think this verse is saying, of all the times it can be important to stop and study, the times when the world is on every side with its emergencies and urgencies it is really trying to conform you, so the only real emergency is to renew your mind; reassure yourself in your faith; restore your trust in the Lord of creation; reemphasize God's power over all time and material.  In so doing God's perfect will of character will come out of you in the midst of a spiritually immature and selfish world.

In Luke 10, Martha rushed around doing many things as she was distracted at all the preparations that had to be made.  So she complained to Jesus asking Him to tell her sister to help.  Jesus responded saying there is only one thing that should demand her attention and her sister was focused on it - that thing is Him.  

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

If we will simply focus on the One important person in our life, He will take Lordship of all the other parts of our life.  Whatever falls away needed to fall away; whatever grows and increases needed to grow and increase; it is for Him to decide as He directs and influences me and all those in contact with me.  As I focus on Him, His peace will settle in and guard.  And if He is standing over my heart and mind, evil will flee from me.

Struggling

Romans 7:15New International Version (NIV)
¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Usually, devotions flow fairly freely.  Lately I've struggled.  I don't know why.  I don't feel "distant" from God.  I have been quite busy, had some early appointments, and have some other excuses.  Regardless, I've been busy before, but have always seem to have a devotion on my mind that flows quite freely when I discipline myself to sit down and put thoughts into writing.  Recently, I've just been a little dry.  I've had other "spiritual" activities, but my daily devotions have been lacking. 
Perhaps the issue is that I know there are things I should be doing: dieting and exercising, but I struggle to get into either one.  Perhaps God has gone silent on other issues until I pick up these and get on with them. 
One thing I know for sure: I don't really want to do either one.  I want to lose some weight and feel better, but I don't want to invest the work its going to take to get it done.  Its funny.  I'm not lazy about taking on big projects at work or around the house or even at church.  These two issues, however, have been a lifelong struggle and I really don't want to hear about them.  Obviously I lack discipline, but I don't want to admit it, so maybe that's why I'm avoiding the computer.  Maybe I need some daily encouragement or a knot on the head, but I feel like I would not react positively to either. 
I hope you and Julie have a trouble-free and much more importantly a pleasant time together this weekend at Blue Lake.  Looking forward to a weekend of regular interaction with Reed and Jack. I hope they will basically just hang out over here - they're fun to be around.

Manage your Mind

Rick Warren has this devotional from January:
"God is far more interested in changing your mind than changing your circumstances.

"We want God to take away all of the problems, pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and sadness. But God wants to work on you first, because transformation won’t happen in your life until you renew your mind, until your thoughts begin to change."

I believe the biggest battle is in our mind and we have to be careful to take David's position of declaring the battle is the Lord's.  When something wants to come into our thoughts and pervert our thinking away from God's Spirit, we should be as offended as David was that Goliath would call out and degrade the name of God before His chosen people.  Our transformation should start with our declared faith that God and God alone is where we want our thoughts and we are trusting in Him to defeat the enemy of our own sin nature.

"Manage your mind, because your thoughts control your life.

"Proverbs 4:23 says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts”(TEV). The power of your thoughts has tremendous ability to shape your life for good or for bad. For example, maybe you accept the thought someone told you when you were growing up, “You’re worthless. You don’t matter.” If you accepted that thought, even though it was wrong, it shaped your life.

"All temptation happens in the mind. Paul says in Romans 7:22-23, “I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin” (TLB).

"An unmanaged mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict. A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress. When you don’t try to control your mind and the way you direct your thoughts, you will have an enormous amount of stress in your life. But a managed mind leads to strength and security and serenity.

"Manage your mind, because the mind is the battleground for sin.

"One of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued is because there’s a battle in your brain 24 hours a day. It’s debilitating because it’s intense, and it’s intense because your mind is your greatest asset. Satan wants your greatest asset!

"Manage your mind, because it’s the key to peace and happiness.

“Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:6 NLT)."

I believe there is an important aspect to realize here,  Our peace and happiness will only come once we are at peace with God's authority and rule over everything.  Whether our prayer requests are answered specifically as we asked or not, knowing that God answers them in the context of what is the best for us and those around us with regard to providing our and whosoever the best viewing opportunity of Him, should be sufficient for us.  We should be at peace with God in this and when we are, we are at peace and truly happy in our own world.

Whosoever

“That whosoever believes in Him.”  I am whosoever.  It is my favorite word in this verse while I reflect upon the person that I am.  But isn’t it amazing just how fast we change the label on those people we might interact with every day.  As I was traveling recently, I was reminded in the airport, on the plane, in the lines of traffic, and in the hotel that everyone I saw was whosoever.  Everyone.  The guy who cut me off in traffic – whosoever.  The rude guy on the plane talking loudly on his phone way after the boarding door had closed – whosoever.  The guy at my presentation challenging everything – whosoever.

We are whosoever.  Sounds kind of like a Dr. Seuss character.  In fact, here is a rhyme:

Whosoever came to town

Whosoever was a clown.

Sinning in a perfect place

Just to hold a fruit and taste.

Unable to walk with God in glory

God decided to change the story.

Sending Himself as a Son

He made a way for Whosoever to run.

Whosever can run or hide

But it’s up to him to decide.

Probably not the best Dr. Seuss tribute. 

My attitude changes towards everyone when I see them as whosoever.  My focus on who they are, what they really need, and how my interaction should be changes.  I weigh my influence differently.  In the parable told by Jesus in Luke 14 where a man had a great supper and invited many but no one would come, Jesus tells, “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’”   Compel them to come in.  When I see everyone as whosoever, I can feel my spirit saying “compel them”, “don’t hold back”, “be Me”. 

Dear God, I pray that Your love would rule in me today.  Break any chains that bind and hold You back that You might reach out through me to those in my path.  Amen.

Up Close and Personal

“God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son”.  God gave the most personal gift that can be given.  He gave Himself.  One of the hardest parts of discipleship is the contribution of yourself into the life of another.  Matt Ayers explains this well.  He says, "I think there are a number of reasons it's so hard, but the number 1 is (at least by my estimation) the high level of emotional involvement. ... When we love someone there is great risk because we’re building ourselves into them. Making disciples means loving people, there’s no way around this. Discipleship without love is probably more like “coaching”; it certainly isn’t discipleship. Jesus, who defines discipleship, did what He did out of love."  There is an emotional involvement and when something requires an emotional involvement, we too often back up.  Either we're not emotionally secure enough to disciple or we don't want to get emotionally involved and get hurt.  I'm starting to wonder how much of this is just plain being yellow or cowardice on my part.

The cable TV show “Brain Games” did a good study on this.  Apparently we are very good at making a reasonable life or death decision until it gets personal.  They created a scenario where you are at a train switch.  A train is coming from you left and on your right there is a switch for the track that you control.  On one side are four workers and on the other side is one worker.  Do you move the switch so the train will only kill the one worker?  Everyone said yes.  They then changed the condition and made that one person your Dad or Brother.  Almost everyone hesitated and was not sure they could pull the switch.  They then changed the conditions again and put you on a bridge over the track.  The train is coming and the four workers are on the track but there is a really large person on the bridge next to you.  You know that you can push the large person off the bridge onto the track and stop the train.  Would you do it?  No one said they would do it. 

Apparently, once it gets personal, we become very shy about the decision, to the point of being unwilling to make a decision that causes the death of someone close to us, much less, ourselves.  And if we have to put our hands on someone that makes it personal as well.  Yet God made it personal.  He put His hands and feet in our world, but He didn't stop there.  He is willing to share His Spirit with us.  He is as personal and close as it is possible to be with another.  Does it pain God when we are unwilling to be so close, when we reject Him, or when we don't fully trust Him and make our own plans?   Most certainly.  But He is still there, willing to be personal and emotionally involved.  

We need to learn to do the same.  We should so love the world because God so loved the world and if He was willing to give Jesus for it, then we should be willing to give the Jesus in us for it also.

Wasting Time

Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

Sometimes people argue for no other reason than a selfish need to be "right."  I know.  I'm an expert.  I have a need to be right and prove to people that I'm right.  More accurately, I feel the need to make sure decisions are being made with the correct data or that the correct conclusion is being drawn from the data.  Regardless, I've spent many of my days and nights as a husband arguing with my wife needlessly, so I'm an expert in the field of driving division into important relationships. 
An inward drive to argue to prove to people how smart you are or how you keep up with current news or trends is a selfish desire and runs counter to our prime directive as Christians: to love others as we love ourselves.  Often we draw battle lines stating that we'll be happy to love others as soon as they come around to our way of thinking.  This is not agape.  Unfortunately, the church has a long history of pointless arguments.  Whether its about fine points of theology or the type of building materials we should use in our buildings, we can find things to stand on that simply don't matter in the Kingdom.  We need to stop and ask ourselves if its really worth driving division into our relationship over the point.  We also need to recognize that agape is God's love flowing through us (1 John 4:19) and sometimes continuing pointless arguments is to deny the movement of the Holy Spirit. 

God Willingly Gave

God gave to the world so they could choose to have faith in Him.  You get to choose.  You don’t have to, but you get to.  You decide your own life with your choice.  The gift of God is not this choice.  Man had the choice from the beginning and man choose evil.  Man has always had the choice.  The gift of God is Himself.  You get to change your mind.  “Oh God of second chances, here I am again!”  You get a second chance.  And a third chance, and a fourth chance, etc.  This is what God gave when He gave Himself.  He said to man, "I love you and nothing will ever change that!"

Since God is love, God gave love.  That love was in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, “His one and only Son”.  How many of us are willing to give the most precious thing we have, the breath of our own life?  This is a very difficult question to answer and the answer is deceiving.  Many men are bold in proclaiming that they'll give their lives for their loved ones, until the reality of giving up something they want for their loved ones is necessary.  As long as this giving goes along with the way they want their life to go it's okay, but the second it requires them to turn their direction - watch out!  Most people would rather take a bullet in one show of great love and have it all over in a single great act than to give their entire lives, which is full of a multitude of single great acts performed day after day requiring a lot more courage and an extraordinary depth of love. 

I think we fail to gain perspective on Jesus' death because we fail to understand the depth and extent of God's love.  He came and interacted with us.  He walked with us and talked with us.  A God of love had to restrain Himself.  A God of love wanted to heal everyone who hurt, cause no one to die, help everyone He saw, strengthen every poor spirit, renew everyone's courage, show everyone with faith the answer to it, but the only way to do that was to allow Himself to die.  I think about this and I try to imagine it, to feel the depth of the pain, and I just am unable to fully explore it.  How much would it hurt you to be with those you love intensely and have to restrain yourself in how much you help?  You know that with a single thought you could change their lives and ease their pain, but you also know God's plan is what is best for their life and "the world".

God didn’t have this problem.  He “so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son”.  He willingly gave Himself.  God, the author of time, could change this gift and none of us would every know that there ever was a Jesus.  But He doesn't.  He gives Jesus every day.  He crucifies Himself every hour; He dies again and again; And He heroically rises from the dead every minute of every day!  He does this because He so loves us.

What is Your Faith in?

Who am I to say that any event or portion of my life is for me alone?  Maybe I’m enduring so another person can witness my faith in God, or His power in my life, or my struggle so they can see how another human who knows God is real still struggles.  The truth is I simply do not know.  Like I said, I don’t even know what’s best for me so how can I possibly know why I might have to endure or successfully manage little or a lot?

I am unqualified to judge.  I am unqualified to know right from wrong or good from evil.  As an unqualified creation and not the Creator, I need to decide what to have faith in or whether to have faith at all.  There are not many choices in this matter. 

One, you can have no faith.  You can decide that nothing can be trusted, that there is no authority, and that there is no determiner of good.  This decision puts all things on the table.  You are your own authority; you decide how you are going to live and what is best for you; you decide what is good for you by how it affects you.  Your experience is the one that matters.  Your knowledge is the knowledge that matters.  You worship your own intellect and live inside the definitions of right and wrong as you define them, until you change them, or they are changed for you by someone who is stronger.  I have never met a person who has no faith in anything.  I am not sure it is possible to exist in such a place.

Two, you can have faith in something that isn’t God.  You trust in whatever that is and it becomes your authority.  You view right and wrong or good and evil from that perspective and live accordingly.  There are many idols that can be gods.  It can be a single desire or a multitude of desires, it can be golden objects, it can be living things - anything and everything can become someone's god.  History is ripe with examples.

Three, you can have partial faith in God.  You can sort of believe but never believe fully.  You can think it’s a good idea and know somewhere inside that it’s probably right but decide you don’t want to give up your desires.  You willingly acknowledge God as authority over parts of your life but you are authority over other parts.  You are in a compromise all the time.  When you need Him you know you'll have faith then.

Four, you can have a full faith in God.  You can believe Him based solely on His Word and do your best to do what He says trusting that it is best for you.  God’s authority is the single authority.  There is no other.

Everyone of “the world” is at one of these faith locations or they are at a mix of them.  Maybe they have a partial faith in God and they have a faith in something that isn’t God.  Maybe they move at different times from one location to another.  Sometimes they have no faith and then have some faith in this or that at other times.

I believe everyone has faith in something, it might be themselves, it might be in their family, it might be in their friends, it might be in their career, it might be in their own resources, but it is in something or someone.  Where do you turn when you have a problem or when something great happens?  Who is the first person you tell?  Where do you get your purpose in living?  Why do you believe you are alive?  Does your life depend upon you and you alone? 

I am Unqualified

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (NIV)

"He gave His" grace.  He gave the world unmerited favor.  He gave the world something it didn't deserve. "The world" became eligible by simply by being created by a God who "so loved".  The Creator not only made a perfect creation, but made the creature as well.  He then did what only His character can do: He "so loved" His creation.    The world did nothing but turn away from a perfect creation and a perfect Creator that loves perfectly.

So many people get hung up on how can a Creator who loves tell His chosen people to attack and kill an enemy.  Not only just to kill the enemy but to kill every man, woman, child and animal in the enemies camp.  Or, they say a loving God would not allow someone to be blind or, lame; or a loving God would not allow a Christian to suffer or be beheaded by those following evil; or, a loving God wouldn't let some injustice somewhere against someone to happen.

To say these things is to promote oneself to be a judge.  How can one evaluate the true love of a Creator unless one completely understands the full depths of love itself?  How can one evaluate the justice of a God unless one completely understands the depths of right and wrong / good and evil / every person's past and future?  No single person alive could possibly be capable of such things!

The humble truth is I am incapable of telling you the depth of my own love, much less someone else's.  I can say most confidently that I do not truly know what is best for me regarding my own growth in this area.  Should I get struck with a disease?  Be in a car wreck?  Lose a loved one?  Be given a little?  Or be given a lot?  I really can't answer that with absolute confidence as to which would provide me the clearest and best heart that would choose a great faith and desire for God.  This is the only observation that truly matters.  What is necessary to provide me the best avenue for a greater faith and greater desire for God?  The same question applies to every other single person in "the world".  And that is for myself.  How can I possible evaluate a whole nation?

I do know that I will be blessed.  God will bless me.  Any of the above scenarios that result in my increased faith and desire for God is a blessing.  I can be sure that God is working for me and I should thank Him in it.  Any other thought, no matter how tempting, is not of faith.  Obviously, this is much easier to write and say than to live.  Anyone in such a place should be greatly encouraged by those of us who know and see the truth since it is so easy to forget when you are there.

If I, admittingly, do not know the depths of love, then how can I know right from wrong or good from evil.  These concepts are borne from love itself.  If I do not know God I cannot possibly know these ideals since "God is love".  Any evaluation of mine to instructions or results or directions of God are then completely meaningless and any thought of dignity that I have in believing that I have any say so with regard to these is quite insane.

I am unqualified.

America's Future?

not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭25‬ NIV)

On Friday as the Air Attaché to Belgium was driving us back from a meeting with the Belgian Air Force, we were inquiring about which churches were connected with all the beautiful spires we were seeing.  He corrected our thinking stating that the largest and most of the ones we could see were in fact government or former government buildings.  He went on to add that in spite of a large number of old church buildings in the region, only a small few ever really attended and that those that do are almost exclusively elderly.  Essentially he was saying the church is dead in Europe or at least in Belgium.
Some quick, unverified research on the Internet confirms his assessment with only 7% of Belgians claiming regular church attendance.  This compares favorably to low percentages in Russia (2%), Finland, Denmark, and Norway (5%), and France at 12%.  This is in stark contrast to 89% in Nigeria (highest regular church attendance among all nations) which is a split nation that is roughly 50/50 Muslim and Christian as I understand it.
America is a middle-of-the-road nation with just 39% claiming to regularly attend church and for many years was in decline.  Recent surveys show some stability on those numbers which I'm sure are higher for our Bible Belt southern states.
I was stung by the Attache's statement and the results of my quick research and can only look at myself as being at fault.  I believe that it if people saw a real difference in Christians, these numbers would increase and the trends reversed.  How is my life boldly proclaiming the advantages of my relationship with Christ?  How are people moved to follow me in devoted service to Christ?  I believe those who are closest to me clearly see Christ in me, or at least they've told me so, but these are the 39%. How am I reaching out to those with whom I'm not quite as close boldly proclaiming the richness of a Purpose driven life?  The statistics show that I am not nor are very many others either.  I realize that I am not the Savior and cannot convert, but am convinced that a life lived as a bold testimony cannot be ignored.
Lord forgive my lack of courage and boldness.  You boldly went to the cross in spite of the cruelty of those that hung you that day and those of us who continue to hang you today because of a life lived in spiritual cowardice or indifference to the lost. May you break me and remake me into the representative you need in an apathetic world.  May I quit doing church or going to church and boldly be your church to all those you place in my path. May my church lose its infatuation with meetings, programs, and processes and boldly connect with those under the shadow of its steeple and give us a clear testimony to share that honors and glorifies you and inspires others to seek you.  May we quit competing with other congregations and join in carrying your yoke so that our entire city and south end of the county is confronted with and convinced of the limitless bounds of your love and grace.  May I not be part of a church in decline, but step out in bold leadership to allow you to build your church.

God Loves me Anyway

People are born with a sense of right and wrong, good and bad.  Even people who have never heard God's name sense His law within them: "There is something deep within [humanity] that echoes God's yes and no, right and wrong" (Rom 2:15 MSG).  "When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them" (Romans 2:14-15 NKJV). What is this magnetic pole that pulls the needles of the compass of your conscience if not God?  Unbelievers do not have to be told that ISIS beheadings, pushing people from building tops and stoning them, burning people alive, killing everyone who doesn't believe with them, or raping young women and forcing marriages is wrong.  But, why not?  If this impression of God isn't within us then they would be just as apt to believe that is the right way.

Have you ever wondered how an atheist can cry out against an injustice?  What is right or wrong to an atheist?  In our society today it is evident that there is a deliberate effort to change society's sense of right and wrong.  Does this mean that people don't know it or that they want to live by their own rules?  Just like Eve, the Godless man wants to be his own authority.  This is not new.

When the Hebrews had been "saved" from Egypt, removed from hundreds of years of slavery - generation upon generation knowing nothing but slavery - and watching miracle upon miracle from the hand of God, the minute they were left alone they started idolatry.  Water turned to blood, the sun turned to red, the first born dying wherever the blood of the lamb wasn't, a pillar of fire, the Red Sea parted, manna every morning, and quail every evening, but still turning to idolatry!

God says in Exodus 32 to Moses, "I have been watching these people; and you can see how stiffnecked they are".  Aaron says to Moses, "You know what these people are like, that they are determined to do evil."  And so our society exists today with its innumerable idols and deliberate determination to do evil. Yet, "God so loved the world".  God is and God loves.

God has never messed up.  Every decision, exact.  Each word, appropriate.  Not even tempted to make a mistake: "God is impervious to evil" (James 1:13 MSG).  Is God's greatness good news?  Yes, because He loved the world!  The One who formed you is for you.  "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).  

God Loves me Today

God is and God loves.  You cannot know God and not know His love.   

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. - 1 John 4:7

Psalm 36:7a says, "How priceless is Your unfailing love, O God!"  When the world is beating us up and we're not sure we can make it and everyone we know seems to be against us, or when we are having the greatest of days, we can always be assured that we were created by the hands of God to be loved by Him.  We can rest assured that we are loved.  No matter what happens, no matter what mistakes we make, no matter how great others think we are, we can know that our God loves us because that's who God is -- love.

I have come to believe that Christians need to make a point to start each morning reaffirming their beliefs before they set foot on the ground in this world.  One of these affirmations should be to say to themselves, "God loves me today".  We can say that every day until we die, it will never change.  There is nothing we can do to change it; no action we take will change it; no belief we have will change it; no words we say will change it; no other people or powers will change it.  "God loves me today" and He always will.  Accept it, know it, believe it, and rest in it.

Does God's love save us?

God's love is the motivation for saving us.  Since God is love it would have been out of His character for Him not to provide a way for us to be saved.  Even us who are evil would do the same.  If we had five dogs and four were mean, attacking, and fighting each other and all the other animals, but one was friendly and affection, we would provide a way to protect the one.  We would love it.  We would also want for the other four to become like this one and would do our best to provide the environment and opportunity to become that way.  We would do this and we have a sin nature that is against God, so how much more will God do for us in His perfection!

Jesus gives us this illustration in Matthew 7:9-11,  "Is there anyone here who, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone?  or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will your Father in heaven keep giving good things to those who keep asking Him!"

God Loves

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (NIV)

"For God so loved".  God is and God loves. 

1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."  There is an incredible amount of depth to love and I can never possibly conceive to know the ends of it.  To know the end of it would be to understand the depth of God and that is impossible for us to comprehend.  We should make a daily work in looking for new depths and reaches of love.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! - Romans 11:33

We must be able to love if we want to know God and we can never discover the depths of God.  Every new shovel full contains more diamonds and gold than we can imagine.

Those verses read, let me ask you a very serious question.

Why did God make you?

I know you have thought that question before.  Probably when you were a teenager and then again when you were 40.  But, why did God make you? 

God made you so He could love you!  The answer is really that simple.  You are made to be loved and once you are loved, to love. 

God went beyond just making us to be loved by Him, He made us to be able to receive His love.  And He went even further, He made us able to show love.

Once we allow ourselves to be loved, we are able to love.  If God loves you and you allow yourself to accept it, how can you not love God?  Then, how can you not love others, those who God also created to love?  It becomes impossible not to do so.  Anytime we find ourselves annoyed with others, when just being around or near someone grates on our being, we can be absolutely sure that we have a love problem.  We have the problem, not the other persons.

God not only loved us enough to send Himself here through the saving actions on the Cross, but He created us out of His love.  Our very origins began in His love.

Pilgrimages

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split (‭Matthew‬ ‭27‬:‭51‬ NIV)
I had the great privilege of touring while here in Israel.  The first day we walked where Jesus lived his early life in Nazereth, Canna, Capurnuum, and His baptismal site on the Jordan river. Yesterday we went to Jerusalem and went from Mount of Olives through the Garden of Gethsemene, to the wailing wall and down the Via Dolorosa completing the final stages of the cross in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It all happened so fast, I could scarcely take it in and pause to understand what the vast and most important sites in all of history had to say to me.
What I walked away with, especially as I departed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the incredibly overdone icons, chandeliers (I'm sure I'm not using the correct word for them), and other signs of homage cheapened my journey.  To me, the most fascinating thing was the rock into which they dropped the cross and the fact that excavation underneath revealed a large split - just as scripture says.  I admired the many people lighting candles and pausing to pray over mosaics, icons, and other symbols at each station, but then it struck me hard that we don't worship a God who is of this world. We don't need to make pilgrimages to a Holy site to draw near to God or demonstrate our love and devotion to him. God is.  He is not here or there or worse gone, He is.  Following His ascension, Jesus sent the promised Holy Spirit who dwells in each of us that make the simple, but life giving choice to accept Him.  The Holy sites were incredible.  I'm sorry, but the excessive Eastern Orthodox symbols repleat throughout were tacky to me and cheapened the experience.  I'm positive that these were placed by well-intentioned people that are 10x or more the Christian that I am, but one thing I do know is that God goes with me where I go.  I didn't have to come here to be near him. I can draw close to him anytime and anyplace, because He is.  I'm thankful that I worship a living God who has placed himself in me and isn't represented by a symbol or a place. He is represented by devoted followers who do what he said to do: love Him and obey Him by loving others. This is a mission we don't have to travel to the Holy Land to execute.
Today I pray that as I go about my work and other activities, I may be a true ambassador of the one true God who lives not in symbology in Jerusalem, but truly lives and breathes in the lives of today's disciples.  May I not dishonor that responsibility.