Tag: Christ

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Worthwhile Worship

Many churches divide their services into at least two parts, praise and worship as one, the other, the sermon. But, is worship just singing hymns and praise choruses? Might it include preparing my heart the night before for corporate worship with repentance and thanksgiving? Does it encompass entering the sanctuary reverently and joyfully? Giving a word of encouragement to the person God has placed next to me in the pew? Lifting songs to the Lord, with the choir, voicing adoration to Him? Anticipating the reading of the Word with respect? Listening eagerly to my pastor, prayed for often during the prior week, proclaim the message, diligently prepared in the power of the Spirit—with sheer wonder that God accomplishes in each individual heart exactly what He intends? Could leaving the sanctuary with sobriety and joy in my heart—and service to my neighbor in my resolve be an act of worship?

Worship is to be a way of life—formally, privately, in the mundane, in the consequential. Rising up, lying down, cleaning baseboards, teaching school, caring for the incapable, writing for blogs. All to God’s glory. It doesn’t come easily or naturally. We are so earthly-minded. We like ourselves so much. Worship is something intentional and must be practiced. It derives from being “in awe” of something or someone, transfixed—and awe transforms or intensifies our desires and dispositions. Awe focused on things or people is misplaced with exaggerated affections leading to improper attitudes or actions. Putting on Christ, seeking to know Him in all His beauty and magnificence, being consumed with Him will benefit every area of our lives as the overflow causes desires to become aligned with His will, thoughts and actions working toward putting Christ on display, appetites whetted for more of God.

How do we do this? By being in His Word, regularly sitting under sound biblical preaching, focusing on Him before His table, fellowshipping with like-minded others. If we neglect the Word we tend to create our own little comfortable rules for worship. If we really love Him, we will desire to know Him and love Him in the way which pleases Him. Scripture is our originating and final authority for whom God is and how acceptable worship looks.

Colossians 1 always lifts my heart to Him. It concerns the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in pre-eminent splendor. It was written to demolish the false teaching that Jesus is not God nor sufficient for all we need. Paul is a master at concisely telling us who Jesus is.

Following instructions in how to walk in a manner worthy of our calling as Christ-followers—after telling us we can, with steadfast joy in God’s goodness face all the reversals and downturns of life without chafing, teeth-gritting, or grumbling because of His power, not our own—after telling us we have been given to Christ, the Son of the Father’s love (incredible thought)—Paul wants to assure our hearts regarding the authority undergirding these blessings.

Our hearts, already stirred to worship, are now directed to even higher thoughts. Not to the gifts, but to the giver Himself. If any confusion lingers in the recesses of the readers’ minds, the author zeroes in on exactly who this Son of the Father’s love is. Paul demands attention with our reasoning powers, our spiritual eyes, and points us relentlessly to this Son, the one who bought us back from the slave market of our true moral guilt before God, the One who alone is able to forgive our sins because of His death on our behalf, replacing enemy status for friend.

This Son is the exact image, the exact likeness of the Father, His manifestation in a human body. Not an imperfect image as we are. The exact image. He is God Himself, omnipotent and altogether holy.

He, being uncreated, ranks above all in creation—having created all that is visible and invisible, reigning supreme now and forever. Christ set the universe in motion, but has not left it alone, robotic-like to do its thing, but actively holds every atom, every molecule together, preventing explosion and chaos. He controls earthquakes and floods and every beating heart. For as long as He deems, His hand is upon night turning to day and the continually changing seasons in their cycles. He is God the Son and life exists because He holds it all together.

Paul continues his description. As the head and brain rule the body, Christ is head of His body, the church, guiding it, giving its members dynamic power, the same power which raised Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, the first one who was raised never to die again—unlike those other miraculous raisings in Scripture, those resurrected ones always dying again in time and space. And this forever resurrected Christ has brought all His children to Himself in right relationship and will reconcile all things to Himself on a certain day of His own choosing. Then, Jesus will give us who are in His kingdom, the Father’s love gift, back to the Father and we will live together, perfectly worshipping the triune God forever.

Dear sister, meditate on these things. Awe is transformative. Awe of Him enables us to be thankful for that wayward child, recognizing that it is God alone who does the rescuing. It empowers us to praise God in the middle of that turbulent relationship or fearful diagnosis knowing that God is up to something good in my life because He is good.

Some day every knee will bow before His majesty, some willingly out of love and gratitude, others by force, remaining in rebellion. May we be numbered among the true worshippers. Like Peter and John in Acts 4, may we live and breathe in such a way that others will realize we’ve spent time with Jesus as everything we are and do becomes an act of worship of our King, the Son of the Father’s love.

Worshipping Christ with you,

Cherry

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Creation Glory

Dear Sister,

Sitting on the beach in the late afternoon with the foamy  water lapping at my feet, looking at the vast swathe of sea and sky, listening to the cries of gulls, watching baby crabs dig their holes, schools of teeny fishes darting this way and that, the bodies of lifeless jellyfish lying on the sand, my mind tends to wander and be astounded at the bigness and limitlessness of the universe. That ball of fire we call sun begins its apparent disappearing act this side of the globe, yet still lighting that other sphere we call moon, causing the great sweep of dark, rippling water beneath to shimmer and glisten in the night. The sheer creativity involved in this place we live, this tiny speck of seemingly never-ending pulsing of life and silence of death can overwhelm. If I think too long and hard it renders me feeling insignificant.

My daughter who has special needs is a creator. She designs and draws and paints and writes. She does these things with paper and pencils, brushes and tempera paint. Those things we bought at a store. The store’s buyer purchased them through a distributor who obtained them through a manufacturer, who procured raw materials from other distributors, and on and on. What is common amongst all these players, including my daughter, is the fact that everything made was made from something else. Nothing was made out of nothing.

We cannot fathom the creation of something out of nothing. Our brains cannot process such musings. Scientists have forever tried to explain the origin of our universe, some attributing it to a self-existent, never-created God, but most have tried (with widespread public success) to accommodate creation to human reasoning which often ends sounding quite foolish and unreasonable.

The Scriptures tell us that God, without beginning or ending, created our intricate, spectacular, staggering universe with all its particulars, seen and unseen, known and unknown out of nothing. Listen to a few TED talks, watch Animal Planet, National Geographic and be amazed at our world conceived and spoken into being by our almighty God. Look up in the night sky and ponder the vastness of the universe beyond imagination. Sit with me on the beach and envision the unseen creatures roaming the inky depths of the ocean. Contemplate the immobilizing power of the hurricane, the flood, the earthquake. Reflect on molecules and cells, DNA, proteins, electrons and all those things my mind fails to grasp.

Beyond all these magnificent and sometimes unnerving results of omnipotence, there remains a quiet and unfathomable creation the physicists, the biologists, the chemists, the astronomers cannot see with their microscopes and telescopes. Almighty and fearful God of this universe, condescending to His creation, choosing a people for Himself created in His image for His own possession, brings to life within us a new heart, a heart after His own heart. Looking at our own darkness before Christ possessed us only to create in us new fleshy hearts responsive to His Spirit, we are the most amazing of all His creations. This incredible world will burn up, but the new creation He made in His people will never be consumed. We will live forever and ever and ever—in His presence—to His praise and glory—in a new heaven and earth of His own creation.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17

Be still, dear Sister. Think about these things.  Be overwhelmed. Be humbled. Know that our God, He is God.

Worshipping Him with you,

Cherry

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Hope in the Forest of Life

My family has had many changes recently. Since November, we have flown to Ethiopia to bring back our 18 month old twins, said goodbye to sweet friends, packed up our lives and memories in Okinawa, Japan, flew from Seattle to Boulder to Virginia and then to Kentucky visiting friends and family, moved to Puerto Rico, and are still waiting for our household goods to land so we can move into our new home. We have lived out of 4 suitcases, 2 pack and plays, 3 car seats, and backpacks for the entire time. I’ve had shingles, we have all been sick in bed, and Barrett started his new job. I wish I could tell you we weathered all this with grace, joy, and peace while trusting in the Lord’s Providence, but that would be a lie.

I’ve been short and mean with my children, I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself and, worst of all, I did not enjoy my husband and kids…and sadly, this revealed that my hope and joy were dependent on them rather than Christ! But that is another lesson for another time.

Dear sister, your story might not look exactly like mine, but you know that you have a circumstance, relationship, or depression that has left you like me: crying out to God, begging Him to help because you hate living this hypocritical life of saying you trust Him in all things yet your life was far from showing it. Own it friend. Acknowledge the sin you are holding on to of unforgiveness, jealousy, control, anxiety, or pride that has produced its fruit in your difficult time, leaving you feeling like life is hopeless. Oh sweet sister, you need to acknowledge the weight of this sin. You need to grasp how any one of these sins can push your life into the path of hopelessness. Don’t be afraid; don’t look away. Because it’s right here, when our sin bears down so hard, that the grace Jesus won for you at the cross will restore your hope and lift up your head!

What is this grace? Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. It’s my husband buying me a cupcake on the way home when we still aren’t OK. It’s my kids waking up cheering after I blew up at them the night before. But ultimately, grace is Jesus taking my sins—trying to control my husband and kids, losing my patience, not being kind to my neighbor, being jealous of the life SHE has, and fearing that life isn’t working out the way I planned—and nailing it to the cross. He bore the weight of God’s wrath on Himself for me. For ugly, sometimes unrepentant me! And then, don’t miss this, and THEN, he gave me His righteousness. He made me perfect in God’s eyes. This is grace! When God sees me, He doesn’t see the sin that deserves his wrath, He sees His perfect son and accepts me.

This is our hope! This is the big picture we can’t forget while walking in the son-blocking path in the forest of life. This grace reminds us that we are forgiven and have the hope of heaven! We have Christ forever!

Please don’t misunderstand me that all hardship is caused by personal sin, yet His grace on us should still bring us hope. When everything falls down around us, we know that we are forgiven and righteous because of the grace of Christ. Oh Lord, as we meditate on your grace, may that give us hope in hard times and motivate us to give grace to others.

Your sister in Christ,

Colleen

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The Dark Alley of Unbelief

My dearest sister in Christ,

I am writing this letter to you today with a humble heart.  Forgive me for not writing to you sooner.  I must admit that even though life has been hectic and at times even chaotic, the primary reason for this letter’s delay is the subject matter.

Each time I have set out to put my thoughts to you in order, I have been challenged by my own heart’s attitude.  I could easily write to you with what it means to be submissive and even offer a few helpful “how to” tips.  Those are good and noble for sure.

However, as I have examined my own heart (as best as I possibly could with the help of the Holy Spirit) it seems to me that the greatest help, the best encouragement that I can offer to you in this matter, is that it is a matter of the heart.  So, I must ask; where does your heart lie?  How is it positioned with regards to submission?  To whom does your heart belong, even?

It is at this place that we ALL must start: “For where your treasure is, there you will also find your heart.” (Matthew 6:21) Really, truly, everything comes down to the matter of the heart which is why Solomon wrote “Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus warned the religious zealots; “… what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:18)

We say we love Christ.  We avow it is our heart’s desire to follow Him all the days of our lives.  We say we might even go to the farthest reaches of this globe (earth) to proclaim His Truth and Beauty.  Yet, in the matter of submitting to our husbands there is that devilish little word…”but” which negates any lovely intention we have to obey the Word of God.  Once we add that little three letter word to the end of our intention we remove the sincerity of our vows.  That little word is a detour within our hearts which mostly reside on the avenue of Trust and Obey.  The detour takes us down the dark alley of Unbelief that weaves in and around our hearts like a maze.

This is the culprit that lurks within all of our hearts, and when they are tested  (and they will be) they will come face to face with Unbelief.  Do I trust what God has said to be true?  Do I believe that God is Good? Do I trust that in His perfect time and way all will be revealed and that justice belongs to Him alone?

There is no way for me to know from what perspective your heart is reading this letter today.  God alone is the heart knower.  However, I can tell you, I feel I must even warn you that circumstances often distort our perspectives.  Just as a pilot must constantly look to the instruments of the airplane to determine the position of the aircraft in relation to the horizon, we must always check the position of our heart in relation to God and His Word. He will always right our perspective.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He tenderly cares for those who are His and He is jealous for His own. He promises to bring us through the storm and just as we begin to sink in the ocean of despair He holds out His hand to rescue us. He has given us a spirit of adoption as children by whom we cry “Abba!” “Father!”

Stop, and ask yourself; where is my heart’s position at this moment? Come out from that dark alley of Unbelief dear sister and walk with Christ along the Avenue of Trust and Obey. 

Steadfastly,

Susan

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One-Flesh

Dear Sisters,
The other day, our eldest asked—we knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time until one of the kids did—“Dad, did you fall in love with Mom the first time you met?” She was almost breathless with the anticipated Disney love story. Ryan replied, “No.”
Stunned silence. (I can laugh, now.) Honestly, at that time of our meeting, neither one of us thought of the other in the starry, dreamy way many movies tend to portray lovers. In fact, there are still moments that we don’t feel that Disney-magic for each other. However, we can both look back to one moment in time when we jointly, before witnesses and more importantly, before God, swore to marry one another, to meet each other’s needs in spite of difficulties or comfort, and to remain with each other until death.

At our wedding, something new and unique was created. Something to be nurtured and fed—a part of both Ryan and myself—something God mixed and intended to be strong and full. In the beginning, God made woman from man. He brought her to Adam who recognized Eve was made from his body and then God said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24. Sexually one, yes—but ‘one flesh’ is much more than that small part of our lives.
Too often individuals seem to enter marriage thinking and acting as if they continue to be separate individuals with separate bank accounts and separate medical history—together for the benefit of the feelings they receive from the other, independent in other parts of their lives they wish to reserve for themselves. Because of this, once the feelings recede or difficulties surface, it seems all too easy to ‘dissolve’ the marriage. Unfortunately, it is easy to divorce (on paper)—but the destruction of a living, breathing marriage is a travesty. I have wept bitter tears hearing of and seeing the end of marriages of friends. My heart is wrung wondering about the children—and knowing both halves of the torn marriage are shattered. Yet, thanks be to God!—even in the midst of divorce, God is our Redeemer and our Hope! I am so grateful that even my worst decisions are not a hindrance to His great plans for me—simply something He uses to teach His child and to ultimately accomplish His plan (Romans 8:28).

Marriage was not created to be a simple ‘social contract’—cancelled when its usefulness runs out—though marriages do benefit society in protecting the family and raising adults who can function in our world, to their own and others’ benefit. The process of becoming ‘one flesh’ was a glimpse of Christ interacting with His Church. He loves the Church even to the point of sacrificing His life for her, and she is to respect Him. Paul calls it a “great mystery” in Ephesians. Certainly Jesus’ thoughts and actions are mysterious—wholly unlike our self-tainted views. I mean—sacrifice? Who in their right minds marches up to the altar and commits to sacrifice for someone else?!

There is a great amount of flowery love-talk, but the actual “doing” of love is often absent. A wedding is like the vision you have when someone says they are going to the hospital to give birth to a baby. You picture a cute, cuddly, clean, sleeping baby. However, after birthing five children, I can tell you, the vision is more realistically a frazzled dad hovering over a sweating, yelling woman who works the hardest she ever has to produce an equally noisy, messy baby.

So, our earthly ‘one flesh’ process is quite a lot less of the mysterious and dreamy one-ness and a heck of a lot more like the messy, hard work one-ness. That hard work is our forever curse here on earth: saying, “No” to my own selfish desires, and seeking instead to serve the other. We create something beautiful together here on earth, though: a marriage together—beauty that Christ likewise intends for His bride.

Running with you,
Rebecca