Today at church, we watched a video of a sermon from a praise conference. I don't remember who the preacher was and I don't know when it was taped, but I know it had a powerful effect.
Without getting into details about why it was such a moving sermon, just know that a Southern Baptist congregation of mostly senior citizens were standing on their feet in resopnse to the preacher's testimony about the power of prayer.
The bottom line of the sermon was simple and convicting: above all else, God's house is to be a house of prayer. It doesn't matter what your denomination (or lack thereof) dictates about how a service should go. The music was never meant to be the focal point, and neither was the preaching. The temple in Jerusalem had both, but the ultimate purpose for all of it is to encourage prayer.
The preacher said that it is through prayer that we meet God, that prayer is the channel of all God wants to give us or remove from our lives. Prayer is how we approach the Throne of Grace.
We can think of the Throne of Grace as God's opperating table. That's where he transplants the old man for the new man. It's where he removes the cancer of sin from our lives. It's where He gives us the transfusion of Jesus' blood. Our whole relationship with God starts and survives on prayer.
Without downplaying any of the parts of a typical service (music, preaching, tithes and offerings, bpatisms, the Lord's Supper, etc.), the whole purpose of our public gatherings is to ensure that each individual has that intimate, individual, private moment with God where He holds us, corrects us, comforts us, saves us, fixes us, does all that He would do with us. That place is only accessable through prayer.
"My House Shall Be Called A House of Prayer"
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Of God and Concepts
God is a just God. God is also a God of love. Most people, Christian or otherwise, believe in these characteristics of God. We believe with good reason. Deuteronomy 32:4 says of God, "He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He." Likewise, 1 John 4:8 tells us that "God is love." As Christians, it is wise for us to consider what Scripture tells us on a deeper level than understanding at a glance.
God's justice is something we tend to minimize in the church, in my experience. I think a great summation of our view of God's justice is found in a Reliant K song, "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." We know that God's justice is tempered with mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting the evil you deserve, grace is getting the good that you don't deserve. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things we need to get straight about God's justice.
First, Psalm 7:11 says "God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day." It's 7:11 because it's always open for business. I've explored the fear of God recently, so I think I've laid enough groundwork to say that God is still going to have the final say, with justice, and leave it at that. Second, even though we believe in mercy and grace as well as God's justice, we still cry out to God that something "isn't fair." It is good that we bring our feelings to God, but it is wrong to hold something against Him in our own heart because somebody else gets what we want. How many times has God given you what someone else wanted? Chances are that the person who gets what you want doesn't know how it's affecting you, just as you probably have no clue how many people are affected by your getting what they want.
Let's take a look at God's love. This is the source of mercy and grace with which God's justice is tempered. Countless people have asked "if God is a loving God, then why do bad things happen?" This is a challenging question, not because it's so complicated (although I wouldn't claim that it isn't), but because our role in understanding the way God works is very simple.
I've heard a few preachers say that when Jesus was crucified, it was the nexus (the meeting point) of God's love and justice. Some go so far as to gesture that one crucified arm represents God's justice (usually the right hand, I think) and the other represents God's love. We can symbolically say (of the symbols just described) that God put justice and love on the cross. Why would I say that? Because it illustrates my main point: God is bigger than concepts.
We cry out that God isn't being fair, as if we could appeal to justice as something God Himself must bow to. We ask how God can be love and still let bad things happen. Hebrews 6:13 says "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." If justice or love were bigger than God or above God, wouldn't He have sworn by them? But the scripture says "because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." God is God! Not justice, not even love, just God! Within Him, justice and love are in their completeness, yet God is still bigger than the both of them! Because He is God, everything He does is automatically right! God doesn't have to answer to anyone, least of all man, who was created in His image, and not the other way around! God isn't being fair? God invented fair! How can God love us and still allow evil? God is love, but love isn't God. He expresses the fullness of love to us in the cross of Jesus Christ, and there's still room in Him for other things! That's why the answer to the question "how can God love us and let bad things happen" is so hard; it's hard because it's simple. God is God, I am not, He can do as He pleases, and as harsh as it sounds, I should be thankful that He even gives me a hint that He might exist, let alone send His only Son to the Cross for the likes of me!
Read Isaiah 40. Read Job 38-42. Read all of those chapters, and think about them the next time you want to sit in judgement of God.
God's justice is something we tend to minimize in the church, in my experience. I think a great summation of our view of God's justice is found in a Reliant K song, "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." We know that God's justice is tempered with mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting the evil you deserve, grace is getting the good that you don't deserve. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things we need to get straight about God's justice.
First, Psalm 7:11 says "God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day." It's 7:11 because it's always open for business. I've explored the fear of God recently, so I think I've laid enough groundwork to say that God is still going to have the final say, with justice, and leave it at that. Second, even though we believe in mercy and grace as well as God's justice, we still cry out to God that something "isn't fair." It is good that we bring our feelings to God, but it is wrong to hold something against Him in our own heart because somebody else gets what we want. How many times has God given you what someone else wanted? Chances are that the person who gets what you want doesn't know how it's affecting you, just as you probably have no clue how many people are affected by your getting what they want.
Let's take a look at God's love. This is the source of mercy and grace with which God's justice is tempered. Countless people have asked "if God is a loving God, then why do bad things happen?" This is a challenging question, not because it's so complicated (although I wouldn't claim that it isn't), but because our role in understanding the way God works is very simple.
I've heard a few preachers say that when Jesus was crucified, it was the nexus (the meeting point) of God's love and justice. Some go so far as to gesture that one crucified arm represents God's justice (usually the right hand, I think) and the other represents God's love. We can symbolically say (of the symbols just described) that God put justice and love on the cross. Why would I say that? Because it illustrates my main point: God is bigger than concepts.
We cry out that God isn't being fair, as if we could appeal to justice as something God Himself must bow to. We ask how God can be love and still let bad things happen. Hebrews 6:13 says "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." If justice or love were bigger than God or above God, wouldn't He have sworn by them? But the scripture says "because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." God is God! Not justice, not even love, just God! Within Him, justice and love are in their completeness, yet God is still bigger than the both of them! Because He is God, everything He does is automatically right! God doesn't have to answer to anyone, least of all man, who was created in His image, and not the other way around! God isn't being fair? God invented fair! How can God love us and still allow evil? God is love, but love isn't God. He expresses the fullness of love to us in the cross of Jesus Christ, and there's still room in Him for other things! That's why the answer to the question "how can God love us and let bad things happen" is so hard; it's hard because it's simple. God is God, I am not, He can do as He pleases, and as harsh as it sounds, I should be thankful that He even gives me a hint that He might exist, let alone send His only Son to the Cross for the likes of me!
Read Isaiah 40. Read Job 38-42. Read all of those chapters, and think about them the next time you want to sit in judgement of God.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Reverance and Relevance Part Two, "Why?"
I am posing this question for a few reasons, and I’ll list them in an honest order. First, I see a lack of the fear of God in others. I say this because of how easy it is for Christians to treat each other so poorly. I saw it initially in my own age-group, but I have come to believe that in all generations (even the elders who grew up being taught the fear of God) there is an unfortunate lack of fear. Second, that makes me look at myself and see a lack of the fear of God. The manifestation of the lack of fear in my own life is sin. It just seems too easy. Third, both of these make me ponder the role of the Fear of God in the life of the believer. My understanding at this point is centered on Hebrews 12:10-11:
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
As a child, I dearly loved my parents, but I can also recall several times when I feared them. The first episode that comes to mind is one of my early elementary school teachers having me clean my shoes after having played in the mud. I remember cleaning out the treads with a stick as I was crying, and I kept repeating “my parents are gonna' kill me!”
As a result of this scripture and my own experience that I pray lends understanding to my relationship with God (I happen to view earthly relationships as shadows and metaphors of eternal relationships), I submit that the fear of God is especially important in our training for righteousness as immature believers. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” This scripture implies to me that fear is a part of the growing process. It seems to say that love replaces fear, and I would say our natural relationships with our parents (if they’re good parents) follow a similar development.
The girl who grows up with a “friend-mom” (tries to be cool with the younger generation, would rather party with her daughter than limit her “fun” because she’s too weak to let her daughter be mad at her for a few days for having done the right thing) loves her mom at the time. But when she’s grown up, she’s screwed up, and begins to resent her mother. The same happens with parents who are overbearing and much too strict, to be fair. The child whose parents set reasonable limitations and weren’t afraid to suffer the wrath of their children for having done the right thing even when it’s inconvenient, however, shifts from fearing as a child to respecting as a young adult to loving , appreciating, and imitating as a parent in the future. That’s what I understand the role of the fear of God to be, and that’s why I ask whether we’ve traded it for relevance. Perhaps another way to phrase the question is whether God is like a friend-mom, and if not, why do we treat Him that way?
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
As a child, I dearly loved my parents, but I can also recall several times when I feared them. The first episode that comes to mind is one of my early elementary school teachers having me clean my shoes after having played in the mud. I remember cleaning out the treads with a stick as I was crying, and I kept repeating “my parents are gonna' kill me!”
As a result of this scripture and my own experience that I pray lends understanding to my relationship with God (I happen to view earthly relationships as shadows and metaphors of eternal relationships), I submit that the fear of God is especially important in our training for righteousness as immature believers. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” This scripture implies to me that fear is a part of the growing process. It seems to say that love replaces fear, and I would say our natural relationships with our parents (if they’re good parents) follow a similar development.
The girl who grows up with a “friend-mom” (tries to be cool with the younger generation, would rather party with her daughter than limit her “fun” because she’s too weak to let her daughter be mad at her for a few days for having done the right thing) loves her mom at the time. But when she’s grown up, she’s screwed up, and begins to resent her mother. The same happens with parents who are overbearing and much too strict, to be fair. The child whose parents set reasonable limitations and weren’t afraid to suffer the wrath of their children for having done the right thing even when it’s inconvenient, however, shifts from fearing as a child to respecting as a young adult to loving , appreciating, and imitating as a parent in the future. That’s what I understand the role of the fear of God to be, and that’s why I ask whether we’ve traded it for relevance. Perhaps another way to phrase the question is whether God is like a friend-mom, and if not, why do we treat Him that way?
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