Infinite God, Best Friend

This morning's song is "Reach" by Peter Furler. This song speaks of how great God is and how great His love for us. The part going through my mind currently is: "So many people in this world, but I hear you calling out my name. You reach for me. Now I'm never gonna to be the same."

What I like about this song is how it speaks of God's infinite ability. Not only is He the one that holds this world and all the rest of the universe together and in its proper place, but He cares about His creation as well. I am but an insignificant spec in the whole of creation and yet He cares enough about me to call me by name! Think about this, He didn't just call you, saying, "Hey, you! Come here." No, He knew you, He knows you, better than even you know yourself. He called you out by name. The infinite God of the universe, the Creator of all things, took observance of your life and knows you.

This is life changing knowledge. This is being the outcast among many people and suddenly the most famous person you can think of walks up to you, puts their arm around you and says hi, but more surprisingly they know your name and many things about you and they want to spend time with you, to be your close, intimate friend.  We have a God who is so much bigger and more wonderful than anyone else we could ever hope to encounter in this world and He has taken notice of us. We may not be much on our own but because of Him we are very special indeed. Our salvation is from the greatest being one could ever know and He has decided to know our name. Take comfort today in knowing that God watches over you and gently calls you to Him, that He is your closest and best friend and you can go to Him about anything.

He Loves Me

As often happens I woke up this morning with a song in my head. Normally, because of the music I typically listen to, it is a song of worship to God, or at least a piece of the song. Today isn't much different, today's song was "You Love Me Anyway" from Sidewalk Prophets. The part of the song that keeps playing in my head is the part that goes: I am the thorn in your crown, but you love me anyway.

As a sinner I am most definitely that thorn, and a mighty thorn I must be. Though I try to do what is right, my efforts are tainted with sin and they are not worth anything to the God of the universe. It doesn't matter what efforts I make, there is no denying that I am the thorn in the crown of Christ as He went to the cross. But despite this, I still know that God loves me.

It doesn't matter what I've done or what I find myself continuing to do because of my fallen nature, I am loved by God. He chose to save me, to spare me from His wrath so that one day I can look forward to the eternal life that was promised to those who believe in the saving power of Christ. The only reason I believe is because God opened my eyes. There was nothing in me that desired to be freed, but God did it anyway and now I can freely hear and sing this song and know the truth of it. That despite who I am God still loves me with a never ending, unfailing love. Thank you Lord for saving me, for showing me your love even though I do not deserve it.

Change, Moving Into Something New

I was thinking last night as I was getting ready for bed about my day today. Today I start a new position at work, one that I am certain was a gift from God. I am looking forward to going in to start this new position and to learn all the things that I must learn, I am a bit nervous about keeping up, but who isn't when things change? More than anything I am aware of what an opportunity I have been given and I have faith that God will make it into something great as He has always been faithful to do with all the situations that have come about in my life. Because of the change that starts today there will be other changes, but I hope to make the most of them as they come. Today I am enjoying the extra time I have in the morning to sit and reflect on God and His goodness in this.

Change is a wonderful thing, seasons come and go, each one bringing its uniqueness to the world. Each one has a purpose and in a way we can look forward to them all. Our lives contain many seasons in it as well, each one bringing changes. In this season I feel God is calling me to be wiser with my time and to devote more to Him, which should always be my goal but it isn't always practiced to the best of my ability. I look forward to this change more so for the chance to grow in God and in faith of Him, to see how He uses this life change to reshape who I am as a man of God. My only prayer is that I grow as He is intending me to and I don't miss out on the opportunities that He has for me.

The Word of Freedom

Last night I was having a dream, I'm not sure the purpose of it and I cannot remember all of it either, however what I do remember was quite interesting, especially when you bring it into a different light.

In the dream the world was ruled by an alien entity simply referred to as the Emperor. This being used its technology to brainwash everyone, making them all worship him and to do as he desired. I was a fugitive, one who had not yet been brainwashed, and I was fleeing from his minions. I was successful at evading them for a time, but eventually they caught me and took me to the Emperor who used his device against me. The device was supposed to make me worship him and also changed my appearance a bit so that I could be identified as a particular type of person in his society. I was placed at the bottom, a fool as they were referred to, and to prove it I was given multi-colored hair. After the change was done I was released into one of the large chambers where a group of people stayed, there was only the person who brought me here with me at the time. Once I was sure it was safe I approached the person, I had not been brainwashed as they assumed and I believed I knew a word that would undo the brainwashing, which was why it didn't work on me. So once I was by this person I whispered in their ear the word and instantly they were restored to their former mindset. We kept our ruse going as the rest of the people who lived in this chamber returned and I freed a few more of them as the opportunity showed itself. I had to be quick and discrete about it so that I wouldn't be discovered, but each one that I shared the word with was instantly freed from their brainwashing and joined me in my quest.

The dream contained other parts as well, but I think these are the parts I want to talk about today. It didn't matter the role I had been in during the dream or who the other people were, the important thing was that all the people were slaves to this Emperor, who can be compared to Sin, and there was a way to set the people free. In all the world people are slaves to their sins and they may not even be aware of it or they may worship it so much that they do not see it for what it is. In the dream I was someone who was not a slave and could not be made a slave, this can be compared to being a Christian, for the Lord protects those who He has set free. Then the most important part of it all, a word that sets others free, this is clearly the gospel being shared to unbelievers. It is the Word alone who sets the sinner free and without Him there is no salvation from sin and no escaping from the slavery that it has you in.

So my dream seems to be a representation of the life that we are living in, there are those of us who are free and cannot be made slaves again because we know the Word. Because we know this Word we must share it with others so that they can be freed as well and then encourage them to continue on, spreading the Word that brings freedom from slavery. Isn't it amazing how simple God made it to set the sinner free? Though not all are saved from hearing the gospel, it is no less amazing how incredibly simple our role in this whole process is. We share the Word that we know and then God can use this to set them free from their slavery.

Lord, Help Me!

This is the cry of my prayers tonight. It is a hard fight we have here in this world and we are too weak to make any headway, no sooner do we think we wound the enemy than we see that not only is the wound we perceived upon him false but we have instead inflicted a deeper wound upon ourselves. By thinking we could fight this fight at all on our own we do more harm than good. We look to ourselves for the strength to persevere and forget to look to the only one who has the strength to overcome. This strength that He wields He gives to those who ask, but you must ask to get it, for He will not let you think that it was yours but instead will wait for you to call upon Him in despair and ask for what you need so that when the victory comes you will know it was from Him and not from anything you could do. Oh, that I would ask for this daily, but I do not. I rely so much on my own strength and fail so many times that I do not know what victory looks like. Then I turn to Him, and only when I do this, I finally see what victory is. Victory is on my knees in prayer, begging my God and Savior to help me, to give me strength to stand against my enemies, to overcome the weaknesses of my own flesh. Oh Lord, how much do I wish to walk in your ways, to seek your glory, to fight against the ways of this world and to keep my focus on You! Lord, please, help me!

Provision for Today

From Morning and Evening: Daily Readings by Charles Spurgeon under Morning, December 14
"Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace."

Oh how this quote speaks to me! So easy is it to forget that God is in control of all things and that as a believer He has given you strength for all of them. There isn't a day that goes by with all its afflictions that He did not prepare you for, and even if you do not do well for a particular affliction it is not for a lack of provision but rather forgetting to use the things the Lord has provided for you. We all do this, forget that He has given us what we need for each day. Sometimes I think we try to hold onto what has been given to us for fear that we will need it tomorrow, however when tomorrow comes what we held has wasted away and we have been provided with new in its place. This does not mean we have no work to do to prepare, we must familiarize ourselves with the things we were provided. Daily reading of scripture, prayer, preaching to ourselves the good news, these are the things we must be doing in order to ready the tools God has given us. Once the tools are ready then we must continue to keep them ready for use, our day should be filled with prayer and preaching. By memorizing scriptures we can continue to speak them to ourselves so that the tools are always at hand. Our prayers don't even have to be all that lengthy, sometimes a brief "God help me" is sufficient enough to remind us that we do not go about our tasks alone and unprepared, so we do not need to fear what is coming. Each day, every day, there is provision for it, it is given by God, let us not leave it behind but rather take it and prepare it to be used and not in part but in whole, for all of it is intended for the day it was given.

The Cost

This past Sunday we had a guest speaker. During the sermon he was giving he told the story of John Griffith, a bridge operator. His job was to man a bridge spanning over the Mississippi river, to open it for ships to pass and to close it for trains to cross. Now, I have since the sermon looked online for more information about the story and have seen a couple different ways it is told, but they are all basically the same. John took his 8 year old son with him one day to work. The boy was delighted to be with his father and to see what he does and the father was overjoyed to have his son with him, to be able to spend this time with him. At some point during the day the father is caught off guard by a train approaching the bridge to cross, however the bridge is up. His son at this point had either fallen or wandered into the gears that control the bridge and if he were to close the bridge the gears would crush his son. There is no time to save the son and the people in the train. Faced with this dilemma the father has to make a choice as to who he allows to die, his son or the people on the train. He makes the difficult choice that he knows he has to make and pulls the lever to lower the bridge, sacrificing his son so that many might live.

Now, some may argue the validity of this story, however I would argue that it doesn't matter. This story is one that allows us to see the cost of our own salvation. God was the father who had to sacrifice His Son so that many might be saved and be given life and Jesus was the son who died. Now the biggest difference between these two stories is that Jesus wasn't just there, he had to be there. If Jesus had not been there to give His life then none would have been saved. Think of it this way, Jesus had to stand on the gears to hold a piece in place while they functioned and He knew full well that doing this would cost Him his life. To choose to give your life for another is not something most people would do, and to give the life of your son would not be your first choice either, but this was the plan that they created. God gave up His most precious Son for us, to die in our place so that we could have eternal life with Him. Now most of the tellings of John's story say that he looked upon the passing train and saw the passengers and all of them were completely oblivious to what he had just done for them, they didn't know he had given his best for them so that they could live. God gave His best for us, but we know the story and know what He gave. So in light of this knowledge, lets make sure the other passengers on this train see what we see, that God gave the most precious thing that the world could ever know so that they might live.