I'll Trust in You

I will live to love you,
I will live to bring You praise,
I will live a child in awe of You...

You alone are God of all.
You alone are worthy, Lord.
And will all I have my soul will bless your name.


(Another great performance by my church's worship band.)

Leave the Results to Him

I enjoyed this One-Minute Daily Devotion, so I'm sharing it with you. It is so true that we must seek to raise our children according to their individual "bent" because each and every one of us is unique!

Again, this is copied from a devotional, not my own words:
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'That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.' - Hebrews 12:16-17

"Esau and Jacob. Same mother, same father, twins. Raised the same way with the same belief system. But you would never meet two more diverse persons on the face of the earth.

When you have children of the same sex that are close in age, there are going to be some very fascinating dynamics. They have come from the same parents. They’ve been raised in the same household. How can they be so incredibly different? But every child is unique and has to be parented differently. A parent will often lament to me about problems they're having with one child while another child is doing splendidly. The parent will say, "You know, pastor, I've raised 'em the same way." And I think to myself, "That's the problem." You cannot raise any child the same way and expect it to be a fruitful venture. Children are not robots. They each have their own unique talents, individual interests and varying temperaments.

Remember, parents, only God knows the ultimate plan He has for our children. Only He knows how it's going to ultimately play out. The role of the parent is to seek to shape our children and to understand how to parent them uniquely. We raise them with love, fairness, discipline, and teaching in hopes that our children will one day be able to grasp the grace of God. We pray that one day they'll come to the realization that they are sinners and do not deserve God’s favor or blessing. We pray that they claim the grace of God, and allow Him to transform their life through Jesus Christ. And in the process, some of our children are going to choose to claim that grace and repent, and some are not. Do your best, pray for God's guidance, and leave the results in the hands of God."

I Know Him

"But in the past, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now... how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces?" Galatians 4:8-9

Because I spent so many years not living for Christ, I have sometimes wondered when I truly became a Christian. After much thought and prayer, I would now say that I did indeed become a Christian when I professed faith in Christ and was baptized at about age ten. But I did not really know God.

For many years, my relationship with God was like my relationship with the senior pastor of my church. I go to a wonderful but very large church, so I don't really know our senior pastor personally. I've had a few very brief conversations with him; I've shaken his hand a few times; some of my good friends know him well and speak very highly of him; I've learned a good bit about his heart through hearing him preach. But I don't KNOW him. We aren't, as Anne Shirley (of Green Gables) would say, "bosom friends." That's how it was with me and God for many years. I had friends who knew Him and spoke highly of Him; I'd had a few brief conversations with Him, and I'd learned some things about Him and about His heart. But God was not my "bosom friend." It has only been in very recent years that I feel like I can honestly say I know God.

I was once enslaved to many "weak and bankrupt" things that are not gods. I never want to return to those things. I have now come to know God, and my life will never be the same because of it. Because of Him.

[Please don't think our church is impersonal just because it's large. I have a wonderful pastor whom I do know personally (one of the associate pastors), a fabulous Sunday school class, and I've made the best friends I've ever had in my life. But with more than 5,000 members our senior pastor just can't possibly have a personal relationship with every one of us. He is a great man, but has his limitations, unlike God who can know us all personally!]

Revelation

"Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on a human point of view. For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1:11-12

Paul knew the scriptures backwards, forwards, and sideways, and he knew the message of Christ; he spent much time persecuting the Christians and in the process learned about the Christians and what they believed. But even with all that knowledge, he didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God. He didn't think those scriptures pointed to Jesus. It took Christ speaking to him straight out of heaven for Paul to finally trust in Christ. Most of us don't have such a dramatic conversion experience.

In thinking about this further, though, I realized that we sort of do all have a similar experience. No matter how many times we've heard the gospel, no matter how much head knowledge we may have about God or the Bible, we cannot truly trust in Christ until the Holy Spirit begins to work in us.

The Group That's Left Out of Heaven

Based on my notes from a sermon on 11/23/08.

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." Ephesians 5:1-5

These people --all those who have even a hint of sexual immorality, greed, or idolatry-- won't be allowed in heaven. Yikes! I think that includes a whole lot of folks I know, including myself.

The good news, however, is that if we are truly Christians, then we are fully forgiven and this debt has been paid. Good works do not save us, but if we are have truly trusted Christ, then we should have the "want" to give up those things that may have a stronghold on us. God WILL set us free from those things if we let him.

Chapters 1-4 of Ephesians tell us what God did for us when we were saved: He chose us (Eph. 1:4); adopted us (Eph. 1:5); gave us forgiveness (Eph. 1:7); gave us an inheritance (Eph. 1:11); sealed the Holy Spirit within us (Eph. 1:13); made us alive in Christ (Eph. 2:1-5); seated us with Christ (Eph. 2:6); gave us access to the Father (Eph. 2:18); gives us grace (Eph. 3:7); works through us (Eph. 3:20-21); and He enabled us to lay aside our old life (Eph. 4:22). That's a mighty big list from a mighty big God!

Because He has done all these things, we should be living a life of thankfulness! We must be imitators of God. The closer we are to the Father, the more we'll become like Him. When we become followers of Christ, He gives us His diving nature (2 Peter 1:4). He changes us from the inside out.

We are NOT just sinners saved by grace. We are now saints; we have God's nature deposited in us! The question to ask ourselves is, "Do I look a little more like my Father every day?"

Coming Soon...

I feel like I'm neglecting this little ol' blog, but when I started it, it was with the intent of making myself accountable to blogland somehow so that I'd actually spend more time in the Word. Now that I've developed a good habit (in week 12 now!) of starting the day by "keeping company with the Lord" and his Word. So I don't post here as often. There are, however, many things I do want to add here, like more notes from sermons & certain verses that really jump out at me, so I won't be abandoning this blog, just probably not posting quite as frequently.

Keeping Company with God

"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." Ephesians 5:1-2 (MSG)

I love when God reminds me that I am His child. When I lack wisdom in parenting (which is more often than I'd like), I have only to look to Him to see what I should be doing. But this is also a great reminder that children watch their parents to learn how to act, how to live. That's a big wake-up call; that old "do as I say, not as I do" bit doesn't hold water.

I like the idea of keeping company with God. That sounds much less sterile than having quiet time or Bible study. It reflects the relationship factor, which is the most essential part of being a Christian.

God keeps on teaching me more and more about love. I'm called to love as He loves: extravagantly. Such a wonderful word! My favorite definition of extravagantly is this: "going beyond what is deserved or justifiable." God loves me beyond what is deserved or justifiable. Do I love others the same way? Only the Lord knows the number of our days, or the plans He has for however many days we have here on earth. We ought to love as hard as we can -- extravagantly -- for as many days as He give us.