god is good

God is good. I don't know how to put it any other way.

I have been avoiding writing on my blog for the past few months...maybe over a year I've been avoiding it. But, that said, it's like instead of poking a hole in the bottom of the blessing bucket and letting it sprinkle on me, God's just dumped it over. We hang out again. And, for the first time really ever in my life, I truly enjoy living. And living with a purpose, too.

So, this is short. And God is good. And, for once, I actually believe that.

yes, or better

This is out of a bulletin from Perimeter I saved and stuck in my (old) journal. I think God kept it there until He knew I most needed it...

"Janis Joplin once wrote a song, 'O Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, so Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?' Creative prayer lyrics, but not prone to be answered in the affirmative. Questions about prayer abound. What should I pray for? Why are my prayers not answered? How come I never have a desire to pray? ...

Some people ask, 'If God knows everything and will accomplish what He wants, why should we pray?' Good question. Have you ever thought that part of his plan requires prayer? It is not the initial cause of His actions, but because of His character, He has to respond. He does not have a 'Nobody Home' sign on the door. He will answer one of two ways to the person who calls on Him in faith: Yes or Better. Those are the two options. Paul tells the Romans that God 'works all things together for good to those who love God.' If that is you, your prayers will be Yes or Better. Our challenge is seeing that if the answer is not yes, it is better. Jesus says He is not going to give us a stone if we ask for bread. He will do right by us. By His perfect knowledge of what is best for us, He will direct and that is good. His character dictates that He loves His people and that He does right by them for His glory.

So we encourage you to pray. Start with some Adoration. Then maybe a little Confession. One of our elders says, 'How about we pray for God to reveal our sin to us, so that we can run to Him?' If we pray that prayer, He will answer. Move along to some Thanksgiving. We all can park there for awhile. Then you may want to wind up with Supplication or asking for what you think has value. Be encouraged that God will say Yes or Better. CS Lewis once said that he was glad God had not answered yes to many of his prayers. God had 'better' in mind and over time Lewis could look back and see that was indeed the case..."

sonship

From Mere Christianity...

"I know the words 'leave it to God' can be misunderstood, but they must stay for the moment. The sense in which a Christian leaves it to God is that he puts all his trust in Christ: trusts that Christ will somehow share with him the perfect human obedience which He carried out from His birth to His crucifixion: that Christ will make the man more like Himself and, in a sense, make good his deficiencies. In Christian language, He will share His 'sonship' with us, will make us like Himself, 'Sons of God'. ... If you like to put it that way, Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty is to reach the point of recognizing that all we have done and can do is nothing. What we should have liked would be for God to count our good points and ignore our bad ones. Again, in a sense, you may say that no temptation is ever overcome until we stop trying to overcome it - throw up the sponge. But then you could not 'stop trying' in the right way and for the right reason until you had tried your very hardest. And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. This if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."

I can't say it gets much better than this...

joy is a choice

"joy is a choice"

that seemingly simple and obvious comment has grown to affect my worldview. and i'm letting it affect my worldview more and more every day. that's a powerful statement. joy isn't constant "happiness," i don't think...it's something completely different. happiness can be an expression of joy, so don't hear me say joy is not happiness...just to clear that up. i just think it can be other things too. i think the Biblical presentation of joy is more one of confident expectation and a resting in that, knowing the end result is far better than we imagined. james writes-

"count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (james 1.2-4)

so, essentially, james is like: "hey, i know it's hard, but stick it out. you know the end result...and it's better than you or i imagined, i guarantee it. so don't complain." God won't give us more than we can handle. and he knows a lot better than we do what we can handle. sticking it out...that's worship. paul writes-

"i appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (romans 12.1-2)

that's something i've been grappling with. even when i don't want to renew my mind by studying the word or even praying, it's worship. i can worship when i don't want to? yeah...and i'm called to.

and hey - i do know the end of the story. jesus wins. he has, but he will...for good.
if you're post-millenial...jesus wins
if you're a-millenial...jesus wins
if you're pre-millenial...jesus wins
if you were sprinkled as an infant...jesus wins
if you were dunked as an adult...jesus wins
if you take grape juice for communion...jesus wins
if you drink wine for communion...jesus wins
if you...