DWYL pt. 1

It's been 5 weeks of daily lessons since we started our "Dont Waste Your Life" book study. This week actually marks the half way point. It's been so good that after each lesson I honestly feel that if it had ended during the previous week I'd be more than satisfied with what I'd learned. 

I would love to share all of it with you, and had planned on blogging after each week, however haven't had the time.  For now I'd like to fill you in on some things that have really struck a chord with me. Although I could write a ton about the first 5 chapters there have been 2 concepts in particular that I couldn't wait to share. In fact they're so good I'll quote right out of the book.

What does it mean to glorify God?

It may get a dangerous twist if we are not careful. Glorify is like the word beautify. But beautify usually means "make something more beautiful than it is", improve it's beauty. That is emphatically not what we mean by glorify in relation to God. God cannot be more glorious or more beautiful than he is. He cannot be improved, "nor is he served by human hands, as though h needed anything"(Acts 17:25). Glorify does not mean add more glory to God. 

It is more like the word magnify.  But here too we can go wrong. Magnify has two distinct meanings. In relation to God, one is worship and one is wickedness. You can magnify like a telescope or like a microscope. When you magnify like a microscope, you make something tiny look bigger than it is. A dust mite can look like a monster. Pretending to magnify God like that is wickedness. But when you magnify like a telescope, you make something unimaginably great look like what it really is. With the Hubble Space Telescope, pinprick galaxies in the sky are revealed for the billion-star giants that they are. Magnifying God like that is worship.

We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life. God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes Him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that He really is. In the night sky of this world God appears to most people, if at all, like a pinprick of light in a heaven of darkness. But He created us and called us to make Him look like what He really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God. We are meant to image forth in the world what He is really like.

All I could say after reading this was "wow". I'm completely blown away by this simple yet profound illustration of truth.  How about you? Have you always viewed glorifying/magnifying God this way? I don't think I'd thought enough about it at all, but honestly as I do so now I've definitely had my eyes opened by this contrast.

Another concept that really hit home had to do with the fact that all we are is credited to the glory of God. Even our salvation is for His glory. The author submits that for most people this isn't the best of news. They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for His glory. They feel used. The next few pages in the book attempted to re-focus the view of those who may feel this way, by exposing the root of their distortion --- a false definition of love. And again I quote:

What is love?

For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone's self-esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.

This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God --and savoring Him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors.

The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological! At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes outside ourselves. And each of these rare and precious moments in life [beside the canyon, before the Alps, under the stars] is an echo of a far greater excellence, namely, the glory of God. That is why the Bible says: the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).

God made man small and the universe big to say something about Himself, not man. And he says it for us to learn and enjoy--namely, that He is infinitely great and powerful and wise and beautiful. The more The Hubble Telescope sends back to us about the unfathomable depths of space, the more we should stand in awe of God. The disproportion between us and the universe is a parable about the disproportion between us and God.

Now think what this means for God's love. How shall God love us? Mere logic could give us the answer: God loves us best by giving us the best to enjoy forever, namely Himself, for He is best. But we are not dependent on logic alone. The Bible makes this clear in John 3:16. God loves us by giving us eternal life at the cost of His Son, Jesus Christ. But what is eternal life? Is it eternal self esteem? Is it a heaven full of mirrors? Or snowboards, or golf links, or black-eyed virgins?

No. Jesus tells us what he meant: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you've sent"(John 17:3). Eternal life is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  No   thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe of a Person --the only person worthy of awe. All life's heroes are shadows of Christ. We love to admire their excellence. How much more will we be satisfied by the one Person who conceived all excellence and embodies all skill, all talent, all strength and brilliance and savvy and goodness. God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring Him forever.

So here is the question to test whether you have been sucked into this world's distortion of love: Would you feel more loved by God if he made much of you, or if he liberated you from the bondage of self-regard, at great cost to himself, so that you enjoy making much of him forever? When our answer is the latter then we see that in creating us for His glory, He is creating us for our highest joy. He is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in him.

God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act. Anyone else who exalts himself distracts us from what we need, namely, God. But if God exalts Himself, he calls attention to the very thing we need most for our joy.

If great paintings could talk, and they saw you walking through the gallery staring at the floor, they would cry out, "Look! Look at me. I am the reason you are here." And when you look and exult in the beauty of the paintings with those around you, your joy would be full. You would not complain that the paintings should have kept quiet. They rescued you from wasting your visit. In the same way no child complains, "I am being used" when his father delights to make the child happy with his own presence.

And again I say --wow! I could write a book about how the unpacking of this truth has my heart burning within me with a passion for seeing and savoring God's glory. For now I'll take a break from the writing. I'd like to hear from you.

Leave a comment re: how these ideas have challenged or impacted you; what you think about the metaphoric comparison between the microscope and telescope, and how you feel about being created to only be satisfied by God's glory ---namely in Christ. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

grace & peace

da' sciple

Saying "I do" and meaning it

I was browsing another blog where a brother in Christ asked us fellow believers who frequent, to share their thoughts on commitment -horizontally-. He mentioned friendships, church membership, and marriage.

Since I've been so fortunate to experience what commitment looks like in the area of marriage... I responded regarding it. As I wrote my response I decided to incorporate it into a blog too. It didn't hurt that my beautiful wife so lovingly reminded me that Valentine's Day is this weekend (the flowers are from her). ISN'T SHE SWEEEEEET?!

Staying Committed in Marriage

As we all should very well know, it's vitally important for us to be committed in Marriage. As we enter into this relationship, as believers, we put on display- for the world to see - a picture of Christ and His church; Unconditional love, grace in spite of all the wrongs, loving one another despite imperfections, overcoming problems mercifully etc.

Statistically I would have to admit that we've done a poor job at understanding this.

I think it's because we've treated the marriage as more of a contract than a covenant. Contractual arrangements are a calculated effort to get what you want on the best terms you can get it. Covenants are sacrificial commitments.

Contract

A contract is an agreement between two parties that must equally fulfill a prior agreed upon service or product for a certain price. The moment the contract becomes unequal for either party there is discord as the one party not receiving as much is offended and believes they are being shortchanged. The offended party may then seek to terminate the contract.

Covenant

A covenant, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in a specified action, regardless of the action(s) of other involved parties. As Christians the idea of a "New Covenant" is principally important to us in that it's a bond, in blood, sovereignly administered by God. In essence, though we're saved by grace through faith(Ephesians 2), our salvation exists because God promised it and paid for it.

In Contrast

Contracts are limited and renewable; a covenant(marriage) is a permanent, life-long commitment. It is about self-sacrifice, not self-satisfaction. As Christians we should see marriage as a covenant, with God as a party to it. Couples are to put aside their own selfish desires and focus on the needs of their loved one.

Unfortunately, in addition to viewing marriage as a contract, the values of the marketplace are also being applied to it. These values teach a totally different message: that is, that we are entitled to a good "return on our investment." They turn would-be brides and grooms into marital consumers, looking for the best deal they can get. Tragically, people who think this way often end up in a kind of unholy wedlock—one in which men abandon wives the moment their looks begin to fade, and women drop husbands if they run out of money.

Having a proper understanding of this one bit of truth, before the wedding and during the marriage, would probably save 90% of the divorces we see within the church. People would either count the cost and re-consider the reason(s) why they're getting married, or come into the covenant saying "I Do" with the proper perspective- allowing their 'yes to be yes and no be no'.

Without a doubt a persons ability to grasp the gospel's effect on their life is fundamental to comprehending this. Here's why: When you truly understand what God has done for you in Christ -after what you've done to Him- nothing your spouse can do is above forgiveness and thus you can stay committed even in the hardest of times. I mean think about it for a sec. Apart from the grace of God, the book of Romans, namely chapter 1, could very well be known as the autobiography of __________ (your name). Everyone of us is mentioned in these verses:
"28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Yet God, infinite in mercy, through the redemptive work of the cross, elects to make a way for us to be not only forgiven but justified. [Praise God]

When we see ourselves as we really are(above) vs. how God sees us through divine imputation (Christ's righteousness being set to our account, so that we are now entitled to all the rewards of that perfect righteousness- Rom. 5: 18, II Cor. 5:21), it especially helps us to see our spouse's imperfections as more reason(s) to love. Suddenly we realize what it really means "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part."

Is this the way you've viewed marriage? How could adapting to this truth change your outlook re: matrimony, be it yours or others'? I recently shared this truth with a couple in a small group bible study on marriage who were not yet married. Once the gentleman in the relationship understood this concept, he immediately decided to get married. Their wedding is this Saturday, Valentine's Day. I couldn't be happier for them.

I can only but hope that all of us would experience change like the couple mentioned above in this and other areas of our lives. As John Piper says in the beginning of the video below, "it doesn't always occur in a moment" like it did with them; but be it now, in the near future or years down the line, I pray we would all become new people by the constant renewing of our minds and conformity to God's will's and way's.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Election Day - in Israel

Israelis go to the polls today. Because I know most of you don't like long posts, I'm going to attempt to summarize an Article written by Joel Rosenburg. It's an overview of the Israeli candidates and their positions. There is also a link below that YOU MUST READ. It's an article in today's JERUSALEM POST, that one of the few "diciples indeed" who I believe isn't asleep at the wheel forwarded to me - Big Ups to "Mr. Melody". In it you'll see how the rest of the world views the US right now, and probably learn something(s) concerning the Obama administration that you didn't ((ahem listen to)))-excuse me- I mean that you didn't know.. [if you don't know who Joel Rosenburg is, then - - my dear friends....you should start by watching The Glenn Beck Show on FOX News tonight at 5pm, 8pmEastern. TIVO it!!!!]

I can't plead with you all enough - please take heed to what's happening around you besides black history month and our black president. Sure American history books will be re-written, the black man has become "all that he can be" and we should all marvel at this fact, knowing the horrible attrocities committed against blacks in our past; but it's time to get down to business now folks. The history that's unfolding before us is far more important. It's pre-written... (BIBLE PROPHECY). Open up your eyes, Jesus said It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.(Luke 12:37). Get in your Word and start paying attention to what's happening folks! Stop repeating what your grandmother told you as a kid. Yes it's ture Jesus said "I will come as a thief in the night, and you wont know the "hour" -WE WONT!!! but Paul clearly exhorts us not to be ignorant of the "day".

1 Thessalonians 5
1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

You - "BROTHERS" don't be surprised. It's true we won't know the hour but we should not be surprised at the day. If I gave you a letter and said I'll be back when this that and the third happens, you might not know what time I'm coming but you'd have a good idea of the day/season.

Ok - kinda got caught up there... Here's the summary of today's election/candidates:

> Fmr. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had the lead for the entire campaign -- until now. He strongly opposed giving away Gaza in 2005, arguing it would create a terror base camp he nicknamed "Hamastan." He was right. While economic growth is a major issue for him, he is best known for strongly opposing the dividing of Jerusalem, Palestinian leadership. He is also out front in making the Iran nuclear threat a top campaign issue, saying he will do everything in his power to stop Iran from acquiring The Bomb.

> Running almost neck-and-neck with Netanyahu is Israel's current Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni was a key player in the Gaza turnover in 2005, supports creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank, and dividing Jerusalem.

> In third place and rising rapidly is former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman is a hawkish, right-wing Russian immigrant who used to serve as a senior aide to Netanyahu. Currently, he's increasingly perceived by many voters on the right as tougher against the Arabs and Iran than Netanyahu. His party's polls have surged from about 13 mandates to between 18 and 20. All of this is coming out of Netanyahu's support.

Please keep Israel in prayer over the next 24 hours, that the Lord would be gracious to her people. The threats they face are very real. The stakes are very high. And the world is increasingly turning against Israel. They need leaders like the "sons of Issachar," mentioned in the Book of Numbers, "men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."

----

1 Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3

Folks, this land God spoke about is Israel - not Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman seemingly support this however Tzipi Livni has already played a "major role" in turning parts of Israel over to Palestine in the past. In the midst of all this our new President holds the same position as the latter, and they're(Israel) already preparing for the US to turn it's back on them - as Obama's just done to India.

Here's the link to today's Newspaper - In Jerusalem.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304731240&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

stand firm my friends, and endure to the end.