Category: Christian Life

What’s Going on God? – pt. 3

A life full of purpose.  It is something we all are called to live.  We don’t always recognize what our purpose is, and we don’t always recognize how we fulfill our purpose.  There are a lot of things that are necessary to happen in us so that we can fulfill the purpose God designed each one of us for.  First God reveals His purpose for us.  It is usually revealed in small pieces, that as you assemble them you get to see a bigger picture.  And the little details bring us forward into the larger picture, as we make the steps necessary.

Secondly God begins to talk to us about the issues in our lives and character.  All the things that we have in us that keep us from being all He called us to become.  God deals with each of us in the unique ways that we need to begin to see ourselves for who we really are, not for who we portray ourselves to be.  So

Things happen TO me,

So that things can happen IN me,

So that things can happen THROUGH me.

Three men in particular whose lives were recorded in scripture reveal this process.   Saul, David and Paul all experienced God in this very way.  And the way they responded to God’s involvement in their lives determined if they accomplished the purpose of God for them.

Saul was from the smallest family of the smallest tribe in the nation of Israel.  In other words – He was insignificant. Not a person of prominence or important.  Saul was very insecure. He himself stated that he was insignificant.  Saul was also very proud. Scripture states he was without equal in all of Israel in physical appearance.  Both of these attributes show forth in the decisions that he makes.  He decides to do things not because they are right, but because people are looking at him.  Take the decision that cost him his destiny found in 1 Samuel 13.

Saul was going to fight the Philistines, so he gathered his armies and prepared for battle. Samuel was supposed to come and make the sacrifice and bless the troops. This happened before every battle,  the priest, or prophet would come and seek God’s direction for the battle and pronounce blessing. And the troops wouldn’t fight without a blessing.  And only a member of the priesthood could offer a sacrifice according to God’s law, so they are waiting for Samuel.  And on this day Samuel was late, not minutes but days, and so the troops started to leave and go back home.

When Saul saw what was happening he decided to fulfill the role the priest was to fulfill, because his people were looking at him.  He performed the sacrifice and blamed Samuel for having done so.

“What have you done?” Samuel asked.  Saul answered, “My soldiers were leaving in all directions, and you didn’t come when you were supposed to.

Saul decided once again, as he had done on so many other occasions,  to change the plans of God to suit himself and followed his own plans and as a result he missed out on all that God wanted for him.   Saul disqualified himself from his destiny because he continually chose to ignore the opportunities for change that God offered to him and He focused on himself and missed the confrontation of God and the opportunities to change. 

Now David had a similar start in life.  He was also an insignificant nobody.  He was just a small shepherd boy and even his own family thought little of him.  He had one major difference though, He knew his God.  But that didn’t stop the difficulties from coming.  He, like all of us,  had to overcome;

    • fear
    • insecurity
    • pride
    • selfishness
    • self promotion
    • discouragement
    • despair

Saul was constantly hunting and trying to kill him during his early years in the palace, and David had opportunities for revenge and refused.  David consistently worked at keeping his heart right.

David definitely wasn’t perfect, and many times did decide to do things his way.  His committing adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah was not the first time that David fell.   Nor was it the last.  What made things different for David was when God confronted him, would always repent and refocus his life to fulfill the destiny God had for him.  This was what kept David on track and allowed him to fulfill his destiny.  Scripture states that David did all that God called him to do, and then he died.  Acts 13:36 “for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors.”

David, despite his mistakes, and despite his missing God’s plan on several occasions, was never disqualified from the destiny of God.  This gives us great hope, because many times we have all missed out on following God’s plan, and we have not always responded to God’s dealings properly.  But we can still obtain His promise, and fulfill His purpose for us.

We all still have the opportunity to fulfill the promise that God gave to us. Our choice is whether we will respond to the hand of God or resist.

What’s Going On God? – pt 2

Every person in scripture had a purpose from God to fulfill. Just like each of us have a purpose to fulfill.  Each persons life took different turns and twists on the way to achieving that purpose, and Each person had a different approach to his destiny and which either qualified him, or disqualified him.  Everyone had similar difficulties to overcome – 1Corinthians 10:13  “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.”

Each one had things happen TO them,

So that things could happen IN them,

So that things could happen THROUGH them.

Discovering God’s purposes for us leads us through 4 stages.  Now before this process can begin in our lives we need God to give us insight into what He wants to do and become We call this receiving a Revelation.  In this stage God sets our sights on what can be.  The possibilities of what He wants to do.  Receiving a revelation brings an increased expectancy and faith that challenges us to reach for the impossible.  Which means that hearing God personally is extremely important in our lives.  Without input and direction from God we will each go our own way and do our own thing.  Jesus said “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”  Matthew 4:4 Message.  We really need to know the heart of God personally and hear from Him regularly.  This starts us on the journey and is the easiest part.  God speaks, and we listen.  How we respond to what God does next determines if we begin to fulfill the purpose of God for us.  Immediately after we receive a revelation from God He moves us into the second stage.

Now this is an exceptionally important stage and one that cannot be passed over.

This is the stage of Confrontation.  It is where God begins to deal with our character.  And it is the stage where we feel the most uncomfortable because it is where God begins to show us ourselves.   God begins to confront us with the changes that need to happen in our lives so we can fulfil His destiny for our lives.  This is where things begin to happen TO us.  In order for us to fulfill what God has planned for us we require change

God isn’t going to change His mind about us, but there are things in our lives that are standing in the way of His plans.  It is here at this stage that God begins to reveal the changes that are necessary.  But it is also at this stage that much of what God is doing in our lives can go misunderstood and as a result go unresponded to.

As a result of our misunderstanding what God is doing at this stage we can often fall into resentment, bitterness and complaining.  Some people have so misunderstood what God was doing that they have completely given up on their future.  God’s desire is for us to be like Jesus.  And so God begins to squeeze us so that just like toothpaste, what is really on the inside of us comes out.  God has to confront us with ourselves.  We need to honestly see ourselves as God sees us so we can change.  We have to face the reality of who we really are, and not the rationalization.  If we simply keep justifying ourselves and our lives we won’t change.  And if we don’t change we will miss fulfilling our purpose.

We have to understand this process and take heart that even though it may be difficult there is a reward at the end worth all of this hardship.

Things happen TO me,

So that things can happen IN me,

So that things can happen THROUGH me.

We cannot become who God wants us to be to in a day.  Just take one step at a time as God leads. Things happen TO us to reveal in us what God wants us to deal with.  We have to choose to respond to or ignore God.

Acceptance vs Approval

All of us have met people who rub us the wrong way.  And there are always things that people do that we disagree with, some of them very strongly.  Not everyone likes tattoos or piercings.  When I dyed my hair as a youth leader I got a great many negative comments from people who thought that it wasn’t the right behaviour.  Society has a great many different behaviours and attitudes that we disagree with.   As Christians this is more evident as we try to follow a standard for life that the world doesn’t believe in or in many cases agree with.

I have found that many people get rejected in life because we cannot agree with their choices.  We see the behaviour and stop and don’t go any further to the person underneath the behaviour.  Because we cannot approve of the decisions or behaviours we are critical of them and judge them harshly.  I have seen it so often and it is something I have wrestled with for many years.  I came to know the acceptance of Christ and found that it wasn’t conditional based on my behaviour.  And all through the gospels we see Jesus reaching into the lives of people who were in direct disobedience to what God wanted for them, and every person who met Jesus felt His acceptance of them.

If we see acceptance as approval we will never be able to build bridges to the people we come in contact with.  There will always be things we cannot approve of.  Approval means I am in agreement with.  So if you lifestyle is not something I can agree with then I must stand in disagreement and criticize and judge.  It seems to be the behaviour of many people in our world.

Acceptance however isn’t the same as approval.  People can be acceptable even when their choices go completely against what we hold as values and standards.  Acceptance looks at the person, not the behaviour.  Acceptance can be communicated even when approval cannot be given.  Acceptance says you are valuable and your value isn’t increased or decreased by your performance.   This is exactly what Jesus did.  Romans 5:8 “But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us.” (Voice)  Jesus didn’t wait for us to get everything right so He could die for us, He accepted us completely and paid our penalty, even though He couldn’t approve of our behavior. 

Acceptance seeks to listen, hear and understand a person simply because they are worth it.  Approval just looks for agreement with.  Our message can only properly go out as we work to separate these two.  Acceptance needs to be communicated and lived regardless of who people are and the choices they are making.  Acceptance is how love is communicated, and is one of the most vital needs in a persons life.  We don’t need to know people approve of us.  At times it is nice, but we can live without people’s agreement.  We cannot live without acceptance.  Something in our souls withers and dies when acceptance is withheld.

We need to receive and communicate acceptance in order for our lives to be healthy and whole.  It is up to us to decide whether we are going to learn to accept people for who they are and the intrinsic value they have, or if we will fight simply for approval and only spend time with people we can be in agreement with.