Tag: presence of God

Transformed? pt 2

transformedTransformation is a part of our Christian walk.  It is something that happens from the day that we give our lives to Christ, and continues on until the life of Christ is reflected through us.  Which is something we as Christians see little of.  There is more of the world in most of us than the life of Christ.

When we look at changing our lives we as Christians often make one of two mistakes.  The first is we try to do the work ourselves.  All of us have heard sermons about the need for our lives to be different in one way or another.  “We need to get the sin out of the camp” was a popular topic and phrase when I was growing up.  There are sermons upon sermons which talk about behaviors we have that we shouldn’t, and having behaviors that we cannot seem to have.

Paul wrote in Colossians 3:8 “ Put out of your life these things also: anger, bad temper, bad feelings toward others, talk that hurts people, speaking against God, and dirty talk.” NLV  And we push hard to change, which lasts for a little while and then the old behaviors start again and discouragement settles in and the desire to change dissipates.  And we have hard working people striving to become better and who usually end up being bitter and judgmental and demanding of changes in others they were not able to make themselves.

The second mistake we make is that all the changes in our lives are God’s doing.  And while some of this is true it also falls on us to make the changes.  If we simply wait for God to change us we will again be disappointed and become disillusioned with God and Christianity.  In the above verse it states that we  need to put these things out of your life.

Change begins in our lives when we choose to submit to God and allow Him to take charge of our lives.  Without this first level of submission and commitment nothing else happens.  As we accept the work of God in us and choose to submit to His reign over us as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:16 “Live as servants owned by God at all times. ” NLV.   In fact several of the apostles in scripture wrote much the same as James did “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” James 1:1 HCSB

Once we actually stop trying to live our lives our way and we come to submit to the authority and leadership of God the changes in our lives can begin and the grace of God can do it’s job in us.  And God can speak to us about the changes we need to make, and then we can decide to put off anger and all the other things God talks to us about and as we decide to obey the power of God enables the change to happen in our lives.  And the life of Christ deepens and grows within us.  But it all starts with submission.  As we choose to release our lives to His control all that we desire to see happen in our lives begins to happen, and the effort and the struggle get replaced with the power and presence of our God.

I’ll do what’s right for me

I’ll do what is right for me is a famous saying that many people we know have used.  I know I have heard it several times in my life.  It is usually used when someone disagrees with you about how something should be  done, and what actions are appropriate.  Sometimes it is used when changing careers, or changing spouses.  There are many situations it comes up.

We live in a society where standards are disappearing.  You cannot even get a grade is schools anymore. You participate or not.  You don’t pass or fail.  People decide for themselves how to act given the situation.  Even standards of behaviour have gone out the window.  Growing up you never swore around women or children.  Now days even the kids are talking like sailors.
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Working as a scale technician I have come to appreciate the value of a standard.  Every day I find myself looking at a scale which people say works correctly. And until I place my standards on the scale I could believe them.  Without having a standard to compare ourselves to we will never know if we are meeting the mark or missing it completely.  GPS has become a valuable tool for all of us.  It gives us direction and allows us to see where we are compared to where we think we are.  Standards are everywhere in our society.  We just neglect to use them when it comes to our personal lives.

Christians have gotten a lot of bad press over the years because of this very thing.  We have often missed the mark and without having a standard to guide us we have never known.  Christians have become some of the most bitter, judgemental and critical people around.  I know people who will not hire Christians because they cause the most trouble, do the least work, and complain and steal from the company.  We have completely missed our standard and done what we thought was right.  We speak out vocally against what we see is wrong in our society, and usually completely ignore what is wrong with us.  We have changed our tune to meet what we thought society wanted.  We have worked hard at being accepted the we have lost influence.  And it is because we have lost our standard.

A standard can never be changed.  It can never be disagreed with. Our situation has to measure up the the standard, not the standard to our situation.  When I find a scale that doesn’t match my test standards, I don’t question the correctness of the standard.  I adjust and repair the scale to meet the standard I have placed on it.  And it is much the same with us as Christians.  We have lost our standard over the years and have gone down many paths that God never intended us to.  It has spread division and spawned fights that have separated families, broken homes, and destroyed lives.  And it doesn’t sound like the church Jesus had in mind.

Jesus left us with one standard to follow.  And if we do it right we will fulfill every command that He gave us, and we will become who He called us to be.  Jesus said in John 13:34-35 “34 So I give you a new command: Love each other deeply and fully. Remember the ways that I have loved you, and demonstrate your love for others in those same ways. 35 Everyone will know you as My followers if you demonstrate your love to others.”

The Voice (VOICE)

We can become all that God calls us to if we actually align ourselves with the standard Jesus left for us.  For most of us that will me a recalibration of our values and thought.  But that is ok because that is what God is best at.  We don’t work up our ability to love we receive it.  1John 4:19 “We love because He has first loved us.”  We need to plug in again to our source, recognize our need to be recalibrated and then we can spread the love God has for the world.

Worship? pt-4

Worship in truth pt.2

Worship1Do we really worship?  It has been a question I have asked myself many times.  Especially when I read Jesus’ comments in Matthew 15:8-9 NLV “These people show respect to Me with their mouth, but their heart is far from Me.   Their worship of Me is worth nothing.”  When I worship I never want God to say that it has been worthless.  And yet I feel that much of what we do in churches today is worthless in God’s eyes.  We call it worship but our lives are lived for ourselves.

I once heard someone define praise as the fast songs we sing, and worship was the slow songs.  But I knew it had to be more than that.  Worship cannot just be a song we sing.  And God is actively looking for people who will worship Him.  “But the time is coming–indeed it’s here now–when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.  For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23-24 NLT

Last post I shared that worshiping in truth meant that we need to see God for who He really is and not for who we want Him to be.  We have been trying to force God into our understanding for a very long time.  One of the reasons Jesus wasn’t accepted by many of the Jews and the Pharisees and religious leaders was that He didn’t come as they expected or wanted Him to.  Even as Jesus was about to be taken into heaven after being raised from the dead the disciples were still trying.  They said “So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”  They we still trying to fit God into their expectations after all they had seen and experienced living and walking with Jesus and seeing Him raised.

We need to let God be God, and worship Him as He is not for who we think He should be.  But worshiping in truth also means that our words and our lives should be in agreement.  We cannot sing “let your glory fall in this room, and let it go forth from here to the nations” if we are unwilling to get a passport and be ready to travel.  Worshiping in truth means that the words we say and sing relate to the life we live every day.

To many people stand in churches and sing words that they never think about.  It is just what Christians do.  We live in a time where Christians are not Christians.  We are “Christian Atheists” to borrow from Craig Groeschel.  We talk like God exists, and live like He doesn’t.  It is important that we change this.  For our worship to be true it must come from our hearts, and not be just words we  say.  It must come from a live that is spent living out daily the words we sing and say.  This is the kind of worship God is actively seeking.  He isn’t looking for perfection, just integrity. 

The profession of our lips needs to be demonstrated in the way we talk and live.  And our lives need to show a dependence on and a submission to the God we say we serve.  Otherwise our worship is without value.