Daily Archives: November 18, 2011

Confessions of a Christian Wife

>Can I Get An Amen!

>One of the attendant aims of missional evangelicalism is to challenge the compartmentalizing of the Christian faith that we see within the Western church. We are fantastic at itemizing our schedules, and even if we don’t assign God a very large bracket, we are constantly remorseful that we “haven’t made much time for him.” While such compartmentalizing — as if “time with God” can or should be hermetically sealed off from everything else — is a natural symptom of our culture and environment, it also reflects a bad theology.

The truth is, the day does not belong to us. It is not our day to do with as we please. We serve a sovereign God. He created the end from the beginning, knows our future exhaustively, and is firmly in control. He made our days and they belong to him. As such, isn’t it a bit arrogant to begin with the idea that each day is ours and then worry about fitting God in? Instead, we should work at the humble awe of knowing all of our moments, every millisecond, waking or sleeping, are perfectly accounted for within the economy of heaven.

Let us stake the flag of Christ’s kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….

Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I’m doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something “meaningful,” but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.

To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands.

~ Jared Wilson from Gospel Wakefulness

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Oh wow, I love this!
How releasing, how liberating is it to hear these words?
Are you like me?
Do you struggle with guilt on whether or not you are doing enough for the glory of God?

Have you ever said, if I had have known Christ before I would have been on that mission field?
I wish I could be on a plane right now to that orphanage…
What could I be doing for You God if I had not the “responsibilities” I have in this world?
Or simply, I didn’t make enough time for You today God.
Oh my goodness to be reminded that God is not waiting to be “fit” into “our” schedule.
I never before thought about how arrogant that really sounded.

Just knowing that all that I do is for the glory of the gospel, or at least it should be, does two things:

1) Gives every area of life meaning and purpose for the glory of the gospel of God
2) Reminds us that every area of life should be lived in awareness that it has meaning and purpose for the glory of the gospel of God

God is in our everything… our every moment… our every day…
I know this, I really already do, but it is always wonderful and breathtaking to be reminded of this truth.

Hopefully one day I will fully “get it” 🙂

Names of God Series, Uncategorized

Names of God – El Elyon

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Before we learn about this next name of God we have to do a little context review to get the whole powerful punch of the moment.

If you recall in Genesis 12 God called out to a man named Abram from Ur of the Chaldean’s. He didn’t explain who He was. He didn’t give any detailed message. He simply said something like, “you Abram, go now” and Abram said “okay“. I often wonder exactly how God appeared to Abram. I mean Moses got a burning bush… I guess I’ll have to ask for that first hand account when I see him in eternity 🙂

Okay back to Abram. So the Lord calls him out and sends him to a place that He will show him when he gets there. Now that’s our God for us, “here, go, and I am not going to tell you where, but if you will listen closely as you go, then you’ll get there… and you will learn lessons all the way… because I already know that you are not a very good listener… but you will learn to be as you go.”

Abram heads out, in slight obedience, which is full disobedience. God told him to leave his family, but he took them with him… yeh the not so good listening skills part. So there were things that needed to happen to help Abram get back on the right track and you can read all about it in Genesis 12 and Genesis 13.

Now by Genesis 14 God has Abram and Sarai separated from all the rest of their family. So now here is Abram following a God he does not know all that well and now all his family is gone. They might have thought he was crazy in following this God, but they at least loved him anyway, right. Now it’s just him and Sarai.

Then the word comes that his nephew has been taken captive and so Abram and his men and his God go to battle against five kings, yes that’s right five kings. Guess who wins? Yep, ding-ding-ding, Abram! The amazing thing in this chapter is who Abram gets the opportunity to meet after the battle is over.

Finally after all this time he gets to meet a man who not only follows the same God he has been following, but this man knows Him and can teach him about this God.

Hmmmm what a coincidence… 🙂

This man’s name is Melchizedek and he is king and priest of Salem and he introduces Abram to God as God Most High or El Elyon.

Abram learns this day that this God that has called him out and that he has been following is not just any god. He is not one of the many gods that Abram has heard about throughout his life and travels… this God is El Elyon, God Most High.

Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Isaiah 46:9

He is the God of gods.

Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth; 
 And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
Genesis 14:19-20 
From this encounter with Melchizedek we learn right along with Abram that our God is not only the Creator God who created the heavens and the earth, but He is the Possessor of heaven and earth. He owns it, it is in His hands and all that it is in it.
 For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
Psalm 50:12

We also learn right along with Abram that his victory over the enemies was not his, he did not accomplish this in his own strength and strategic planning. God Most High delivered them into his hands… as He will our enemies if He will just trust Him.

To know that God will deliver us from our enemies we have to recognize that we will have enemies. We will face enemies in our life. Difficult days and people and trials will come, but we must remember who the Possessor of each day is and trust that He is with us. Our difficulties are for a purpose, our battles will teach us more of who our God is if we will just face them and let Him fight for us.

That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these.
Isaiah 45:6-7
Our El Elyon holds us in His hands and He holds our nation in His hands. No king rises or falls without the permission the God Most High. Nebuchadnezzar is another one who had to learn this lesson the hard way…
this is the interpretation, O king,
and this is the decree of the Most High,
which has come upon my lord the king: 
that you be driven away from mankind
and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field,
and you be given grass to eat like cattle
and be drenched with the dew of heaven;
and seven periods of time will pass over you,
until you recognize that the Most High
is ruler over the realm of mankind
and bestows it on whomever He wishes. 
And in that it was commanded to leave the stump
with the roots of the tree,
your kingdom will be assured to you
after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.
Daniel 4:24-26
I don’t know about you but I had rather learn about my God through stumbling through obedience than leg striping disobedience. Crawling around on all fours and eating grass just doesn’t sound like much fun to me…

 

Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Leave A Legacy Not A Tragedy

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Now these are the records
of the generations of Esau (that is Edom).
Genesis 36:1
 
This entire chapter is dedicated to the descendants of Esau by his three wives. As we read through this list of genealogy, we see the names of so many nations that are enemies to the nation ofIsrael, from past history to present day. It never ceases to amaze me the weight that our choices have on our future and on the future of our children.
 
In Deuteronomy 5:9–10, we read “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
 
You see this truth played out in the genealogies of Esau. You can see this truth being played out in the world today. When one generation chooses to not honor God, to not obey His commandments, to not teach them to their children, we quickly see the sad results.
 
My parents were taught the Word of God in school. I was not. Now my children are in a day where the Word of God is not simply neglected in school, but it is ridiculed and disdained. You see, our actions always have reactions and our disobedience and sin always have consequences.
 
Do you not rejoice that our salvation is according to us individually and is not hinged on the obedience of others?
 
Thanks be to the divine intervention of the power of Christ and being made new in Him. In Christ we have a future and a hope no matter what lies behind us or before us. In Christ our salvation is not dependant on our nation, our ethnicity, our gender, our race. It is our own personal faith.
 
Oh Father,
 
I so desire to leave a legacy and not a tragedy. Help me to make wise choices according to Your wisdom and not my own. May I never forget that I am a sower of seed. May I never forget that my children are watching me. May I never forget that there are eyes on me who are searching out the reality of You. Might they see in me how You are to be honored and worshiped and obeyed.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name that I pray,
Amen.