A Life Worthy

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness  (Psalm 150:2).

Yesterday’s verse told us where to praise God–basically everywhere.  This verse tells us why to praise God.  

He’s big.

Really big

And he does big stuff.

I apologize for getting all high-brow and exegetical on you, but we need to get the theology straight here.

God is greater than anything or anyone else you can think of.

Yes, even that.

And definitely them

That makes him worthy of your praise

my praise

all praise.

And this God, this infinitely powerful, surpassingly awesome One,

knows you

loves you

calls you his own.

Yet another reason to praise, ya?

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord assigned each to his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor  (1 Corinthians 3:5-8).

When Paul says he’s nothing, what does that make me?

Ya, you betcha.

Here’s a thing: I know that Paul is reminding the folks in Corinth not to focus on a man, but to focus on God.  We’ve seen him do this before, and it’s an important message.  

But there’s more here.  

Paul is also telling us that we are not responsible for the results of our work.  You may plant or water or whatever, but you can’t make it grow.

Because you’re not supposed to.

It’s not your gig.

It’s his.

Frankly, when you worry and stress and obsess and try to control every outcome, you are playing God…and I love you, but you know you’re not very good at that.

Are you?

Beloved, do the job God has placed before you, and do it to the best of your ability.

Then rest.

It’s OK.

I don’t know about you, but I find that freeing.

So be free, Beloved.

Happy Friday

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly–mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

Ouch.

I would hate to get a message like that from Paul the Apostle.

But you know, that’s probably the exact message I would get.  I read this passage, and I get the twinge in my gut that says, “This is for you, Bub.”

I rarely call myself “Bub,” but when I do I mean business.

Some days I feel like I have made so little progress in my walk with Christ.  I still struggle with the same doubts, the same fears, the same sins that I struggled with years ago.  I’m still slurping when I ought to be chewing.

So I figure that God must be angry with me, because I’m angry with me.

And yet (don’t you just love the “And yet”?)

And yet, Paul doesn’t seem angry here.  

He seems honest, maybe exasperated.  He sounds a little like I do when I explain to my students, for the 1500th time, that the words there, they’re, and their are not interchangeable.

Above all, he is patient.

As is the God he serves.

Beloved, I encourage you to grow up.  Steak tastes better than milk, and God has called you to run your race, not drag your feet.

And yet…there is grace.

He is patient.

Your Father is not beating you up over your failures.

So why are you?

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned  (1 Corinthians 2:14).

How can they possibly think that?

Have you ever had that question as you read or watched someone espouse beliefs that are, well, ludicrous?

Sure you have.  And you have wondered, seriously wondered, how intelligent, thoughtful, articulate people could say things that sound so…so…

silly.

You know…they’re thinking the same thing about you.

My bride tells me that, before she knew Christ, she was a supporter of “A woman’s right to choose.”  It just made sense to her that a woman should be in charge of decisions regarding her own body.  Those people who championed the rights of a bunch of cells, well, they were just off.

Then the Holy Spirit came and led her into Truth…and everything changed.

She was blind, but now she saw, and she wondered how she could ever have thought otherwise.

Beloved, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have conversations with the world, shouldn’t try to get them to see Truth.  But we must realize that, without the Spirit, people are trapped in a worldview that will not admit God, so there are things they are simply not capable of understanding.

They’re not the enemy.

They’re the ones we’re here to rescue.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:12).

We have someone on the inside.

Jesus promised us as much. In John 16:12, he said to his disciples, “I have much more to say to you than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”

God knows that his thoughts are beyond us.  Even so, he wants his thoughts to be within us.  He wants us to “get” as much as we possibly can, and a little bit more.  So he sent his Holy Spirit to live within us.  The Spirit works in two ways.  He breaks God’s truth down into smaller bits–glimpses, verses, illustrations–that we can digest.  That’s why you can read a verse for the umpteenth time and suddenly see something you’ve never seen before, or watch a bird feed its babies and catch a vision of God’s provision.

Thank you Holy Spirit.

He also expands us.  He kinda stretches our perception so that we can comprehend–if only for a moment–more of God’s nature.  I remember such a moment, eversolong ago.  I was going through the routines of my day, and in the back of my mind I was thinking about Christ’s return.  Suddenly, my perception shifted, and I understood, believed, knew Jesus was returning with a certainty and power that I had never before experienced.  It wasn’t a vision, just one of those “A Ha!” moments, when, just for a heartbeat, I understood.  

Thank you Holy Spirit.

It’s Thursday, Beloved.  A pretty ordinary day.  And yet, right now, the God of the Universe is at work within you, guiding you into a truth that the world will never grasp, the truth of the very nature of who God is and how very much he loves you.

So…maybe not so ordinary after all.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.