Miracles

I often think that if I could only see Jesus, if I could only watch Him perform a miracle, if I could only touch His holes and observe His perfection then I would follow Him whole-heartedly and never stray. I often think I could survive fully on Him if I could do all these things and never need another explanation or experience another 'if only' moment- I would have full faith. But interestingly enough, that wouldn't be the case. "Then Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent" Matthew 11:20. Idiots. It's amazing to me that they could see Jesus restore a sick girl's life, make 2 blind men see, cast out demons, clean lepers, rebuke the winds and the sea and who knows what else and yet they still did not repent. And as amazing as it is, I'm forced to sit back and view my own life and shudder at the many times that I've experienced God and still react in much the same way as those lost souls. I've seen God stop a car so that it didn't run me over in Africa, I've had an attempted robbery that I walked away unharmed, I've watched the power of prayer daily and marveled that God would reach down and care about such small matters. Even in all His miracles that He's performed right in front of my eyes, I still can't gather myself to follow perfectly in His footsteps.

We need to take very seriously all the times we've experienced God. We're accountable to those moments. I think we forget in just how many ways God is great because evil tries to wipe it from our memory. If deception is one Evil's greatest tools, then I think one of the main objectives is simply for us to forget the goodness of God. I once had a friend tell me that every night before she goes to bed she writes down 5 ways God was good that day and 5 good things about her life. It's not such a bad idea if that's what it takes to make us remember the goodness of God, remember the great deeds He performs in our lives every day.

Going to Heaven

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” Matthew 7:21-23.

Most people, particularly Christians, wonder at some point in their lives if they are truly saved. We all think we’ve trusted in Jesus as our Lord and Savior; we’ve tried to follow in His ways; we’ve strove to love other people and do good things. We actually sometimes even pat ourselves on the back and think of the good deeds we’ve performed, but are we really saved? Are we really washed in the blood of the lamb or just in the water?

I love this passage in The Scriptures because I think it lays our saving foundation so well. Jesus answers our questions and clears our doubts about salvation all in the guise of pointing out those that are not. He shows His point in three ways (and maybe more!): 1) saying “Lord, Lord” to Jesus 2) Doing the Will of the Father 3) Being Lawful.

The first requirement for going to Heaven is believing in Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus says that not everyone who does this will enter Heaven; thereby we are able to assume that the opposite is true that if you don’t do it you surely will not enter Heaven. Jesus is Lord and Savior of this world that we live in and He came down as 100% God and 100% man to be able to pay the price for our weakness and inability. We must call Him Lord to receive that great gift that covers our depravity.

The second requirement for going to Heaven is doing the Will of the Father. That Will can be found in the Bible as well as revealed in our prayer, fasting and meditation times (and all the other times the Spirit is with us...). To do the will of the Father is a very difficult thing but praise Jesus that by calling Him ‘Lord’ we are able to fall back on Him each time we fail and know that we are righteous in our pursuit of the Will of God because we first call Jesus “Lord”. That pursuit of the Will of God is just as key to our salvation as calling Jesus “Lord,” which in my opinion is where many people miss the boat.

The last point I see Jesus referring to in this passage shows His rebuke of lawlessness. Jesus says that one day He will exclaim, “Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” to those whom He never knew. So in order for us to be known by God and be called as His child we must be lawFULL people. We must obey the law of the Lord and not stray from Him. Now here again we fall into the grace of first calling Jesus Lord and therefore being able to stumble along our path of being lawful. It’s the same as following the Will of the Father for your life in that it’s the pursuit of the law and your determination to do so victoriously instead of the actual outcomes of each attempt. Yes, we will fail. The good Lord knows just how many times we will fail each and every day. Our attention and willingness to adhere to EACH law presented by our good God determines our ability to be lawful or lawless. Here again many people miss the bandwagon (or should I say many people jump ON the bandwagon and therefore jump OUT of lawfulness?). We pick and choose which rules and regulations we will and will not adhere to. We take some very seriously and others as things that don’t matter if we break. It’s not right if you think about it and completely unbiblical to do so. I think we would adjust some of our ‘fun’ and amusement in life if we acknowledge the weight of our lawlessness many times in those situations.

Do you realize that by blatantly committing sin you are being lawless, therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Do you realize that following your own path counteracts the better path of God, therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Do you realize that using the Lord’s name in vain is showing your lack of knowledge of the power of that name therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Thank the good Lord that His blood cleanses even the caked on mess we make of our sins and violations of God’s law. Don’t let these last questions send you back into a tail spin of wondering if you’re saved. Let the first part make your path certain and these last questions make you realize the serious nature of each decision, each choice, each step in any direction. It’s really easy to make the right decision when it’s going to get you something good or bump you up in life. It’s really difficult to make the right decision when you might get away without anyone knowing or it will cost you something great.

The Lord IS working

"O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you, 'violence!' and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted" Habakkuk 1:2-4.

Have you ever felt like this? I think I can successfully vouch for just about every person I've ever shared life with that we've all had our moments. We've all wanted to shout at God and ask, "Where are you?!?!" We've all wondered as if to say that our plan is better than God's as we shake an angry fist at the perfect Planner of the universe. We have this lase fair version of God as though He's the guy that lazily sits on His magnificent throne up in heaven going in and out of slumber watching idly as we destroy ourselves and everything around us.

But, you say, there are all these terrible people who get great jobs, get spouses they don't deserve, have the ability to do just about anything in life they want and to top it all off everyone loves them and wants to be like them. It's not fair. You say, here you are trying to follow God and you aren't getting the things you signed up for. You want the job, the money, the admiration....really? Is that what's going to make you happy?...Are you sure?

I think we have eyes that are too nearsighted. We see the immediate and grasp for it when the eternal reward of waiting is of so much more value. I think God is working in the midst of us and we either choose to not recognize the work as God or we want something else are so turn disdainfully at Him to hold a grudge. God says, "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I AM doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" vs5. God is working. God is doing great things in our generation. God is the same God that called down fire and hail to help His people. He's the same God that brought plagues to get His people out of harm, the same God that kept Jonah safe in the fish. He's the same God that will never leave us or forsake us. But, He's God and we're not. "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay" 2:3b. We have a very jaded timeline when it comes to waiting. God has an eternal timeline.

"Let all the earth keep silence before the Lord" vs20b. Maybe the next time you're wrestling with God over your timeline and over your immediate 'need' for some big issue, take a second and realize that He's God. He's an active, aggressive, passionate, loving and powerful Father that is in all things, knows all things and provides all things. Maybe instead of bombarding the gates of heaven with all your requests, sit back and keep silent before the Lord. Either way, He'll sustain you, but I bet the fastest way to conform to the image of God is to wait patiently for Him and keep silent in His presence and know that He IS working, that He IS moving, and He IS doing great things that we wouldn't even believe if told.

Singlehood

Our world doesn’t respond well to singles. Let me repeat that, in my opinion, our world responds incorrectly to singles. By ‘our world’ I mean this sudo-Christian, southern comfort, moralistic society that most of us have been brought up in and that we don’t truly realize the magnitude of influence it has over us and the strength it carries to which we live our lives by. Singlehood, in our society, is viewed as a waiting period; a period when we’re trying to figure out what we want and how we’re going to get there; a place of uncertainty where a person continues to move around and switch jobs because they aren’t ready to settle down- singlehood. Mainly though, it’s a place that people feel sorry for you because you haven’t found your one true love that we’re all so convinced will make everything so much better and make our world and future so much more certain. GAG. Ok, so now you’re either thinking, “yeah, she feels that way because she’s young and doesn’t know any better” or “now Katie marriage isn’t all roses” or better yet “everyone needs that time to find themselves”. BOO. We have popularized and idolized marriage as though it’s the crowning victory to our earthly lives. Ok, ok, thus says the cynic, right? Thus says the single girl who’s trying to cope with the fact that she doesn’t have anyone and is lonely you say. You can say whatever you please, but the truth is that our world idealizes marriage. We put life into phases: childhood, the dreaded teenage years (remember that mom?), college with a little sowing of your wild oats and then a short phase of singlehood along with young professionalism and then marriage. You’ve made it. People will take you seriously, they will assume you’re mature, they will invite you over for dinner, and they will speak to you like an adult. However, if you’re still single then you’re still trying to figure things out and just need a little more time so they’ll politely comply for you to grow up.

Our world doesn’t respond well to singles. We have singles Sunday school classes that the whole point is for the sexes to meet one another, start a relationship and get married. We want married couples, we want families, we want generations. We’re scared of single people. We either don’t believe they have enough self-confidence and faith in God to be single or we think them too volatile to be put in any sort of important position. After all, they’re still looking for themselves. Even those in unhappy marriages or marriages that aren’t quite as rosy as they would have thought still prefer to be in their current position than to brave the storm again and become alone. Now you may say the national divorce percentages are astounding, but do you know of people getting divorced that their situation isn't unbearable?

I find our world’s view of singles interesting. I find our church’s view of singles interesting. I find them interesting when I think of all the magnificent single people in the Bible that accomplished super-human feats. As a matter of fact, I would dare say that most of the people in the Bible who accomplished great things were single. Paul actually remarks rather against it on some occasions. Now I don’t necessarily take Paul’s side, I’m still a proponent of marriage, but my point is that we idealize marriage to an unhealthy level causing single people to fall into the vortex of lies about how much better their lives should be. “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love” Jonah 2:8. I think we make marriage an idol. I think we miss out on a lot of what God has to offer us because we tell ourselves what the next step of life is supposed to be and how it’s supposed to look. We wait for marriage and miss out on the abundance of steadfast love and exceeding joy that flows to us from a Savior, providing us with all we need to not only survive but to thrive. We as a church miss out on the great things single people have to offer us and we accentuate married couples as the best ministers. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way” Psalm 37:7a. From a single person’s perspective, know that the pressure to settle and give in is astounding in our culture. Don’t miss out on either the greatness of singlehood or the greatness that single people have to offer you if you take the chance to get to know just how special God made them. It’s not a waiting period, it’s life. I’m not volatile; I’m actually much more stable than most.

Jonah

I just finished reading through the Book of Jonah and I never cease to resonate with the man himself. Strong willed, overly zealot on many occasions, unnecessarily passionate in some emotional areas, wanting to have the ability to figure God out down to an art of knowing what He will and won’t do, firm in my own opinions, convinced I know what’s best in life, hot tempered to a fault. Yeah, (sigh)…I resonate with Jonah. “For I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” Jonah 4:2b. As much as I disagree with the Catholics on the point of confession, I still find myself willing to go along with it if it means having my sins forgiven instantaneously if only I say them aloud. What’s the joke? Something about how Catholics flood to mass and confession on Sundays because of what they did on Saturday night? Sounds silly and yet most of us operate on the same standard. We do things we know aren’t right because we want to play both sides. We want the instant gratification and satisfaction and yet we want the forgiveness and free ticket to eternal rewards.

We believe in a god that forgives us of all our sins immediately and without regard to why we committed them or whether we are planning on committing them again. We emphasize the grace and mercy part of God because we need something to make us feel better because of our total depravity. We have churches either disregarding our depravity and making everyone think everything’s peachy or churches that bang depravity so far into your heads that you feel helpless against sin. Either way, the unfortunate end for many listeners that choose not to be individual thinkers is that we sin and then believe in a god who realizes we don’t mean to and so of course forgives us. We believe, far too often, in a god of our own concoction, our own imagination, a god that makes our lives make more sense and that makes us feel better about what we’re doing.

Jonah knew God, and he for sure knew he couldn’t hide from Him. I think when Jonah fled at first he thought, “This is going to make me mad, God. You’re going to save these dreadful people who have been living as though they have nothing to lose. These people who call out your name half-heartedly, the believers who slide by in society and yet aren’t really committed, and yet you’re still going to save them. I hate this, God. Is there any reason I’m following whole-heartedly right now when people who get to play both sides still make it?” But you know what my favorite part of this whole event is? We get to see a different trait of God that makes me realize His deep intimacy and core knowledge of how each of us are woven together. God interacts with Jonah very differently from other noteworthy people in his time. Jonah practically yells and is certainly angry with God throughout this experience and yet God never blinks and acts disrespected. I think it’s because this is the way Jonah learns and the way he gets through is own stubborn nature to find the authority and greatness of God. There’s no doubt Jonah is being incredibly selfish and self-righteous but yet I think God uses His pride for His glory and ultimate will. I think God chisels down Jonah piece by piece in a way much more effective than if He had gotten mad.

There are many things I’m yet to learn about God. But as I read this passage I think I’ve discovered one more. God interacts with me much differently than He interacts with anyone else. It doesn’t mean that He’s a different God or He changes from person to person. It means that He created me so delicately, so perfectly, so intricately that He addresses me according to my need and my ability to comprehend His point. I, like Jonah, want for things that I have not right to and have a skewed version of my entitlement. We know not how far the great riches that await us outweigh anything earthly that the scales do not even tip and we too easily succumb to the manifest of appeal for earthly claim and endearment.

Grieved

When I take the time to think about the destruction and total depravity of most of our world it makes me shudder. Much too often I erase it as soon as it enters because the pain of fully divulging myself into such thoughts would last a lifetime. We don't take the salvation of others as seriously as we ought. We cast it aside and are thankful for our own salvation, as though we can rest easy and live lives of harmony because we've "found" God and everything else is taken care of. WRONG.

"Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!" Amos 6:4-6.

Are you grieved over the ruin of our world? Are you grieved because even whole churches and certainly active participants in other places of worship actually abhor God and do not follow His teachings? Are you saddened that people have the option of church and yet do not attend because they see it as hypocritical or they are too "busy" to go? Are we grieved?

We're not so different from the people back in the Old Testament are we? We still overindulge and take our eyes off of the prize. We still sit idly as the world continues to fall into utter darkness. We still do things that bring us temporary comfort because we have never chosen to taste the eternal reward that God holds right in front of us everyday. We are much too easily pleased with the trivial and we settle for momentary happiness that flees as quickly as it came. It flees because it wasn't meant to fill the space we're giving it. It flees because only God can fill that void and yet therein lies the great mystery about why we struggle so indepthly to fight off His reign.

I look at the verses from Amos and I realize we're a whole lot like these people. We want the finest things, we want the nicest meals and richest furniture. We want the big houses and fine living. But does it bring us joy? There's always going to be someone that has more, that's more successful, that's smarter, that's thinks more indepthly, that's more intuitive, that's more fun, that's more cunning, that's prettier, that can outsmart you. There's always going to be someone. But what matters is that which is eternal. The salvation of others matter. It matters much more than gold or silver. Think about it- we long for riches like beds of ivory just as the Israelites but we're going to a place where the streets are paved with gold if we decide to cast aside those beds of ivory for now and focus on the plans of the Lord and working out His salvation in our lives. On one hand you have something fleeting and on the other you have someonething WAY better that is also eternal. I think I'll choose the streets of gold and wait to see how much better the bed must be than ivory.

Secrets

"You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing? Is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? For the Lord does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets" Amos 3:2-7.

Reading this passage a few days ago, it struck me, but I wouldn't fully indulge myself into the context and force of its heavy words. Still today I find it difficult to admit to what it says and comply to the entirety I understand it to be. We have no secrets in life that God doesn't know. Every sin or error committed by us is our fault and we should know better. Verse two tells us that the Israelites continue to sin and God in His sovereignty and authority says that He will punish them for everything. "Do two walk together unless they have agree to meet?" Things don't happen by chance, we understand deep down what we get ourselves into and we know ourselves well enough to know what our limits are. So often we test those limits for personal pleasure or indulgence and would rather feel remorse later and ask God's forgiveness on the flip-side than to not put ourselves in the situation in the first place. We love self more than we love others and especially more than we love God.


"Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it?" We act surprised when we get into a bind. We act like we think we're immortal and yet we so often are out solely for ourselves and our pleasure. I read an article the other day saying that the average person lies 3 times every 10 minutes. I can think of a zinger or two I've told in the last few days that you find yourself thinking, "oh no, words are coming out of my mouth! why am I saying this to rectify a situation I don't know anything about to make myself seem more important? Why am I always wanting to be right and know everything?" Evil traps are set for us everywhere, particularly as believers. We want to save face after we make a mistake to cover up when maybe the trap was not the mistake but was the urge to lie or act in a certain way that misleads people. Maybe the traps around us are designed to be really enticing and attractive and so we purposely fall into them even though we know the birds end. Will the trap reveal itself and its wicked scheme until it's encompassed you if you get close to it? (5b)--not a chance. Not until you're caught or turn away so fully that the snare awaits a later date to come back and begin its trapping again when it thinks you again weak.

Does anything happen outside of God's knowledge and maybe even God's authority, dominion and actual actions themselves? We so often see God as this great mystery that chooses on a spur of the moment kind of basis what to do next. He says in verse 7, "For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." If that's true and we don't have modern day prophets then everything we need to know, all the answers and all the secrets, is contained in the Holy Word of God in its entirety. God may choose to reveal His secrets to you or I in prayer or in reading His Word but how will we know unless we do?

We blaze our own paths in vain.