You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Religion' tag.
Today in church the pastor talked about miracles and that often times our miracle is just waiting for us if we just go ahead and receive it. He used passages found in scripture like Galatians 3:5 Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard? (Amplified Bible) And James 2:26 Faith without works is dead. (NIV) I believe in miracles, in fact I went down front so that I could be prayed over for a miracle I want to see happen in my own life.
But the question I find myself asking quite a bit is why don’t we see more miracles in our lives. Is it because we don’t truly believe that God can perform miracles, or is it that we don’t ask because we don’t think our request is truly miracle worthy?
For me, I think we don’t ask sometimes because we may be scared, that God may just give us that miracle. That sounds strange I know but think about it, if God answered some of the things we would like to see happen in our lives it shock the socks off us. I also think we sometimes don’t ask for some miracles because of the responsibility that would be required on our part. Maybe your miracle hasn’t happened yet because you haven’t acted out in faith.
Faith is a huge part of miracles. Think about that for a minute, a miracle is performing something that is beyond human capabilities, something out of the ordinary. That takes a huge amount of faith.
So maybe the question shouldn’t be why don’t we see more miracles happen today, but how are we when it comes to our faith. Are we stretching our faith enough to allow God to do something worthy of a miracle or we just playing it safe and only asking for the things we know will happen anyway?
Have you ever thought to yourself, man if I could only change the way that person views life. I think that person is so off base in their beliefs. I just wish they could see what I see. But if you stop and think about it what makes us right – how are we so sure that we are right and someone else is wrong?
James Sire the author of “The universe next door” gives one of the best definitions of what exactly is a worldview. “A worldview is a set of presuppositions, (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of the world.”
Until just a few years ago I was under the false pretense that if you did not view life exactly the way I did you were wrong in your thinking. A lot of this had to do with being immature I know, but I also believe a lot had to do with my lack of understanding of God’s worldview in the Bible. I, like many people, just took for granted that what people told me was pretty much the truth, especially if it were a pastor. But what if they made a mistake, what if they were miss guided by someone?
Most people’s worldview is not something that they have thought out and wrestled with on their own, rather it is something they have accumulated over the years. Our view of the world is shaped by our parents, the culture in which we live , our religious traditions or lack of, the type of education we received, the media, and much more. All these things influence our thinking and how we view the world and our place in it and the sad thing is we don’t even realize that these things influence us. I heard it stated like this once, “ we learn more than we create; we accept more than we reject. So concisely we do not formulate our on worldviews, we simply regurgitate what we have already been taught.
This to me is very sad, because if this is true then very few people are able to rise above their cultural prejudices, or the cultural norms of society. We may like to believe that we are free thinkers independent of the influences around us, but were not. If you think about it, it is quite frightening how many incorrect assumptions we have adopted as our own. For many they are quite contented not to dig deeper or try to think more independently. We like to believe that our worldview is correct. And if we are challenged with another person’s worldview that does not line up with ours we usually get defensive about it. Instead of taking the time and ask questions and wrestle with their answers we throw condemnation their way.
Just recently though, I started welcoming other peoples worldview not as my own, but to better understand people who hold different views of the world, so that I can engage them in intelligent dialogue. I also started going to the scriptures to see if what they are telling me lines up with scripture. As well, I am seeing if what I believe is lining up with the scriptures. I find myself letting go of those once sacred cows, I once held so tightly to. I am now asking God to make my worldview more like his, more open and not so closed-minded.
Lord, I pray that my way of viewing the world (in all that entails, my beliefs, my views on other dominations, the way I treat others, and so on) would be more like yours.
I was reminded the other day that Jesus was accused of being “a friend of sinners”. That was supposed to be an insult to Christ. But it turns out to be a great source of hope to all of us. We all know we are full of sin and fall short of God’s glory, but God is gracious. God in His grace allowed Jesus to hang out with unrespectable people. So I am just thinking here out loud, if our congregations are full of respectable people – then could it be said that we have not truly grasped the radical grace of God. Just a thought, any comments.
“1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” This passage of scripture shows God’s amazing love He has to His wayward people. It seemed at first that Jonah did everything he could to resist God’s calling the first time around, after Jonah repented God called him again. God chose to do this out of his grace and mercy.
It is very interesting that God in verse 2 tells Jonah to preach the message that I tell you. Suggesting that Jonah does not know what he will be delivering to the people of Nineveh. God simply tells Jonah to go and wait for instructions. It’s funny for I see God working like that a lot in my own life and my flesh often times finds it very irritating that He does.
The story of Jonah demonstrates why God so often leads us one step at a time. Because when God told Jonah the first time in chapter 1:1 what to say, Jonah discarded the call. So often times God only will tell us what He thinks we can handle at that time. Then in verse 3 Jonah realizes that resisting God is useless and can get you into a lot of trouble. Thus Jonah goes to Nineveh, obeying God’s call.
Then in verses 5-9 we do not see the actual word repentance being used, but we can see through the passage that is what they did in their fasting and wearing sackcloth. Repentance starts with believing God. And repentance is turning away from your evil ways, which is what the people were doing. These people were so serious about their repentance that they even made their animals fast.
Then finally in verse 10 we see that God honored their repentance, even though their sin was reason enough for harsh judgment. The people in their repentance appealed to God’s mercy and grace and not his judgment. I am so thankful that God acts more on his mercy and grace than He does on his judgment. For where would any of us be if it where not for is mercy and grace.
In Jonah 1:17, we see Jonah is swallowed by a large fish, it does not say a whale – but a fish. I think this is very import to note for a couple of reasons. One being when I think of a whale, I think of a large stomach with lots of room inside to move around. A fish on the other hand, from the pictures I have seen, even the large fish have a small stomach in comparison to a whale. So to be in the belly of a fish must have been extremely tight and uncomfortable. I can only imagine the scene that Jonah lays out for us in chapter 2, where the seaweed is wrapped around his head. Imagine also the stench inside the fish’s stomach, with all the other dead and decaying things the fish has eaten, mixed with the fish’s stomach acids. The stench alone would make one cry out to the Lord for help. Then to make it even worse not being able to move around, lying prostrate on your back, not able to move your hands or feet. Being in total darkness and feeling every jolt and move of the fish had to be a horrifying experience. Jonah must have truly thought he was going to die in the belly of a fish.
God is giving Jonah here a HUGE wake up call in his disobedience. Like Jonah we got to understand that God responds to disobedience by making conditions oppose us. God knows what will grab our attention, what will cause a change in our hearts and behavior. Jonah must have been one stubborn man if it took this to make him realize the sin he committed in his disobedience. Then I think of the times that I can be stubborn and realize that it would take a real attention grabber to make me change my actions as well.
It just goes to show that God will go at whatever the cost to grab our attention, when we veer of the course that He has set for our lives. To me this shows that God loves us so much that nothing but his pure and holly plan is what we deserve, not the leading of our own frail and limited mind’s plans.
To really grasp the agony of Jonah read chapter 2 in the Message or New Living Translation Bible. These two versions really capture Jonah crying out to the Lord. You can go to Biblegateway.com to find these two and many more.
Before I begin let me start off with why I chose to do a Bible Study on the book of Jonah. Jonah is a very interesting man, who in many aspects is a lot like the average Christian today. Jonah knows the will of God for his life, but like many of us, he chooses not to embrace the calling. Maybe out of fear of the people (in Nineveh), maybe his heart is not in it yet (not wanting to see the people of Nineveh saved), or maybe he’s the type of person that needs an object lesson from God to get his attention.
Jonah’s story has much to say about the love God has for all people. God desires to show His mercy and offer forgiveness to anyone and everyone. Although sadly when we, the church, have the attitude of exclusiveness, like Jonah had towards the Ninevehits – we fail to accomplish God’s great commission (Matt. 28:18-20). But, when we, the church, take seriously the command of God to go to all nations of the world, those people who hear the Gospel and respond experience the mercy and love of God in a life-changing way. It has been said that Jonah is the missionary book of the Old Testament.
Chapter 1
Verses 1-3 we see that the Lord is speaking to Jonah to go to Nineveh on the Lord’s behalf. But like many of us, Jonah gets scared and maybe a little mad that the Lord would call him to talk to such wicked people. So Jonah does what many of us do best in times like these, he runs trying to hide from God. But where on earth can we hide from the God that made the very heavens and the earth? Instead we, like Jonah, should have promptly done what God tells us to do. Remembering that if we don’t, our stubbornness may very well cause trouble for us later on.
Then in verses 4-15 we see the trouble that Jonah got into for disobeying God. He gets thrown into the sea, just punishment from a just God. Being the righteous and just God that He is, it would be wrong of Him, if he allowed the sin or disobedience in our lives go unchecked. Since sin cannot stand in the presence of God’s holiness, we need to realize that any prayers we may offer up to Him are in vain and useless – until we confess of our sin and disobedience. The confession removes the sin, thus removing the spiritual barrier we had with God.
Knowing that we cannot hide from God, lets own up to our wrong behavior. Then move on with God’s plan for our lives.
Within the past two weeks this question has come up twice, “what if today was your last day”? Just this past Sunday on the way home from church I heard on the radio Nickelback’s song entitled “What if today was your last day”. Then the week before that I heard a podcast sermon entitled, “what if today was your last day, what would you do?”
So these two events got me thinking how would I live differently if I knew today was my last day here on earth? Here are some things I make sure I’d get done.
- Tell my parents that I love them
- Jump on the trampoline with my kids, until we couldn’t jump anymore
- Take a walk with my wife and tell her how much she really means to me
- View the sunrise & sunset as if it was the first time I’d ever seen them
- Savor every bite of my last meal
- Call up each of my closest friends & tell them I appreciated their friendship
- MAKE EVERY SECOND COUNT
Then I got to thinking about it, no one knows the time of his or her own death, and God hasn’t revealed that to us. So why wouldn’t we live each day to the fullest. Making every moment that went by count for something. Why is it that we allow so much of the business of life distract us from what’s really important. I truly believe none of us will look back on life as we get older and say, look at all the wealth I gained, look at how busy I was. No, I believe we will look back on our lives and say, I should of spent more time with my family and friends, I should have slowed down a little and enjoyed life a little better.
Lets face it, the life most of us live is too busy, most of us want to slow down. But we live in fear that if we do slow down that business of life will catch up with us and over whelm us.
A buddy of mine today at the gym said, he finds himself going home after work logging on the computer to answer just a few more emails. My question is it really worth it taking your time away from your family. He has a toddler that he is missing out on all the new things he is doing, just to feel like he is ahead of the game a little.
For me I am trying, not saying that I am good at it cause Lord knows I always feel the need to stay busy. But I am trying to slow down and take each day as a gift. Just think how much better everything would be if we treated it like it was the last time we could ever do it. I bet that meal would taste better, making love to your spouse would be better, playing with your kids would be more enjoyable, and fact is life would be better period.
So I am challenging myself to slow down and take the path less traveled. To look at life differently, to live as if today was my last day. And just in the short time that I started this, I feel better, I don’t take so many things for granted. Life, for the first time, feels like this is how God meant for me to live my life, because who knows this really could be my last day!
I read about the 2nd coming and I, like most evangelicals, think of a big to do! I imagine Jesus riding a white stallion with clouds rolling behind him as He comes down to earth, like the pictures I see. I also imagine everyone waking up to angles playing trumpets.
But what if my view like many other evangelicals in America is wrong. What if instead of angles playing trumpets, it’s a couple of homeless guys in New York playing. Instead of a great white stallion it is a donkey? Then what if after Jesus got here He first visited the homeless shelters and bars and drank and ate with the kinds of people evangelicals have declared war against? And when it says in the Bible that He comes like a thief in the night it means that He did not make a big deal of his return, that He kept it on the down low. Now to top it off, what if He did not have long waive hair and a good complexion, but was just average or below average looking. And what would we think if he talked with a hick accent and spoke in parables all the time.
I think if He comes back like this not many will believe He really is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Those that did follow Him would probably be the poor and marginalized. I can’t help but wonder if the ugly Jesus came to America if we would fulfill the Isaiah 53:3 prophecy once again, where it says He that was rejected by men.
It’s probably easier for you and me to believe Jesus is now in Heaven with God in all his splendor and glory. I feel this way because I’m afraid the Jesus that exists in most of our minds is hardly the real Jesus at all. The Jesus that sells books, that is on TBN, the Jesus of many evangelical Americans, is a lot of times the Jesus of the suburbs. A Jesus that wants you to be a better person, a Jesus who supports your political party, a Jesus who dresses in a suit, who speaks eloquently and says what we want to hear and above all does not rock the boat in our lives.
I think some people live in a fantasy world where Jesus is holding our hand telling us we are the ones that are right and some day soon all the other idiots will pay. And we are going to make it because we are Pentecostal, Calvinists, Catholics, and Armenians; because we attend the right church and support the right political party. Or is Jesus actively pulling our heartstrings to feed the hungry, help the marginalized, and the desperate. Is He the Jesus that is telling you to reach out of your comfort zone to eat and fellowship with those you would not normally talk to? The Jesus that compels us to pray for our enemies instead of talking about them – the Jesus that says put others before ourselves, the Jesus that said to model our lives like him. The latter of these is the Jesus of the Scripture, the ugly one. The first one is definitely more popular in evangelical America, but is a myth, a make believe Jesus sharing a genre with Harry Potter.
