Philippians 1:24 "But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account."
This is where Paul is talking about "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." (Phil 1:21). He then follows that with verse 24. Verse 24 hit me like a bag of bricks. (Not that I know what that feels like, but I bet it hurts). I wanted to know who would it be necessary for me to stay for? Who, spiritually, would be hindered because I died? If I died tomorrow, who would have a spiritual hole to fill? Sure, people would miss me and be sad I'm dead (at least I hope so), but who would miss me spiritually? Verse 25 says that he knows he's not about to die yet so he can help to sanctify them and further their walk in faith. Then, 26 says (as to why he will stay and further their faith) "so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus." Which then made me wonder who do I lead to glory in Christ?
None of this is to say that I need to go get a church and get them to love me and need me. Instead, within the people I already know, I would influence them spiritually, which is what truly matters. Therefore, I put this question to you: Who is it necessary that you to stay here for?
-Michael
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Psalm 63:1
Psalm 63:1 "O God, you are my God..."
As many of you know, I have been in Psalm 63 for a while. God keeps showing me more and more out of this passage. Earlier this week, I was hit strongly by this verse. I was reading this and Matthew Henry's commentary on it as well and they just showed me something of it in a whole new light.
What's crazy is that David is not in the temple when he writes this. He is not chillin' on his throne. He's not hanging out with friends. He's not even close to being in Jerusalem. In fact, it says he is in the wilderness of Judah. The time frame of David's life is when he left Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, was rising up against him. David left everything he knew and loved so that he would not be killed by Absalom. He left the comfort and security of his house, the presence of God at the temple, his citizens, and his kingdom. In fact, David's friends Abiathar and Zadok came with the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant. They did this so they would have God on their side. However, David knew that God was not contained in a box. He knew that God was with him with or without the Ark. So, he told them to send it back. David was faithful in the Lord. He put himself at the Lord's mercy and trusted that he would see God again. This is found in 2 Samuel 15.
In the middle of this, David says, "O God!" He recognizes that God is God. That there is no other Jehovah. He praises God just for being God. He knows that God is still Elohim (strong, mighty, covenant God) the same God who created the world and made covenants with man and Himself. That God is Jehovah Jireh; that the Lord will see to it. He will take care of David and his life. He knows that God is still El Shaddai, the powerful nourisher. That God can and will strengthen David. David knew that God is worthy to be praised simply because He is God. He doesn't need to create worlds, save souls, punish souls, give grace or mercy, show love, give life, etc. in order for Him to be praised. He is God! He, alone, is worthy to be praised.
But, David does not stop there. He goes on, "You are my God!" Not only are You God, but You are my God. Not only are You the creator and sustainer of the universe, but You are my God! God is not some great creator who was proud in what He made, but then just let us be. He is a personal, intimate God who loves us and wants to know us and for us to know Him. That is why we can call Him abba, father. That is why we get to talk to Him constantly. That is why He reconciled us unto Him. So we could enjoy a personal relationship with Him. It's crazy to think about it, actually. That the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the Universe who created me is my Father. He is close. He is intimate. He loves me! That is beyond comprehending. That is beyond crazy. That is amazing!
I praise God for being God and my God. I praise Him that He has shown Himself to me in this way. I pray that God will do the same for you and that you will worship Him for this.
-Michael
Soli Deo Gloria
As many of you know, I have been in Psalm 63 for a while. God keeps showing me more and more out of this passage. Earlier this week, I was hit strongly by this verse. I was reading this and Matthew Henry's commentary on it as well and they just showed me something of it in a whole new light.
What's crazy is that David is not in the temple when he writes this. He is not chillin' on his throne. He's not hanging out with friends. He's not even close to being in Jerusalem. In fact, it says he is in the wilderness of Judah. The time frame of David's life is when he left Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, was rising up against him. David left everything he knew and loved so that he would not be killed by Absalom. He left the comfort and security of his house, the presence of God at the temple, his citizens, and his kingdom. In fact, David's friends Abiathar and Zadok came with the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant. They did this so they would have God on their side. However, David knew that God was not contained in a box. He knew that God was with him with or without the Ark. So, he told them to send it back. David was faithful in the Lord. He put himself at the Lord's mercy and trusted that he would see God again. This is found in 2 Samuel 15.
In the middle of this, David says, "O God!" He recognizes that God is God. That there is no other Jehovah. He praises God just for being God. He knows that God is still Elohim (strong, mighty, covenant God) the same God who created the world and made covenants with man and Himself. That God is Jehovah Jireh; that the Lord will see to it. He will take care of David and his life. He knows that God is still El Shaddai, the powerful nourisher. That God can and will strengthen David. David knew that God is worthy to be praised simply because He is God. He doesn't need to create worlds, save souls, punish souls, give grace or mercy, show love, give life, etc. in order for Him to be praised. He is God! He, alone, is worthy to be praised.
But, David does not stop there. He goes on, "You are my God!" Not only are You God, but You are my God. Not only are You the creator and sustainer of the universe, but You are my God! God is not some great creator who was proud in what He made, but then just let us be. He is a personal, intimate God who loves us and wants to know us and for us to know Him. That is why we can call Him abba, father. That is why we get to talk to Him constantly. That is why He reconciled us unto Him. So we could enjoy a personal relationship with Him. It's crazy to think about it, actually. That the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the Universe who created me is my Father. He is close. He is intimate. He loves me! That is beyond comprehending. That is beyond crazy. That is amazing!
I praise God for being God and my God. I praise Him that He has shown Himself to me in this way. I pray that God will do the same for you and that you will worship Him for this.
-Michael
Soli Deo Gloria
Read it. Meditate on it. Live it out.
Okay. Here’s the deal. For some reason, I find writing on a blog a little intimidating. BUT if we all could just come here to share what was on our hearts, this wouldn’t be so intimidating; it would be an awesome way to encourage each other! I really want to learn from you guys. So I’m just going to share with you what I have been reading and maybe you (yes, you) can now share what you have been reading! :)
I know a while back we talked about Psalm 119 and how awesome and convicting it is to see how the word of God was the author’s greatest joy! His worth, delight, treasure, hope, and happiness was found in pouring his life out for God and obeying his every word. With that in mind, something I was reading tonight really stuck out to me…
These are some inserts from Mark Batterson’s book called Primal (with my commentary, of course):
“Not unlike radio waves, the Spirit of God is always broadcasting. But we’ve got to tune in to his frequency. The Holy Spirit has multiple channels of communication, but His primary channel of communication is Scripture. When we open the Bible, it’s like God opens His mouth. That’s how we get on His frequency. That’s how we tune in to His voice.
When you open the Bible and really hear the voice of God-His Loving voice, His graceful voice, His powerful voice, His convicting voice, His affirming voice, His authoritative voice- your life begins to echo God’s. Your life becomes a joyful noise. Your life begins to harmonize with the Holy Spirit.
When you love someone, you love the sound of his or her voice. If you’ve ever had a long distance relationship, you know whereof I write. A relationship with God is a lot like that. To love God is to love his voice. Or to put it another way, to love God is to love his word.”
((I thought this was cool, because when you start thinking about the bible as God’s voice-- Him speaking to you, it makes it really personal. Really special. It really is a joy to hear from him!))
“If you are relying on a preacher to be fed, I fear for you. Listening to a sermon is acquiring secondhand knowledge. It is learning based on someone else’s experiences. A sermon is no replacement for firsthand knowledge. I’d rather have people hear one word from the Lord rather than a thousand of my sermons. And that is what happens when you read the Word for yourself.
Start reading the bible and you’ll discover that the more you read, the more you crave. It’s an acquired taste.
But here’s the secret: you can’t just read the Bible; you have to meditate on it. Reading gives breadth to our understanding but meditation gives depth. If all we do is read scripture, then our understanding is one-dimensional. Reading without meditating is like taking one look through a kaleidoscope without turning it. So many colorful and beautiful patterns of truth remain undiscovered simply because we think we’ve seen everything there is to see when we haven’t seen anything yet.”
((The word meditation is used eight times in Psalm 119.))
“The best translation of the bible is your life. God doesn’t just want to speak to you through Scripture, he wants to speak through you. He wants to write His-story through your life. And Scripture is the script.”
You guys are smart and probably already know all of this, but I know sometimes I can get so caught up in podcasts and Christian books that I forget about the most important thing. So I encourage you all to take the time to dig into the Word that God has spoken to you. Not for the sake of knowing the Bible, but for the sake of knowing God! And displaying him to the world.
-CD :)
I know a while back we talked about Psalm 119 and how awesome and convicting it is to see how the word of God was the author’s greatest joy! His worth, delight, treasure, hope, and happiness was found in pouring his life out for God and obeying his every word. With that in mind, something I was reading tonight really stuck out to me…
These are some inserts from Mark Batterson’s book called Primal (with my commentary, of course):
“Not unlike radio waves, the Spirit of God is always broadcasting. But we’ve got to tune in to his frequency. The Holy Spirit has multiple channels of communication, but His primary channel of communication is Scripture. When we open the Bible, it’s like God opens His mouth. That’s how we get on His frequency. That’s how we tune in to His voice.
When you open the Bible and really hear the voice of God-His Loving voice, His graceful voice, His powerful voice, His convicting voice, His affirming voice, His authoritative voice- your life begins to echo God’s. Your life becomes a joyful noise. Your life begins to harmonize with the Holy Spirit.
When you love someone, you love the sound of his or her voice. If you’ve ever had a long distance relationship, you know whereof I write. A relationship with God is a lot like that. To love God is to love his voice. Or to put it another way, to love God is to love his word.”
((I thought this was cool, because when you start thinking about the bible as God’s voice-- Him speaking to you, it makes it really personal. Really special. It really is a joy to hear from him!))
“If you are relying on a preacher to be fed, I fear for you. Listening to a sermon is acquiring secondhand knowledge. It is learning based on someone else’s experiences. A sermon is no replacement for firsthand knowledge. I’d rather have people hear one word from the Lord rather than a thousand of my sermons. And that is what happens when you read the Word for yourself.
Start reading the bible and you’ll discover that the more you read, the more you crave. It’s an acquired taste.
But here’s the secret: you can’t just read the Bible; you have to meditate on it. Reading gives breadth to our understanding but meditation gives depth. If all we do is read scripture, then our understanding is one-dimensional. Reading without meditating is like taking one look through a kaleidoscope without turning it. So many colorful and beautiful patterns of truth remain undiscovered simply because we think we’ve seen everything there is to see when we haven’t seen anything yet.”
((The word meditation is used eight times in Psalm 119.))
“The best translation of the bible is your life. God doesn’t just want to speak to you through Scripture, he wants to speak through you. He wants to write His-story through your life. And Scripture is the script.”
You guys are smart and probably already know all of this, but I know sometimes I can get so caught up in podcasts and Christian books that I forget about the most important thing. So I encourage you all to take the time to dig into the Word that God has spoken to you. Not for the sake of knowing the Bible, but for the sake of knowing God! And displaying him to the world.
-CD :)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
What a pursuit, What a love
I figured I would try this thing out, see how to do this deal, so I am just going to write a thought from a verse that I read yesterday.
Acts 7:34 "I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt."
As I read this verse, two words hit me real hard, "come down". For some reason my mind shifted to 2 Timothy 1:9 "For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserve it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time-to show us his grace through Christ Jesus".
Okay, here is where I ended up; God wanted to have fellowship with us, so He created us. But what gets me is the fact that even before He created us He knew what was going to go down. He knew that we were going to rebel, hate, and pretty much just curse His name. He also knew before hand that He was going to "come down" out of Heaven (which ment that He knew that He was going to be giving up His Glory) through His Son, Christ, and that we were going to kill Him.
It really humbles me as I sit here and think about this. Knowing all of this before hand, and He still creates us, and then after He redeems us, we are "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms" (Eph 1:3-4), promised that He will never remember our sins (Heb 10:17), and then tells us in Hebrews 10:22 that we can go into His presence! What a pursuit God has after us! What a love Christ has for us!
There is nothing that we can do with this Truth but just worship!
Acts 7:34 "I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt."
As I read this verse, two words hit me real hard, "come down". For some reason my mind shifted to 2 Timothy 1:9 "For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserve it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time-to show us his grace through Christ Jesus".
Okay, here is where I ended up; God wanted to have fellowship with us, so He created us. But what gets me is the fact that even before He created us He knew what was going to go down. He knew that we were going to rebel, hate, and pretty much just curse His name. He also knew before hand that He was going to "come down" out of Heaven (which ment that He knew that He was going to be giving up His Glory) through His Son, Christ, and that we were going to kill Him.
It really humbles me as I sit here and think about this. Knowing all of this before hand, and He still creates us, and then after He redeems us, we are "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms" (Eph 1:3-4), promised that He will never remember our sins (Heb 10:17), and then tells us in Hebrews 10:22 that we can go into His presence! What a pursuit God has after us! What a love Christ has for us!
There is nothing that we can do with this Truth but just worship!
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