No Darkness AT ALL

"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."

1 John 1:5

No darkness AT ALL... in contrast to men in whom both darkness and light, both good and evil cohabitate. We are images of God marred by the fall. Author Cornelius Plantinga writes, "Creation speaks out of both sides of its mouth now." Reading through the adjectives Plantinga uses to describe mankind reminds us who we are: half-ruined, twisted, polluted, divided, double-minded, split, spoiled, contaminated, shipwrecked, fallen. Our hearts are both "this and that" where good and evil are intertwined and light is overshadowed.

With all of this mess in our hearts and in our world, we can be grateful that there is One who has retained His pure, uncontaminated holiness.

"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."1 John 1:5

Separated?

Lately I've felt convicted about the lack of intimacy I've had with God. Tonight as I was getting ready to go to sleep, I began to repent for the lack of effort on my part. I confessed that I was causing the distance I felt between myself and God. Then I felt led to grab my Bible. "Pick up and read." Hmm... what should I read? "Romans... 8... verse 38." I'm pretty bad with Scripture memory, so I didn't know where God was leading me; I just knew it was a familiar passage. As I reached for my teshuva duck tape Bible, this thought came to me: "No. Grab the Study Bible. You'll want to read the study note."

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

study note on 8:39...

"nor anything else in all creation. Nothing
in the universe is outside God's control; therefore, nothing (including
ourselves) can separate us from His eternal love."

We serve a PERSONAL God! The Holy Spirit counsels us and comforts us according to our personal needs. My lack of effort may have created a feeling of distance between me and God, but NOTHING can separate me from His love. God knows me. He knows my thoughts. He knows my circumstances. He knows what I need to hear. I need to listen. Praise God!

God is 100%

God is 100%...

• God is 100% Holy... He's not mostly holy. He's holy holy holy!!!! (with an infinite number of "holys" and an infinite number of exclamation points!)
• God is 100% Wrathful... He's not bothered by our sin. It's not a nuisance or an irritant. He HATES it!
• God is 100% Patient... He's not kinda patient. He's INCOMPREHENSIBLY patient!
• God is 100% Kind... He's not eh... pretty kind. He's kind beyond measure!
• God is 100% Forgiving... He's not mostly forgiving. He's TOTALLY forgiving!
• God is 100% Faithful... He's not usually mostly faithful. He's ALWAYS TOTALLY faithful!
• God is 100% Loving... He doesn't tell us, "Love ya." He tell us, "I LOVE YOU!!!!!!" (with any infinite amount of exclamation points!)
• God is 100% Joyful... He's not sort of glad to have us around. He's utterly THRILLED that we are His children! (to the point that HE dances over US!)

God is 100%...

Maybe that's why He hates it when we're sort of holy, sort of upset by sin, sort of patient, sort of kind, sort of forgiving, sort of faithful, sort of loving, sort of joyful. Maybe that's why our lukewarmness makes Him sick.

God is 100%.

Let Him work in your life. Walk with Him. He's taking you on a journey toward 100%. And the work will be 100% complete when Christ returns! That's 100% flippin sweet!

From the Inside out

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord

Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out Lord, my soul cries out

Hillsong United. United We Stand. From the Inside Out. 2006

Am I Working or Worshiping?

"God is definitely more concerned that He has worshipers than that He has workers. Unfortunately, most evangelicals do not share this concern. For the most part, evangelicals have been reduced to the position where God is a supervisor desperately seeking help. Standing at the wayside, He tries to find how many helpers will come to His rescue and bail Him out of a tight spot. We mistakenly believe that God needs workers, and so we cheerfully say, ‘I’ll go to work for the Lord.’ If we could only remember that as far as His plans are concerned, God does not need us."
-A.W. Tozer

This isn't a "build you up" post. It's a "build God up" post. It's a "tear you down" post. It's a "He must increase I must decrease" post. God does not need you. He does not need me. He does not need workers. Worship God. Then He'll work through you.

In Broken Glass: He Reigns

As I sat in a pile of broken glass on my way to the train station this morning, the Newsboys were ringing out, "It's all God's children singing 'Glory! Glory! Hallelujah He reigns!' ... And all the powers of darkness tremble at what they just heard! Cause all the power of darkness can't drown out a single word!" Like the powers of darkness that led someone to break into my truck last night. Those powers of darkness... they're terrified of God's glory and reign. So even as I sat in broken glass this morning, God reminded me that He reigns.

Thankfully I still had a truck to get me to the station this morning. And thankfully I didn't have anything valuable in the truck; not even a quarter. The would-be thief must have been disappointed when he reached into my coin compartment and found nothing but these coin tracts:


Wow... when I think of it that way... [pat on the back] look how great of a Christian I am! I even evangelize in my sleep! (riiiiiiight... those coins had been sitting there collecting dust for three years. I had no plan to ever use them. Kinda cool that God did.)

Now... where can I find some plastic to cover up that big hole in the back of my truck?

"It's all God's children singing 'Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! He reigns!'"

By Our Love

My wife Jme and I have been exploring Northwest Indiana for a church to plug into for the past several weeks. It's really not a fun process. How do you decide? We've met some really cool people who love the Lord, and now we're trusting that God's hand will land us wherever He wills. It's encouraging that our decision is being made more difficult because so many people have already extended their hands in friendship and love! When God's love pours into and then out of His people, that's a good thing. That's how you can tell. It's the Christian's litmus test. By our love. By our love. By our love.

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (Jn 13:35)

Unstoppable: God Wins

Laban & Bethuel

Back in the day, it just wasn't cool to be an old, stale, single man without a son to carry on your family line. Besides, God had promised Abe his offspring would be as numerous as the stars. So when his unmarried son Isaac started getting a little stale, Abe sent his servant off to find a wife. After meeting up with Rebekah through a God-ordained encounter, the servant went with her to get the OK from her dad (Bethuel). Naturally she had a over-protective big bro (Laban) that wanted to hear the scoop too, so the servant shared how God led him to Rebekah. Their response shows that these two guys got it:

Laban and Bethuel answered, "This is totally from God. We have no say in the
matter, either yes or no. Rebekah is yours: Take her and go; let her be the wife
of your master's son, as God has made plain." (Ge 24:50-51 The Message)

God ordained it. They certainly weren't going to waste efforts trying to stop the marriage. Laban & Bethuel got it.


Gamaliel

After Pentecost, the apostles were on fire preaching for God. Shortly into their evangelistic ministry they were thrown in to prison, but God sent an angel who freed them. The next day they when the guards got up, they found some empty cells. They also found that the apostles had picked up right where they left off: preaching in Jesus' name and reminding the Jews that they put the Christ, the Son of God, to death. This only angered the Jews more; they were ready to kill these men of God until Gamaliel stepped in:

Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts 5:38-39 NIV)

Gamaliel got it. If it's God's will, it's unstoppable! What about you? Do you get it? Got a calling on your life? Got a task God has placed in your heart and mind? Don't fear, don't waver, don't run. If it's from God, what can we say? Get out of God's way, and let His will run its course. You don't want to find yourselves fighting against God because you'll lose. Which means God wins. No matter what. And that's a good thing!

Good Soil

In the parable of the sower, Jesus teaches about the many soils of the heart. Some soil is too exposed to the dangers of this world and some is just too shallow. Then there's the good soil. Jesus says that this soil yields 30, 60 or even 100 times what was sown! God desires us to have hearts teeming with good soil. If you're desire is the same, there are a variety of actions you can take to accomplish your goal: spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship and serving, for example, will add necessary nutrients to your heart's soil. There are times, however, when it's not our own efforts that produce good soil. God can harden and soften a man's heart as He sees fit (see Exodus 4:21 and 7:3 for an example).

The move to Hammond has been challenging and exciting. Leaving family (including our church family), leaving that nice little life, leaving everything that was familiar... to arrive in a world that's foreign: train rides and busy streets; no trees and no corn; new friends, new church, new work, new budget, new schedule. It's a daily whirlwind of adjustments, but I can already see God using my new circumstances to infuse necessary nutrients in areas of rocky soil. God is faithful. I'm just glad to be a part of His preparatory work in my life, and I'm looking forward to letting Him sow some crops through me!