Our Faithful God

I fell upon this passage while listening to a sermon from Crossroads. Check it out if you can: "The God of Yesterday, Today and Forever" Matt Waymeyer. It has been a blessing to study Gruden's "Systematic Theology," and I have definitely learned a lot, but one thing that has stuck with me over and over is that God is faithful. God will always provide for us and He never goes back on His promises. May we remember that the next time we doubt or the next time we question what is happening to us. The God that we serve will never forsake us, and understanding how our salvation is absolutely guaranteed because of God's love and faithfulness should cause us to rejoice, worship and glorify the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Everything we're going through should become nothing because we know that we have our eternal lives secured in heaven! Is there anything that could be better? Should anything keep us from worshipping and looking towards the eternal? I think not.

Isaiah 46:8-13

"Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. "Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, who are far from righteousness. I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; and My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, and my glory for Israel."

This passage speaks powerfully of God's omnipotence, faithfulness and perfection. Look at what is said: "For I AM GOD, and there is NO other; I am GOD and there is NO ONE like Me." If nobody else can come even close to calling themselves God, then how can we even think about questioning Him? We definitely can't; we're called transgressors here. There is NO ONE like Him, who has planned everything out already. There is NO ONE like Him who can accomplish all things for His pleasure. Note that it's for GOD's good pleasure and not ours. Consequently, when we suffer, when we sacrifice, and when things don't go our way, we should still be rejoicing, for it is God's good pleasure for it to happen that way. Isn't that a good way to think about it? God wills everything for His pleasure, and so we should be rejoicing in the fact that His will is being done, regardless of its effect on us. If we are focused on Him, then all pain, sorrow and sadness should fall away. Thus, is there any reason we need to question our God? No. He is faithful. He has a perfect plan, and it WILL be accomplished. Think about how faithful He has been since creation. To put it into perspective, think about how faithful He's been in your own life. I know that God has provided for me in ways I could never imagine were possible, and He continues to answer my prayers daily. Therefore, shall we ever question God's will for us? Shall we ever question why things happen the way they do? He has declared the beginning from the end.

psalm 30

4 Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.^[b]
5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.
-psalm 30:4-5 (NKJV)

dude! for anyone in gospel choir, check it!! haha, i knew that line was tooo unusual!

hello brothers! praise God for Gabe's baptism, and for raising his Son!


"As the Ruin Falls"

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

-CS Lewis


Thursday's message was an answer to all the conflict in my heart thats been accumulating for a while. We want so badly for our faith to be pure and real and raw, and so everytime I see the insertion of self into my spiritual life and ministry, I hate myself for it, because its done in the name of God and yet i want it to serve myself too. "Are we fellowshipping to pray, or are we 'praying' just for fellowship?" is something i kept asking myself about our prayer mtgs. (ayiah i'm so sorry, i know, i suck) I know that its not the system and structure that always needs adjusting, but always the heart of the individual(s). Our activities just cant be compromised with even a hint of impure motives, thats all. And as a human, its impossible for me to maintain that standard, so its only in my moments of weakness, trusting God, that my motives can be pure.

Its just crazy 'coincidence' in the timing of it all, b/c Justin's words were exactly what had been resonating in my heart the same week. The cool part is that his message came with the answer to my conflict. My friend from backhome felt the same way i did about hating the 'Christian institution"- (basically anything fake that holds the name of God, but is not really done for God), and her response after seeing this everywhere, was to flee from it and join a crazy house church where they pray like mad and live super passionately. haha, i still love her though. and her faith surpasses mine. BUT seeing my compromised heart, and in my moments of wondering if i needed to abandon it all like her, I learned from the message that you don't run away. You stay and pray contstantly for a humbled heart in light of the cost of Jesus' blood. =) thank you God. Hmm. i also learned that i need to stop cowering in my thoughts and prayers, and step out and take a beating for Jesus. woo!

but I think its something i've been learning and growing alot in this year, honesty with myself about my relationship with God. It's also encouraging to hear fellow sg-ees growing in the same way.

yay. okay this is super not cool, b/c easter was put in the shadow in this post most recent to easter day.
praise God because He has risen!

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
-1Cor 15:17

Hate the Sin, not the Person

I think it was Justin McKitterick who said this, but I was reminded and convicted while reading Luke that we have no reason or ground to hate the people who put Jesus down. We are exactly like them. We are, as CJ says, the ones in the crowd who are mocking Jesus as the King of the Jews. It is painful to see the way our savior was treated, that they would mock, spit on, and ridicule Him, but are we any different when we sin? Are we not the same? This is what makes our salvation so wonderful, yet so humbling as well. We have nothing to boast in. We ARE those sinners, but God has chosen to save us. For that reason, we have no grounds to hate the person. We stand humbled by the presence of God, that HE chose us, and that He can choose anyone else to be saved as well. Like Jesus says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). It is truly so painful to see Jesus put down so much, but we see that Jesus knew everything that was to happen. We know that Jesus came to bear everything for us, and for us He has gone through so much. As we can see in Jesus' quote, though, He still had a compassion for the people. Forgive them. He loved us so much that he would continually ask for our forgiveness. Jesus didn't hate us, he hated the sin that existed in us. I am reminded of Justin Lau's sermon as well, that we need to show everyone love and compassion because we have no right to judge who will be saved and who will not. Consequently, hate the sin, and not the person. Hate the pride that exists in ALL of us to say GOD you aren't enough. Hate the fleshly desires of ourselves, and cling so hard to our salvation because that is what frees us from the eternal separation. It is what frees us from our fleshly desires, and it is what frees us from our sin. Think about that the next time you say, "how dare you," or "he is so evil," for we are those people. Ask, like Jesus asks, to forgive them. Love them, and be reminded of how much evil there is in sin and how we must continue to fight the good fight, to press on towards the goal. Hate the sin, not the person.