Thinking of heaven

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Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (Revelation 21:1)

Have you ever wondered what heaven will be like? Will it be something new and glorious? Yes, I am sure of that. This verse in Revelation says we will have a new earth. I am left wondering today why God would do that. He created the world once, a glorious and wonderful place. The first people he placed here on earth defied the relationship with him and moved into sin. He is leaving us here to work out our salvation so that all of us can come into relationship with him through the gift of his son’s death and the sacrifice that was paid for our sin.

Why would God’s view of heaven include creating a new earth and doing this over again? Will there be free choice again? Will we move in sin again? Even though those who are faithful to him will be those in heaven we still will have been people of sin from this earth. How will the new earth be different?

Too many questions…..no real answers. Sometimes we just have to believe and trust that God knows best!

Hearts set on serving

“Jesus “hit a beaches” with his people.  He did not recruit angels to be his leaders, but flesh-and-blood humans who would take this world as a theater in which to show forth his power.  He planned to build in the world through transformed sinners, so at his baptism he chose to be one with sinners and offer them forgiveness and sonship with the Father.  He wanted leaders who would lead from the experience of real-like testings, so he himself was tested.  He wanted men and women whose hearts would be set on serving God, so he came as a servant who trembled at God’s word.” (Transforming Leadership by Leighton Ford)

God does not build his world and lead us through perfect people, but through sinners that are transformed and forgiven. We all are still a work in progress. We all will face testings, trials, and deal with sin. We will at times fall mightily, and other times it will appear that no one even saw us stumble.

The important issues are not those struggles but where our heart is set and what we are devoted to. When you face struggles, where do you turn? Do you pick up the phone? Do you turn to food, alcohol, nicotine? Do you run to some type of earthly comfort or do you look for spiritual leadership? God wants people who come before him in awe, respect, submission, and incredibly deep love for him and his word. How are you doing on that journey today?

Restoring Theology Through Song

As I am stripping back my theology and trying to go back to the basics of what should be core to my beliefs. One of my struggles has been that I have put “me” too central in my beliefs and need to put God/Christ back in their right place. As I awoke today I gave my head/mind, spirit, soul, and heart to God again. The act of giving my mind to him made a huge difference. Since that time songs have been stirring in my heart. Songs that I was raised on that teach some core basic truths about God that I really need to make central to my life.

• Lord’s Prayer
• Rejoice in the Lord Always
• I Will Enter His Gates
• I Exalt Thee
• Lord You Are More Precious Than Silver
• Seek Ye First
• Love the Lord Your God With All Your Heart
• This is the Day That the Lord Has Made

What is stirring in your heart today? Is it about God? If not, why don’t you make an adjustment and lean your ear his way. He has something precious to share with you.

A Narrow Gate

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Do you believe that the road to God and a saving faith is wide open to any who believe, or is it a narrow road?

My entire life I have believed that Christianity is open to all who believe. This week that belief has been changing, not away from the belief I have held, but into a deeper maturity about it. I am not saved because I believe, I am saved because I believe that Christ paid a price for my sin, stood in the gap for me, and because I willingly accept the gift he paid for my life. I have come to realize the distortion in my beliefs and as I have been throwing out all I believed and starting over I have realized that as my beliefs are distorted, so are so many others.

How do we find truth? How do we get right with God? How do we move away from our hard hearts, darkened thoughts, stiff-necked ways, and truly repent and return to our faithful God?

I don’t have those answers yet, but I am in search of them more than ever before. I believe the gate is small and the road is narrow but I want with all my heart to be one of those that finds the way, God’s way.

Understanding the gospel, part 2

“When our minds are conditioned by prejudice or paralyzed by traditional views, we may face a truth in scripture again and again without it ever touching us. Our spiritual inhibition concerning that truth permits us to see, but not to perceive. The truth lies dormant within, mentally apprehended but not spiritually applied.” (God’s Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis)

A few weeks ago I posted about some things my pastor spoke into my life. It has taken some time to get a good understanding of what he was saying because it wasn’t explained with great detail, but that is coming and I am overwhelmed with grief over my sinful and vile ways. I can’t believe the darkness, and hard-hearted and stiff-necked ways I have been living regarding life and truth with the Lord. It wasn’t purposeful. I didn’t know I was living under untruth and sin, but that doesn’t change my responsibility. I have been living in sin!

I have chosen repentance to move away from my incorrect thinking. That may be a very hard path because I am choosing to cut off influence from family, friends, past thinking, learned behaviors, years of knowledge, etc. I will still relate to friends and family, but their influence on my thinking and faith will change from this day forward. Repentance means that I realize the sin in your life and that you long to get rid of it. That you take the steps necessary to turn your back on it in every shape and form. That you are willing to pay whever cost is necessary to change.

• I have grown up not understanding that Christ needs to be my Lord and what it means to submit to that.
• I have grown up believing I was saved by faith, not saved by Christ’s redemption and his amazing gift.
• I have grown up minimizing God’s greatness and not placing him as God in my life.
• I have grown up thinking I needed to serve God and work for my salvation, instead it is a gift and the  heart and gifts will flow from him. I don’t create them on my own power.
• I have grown up striving to live a life of purity, service, and right thinking when I could have lived a life focused on God and his goodness and so much of those other things would have naturally flowed out of me.
• I have grown up not understanding the role of the church, community, and pastors/elders.
• I have grown up thinking faith and life with Christ was simple and it isn’t…but my part in it is simple…surrender!

My life is being transformed through this which is just amazing. In years of being a Christian I have never felt this release and hope. I am still deeply grieved over my sin but for the first time I think I truly understand the gift God gave for me and how much he loves me. I think I am coming to truly understand the gospel and it is changing my life. Wow!!!

My friend….

My heart is so broken over the sin I walked in and the decisions I made.
My thinking was so wrong.
I acted on what I had been taught, but it was incorrect so I walked in sin.
I know I have hurt you and hurt God and for that I deserve the wrath and punishment of God.
I hope my repentance and restoration will one day allow me to walk in righteousness with him again.
I take full responsibility for all I did and how vile my actions were.
I truly am seeking to change and be a different person.
I trust you and care so much.
My feelings of friendship and gratitude for your loving discipline run so deep.
God calls us to love in all we do, and with grace to speak his truth.
I hope someday my repentance will set things right because I deeply desire for things to be restored to God’s plan.

The greatest hope of my life is that I will live worthy of the love and grace of God and giving him full glory for all he has done and for the miracles he works in my life.

Living in Rebellion

Do you ever think of yourself as living in rebellion? We do it. We do it more than we realize.

The other day I had the privilege to be present when my friend was doing a daily bible lesson with her children. She wanted each of the children to memorize (at least in short term memory) the verse that was the focus for the lesson. “Those whom I love I rebuke and disciple. So be earnest and repent.” Revelation 3:19.

Her younger son had such defeated thinking that he was convinced he could not memorize it, would not get rewarded, and was going to be disciplined. He physically shrunk back and turned away from his mother and God’s word even though she was treating him with encouragement, love, confidence, and patience.

As I sat watching him I realized how often that is my approach to God. I so fear that I am not going to be able to live up to his expectations and his standards that I actually turn away and make things worse. I allow myself to engage in defeated thinking and to actually believe that I will not reap the benefits of a loving, caring, and embracing Father.

Don’t shrink back from his rebuke, discipline, or even his care. He is a loving father and he deeply desires a relationship with you. Be earnest and pursue after him and maybe you won’t have to be disciplined or need to repent. As for me, I am off to repent again as I haven’t learned this lesson yet.

A place for people’s inquiring quests

“An unlearning church becomes an environment of trust. Unlearning churches create safe spaces where the Spirit can work through people’s inquiring quests for God. They welcome people who don’t give or have all the “right” answers. They invite people to ask honest questions without chastising folks for struggling with the answers.” (unLearning Church by Michael Slaughter)

Is your church a safe place of trust? Do you welcome people even when they don’t have the same beliefs you do? Do you invite people to struggle and search for answers, or do you expect them to be mature and faithful in their walk already?

If your church is not inviting and welcoming in those who still have questions, then who is? Our call is to make disciples. How are you responding to that call this week?

There are only 1% totally honest and sincere people in the world

I read this yesterday in an article posted on the AidWorkers Network, a free service set up to enable aid workers to share practical advice and resources with each other. Currently there are over 18,000 members.

“The research we carried out indicates that there are only 1% totally honest and sincere people in the world who strive to maintain truth and Justice. This article is to make them aware of the atrocities that prevent people from having peace and a message to awaken them to realize that it is their responsibility to increase the % of honest people in the world and make it a peaceful place.” (By Sunimal Alles of The TIDY Center (Talents Identification and Development for everYone) – September 3, 2007) http://www.aidworkers.net/?q=node/1076#attachments

Are you one of those 1%? I know I try to be (not that I always hit the mark). I run into people a lot that believe I have ulterior motives or underlying purposes because they are so conditioned to believe that with 99% of people living dishonest and insincere lives.

How would the church be different if all of us lived as totally honest and sincere people? Isn’t that what God calls us to do?!?

Learning about a God that is real

One of the sites I frequent is Devog -Daily Devotional Blog.

Today’s devotional struck my heart with the concept of how we communicate the gospel and our faith to others and how we need to reach people where they are at.

“We take all that God does for us for granted. We are spoiled acting like we have some sort of entitlement. So we reduce God’s message to telling everyone that they are going to Hell and need a Savior. But the truth is people are hurting, dying, incomplete and disillusioned. They would do anything to learn about a God that is real. Sure, we must share the saving message of the gospel, but if we are going to win a generation then they also need to know about all the great things God is doing.”

You can check out the entire entry at http://devog.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/god-of-wonders/

“Let’s begin to pay more attention to God at work around us and start to share with those we know, God’s glorious deeds, power and mighty wonders.” Remember we are in this for his glory, not ours.  It is all about him!