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Worship

Scraping From The Bowl

Today, my family will celebrate Christmas together. Mom’ll have a ton of food prepared – including some delicious, silky smooth, Christmas fudge with pecans! One of my fondest Christmas memories is Mom making fudge, because of that glorious moment when Mom had just finished putting the fudge in the pan, but there was still warm, ooey-gooey remnants of fudge in the bowl. She would call us into the kitchen and let us “scrape the bowl” to get all the tastiest remains out. Those spoonfuls of warm chocolate were sooooo good!

In a post many moons ago, I indicated that I would try to provide more “snippets,” or shorter thoughts, instead of having to get every idea fully developed. Of course, that has not often happened, as once I get started on a thought, I like to give as much “meat” to the idea as possible, instead of leaving it as just the skeleton framework. Yesterday’s “dissertation” is a great example! But today I am going to be true to my prior statement and give you a scraping from the bowl!

“There is only one explanation for God’s sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is “the riches of his grace”. It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth…. The heart of the Bible and the heart of Christianity is not an explanation of where evil came from, but a demonstration of how God enters into it and turns it for the very opposite—everlasting righteousness and joy.”

I hope God has entered into your life to provide you with everlasting righteousness and joy!

(quote from ‘For Your Joy’ by Jon Piper)

Categories
Worship

The Good God of Good Friday

scrabble tiles spelling friday, as a visual representation for Good FridayA very few of you that have been following me for the short time I’ve been posting on facebook may have noticed that I have been adding my prior facebook posts into my blog. Going back through some of my posts that I wrote for facebook before I started the email subscription and blog, I felt they would be useful to share with everyone. So when you read today’s post and wonder why I am posting about Good Friday several months after it has occurred, it is because it is a “recycled post” but one with ideas that are applicable for today. So…   What’s So Good About Good Friday?

The reason we celebrate Good Friday as a holi-day (Holy-Day) is because of Jesus – His Goodness. His goodness to leave Heaven and put on humanity; His goodness to come to earth as its Eternal King yet not to be served but to serve; His goodness to take the punishment of my sin though He was sinless.

And it isn’t just that His greatness is to be remembered only on Good Friday or on the days when I feel blessed, but God is good all the time!

Corrie ten Boom reminds us of this when she says:
“Often I have heard people say, “How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!” Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp.”
the inside of a concentration camp barracks
What an amazing outlook on this sin-filled, evil world where God’s goodness is evident even in the midst of our circumstances. We invited sin into His perfect world. We chose to listen to and trust Satan instead of God. And instead of blasting us into oblivion, He becomes our righteousness in the midst of this perverse earth. We still have to endure the consequences of living in a sin-soaked world. We still have to endure the consequences of our own poor choice of choosing sin. But thankfully, we can do so knowing that our God of goodness will walk with us through every difficulty.

Corrie ten Boom knew that God was good even though she and Betsie had to endure the evil of the concentration camp. What an amazing statement she made showing that she was allowing God to transform her mind, and therefore change her entire outlook on life.

God, change our outlook on life so that we better understand your greatness no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in. And Thank You for Good Friday!

(Thanks to my friend Mariah Fields for sharing this wonderful quote with me from Corrie ten Boom!)

— brian rushing