Categories
Bible

God Is A Great Story-Teller

We all love stories. And God is great at providing amazing stories. And He has even written you into the story!photo of old books - reminding us that we love a good story

By calling God a story-teller, I’m not indicating the Bible is fiction. Too often, we’ve said something like “that person is telling stories” to indicate that they are lying. But a good story-teller is able to make a true account into a great story – not by embellishing it with fiction, but with tying the story together in a masterful way. Some are better at this than others. And God is simply the best!

As we read the true accounts of history in the Bible, we become amazed with how God unfolds His story of love and redemption and rescue. For example, we can see masterful story-telling in the story of Moses. In the story of the birth of Moses, we see that God is in control. And this should teach us that our great God is sovereign, and we can trust Him completely.

In the opening chapters of Exodus we find that the reigning Pharaoh has commanded that every Hebrew boy that is born is to be thrown into the Nile River and drowned. But Moses’s family places him in a basket in the river. The command of Pharaoh caused the family to try to hide Moses, and the best place they could come up with is the very river that was supposed to be the place of his death.a picture of the story of Moses in a basket in the Nile River

When Pharaoh’s daughter comes down to the river to bathe, she catches a glimpse of the basket, and she pulls the baby out of the river to raise him in the luxury of the palace. The family that had ordered the death of all the baby boys in the river pulls a baby boy out of the river and saves him from death. In a sense, Moses is resurrected to life. And this baby boy will be the one God will use to rescue His people from their bondage and slavery in Egypt.

How ironic that the ruler who says “drown all the infant boys in the river,” has his own daughter rescue God’s chosen spokesperson from the very same river! And on top of that, she then gives Moses back to his mother to wean him before bringing him to the palace to be raised. This shows how God is sovereign and is actively at work in so many ways.

Later on, God will tell us the story of another baby boy born (in Bethlehem) who a new king (Herod) orders to be killed. But instead of dying in infancy, God rescues this infant too, and He is the one God uses to rescue His people from their bondage and slavery to sin.a picture of the story of the birth of Jesus in the manger

This rescuing of His people occurs through Jesus’s death on the cross. And then Jesus is resurrected to life, proving to us all that He is the Savior of the world.

God’s story of love for us is remarkable. So why don’t we trust Him more completely?

Whatever you are worrying about today, turn it over to the sovereign control of God. If we trust the heart of God, then we can leave every worry behind. He is the master story-teller, and you have been written into this beautiful story!

Thank Him for rescuing you today and including you in His story of love and grace and redemption!

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Categories
Jesus

Grace That We Do Not Deserve but Fortunately Can Receive

Grace. It is not something we do well. At least not often. Perhaps those that we hold the most grace out towards are our children, who sometimes can “do no wrong” in our eyes. But to others with bad behavior, they don’t get a pass, instead we desire for them to experience our wrath through revenge. I’m so glad that isn’t how God deals with me! And it certainly isn’t how God calls us to deal with others.

“Over the years I have seen Christians shaping God in their own image – in each case a dreadfully small God…. Some, like the elder brother in Luke, sulk and pout when the Father serves the best for the prodigal son who has spent his last cent on sinful living. Some tragically refuse to believe that God can or will forgive them: My sin is too great.”

“This is not the God of grace who ‘desires all men to be saved.’ This is not the God embodied in Jesus that Matthew came to know. This is not the God who calls sinners — which, as you and I know, means everybody.”

God says that He loves us in spite of us and that He demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, He sent Jesus Christ who died for us.
a chalkboard-style quote saying Grace is the amazing undeserved love that God provides to us through Jesus
He loves us not because of what we’ve done and not because of who we are, but because of who He is! That is God’s Grace.

“God wants us back even more than we could possibly want to be back. We don’t have to go into great detail about our sorrow. All we have to do, the parable says, is appear on the scene, and before we get a chance to run away again, the Father grabs us and pulls us into the banquet so we can’t get away.”

Let us delight in God’s grace. The grace He holds out to us is amazing. And because of our experience of God’s grace in our own lives, let us then attempt to be people of amazing levels of love and grace to others. Let us be accepting of all people. Let us not force people to clean up their lives to “look more like us” before we offer them the right hand of fellowship. Let us not withhold our forgiveness to others when they ask for it. Instead let us take God’s love and share it with others so that more people come to a knowledge of who He is – the God of amazing grace.

–quotes above are from Brennan Manning in Ragamuffin Gospel

Categories
Relationships

Things We Get Wrong, Part 3… Inviting People To Church

When I started out in youth ministry, I had the idea that I should invite any and every teenager who I could find to come check out our youth worship services. So I did. And some of them even came. And some of them had not grown up in church. And some of them were a bit rough around the edges.

Therefore, I was quickly taken aside and told by a couple of the members of the church, “Be careful what teenagers you invite into this church, because some don’t know how to behave in church, and they don’t need to be here until they learn how to behave.”

WHAT??

sign stating "wrong way, go back" to signify things we get wrong

Were they serious?
Unfortunately, yes.
And as a young minister who was about 25 years younger than them, I didn’t know what to say. (Though I’d have some choice words for such a comment said to me today!)

“They don’t know how to behave.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed here until they can behave.”
So who is supposed to teach them how to behave in church if not the church?

Of course, I disagree with the whole “in church” mentality anyway. People are the church, not the building at a certain address that you find yourself “in” on a given Sunday. But apart from that technicality, when we have these types of attitudes, we have gone back to the system of the Pharisees that says: “You clean up your act, and then you can come to know God.”

Instead we should be living in the system of Christ that says, “You come as you are – with your sin – and let Jesus embrace you and remove your sin – then He will help to clean you up.”

Which attitude draws people?
Which attitude is compassionate?
Which attitude shows love?

Jesus drew people to Himself, was compassionate, was loving… even to the outcast and the sinner. How is it that Christians are so often seen as people who push people away and are not known for compassion or love? How do we get this so wrong?

We are told to imitate Jesus. So what does that mean? It means we should be people of grace, forgiveness, and joy so that we help to show what Jesus is like – the One who loves deeply and constantly pursues us to transform us into His likeness.

I’m glad I didn’t fall into the trap that these two people set for me, and instead kept on inviting new teens – even the ones who didn’t yet know how to behave! I guess I’m still learning how to “behave” as well! And that is fine by me.

Now go out and invite someone to be part of your faith community.

Don’t invite them “into” a church building. Invite them into church – into the relationship of family that it is.

And don’t worry about whether they know how to behave. When Jesus gets hold of them, He’ll take care of cleaning them up the way He wants them to be. You and me… we’d just mess it up!

Categories
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
Christian Living

Owing God

Do you remember who said, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”?

close up of a visa card representing debtPersonally, I don’t like to be in debt, so I try to pay what I owe a.s.a.p. But I’m having a hard time with this one – God paid off my debt of sin on the cross…that means I owe Him, but I’m having a bit of trouble paying Him back. Can someone give me some suggestions?

John Piper says – “The debtor’s ethic has a deadly appeal to immature Christians…. The Christian life is pictured as an effort to pay back the debt we owe to God.” Too often I find myself slipping into this immature, unbiblical belief that I can somehow pay Him back.

The “debtor ethic” idea has us owing God and needing to pay Him back, but the truth is that God is not a loanshark. He didn’t pay my debt so that I would pay Him back at some outrageous interest rate. He doesn’t have the attitude of “I paid it all, Brian, so you owe Me your all and should pay up out of a sense of duty.” And yet that is often the attitude with which I seem to serve Him. I have to learn to wrap my head around the idea that I should serve not out of a debtor’s ethic but out of gratitude and joy and love due to His grace. I should serve out of love for both past grace received and future grace to come!

Since I have zero ability to pay Him back what I owe, I should just revel in the grace that I have received and joyously serve Him as Lord. The sense shouldn’t be – “You saved my life, so now I should work my whole life to pay you back.” It should be more like “You loved me so much that you saved my life, and that has made me fall in love with You! I love you so much that all I want to do is serve you all my life!”

The Apostle John wrote: “We love because He first loved us.” His love has drawn me into a deep love for Him. And it is from that love that I now joyously serve Him. I hope you are serving Him joyously out of love instead of grudgingly out of a sense of debt.