Tag: power

Categories
Church

Unchangeable People. Is There Any Hope?

People are unchangeable.
People just can’t change.
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever said it? Something along the lines of: “Don’t even try. He’ll never change.”

This is one statement that the leadership at our church knows not to say around me. It’s a statement that gets me riled up pretty quickly. My statement to the person who says it is usually along the lines of:

“The reason I know your statement is not true is that God changed me and God changed you, and everyone knows how rotten we both were. So if God could change you and me, then He can change anyone!”

an alarm clock with the words "time for change" to symbolize the idea of something being unchangeable
Centuries ago, Moses told God, “The people, among whom I am, are 600,000 on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”

When this immense group of people asked for meat to eat, God said he would supply it to them for a whole month until they all were sick of meat. Moses told God it was an impossible task. And God said to Moses: “Is the Lord’s power limited?”

I figure that God has has a better understanding of the situation than Moses. And the Bible indicates He did. “Now there went forth a wind from the LORD and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp.” The people then gathered enough quail to fill up ten 50-gallon tubs per person.

Back to today:
I hear people implying that, “Our nation cannot change for the better.”
I hear people indicating that, “Our community cannot change for the better.”
And I hear people state, “That person cannot change for the better.”

All of these are false. God says that people, communities, and nations can change. If we say that they can’t, then we are saying to God that He isn’t big enough. Something Moses learned was not true.

My God is big enough to change the people I know. My God is big enough to change my community, my state, and our nation. I know this is true, because He was big enough to change me and He was big enough to change so many of the people in my church.

If we will act on God’s word with faith – living out what He has called us to do – then He can dramatically change us, our church, and our community. None of these are unchangeable. So is there a responsibility of a church family to attempt to make a change in the community in which they worship?
What is the role of your church to make a change in your community?
What could individual church members do to begin making some of these changes?
     Develop a friendship with a person different from me?
     Engage with the local school?
     Participate in Mentoring / Big Brother programs?
     Pray with people different from me?
     This is just a short list to begin with. What else?

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Categories
God

Your God Is Too Small

“Your God is Too Small”
  by brian rushing

After Hurricane Katrina, when I was rebuilding my library through the gifts of people donating books to me, one of the books that was sent to me was titled: “Your God is Too Small.” When I saw the book, I immediately thought: What a great title!
a tiny snail symbolizing how we sometimes feel about God - too small, too slow, too powerless to help us
Too often that seems to be the truth for us…
Our God is too small… That is, the God we have in mind is too small.
It was the reason that Moses questioned God’s ability to provide meat to all the Israelites when they were wandering toward the Promised Land. “God, ummm… I know you said you’d provide us with meat, but maybe while you are sitting up there in heaven you forgot to look down here and count us… there are a lot of us to feed. I’m not sure you are able to fulfill your promise.”

To which God replied: Is My arm too short? Do you think that my power is limited? Wait and see whether I can fulfill my promises.

And He did fulfill His promise.
He sent them so much meat, they got sick of eating it.

I am so very much like Moses and the Israelites. Too often, My God is too small. I don’t believe that He has the power to fulfill His promises. That is why I worry. When I worry, what I am actually saying is: “God, I’m not so sure that you are going to be able to come through for me this time.” But the truth is that God is never small. Just my faith and belief in Him are. Instead, God is too big for me to even comprehend.

The word majesty, when applied to God, is always a declaration of his greatness and an invitation to worship. The same is true when the Bible speaks of God as being on high and in heaven; the thought here is not that God is far distant from us in space, but that he is far above us in greatness, and therefore is to be adored.
”Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise” (Ps 48:1).
“The LORD is the great God, the great King. . . . Come, let us bow down in worship” (Ps 95:3, 6).
The Christian’s instincts of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God. But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God. When the person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the thought is rarely of divine majesty.

A well—known book is called Your God Is Too Small; it is a timely title. We are poles apart from our evangelical forefathers at this point, even when we confess our faith in their words. When you start reading Luther, or Edwards, or Whitefield, though your doctrine may be theirs, you soon find yourself wondering whether you have any acquaintance at all with the mighty God whom they knew so intimately.

I sometimes feel that way when I read books by godly men.
I sometimes feel that way when I sit in Sunday School class and hear other people speak about their relationship with God.
I sometimes feel that way when I hear other people pray to their Heavenly Daddy.

Do you ever feel that way?

My prayer today is that of the father who came to Jesus with a demon-possessed son and said:
“…if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
To which Jesus said: “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
And immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

God, I do believe You are big enough to meet my every need and fulfill my every desire; help my unbelief!”

What are you facing today? Do you trust that God is big enough to handle it? Do you need to pray that He will help you get past your unbelief?


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Christian Living

The Storms of Life

“What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Seasoned fishermen. Long hours on the water. Tough & capable.
Words we could use to describe Jesus’ disciples.

These men were probably more at home on the water than on the land.
And so they knew when it was time to be concerned. And they were there.
They found themselves in a storm so fierce that they feared for their lives.

Does that sound familiar to your own situation? We are seasoned at handling the things in life that blow our way. We are completely self-sufficient, or so we think. But then we unexpectedly find ourselves facing a storm of life that is so far beyond our own control. A storm that, when it slams into us, we are helpless & hopeless as we try to face it on our own.

The disciples tried to handle the storm in their own power… “We are the fishermen. We are used to the water. Jesus is just a carpenter. Why wake him? What could he do to help?” This, of course, is the root of the problem in many of our situations… failing to call upon Jesus soon enough due to our fighting the terrible storm in our own strength.

But eventually the disciples accepted their own inability to master the situation. And at that moment they had at least one necessary ingredient for true faith — an awareness of their helplessness as they realized… “We’re going to drown!” At that moment they cried out to Jesus – mostly out of desperation rather than with faith that he would actually stop the storm, since they did not yet have a full grasp of who He was.

But when Jesus heard their cry, He did something about it. And it proved who He was.
Jesus is not only able to rescue… He desires to do so!

Certainly He can do so regarding our eternity, but as the disciples found out, Jesus also desires to bring rescue in our everyday lives. Jesus wants to be our daily Savior – saving us from the life we would have without Him. He says – “I have come that you might have life, life more abundantly.”

And the type of saving He provided – that of perfect calm – tells us what kind of man Jesus is.

The One with complete power and authority over all things.

Such power can do far more than just calm a storm or heal a sickness. It can transform life. That’s the business He’s in, and that is what this storm story is really about – who Christ really is. Though the disciples are rescued, the story is not really about what we can get out of Him, but rather that Jesus – One who has the power to end a storm with His voice – can be no less than God Himself. Therefore, He is worthy of worship, irrespective of when & How he chooses to use that power in our lives.

And if that is the truth, then we need to…
1. Be about the business of the Father – not your own business;
2. Be anxious for nothing – know that you are in God’s hands;
3. Don’t wait to cry out to God – He wants to be your daily Savior – helping you to experience daily abundant life and transformation; and
4. Know that Jesus is God, and He has the power to save completely & will use that power in our lives to bring glory to Him.

Sometimes Jesus will use His power to still the storms in our lives, and sometimes they will be unstilled – but it will always be done in a way that will bring glory to His name – something that we should be honored to be a part of.

How has Jesus stilled storms of life you faced?

Categories
Prayer

A Powerful Prayer for Today

a relief sculpture of a person prayingR.A.Torrey: We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little …many services but few conversions….

I ran across this prayer during my reading and thought it was excellent. I hope you won’t just read it, but that you will pray it for yourself and for your church this morning…

“God, give us tears for our sins. Forgive us for being so shallow in prayer, …so content amid perishing neighbors, so empty of passion and earnestness in all our conversation. Restore to us the childlike joy of our salvation. …Cause us to hold to the cross with fear and trembling as our hope-filled…tree of life. Grant us nothing, absolutely nothing, the way the world views it. May Christ be all in all.
…Oh God, place [within us] passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord.
Humble us, O God, under Your mighty hand, and let us rise…as witnesses and partakers of the sufferings of Christ. In His awesome name. Amen.”
(from John Piper in Brothers, We are not Professionals)

What else would you add to a prayer that we should all be praying today?

— brian rushing