Tag: worth

Categories
Ramblings

You Are A Unique Miracle.

Our world has an amazing creation story. God created it out of nothing. But the truth is that every single one of us also has a miraculous creation story.photo of earth from space reminding us that creation is a miracle

Because from the beginning of creation up to present day – only God can make another person. We know how a human egg gets fertilized and becomes an embryo and continues to grow in the womb and is born into this world as a new baby, but…

…We can’t create life without God.

We can clone cells, we can fertilize an egg, but we can’t take the raw building blocks of life and create new life. Only God can. Even with all our technology and science and medical know-how, we can’t do the one thing God has been doing since the creation of our world – creating new life.

Only God knows how to create life. He created all that we see and know. And…

He created you!

You are an amazing and unique story created by our remarkable, eternal, all-powerful God.

This is exactly what God is telling us through David in Psalm 139 –

It was you, Eternal Creator God, who created me and my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made!

Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well, because…

Your eyes saw me when I was still formless.

And all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Sometimes we have self-esteem crises. We wonder if we are valuable. We have negative thoughts about our worth. But if you ever find yourself in that place… wondering if you are valuable… remember this:

God – the eternal Creator of the universe, the One who speaks all things into being from nothing, this infinite, eternal, almighty, all-knowing God – He has created you uniquely, which means you are truly a one-of-a-kind miracle.

fingerprint - reminding us that each of us are a unique miracle
Eight billion people on the planet – and your fingerprint is unique. What a miracle!

You are made in the image of God, which is amazing in itself. But you also have been made by the very hand of God. You are special, because of who you are in the eyes of the Great, Eternal, Creator God. He loved you so much that He made you unlike any other person on this planet. In fact, He has made you unlike anyone who has ever existed, or ever will exist. Therefore…

You Are Priceless!

Not only did He love you so much that He created you as a unique miracle; He also loved you so much that He sent Jesus to be your Savior, so He could have you – a priceless treasure – with Him forever.

He loves you, He created you, He arranged you just as you are – He knit you together. And now He is drawing you to Himself with loving-kindness. He is drawing you into a deeper relationship with Him. So turn your life over to the eternal, almighty God who made you the unique miracle that you are.

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Categories
Christian Living

Walking with Christ is worth it even if no one else walks beside us.

close up of a person's feet as they are walking as a symbol of us determining if we will walk with JesusSo I ended my previous post about walking with Christ with these words:

This life can be (and will be) a struggle, but God will be with you as you walk a difficult path due to difficult people. Keep pressing on with Him. Working with Him and walking with Him is worth it!

Though Jeremiah had a God-given purpose and was living in the very center of God’s will, he became frustrated because people would not listen to him and had turned against him. He was growing tired of the struggle of living for God while seemingly getting very little in return.

You might also find yourself in that place at some times in life. You may be thinking, “That’s where I am right now.” Though Jeremiah did complain to God about the situation, he followed up his complaint with some powerful words which tell us that even though he was frustrated, he did think that serving God was more important than his own discomfort. He was frustrated, but he knew that he wanted to serve God more than he wanted to be popular and more than he wanted to have an easy life. He said:

But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! Indeed, I cannot do it!
I have heard the many rumors about me…. Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip….
But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior! Jeremiah 20:9-11

Jeremiah understood this truth:
Walking with Christ is worth it, even if no one else walks beside us.

Walking with Christ is worth it, because doing so will change our lives and it also has the power to change someone else’s life.

Let me end with an example from the Gulf Coast after Katrina had come through. One of my fellow church members was working with an organization to provide grants to people who needed assistance. One man came in and during his interview, he shared this with my friend:

“My entire life, I have been so bad to God. But ever since Katrina, He has been so good to me. Volunteers are rebuilding my house, God has provided for my needs through church people from other parts of our country, and I have a restored relationship with God. All of the loss and devastation that happened to me through Katrina was worth it for me to have a right relationship with God.”

Isn’t that what we want to hear someone say as a result of our involvement in their lives? That someone who was hurting is now healing? That someone who was Lost is now Found? And that it is due to them watching how you live your life as a ministry to them?

It is true that God has called you to a difficult task – to live for Him and be His hands and feet in the midst of difficult people (sinful people, of which you also are one), but He has a plan for using you to make a difference in the peoples’ lives that He has placed around you.

Let us be encouraged by what Jeremiah discovered, that though God has called us into a struggle of ministering to difficult people in difficult places, we are loved by Him and He is our great warrior, our mighty champion.

Let us not worry so much about how God might bless our lives, but let us consider how we might use our lives to bless the Lord, our great champion.

Categories
Worship

Worship Wars, part 2

I had planned to share this about two weeks ago, right after my first “Worship Wars” post, but then I came down with some less-than-enjoyable headcold. And as you know, the last thing you want to do with a congested head is make it try to think! But the head is now clear, and so it is now time to start posting again. The previous post was about our worship of lesser things than God Himself. So here is a bit more on that issue…

Our worship of lesser things leads to worship wars in our hearts. God indicates that He is a jealous God who is not only worthy of worship, but is not willing to share His worship with other lesser things.

Here is part of our problem… too often, “we prefer creation to the Creator.”
We end up worshiping, enjoying, and having a passion for the things He has created for us, instead of worshiping and having a passion for the One who provided these blessings.

“…in essence, sin is a fundamental failure to rejoice in what we should rejoice in. Our worship has to be redeemed and rescued from futile things. Rather than rejoicing in our Creator… we rejoice in and serve shallow, temporary things that are here one moment and gone the next. The reason some of us swing from elation to despair so easily is that we rejoice wrongly. Our worshiping is in the wrong place.”

“God, because He created us For Worship, pursues our worship. The first commandment listed in the Ten Commandments is God instructing His people to worship only Him. He said…: “I am the LORD your God….You shall have no other gods before me….You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” ”

“Prior to giving the command to have “no other gods,” God reminded the people who He is and what He has done. His demand and desire for worship were based on His character and the fact that He had rescued these people from bondage. He was worthy, He said, of their rejoicing in Him.”

And He is still worthy of our rejoicing in Him above all other things – because of who He is and what He has done for us. We were not led out of physical slavery/bondage, but we have been provided freedom from the bondage of sin and eternal death. We have been given the opportunity to experience abundant life through our relationship with Him – a life of joy and peace even in the midst of the difficulties of this world due to His walking with us.

Let us make sure that we engage in an internal worship war so that at the end of the battle, God emerges as the winner and the only One we take real delight in.

(Quotes from ‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)