What is your picture of God? Depending on how you were brought up, you probably view Him as anything from a deeply loving and compassionate Father to a strict disciplinarian who doesn’t tolerate any step outside of His direction. Some read the Old Testament and see God as overly controlling, jealous, and violent. They fear a God who might arbitrarily choose at any moment to strike them dead. These pictures of God have been perpetuated for years, and are a favorite ploy of Satan. If he can convince people that God is erratic and ultimately untrustworthy, he knows he can keep you far from God. He knows if you get too close you might actually discover the truth.
Faith
Leave the Details to God
A.W. Tozer once gave an illustration that demonstrated the faith we need to have in our Father God. He said, “To be unafraid when going on a journey with his father, the child need not be able to imagine events; he need but know the father! Jesus Christ is our all in all – we need but trust Him and He will take care of the rest.” We don’t always know where life is taking us. In fact, we rarely do. Our mission is to keep following in the footsteps of Christ. As long as we do that, we know we are on the right road because the right road is always the one on which we find Jesus.
Trust without Borders
I often listen to music as I drift to sleep at night. Recently I’ve been playing the song, “Oceans”, by Hillsong United. When I woke this morning, the lyrics were stuck in my head. In particular the line, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders”, kept impressing itself upon me. I started to think about what that looks like in our lives. What would I do if my trust in God had no borders, no limits? It’s easy to confess our faith in God, particularly for those of us who grew up in the Church. It is much harder to proclaim your faith without putting any limitations on it whatsoever.
Is Your Living Worth His Dying?
Good Friday is the most solemn day of the year. It is the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. While the event was necessary to prove the power of Christ over death and ultimately resulted in His resurrection, there is still no more ominous moment in history. Never before, never since, and never again will such a tragedy occur. We remember this day because the very creation of God, acting in the freewill given to them by their Creator, nailed His Son to a cross and watched Him die. Jesus willingly allowed them to take His life from Him so that He might be the salvation of us all.
Crash
There will be times in our walk where everything seems to be going well. Our ministry (personal or professional) is humming along smoothly and we are content and satisfied with our growth. Another word for content and satisfied would be comfortable. The problem is that I believe comfortable Christianity is an oxymoron. As soon as we get comfortable in our faith, that’s the time we will find ourselves tested. Our greatest tribulations often come on the heels of our greatest triumphs. Just when it looks like we have everything figured out, all the rules suddenly change and we find ourselves with more questions than answers, flailing in our faith, and desperately crying out to God.