by John Fischer
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional
“Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.” (James 4:8 NLT)
It’s been this way since time began. God set it up so we would seek him, and he would respond to us when we did. Is he playing hard to get? Well, he may be, only inasmuch as he wants a relationship with someone who wants one with him, and the way you show that you do is by seeking him. God will not force himself on anyone.
This is an incredible privilege he has given his creation, when you think of it. God joins in the give and take of a relationship with us! That means that if you don’t get close to God, well … you don’t get close to God. In other words, he gives us the integrity of making the first move.
I think this is what was meant in that strange passage in Matthew 6:7-8 when Jesus warns us not to give what is sacred to dogs and not to give pearls to pigs. God doesn’t reveal himself to those who aren’t interested in a relationship with him. And it’s no indictment on them; they simply wouldn’t get it. Dogs don’t know what is sacred. Pigs have no use for pearls. Their only value is what they can eat, so the real value of pearls would be wasted on a pig.
The truth about God is wasted on someone who is not interested in knowing him, so he doesn’t draw near to that person. He draws near to those who come to him. But believe me, once you show any indication of interest, he’s right there.
Actually, we all need God and we all know it. Even those who deny God and run the other way are desperately seeking him from some empty place inside. We just don’t all want to admit it.
But for those who do, God is all over any attempt on our part to get close to him. It makes no difference how you do this. There is no right or wrong way to seek God. You just seek him, and you keep on seeking him. There’s no end to this because there’s no end to God. There’s always more of him to discover and experience. Worship is never static. It keeps opening up more and more of God to us as we worship him and live our lives out according to his purposes.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Getting the right God
by John Fischer
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional
Jesus said that those who worship God worship him is spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
The truth he’s referring to here would mean getting the right God.
Throughout the Old Testament, idolatry was the most reoccurring sin of God’s people, which is, the worship of the wrong god. The first of the Ten Commandments has to do with this: “I am the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery in Egypt . Do not worship any other gods besides me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)
Does this mean there are a bunch of other gods running around out there competing for our attention, and we have to somehow pick the right one? No. The Bible is very clear about there being only one God. The other supposed gods are substitutes. They are things (they can be people) that we substitute for the one living God.
We usually set up substitute gods because we want a god we can control, or, as in the case of setting up a person as a god, we want a god in complete control of us. The true God makes you think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. The true God doesn’t spell out every detail for you. We set up our authoritarian gods to do these things for us so we don’t have any responsibility. The true God doesn’t want robotic obedience. He wants a relationship.
But how do you know if you have the right God? The passage quoted above gives us a really big clue. “I am the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery in Egypt .” For the children of Israel , this was a dead ringer. No pagan god ever rescued them from anything, much less slavery in Egypt . This is very specific. No other god took them miraculously across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, across the Jordan River , and into the Promised Land. This description of God left no doubt.
What about you and me? What God freed us from slavery to sin and took us out of a place of bondage to it? What God came to earth in space and time and lived and died on a cross in order to do this? What God took us out of one place that was harmful to us and brought us into another place for our good?
The same things that identified God to his followers in the Old Testament identify him to us today. He existed in time and space (we read, study, and learn about him from his Word); and he affected our lives in a real way (he freed us from sin). We worship today a living, historical God who has changed our lives. Only one God can do that. Worship him.
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional
Jesus said that those who worship God worship him is spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
The truth he’s referring to here would mean getting the right God.
Throughout the Old Testament, idolatry was the most reoccurring sin of God’s people, which is, the worship of the wrong god. The first of the Ten Commandments has to do with this: “I am the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery in Egypt . Do not worship any other gods besides me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)
Does this mean there are a bunch of other gods running around out there competing for our attention, and we have to somehow pick the right one? No. The Bible is very clear about there being only one God. The other supposed gods are substitutes. They are things (they can be people) that we substitute for the one living God.
We usually set up substitute gods because we want a god we can control, or, as in the case of setting up a person as a god, we want a god in complete control of us. The true God makes you think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. The true God doesn’t spell out every detail for you. We set up our authoritarian gods to do these things for us so we don’t have any responsibility. The true God doesn’t want robotic obedience. He wants a relationship.
But how do you know if you have the right God? The passage quoted above gives us a really big clue. “I am the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery in Egypt .” For the children of Israel , this was a dead ringer. No pagan god ever rescued them from anything, much less slavery in Egypt . This is very specific. No other god took them miraculously across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, across the Jordan River , and into the Promised Land. This description of God left no doubt.
What about you and me? What God freed us from slavery to sin and took us out of a place of bondage to it? What God came to earth in space and time and lived and died on a cross in order to do this? What God took us out of one place that was harmful to us and brought us into another place for our good?
The same things that identified God to his followers in the Old Testament identify him to us today. He existed in time and space (we read, study, and learn about him from his Word); and he affected our lives in a real way (he freed us from sin). We worship today a living, historical God who has changed our lives. Only one God can do that. Worship him.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It's Not The How; It's The Wow!
by Jon Walker
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional
"Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20 NLT)
Long ago and far away, there was a teacher who worked painstakingly to teach me how to play the guitar. Every week, we'd climb up and down musical stairs crafted from the pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, and octatonic scales. This emphasis upon technique frustrated me, and I grew to hate it so much that I abandoned the guitar – until playing it again became a positive part of my mid-life crisis.
OK, OK ... Yes, I would have been better guitar player today if I'd practiced what my teacher told me (and, kids, eat your spinach too). But somehow I became so buried in the technique of making music that I lost the exhilarating pleasure of the music – with its power to make my heart soar toward the grace-filled face of God.
You might say the “How” of guitar-ianity muted the “Wow!” of the music.
And in our well-intentioned focus on the “How” of Christianity, I sometimes wonder if we lose sight of the “Wow!” – that God's Holy Spirit lives within us and that he is with us always, day after day after day, until the very end of time.
Wow!
Can I get an “Amen?” Say this with me, brothers and sisters:
Wow! The God of the universe is present by his Spirit within me!
Wow! The God who spoke the world into existence lives within me!
Wow! The same God who placed the moon and the stars and the sun into the sky also placed his
spirit within me!
Wow! The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills considers me one of his heirs and is pleased to give me a share in his kingdom!
Wow! The God of Creation spoke me into my mother's womb, SHAPEd me as a masterpiece crafted for the mission of proclaiming his Wow! throughout the world! (Jeremiah 1:5)
It's not the How; it’s the Wow!
Good God Almighty, he lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives in me today! (Galatians 2:20) The Wow! is with me always and forever, yesterday today and tomorrow, forever and again, amen.
The Good News we proclaim without shame is that the Wow! is in our hearts, and the Wow! will come into any heart that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.
What does this mean?
© 2007 Jon Walker . All rights reserved.
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional
"Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20 NLT)
Long ago and far away, there was a teacher who worked painstakingly to teach me how to play the guitar. Every week, we'd climb up and down musical stairs crafted from the pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, and octatonic scales. This emphasis upon technique frustrated me, and I grew to hate it so much that I abandoned the guitar – until playing it again became a positive part of my mid-life crisis.
OK, OK ... Yes, I would have been better guitar player today if I'd practiced what my teacher told me (and, kids, eat your spinach too). But somehow I became so buried in the technique of making music that I lost the exhilarating pleasure of the music – with its power to make my heart soar toward the grace-filled face of God.
You might say the “How” of guitar-ianity muted the “Wow!” of the music.
And in our well-intentioned focus on the “How” of Christianity, I sometimes wonder if we lose sight of the “Wow!” – that God's Holy Spirit lives within us and that he is with us always, day after day after day, until the very end of time.
Wow!
Can I get an “Amen?” Say this with me, brothers and sisters:
Wow! The God of the universe is present by his Spirit within me!
Wow! The God who spoke the world into existence lives within me!
Wow! The same God who placed the moon and the stars and the sun into the sky also placed his
spirit within me!
Wow! The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills considers me one of his heirs and is pleased to give me a share in his kingdom!
Wow! The God of Creation spoke me into my mother's womb, SHAPEd me as a masterpiece crafted for the mission of proclaiming his Wow! throughout the world! (Jeremiah 1:5)
It's not the How; it’s the Wow!
Good God Almighty, he lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives in me today! (Galatians 2:20) The Wow! is with me always and forever, yesterday today and tomorrow, forever and again, amen.
The Good News we proclaim without shame is that the Wow! is in our hearts, and the Wow! will come into any heart that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.
What does this mean?
- Set your heart on the Wow! – You must be deliberate in staying focused on the Wow! "Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Colossians 3:1b-2 NIV)
- Relationship over results – God is more interested in you than he is in your methods. Wow! And the Good News we carry is that God is truly interested in the life of each person he placed on the planet. Are there some relationships where you emphasize the How over the Wow?
- No commandment harmed – No commandment was harmed in the making of this devotional. Ha! Staying intimately focused on the Wow! does not suggest the How is unimportant or that the Wow! can compromise biblical truth or downgrade "the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6 HCSB)
- The greatest How – is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." The second is "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-40 HCSB)
The Wow! guides the How.
© 2007 Jon Walker . All rights reserved.
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