Seeking the Real Deal

Last Monday my boss called us into the conference room for a team-building session.  It had been awhile since we all gathered together, so he wanted to spend time sharing highlights from our holiday season, and list any New Years resolutions we created.  Once it was my turn to talk, I explained that I wanted to grow in my love for God, but then confessed that I didn't know how to do that.  "How do you grow in your love for someone you can't see?" I lamented.

Part the reason for confession was a fear of pursuing a misguided love.  I didn't want to be ignorant in my love.  I didn't want to love the "idea of God," or allow a false love to make me proud and selfish.  I've been in those places before.  I've allowed my false piety to make me "holier than thou."  I've allowed a false view of God's love to make me feel entitled and self absorbed.  I've even used "God's love" to create false hope; believing that God would give me anything I want.  As a new dad, though, I realize that these things are not love, and I don't want to continue living ignorantly.

So after work that day, I began to think of ways that I could grow in true love.  I could studying all the places that the word "love" is found in the bible, I could read a book about love, I could focus on how Jesus loved the disciples, I could meditate on specific passage, or journal my feelings to God.  As I continued to go through my the week, I decided to begin by listen to theological podcasts at biblicaltraining.org.  Although it felt like a small step, I quickly discovered that this was the direction God wanted to use to grow my love for Him.  

During one of the online lectures, the professor addressed my initial fear head on.  He explained that our sinful nature wants to build a false notion of God instead of letting God reveal His true nature to us.  It's like saying, "I believe God is like..." and then filling in the blank with something we don't find in scripture.  As I look back on life, I can clearly see times when I have done this.  

I used to believe that God was not active in the lives of Christian, and therefore, He was not bothered by immorality.  Later I believed that God was angry at my enemies, but never angry at me.  As I continued to listen to the professor, I realized that these false notions were not unique to me.  In fact, a very famous group in history use to hold these same notions.

As the professor continued, he explained that the reason Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of His time was because they had built a false notion of God.  They didn't want God on His terms, they wanted God on theirs.  They wanted a god they could control, and in essence, made themselves their own god.  Wow, my false notions of God can cause me to reject who He truly is.  So this generates a very important question: how do we combat our false notions?

I found a verse that I believe puts us on the right direction.  Jeremiah 29:13 offers this promise: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  Therefore, the "secret" to combating false notions of God is by committing to seek Him with all your heart (through prayer, reading the bible and joining a community of believers), and then trusting Him to reveal Himself.

This is an important idea, so I want to repeat it for clarity.  Our job is to fervently and intentionally seek after the God of the bible.  His job is to remain true to His promise and reveal Himself to us.  Over these years I have learned one thing: God keeps His promise.  The question then becomes: will we seek with all our hearts?

Remembering to Think Ahead

Last Sunday I went to a church that I haven't been to in 4 years; a church that helped me rediscover the Lord, introduced me to my wife, developed my love for ministry, and sent me into the world as a missionary.  As a person who experienced radical life-transformation while attending that church, I was surprised by how familiar the church felt.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from the experience, but it wasn't familiarity.  We live in a culture that loves change.  "Progress", "novelty", and "creativity" are all words that elicit excitement and validate success.  So what does it say about a church that hasn't changed much in over four years?  Faithfulness.

The church had changed over the course of 4 years, but the change was overshadowed by the consistency of the pastor's passion.  Throughout all of these years, he has remained passionate about intentionality.  He wanted the congregation to grow closer to God, and he knew that growth required intentionality.  But what does it mean to be intentional with God?

Intentionality is the processes of remembering to think ahead.  It's the discipline of adjusting your current direction to accomplish your future goals.  It's the commitment to focus on the correct priorities, but isn't this were we tend to struggle?  I know that I do. 

As I thought about prioritizing my relationship with God, I struggled to know how to prioritize, and what to prioritize.  Do I resolve to sin less?  To give more?  To build my intercessory prayer list?  As I thought upon these questions, I realized that although these are all good things, I think they are secondary issues.

I believe that I will only accomplish these things, if I learn to love more.  Being intentional in my relationship to God will require me to focus on His love for me, and allow that love to transform the way I love Him.  As my love for Him grows, my obedience will grow as well.  It's just as Jesus said in John 14:23, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching."

As we begin a new year, I want to model the faithfulness of my former pastor by choosing to intentionally focus on letting God's love transform my relationship to Him.

The God of Good Friday

Doesn't it seem ironic that today is called Good Friday?  I mean, what's good about an innocent man being betrayed by His religious leaders and abandoned by everyone who was close to Him?  Aren't those actions bad?  Don't they point out the sinfulness and depravity of humanity?  I mean, isn't it scary to consider that sin has affected humanity so deeply that we are capable of killing our own creator?  It sends shivers down my spine.

I think Good Friday is only "good" if we focus on God's role in the event.  It's "good," because Good Friday demonstrates how deep and wide and great and powerful God's love is for us.  Before Jesus left heaven, He knew that the cross waited for Him.  He also knew about the frustration He would feel as the people He loved reject Him, mocked Him, stripped Him naked in front of the crowd and spit in His face.  Yes, He knew those things, yet endured it for the joy awaiting the grand finale.  That's why we call it "Good Friday." 

What an amazing God we serve.  He is a God who is willing to come to earth and take our punishment for us, and all He asks for is a relationship.  Wow, isn't that good?