Have you ever had a string of bad things happen to you? Ever feel like you are cursed for a period of time? Last week we at CrossPoint were reading the story of how Daniel escaped certain death via a lion's den and via King Nebuchadnezzar wrath because no one could interpret his dream. This occurred after he was exhiled to Babylon. What a string of unfortunate things! Yet each event brought glory to God and Daniel remained steadfast in his commitment. Can we accomplish this as well? Can I accomplish this when life is overwheming? Can you? How do we do it?
Daniel's prayer life reflected his perspective which enabled him to endure and accomplish so much. In Daniel chapter 2, verse 17-18, we see Daniel's response to a seemingly unwinnable situation. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the execution of all the wisemen of Babylon. The reason being that these wisemen were unable to know and explain the meaning of the King's dream. When Daniel was taken captive to Babylon, he was identified as gifted and was trained to be one of the King's wisemen.
Faced with this impossible situation, Daniel goes to his friends to pray, but notice what Daniel says to them. He urged them to plead for mercy from God of heaven concerning the mystery of the king's dream. This does not seem like much to comment on, but it reveals everything! Daniel did not go back and say, "Guys we need to pray for God to protect us or else we are going to die!" Instead, Daniel urged them to plead for "MERCY."
When you and I are faced with seemingly impossible situations, overwhelming circumstances and impending tragedy, do we pray for God's MERCY? I am sure we pray, by asking God to help us in our situation and to rescue us from our troubles, but do we pray for Mercy? Do we recognize that God's help is an act of mercy on behalf of God? Often times we complain about situations and pray for a sense of security to our lives, but do we pray for God's mercy on our lives.
By Daniel praying for mercy, he was recognized that God was ultimately in control and could change everything in an instant. He also recognized that God did not owe him anything. When a person pleads for mercy, a person realizes he/she deserves something negative in consequence, but pleads for mercy so that he/she may escape deserved judgment.
I don't know about you, but I would have been praying and complaining about my situation, rather than pleading for mercy. But praying for mercy puts everything into perspective. God is in control and is obliged to no one for nothing. We are not in control, we have rebelled against God and deserve nothing from God. Do we realize that every blessing from God is an act of mercy from God?
This was Daniel's perspective. Is it mine? Is it yours? What do we pray for, but more importantly what is our perspective when we pray? Do we pray for mercy realizing God owes us nothing. Just because God has acted so mercifully throughout history does not obligate God continue. If God were obliged to act always in mercy, then it would not be mercy, it would be obligation and we would feel entitled.
As Christians in America we live in a boat load of entitlement mentality. God save us from our entitlement prayers and instill within us our need to pray and plead for your mercy, so that IF we receive it from you, we can respond with a life of indebtedness that gives you all of the glory.
Beams Away!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Welcome to Fantasy Prayer-Land!
Tonight as a family, we will be watching a Netflix DVD from way back. We will be watching Fantasy Island. Oh to hear the words again, "de plane, de plane!" and "Welcome to Fantasy Island!" I can't wait as this show captivated me when I was growing up. But, let me ask what captivates us today? I believe what captivates us is the same thing that captivated those characters of Fantasy Island and caused them to seek out their life's fantasy. Ultimately what captivates us is ourselves. When people suggest to me that they are not self-centered, I like to ask them "Who is the main character of their fantasies and dreams? Are their fantasies and dreams about themselves or about elevating other people?
As Christians I'd like to ask us a similar question. Who is the main character of our prayers? Is it each of us or is it God? Would it be accurate to suggest that the main character of our prayers is the one who captivates us most and is the main focus of our lives? If the main character of our prayers is ourselves which is often evidenced in our laundry list of prayer requests, then the main character of our lives would be ourselves. But, if the main character of our prayers is God and God's glory, then God would be the main subject of our prayers because God is the one who captivates our hearts.
It is easy to pray for ourselves; and God encourages each of us to pray for our daily bread and about our anxious issues of life. But ultimately and most appropriately our heart and affection should focused upon God's glory. When our prayers are focused upon ourselves we tend to become more preoccupied with our comfort and security over and above Christ's glory.
Notice Jesus' example of praying. In his darkest hour of tremendous turmoil, when faced with the brutality of crucifixion and worse yet, the bearing of all humanity's sin, he prayed for himself, yet ended with a prayer for God's glory. He prayed, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. yet now what I will, but what you will."
Often times when we pray, it is because of awful and anxious things that confront us. It is easy to pray for ourselves, but let me encourage us, including myself, to pray for God's will and God's glory, for He alone deserves our praise and the preoccupation of our prayers. Jesus said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness..." Psalm 37:4 tells us "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." This is what Jesus did and it enabled him to endure the crucifixion and worse yet the weight of all our sin. Perhaps, as we keep Christ the focus and main character of our prayers, we will be able to endure all things and bring God glory in everything. Maybe God will prove himself as greater than all of our fantasies.
Who is the main character of your's and my prayers?
Beams Away!
Monday, February 14, 2011
There is Nothing More Counter-Cultural and Christ-Like, Than Christian Forgiveness
In my last blog, I suggested that we are to forgive because we are essentially no better than anyone else. Today, I offer the most counter-intuitive reason for forgiveness. Although it is the most counter-intuitive and counter-cultural, it is the most Christ-like and the most compelling example of what makes Christianity real.
The Christian reason to forgive is not because it benefits you, the offended, but because it benefits the offender. Some of you may react to my statement because I do not understand the hurt you are experiencing and furthermore, my suggestion is even offensive and diminishes your pain. That is not my intention. I do know significant levels of hurt and I do not want to have hurt be the measure line of anything, but instead want to share God's heart as the measuring line of forgivness and the motivating factor for us to forgive those who have hurt us.
God's motivation to forgive us was not for God's benefit. God was the offended, because of our sin. Our sin seriously greives God, and thus God feels deeply as his creation continues to rebel. However, God forgives us not for His benefit, but for ours, the offenders. The world's values system rarely encourages forgiveness, but even when forgiveness is suggested it for the sake of the offeded. God's love and affection for us is so deep, that God forgivess us "While we were yet sinners..."
In other words, when we were at our very worst, God gave us His very best. But what is remarkable is that God did so even thought we never asked for it, nor did we express any desire to turn towards God. However, God and God's kingdom, embodies forgiveness that is motivated by the benefit of the offenders.
This is radical, but this is our God and I am a gredious sinner and offender against God, yet I stands completely forgiven because God had my best interest in mind when He forgave me.
The video below is an unbelievable true story of this type of forgivenss in action. God wants us to forgive as He forgives, but God also gives us Himself to enable us to forgive others, if we simply surrender to God.
Beams Away!
http://www.perrynoble.com/#ooid=pzNjIxMjovA-Lbzs_yR5ICjmREPiR7ZG
(Copy the URL above and paste it as a URL. Then scroll down the page to the third video. It is about nine minutes long, but well worth every minute.)
The Christian reason to forgive is not because it benefits you, the offended, but because it benefits the offender. Some of you may react to my statement because I do not understand the hurt you are experiencing and furthermore, my suggestion is even offensive and diminishes your pain. That is not my intention. I do know significant levels of hurt and I do not want to have hurt be the measure line of anything, but instead want to share God's heart as the measuring line of forgivness and the motivating factor for us to forgive those who have hurt us.
God's motivation to forgive us was not for God's benefit. God was the offended, because of our sin. Our sin seriously greives God, and thus God feels deeply as his creation continues to rebel. However, God forgives us not for His benefit, but for ours, the offenders. The world's values system rarely encourages forgiveness, but even when forgiveness is suggested it for the sake of the offeded. God's love and affection for us is so deep, that God forgivess us "While we were yet sinners..."
In other words, when we were at our very worst, God gave us His very best. But what is remarkable is that God did so even thought we never asked for it, nor did we express any desire to turn towards God. However, God and God's kingdom, embodies forgiveness that is motivated by the benefit of the offenders.
This is radical, but this is our God and I am a gredious sinner and offender against God, yet I stands completely forgiven because God had my best interest in mind when He forgave me.
The video below is an unbelievable true story of this type of forgivenss in action. God wants us to forgive as He forgives, but God also gives us Himself to enable us to forgive others, if we simply surrender to God.
Beams Away!
http://www.perrynoble.com/#ooid=pzNjIxMjovA-Lbzs_yR5ICjmREPiR7ZG
(Copy the URL above and paste it as a URL. Then scroll down the page to the third video. It is about nine minutes long, but well worth every minute.)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
We Are Michael Vick and Big Ben
In my most recent post I suggested that true followers of Christ ought to forgive "evil" people like Ben Roethlesberger and Michael Vick and even people like King Mannasseh from the book of 2 Kings, chapter 21 in the Bible. King Mannasseh even sacrificed his own son! One of the reasons we are to forgive is because Christ forgave us. I would like to suggest an additional reason.
Our hearts are capable of the same evil as their hearts are or were.
Am I suggesting that you would start a dog-fighting ring and abuse innocent dogs, or sexually abuse someone? I am not suggesting you or I "would", but I am suggesting that, given the right circumstances we each "could" do something of that nature. In other words, our hearts have the same capacity of evil as anyone else. Just because we don't do certain things, does not mean we are better. The biblical notion of humanity's sin is not that certain actions make us sinful. Instead, our sinful actions only illustrate an inward reality and capacity that is always there. This inward reality and capacity is what makes us sinful, not our actions.
Furthermore, sin is degenerative. In other words, similar to the notion that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It can be said that "sin corrupts and any sin corrupts absolutley." Sin has a systemic and destructive effect. Just because I don't sin like Michael Vick and Big Ben and King Mannaseh, this does not mean I do not have the same capacity.
The reality of the capacity of my own sin confronted me at one period in my life and I wrote these words,
"To learn of and be left to the base of who I am
would lead me to the bane of my existence and
leave me in an irrevocable rebellion against God
With a chronic unrepentant heart.
I would be a brute beast before the Lord, reviling God in utter rebellion
likened to that of Satan and other fallen angels."
When I realized this capacity of my own heart, I finally understood how fallen angels and Satan himself would revile against a great God, because sin is degenerative and continually corrupts us. For this reason, I have to continually remind myself that I am no better than anyone else, thus I must forgive all others, lest I be a hypocrite and exempt myself from receiving God's forgiveness. For Jesus instructed us to pray, "forgive us, AS we forgive others."
Tomorrow, I will suggest another reason to forgive...because it is in the best interest of the offender, not necessarily the offended.
Beams Away!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Forgive The Michael Vicks and Big Ben's
Ever find someone who is difficult to forgive? I mean someone who has either hurt you or someone else that is absolutely regugnant to you? Two people I have heard a lot about this past football season are Ben Roethlesberger and Michael Vick. Are they really worth forgiving? Big Ben, of the Pittsburg Steelers was accussed of sexual abuse and Michael Vick was guilty of running a dog-fighting ring. Both of these types of behaviors are abhorrent and should arouse anger and cries for justice.
However, they have seemingly cried out for forgiveness. Do we give it to them? And if we do, are we suggesting that they get a free pass from their behaviors? Just because someone asks for forgiveness are we, as Christians, obliged to give it to them. Absolutely!
In the book of 2 Kings chapter 21 in the Bible, it is recorded that a king named Mannasseh did evil in God's eyes. He had rejected God by worshipping other false gods, he shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, and he even sacrificed his own son in fire. This makes Big Ben and Michael Vick's sins look like little sins. God said that Manasseh's sins were detestable to God. So God humbled Mannaseh and brought such disaster upon Mannasseh that anyone who hears it, their ears will tingle.
Then in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 33,verse 12, the Bible records that Mannasseh, in his distress sought the favor of the Lord and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fahters. Notice God's response. Verse 13 records that God was MOVED by Manasseh's prayer and thus brought Mannasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.
What!?!? God was "moved" by the prayers of THIS man?! What does this say about God? What are the implications for us?
I believe this tells us that God has a heart that will enact justice and that God's heart is ready to move towards mercy and forgiveness in response to true humility. I believe this means we are to do the same, if we call ourselves followers of Jesus. Not only because we profess to be followers of Jesus, but also because our hearts are filled with the same capacity for evil as that of king Mannasseh, Big Ben and Michael Vick. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven to the same extent as Mannasseh and because we possess the same heart of God if His Spirit lives within us.
So can you and I still forgive that person who is so repugnant to us? Jesus offers forgiveness to us and he tells us that to whom much is given, much is required.
Thanks Jesus for my forgiveness.
Beams Away!
However, they have seemingly cried out for forgiveness. Do we give it to them? And if we do, are we suggesting that they get a free pass from their behaviors? Just because someone asks for forgiveness are we, as Christians, obliged to give it to them. Absolutely!
In the book of 2 Kings chapter 21 in the Bible, it is recorded that a king named Mannasseh did evil in God's eyes. He had rejected God by worshipping other false gods, he shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, and he even sacrificed his own son in fire. This makes Big Ben and Michael Vick's sins look like little sins. God said that Manasseh's sins were detestable to God. So God humbled Mannaseh and brought such disaster upon Mannasseh that anyone who hears it, their ears will tingle.
Then in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 33,verse 12, the Bible records that Mannasseh, in his distress sought the favor of the Lord and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fahters. Notice God's response. Verse 13 records that God was MOVED by Manasseh's prayer and thus brought Mannasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.
What!?!? God was "moved" by the prayers of THIS man?! What does this say about God? What are the implications for us?
I believe this tells us that God has a heart that will enact justice and that God's heart is ready to move towards mercy and forgiveness in response to true humility. I believe this means we are to do the same, if we call ourselves followers of Jesus. Not only because we profess to be followers of Jesus, but also because our hearts are filled with the same capacity for evil as that of king Mannasseh, Big Ben and Michael Vick. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven to the same extent as Mannasseh and because we possess the same heart of God if His Spirit lives within us.
So can you and I still forgive that person who is so repugnant to us? Jesus offers forgiveness to us and he tells us that to whom much is given, much is required.
Thanks Jesus for my forgiveness.
Beams Away!
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