"9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 14I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15"Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.""
-Revelation 7:9-17
That imagery has been so powerful for me over the past couple of days as I've thought about it. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
There will be a day when God wipes this all away. There will be a day when I finally, finally get to kneel before my Jesus, draped in the white robes that He clothed me in, and kiss His feet with tears streaming down my face. There will be a day with no shame, no guilt, and no filth. I long for the day when He will reach down and wipe the tears from my eyes and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." I long to know and understand who and what He sees when He looks at me. I want to see Him in all His unveiled glory, on His throne, reigning as the king that He is.
And even today my heart is broken with gratitude for this grace. What could He possibly have seen in this dirty, depraved man? What could I possibly have to offer this King of Kings? How could He possibly be so good? How could He trade my rags for his royal robes?
Jesus, how could You possibly love me that much?
There will be a day
with no more tears
no more pain
and no more fears
There will be a day
when the burdens of this place
will be no more
we'll see Jesus face to face.
There will be a day
He will wipe away the tears
He will wipe away the tears
He will wipe away the tears
-Jeremy Camp
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
God Delights in Forgiving Us
Thinking today about the fact that God actually delights in forgiving us. Have you ever thought about that? I've always had this image of God begrudgingly forgiving me, impatiently wondering when I'll finally figure it out and stop screwing up so much.
But no - he actually delights in forgiving us and extending His mercy and grace to us. That's how incredibly good He is. It pleases Him to forgive us, wash us, and recreate us.
I'm kind of bowled over by that thought today.
But no - he actually delights in forgiving us and extending His mercy and grace to us. That's how incredibly good He is. It pleases Him to forgive us, wash us, and recreate us.
I'm kind of bowled over by that thought today.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Reverse-Engineer Your Life
I've realized that lately I have lost sight of what is really important in my life. I haven't placed enough emphasis on the Gospel, on Gospel community, and on planning ahead, on taking real chances. Looking at a pareto of the things I spend my time on would be pretty embarrassing.
Work in particular has consumed too much. Work and wealth have too long been my idols. I sacrifice everything for their sake. Work forms the paradigm for the answer to every "How are you doing?" and hangs over every part of every day, even when I'm not there. And because it has become everything, it can't be anything to me when I'm actually there - I'm too drained from thinking about it all the time, from feeding it all the time, from trying to do it all. There is a fine line between working well, building your career with purpose, and simply working way too much on all the wrong things. I'm on the wrong side of that line.
The result is that I have found myself in this bizarre vacuum of just making it through each successive day. No real goal in sight, no 5-year plan; no 1-year plan, for that matter. Maybe that's why it's been so hard to get out of bed lately. Without real purpose we eventually wither. I have felt like I'm withering. Rather than wait around for opportunities at work to come to me, it's time to get out and chase them. Abandon fear of looking like an idiot.
I haven't allowed Christ to cause me to really risk too much because I'm too comfortable. Change is good - as long as it's the change I wanted and planned for. Otherwise it's just too scary. I like feeling like I'm in control, and that needs to change.
It's time to really go out on a limb and chase the things that I've always thought were unattainable because they weren't "safe"- personally, professionally, relationally, and spiritually. I need to reverse-engineer my life and live it with greater purpose. Intentionality.
Pastor Tim's sermon at Mars Hill Downtown today was incredibly convicting. It's true: no one dying alone in a nursing home wishes that they had spent more time at the office, amassed greater wealth, or collected more material possessions. I don't want that to be me.
Here goes. Jesus, establish my steps.
Work in particular has consumed too much. Work and wealth have too long been my idols. I sacrifice everything for their sake. Work forms the paradigm for the answer to every "How are you doing?" and hangs over every part of every day, even when I'm not there. And because it has become everything, it can't be anything to me when I'm actually there - I'm too drained from thinking about it all the time, from feeding it all the time, from trying to do it all. There is a fine line between working well, building your career with purpose, and simply working way too much on all the wrong things. I'm on the wrong side of that line.
The result is that I have found myself in this bizarre vacuum of just making it through each successive day. No real goal in sight, no 5-year plan; no 1-year plan, for that matter. Maybe that's why it's been so hard to get out of bed lately. Without real purpose we eventually wither. I have felt like I'm withering. Rather than wait around for opportunities at work to come to me, it's time to get out and chase them. Abandon fear of looking like an idiot.
I haven't allowed Christ to cause me to really risk too much because I'm too comfortable. Change is good - as long as it's the change I wanted and planned for. Otherwise it's just too scary. I like feeling like I'm in control, and that needs to change.
It's time to really go out on a limb and chase the things that I've always thought were unattainable because they weren't "safe"- personally, professionally, relationally, and spiritually. I need to reverse-engineer my life and live it with greater purpose. Intentionality.
Pastor Tim's sermon at Mars Hill Downtown today was incredibly convicting. It's true: no one dying alone in a nursing home wishes that they had spent more time at the office, amassed greater wealth, or collected more material possessions. I don't want that to be me.
Here goes. Jesus, establish my steps.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Stop Painting.
Let me ask you something about your suffering:
Do you think that your obedience to God obligates Him to fix you? To make your suffering stop? To grant you the fulfillment of your wildest daydreams?
Is your motivation for following Jesus based on your concept of redemption instead of His? Are you dreaming up your own picture of what the world is going to look like when you meet up with that light at the end of the tunnel?
Are you in love with healing . . . or holiness?
Really ask yourself that. What do you really want? Do you want to be more like Jesus - or do you just want the picture you've painted, and you think that if you just obey Him long enough, hold out long enough, try hard enough - He'll give it to you?
Are you prepared to accept the possibility that what He's going to give you at the end of all this suffering won't look a thing like what you've been expecting?
Jesus isn't interested in granting your wishes. He's interested in His glory and giving you what He knows you really need - Himself. And there will be a whole lot more that comes with that, more than you could ever want or imagine. Psalm 37:4 promises us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts - the very desires of our innermost being, the unfulfilled longings that keep us awake at night and weigh us down all day. He'll give them to you in rich fullness.
But first you have to let go of your painting and put down your brush.
Do you think that your obedience to God obligates Him to fix you? To make your suffering stop? To grant you the fulfillment of your wildest daydreams?
Is your motivation for following Jesus based on your concept of redemption instead of His? Are you dreaming up your own picture of what the world is going to look like when you meet up with that light at the end of the tunnel?
Are you in love with healing . . . or holiness?
Really ask yourself that. What do you really want? Do you want to be more like Jesus - or do you just want the picture you've painted, and you think that if you just obey Him long enough, hold out long enough, try hard enough - He'll give it to you?
Are you prepared to accept the possibility that what He's going to give you at the end of all this suffering won't look a thing like what you've been expecting?
Jesus isn't interested in granting your wishes. He's interested in His glory and giving you what He knows you really need - Himself. And there will be a whole lot more that comes with that, more than you could ever want or imagine. Psalm 37:4 promises us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts - the very desires of our innermost being, the unfulfilled longings that keep us awake at night and weigh us down all day. He'll give them to you in rich fullness.
But first you have to let go of your painting and put down your brush.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Crucible
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.
-Proverbs 17:3
Back in the day they used to remove impurities from precious metals using a crucible. They would put the ore into the furnace and heat it until it literally melted into a molten form. When this happens, all the impurities in the metal separate out and float up to the top - they could then be skimmed off and removed. The metal was then re-heated, re-melted, and the process repeated. Over and over.
This is what life with Jesus is like. Many people think that Christianity is about solving all your personal problems, that Jesus exists to somehow make us happy, and that God is interested in playing a part in our story.
It's not.
Christianity is about a God who sacrificed everything to ransom you so that you could play a role in HIS story - and so that he could re-create you as you were originally meant to be. The experience of being refined by fire this way - being melted so that the impurities and imperfections rise to the top and are exposed - is excruciating. It's humbling. It's exposure in the most naked sense of the word.
And that is God's purpose in it.
God is not interested in my happiness, my comfort, or my security - though he does want to give those things through himself to us. But the purpose of his existence is not to provide those things to me and the purpose of my life is not to seek those things.
Because of Christ's sacrifice in our stead, we are covered in His righteousness. This means that when we surrender ourselves to Jesus, God literally sees us as he sees Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Reading that stirs such incredible emotions in me - the concept that the God of the universe looks at me, this filthy man, and sees nothing but purity. The image he sees does not conform to the reality that I see.
And that is exactly why we go into the crucible.
The crucible - the sanctification through suffering with Jesus - is necessary because what God sees must become reality. We must be transformed into greater likeness of Jesus because we belong to him and he is holy. When you suffer, God is literally molding you to conform to what he already sees.
Does that concept not make your mouth drop open in awe?
-Proverbs 17:3
Back in the day they used to remove impurities from precious metals using a crucible. They would put the ore into the furnace and heat it until it literally melted into a molten form. When this happens, all the impurities in the metal separate out and float up to the top - they could then be skimmed off and removed. The metal was then re-heated, re-melted, and the process repeated. Over and over.
This is what life with Jesus is like. Many people think that Christianity is about solving all your personal problems, that Jesus exists to somehow make us happy, and that God is interested in playing a part in our story.
It's not.
Christianity is about a God who sacrificed everything to ransom you so that you could play a role in HIS story - and so that he could re-create you as you were originally meant to be. The experience of being refined by fire this way - being melted so that the impurities and imperfections rise to the top and are exposed - is excruciating. It's humbling. It's exposure in the most naked sense of the word.
And that is God's purpose in it.
God is not interested in my happiness, my comfort, or my security - though he does want to give those things through himself to us. But the purpose of his existence is not to provide those things to me and the purpose of my life is not to seek those things.
Because of Christ's sacrifice in our stead, we are covered in His righteousness. This means that when we surrender ourselves to Jesus, God literally sees us as he sees Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Reading that stirs such incredible emotions in me - the concept that the God of the universe looks at me, this filthy man, and sees nothing but purity. The image he sees does not conform to the reality that I see.
And that is exactly why we go into the crucible.
The crucible - the sanctification through suffering with Jesus - is necessary because what God sees must become reality. We must be transformed into greater likeness of Jesus because we belong to him and he is holy. When you suffer, God is literally molding you to conform to what he already sees.
Does that concept not make your mouth drop open in awe?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Temptation & Suffering
Since this weekend I've been thinking about this kind of earth-shattering idea regarding temptation. You ready?
Experiencing intense temptation is not a sign that you have not made progress. It is not a sign that you are not a changed person.
Instead, it is an invitation to suffer and be sanctified through Jesus, by Jesus, so that you can become more like Jesus. Jesus suffered in temptation, and Jesus identifies with our temptation. So when pain and temptation come, run to him with it. Trust that he will fill the vacuum left behind when you stop running to your own functional comfort mechanisms.
This is an idea that has been difficult for me to understand because I tend to so stringently measure my "success" or "progress" by the level of temptation and suffering that I experience. Days when I am tempted frequently or suffer much become "bad" days and I automatically assume God is somehow not present in those kinds of days. Days when I am not tempted or do not suffer become the "good" days. This is such a false dichotomy.
God is with me in my pain as much as he is with me in my joy. The day that I am tempted or suffer much is not a "bad" day - it might certainly be a painful one, but it is a very good day in the sense that I have been invited to suffer alongside Jesus, to be sanctified and further renewed to become more like the man I was created to be. This is what it means to find joy in suffering.
Those moments of intense temptation and pain - those are the moments when Jesus can show up in the most unexpected and powerful ways. The moments when we are weakest are the moments in which his strength becomes perfect - and I am so, so grateful for that truth.
Experiencing intense temptation is not a sign that you have not made progress. It is not a sign that you are not a changed person.
Instead, it is an invitation to suffer and be sanctified through Jesus, by Jesus, so that you can become more like Jesus. Jesus suffered in temptation, and Jesus identifies with our temptation. So when pain and temptation come, run to him with it. Trust that he will fill the vacuum left behind when you stop running to your own functional comfort mechanisms.
This is an idea that has been difficult for me to understand because I tend to so stringently measure my "success" or "progress" by the level of temptation and suffering that I experience. Days when I am tempted frequently or suffer much become "bad" days and I automatically assume God is somehow not present in those kinds of days. Days when I am not tempted or do not suffer become the "good" days. This is such a false dichotomy.
God is with me in my pain as much as he is with me in my joy. The day that I am tempted or suffer much is not a "bad" day - it might certainly be a painful one, but it is a very good day in the sense that I have been invited to suffer alongside Jesus, to be sanctified and further renewed to become more like the man I was created to be. This is what it means to find joy in suffering.
Those moments of intense temptation and pain - those are the moments when Jesus can show up in the most unexpected and powerful ways. The moments when we are weakest are the moments in which his strength becomes perfect - and I am so, so grateful for that truth.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Redemption
Today we had the Redemption Group Weekend Intensive. Friday night session, followed by an all-day Saturday session. I am tired and worn-out but still need to jot down a few thoughts.
-Redemption is for everyone: even our group leaders and co-leaders are participants in the group and in the process of sharing stories. Jesus is the propitiation for us all.
-Perception is everything: I heard multiple stories today that I would have sworn were the same as mine until the storyteller finished his tale. Many of us come from similar backgrounds but have perceived those backgrounds differently and therefore reacted very differently to similar upbringings or childhood circumstances.
-God will fill the vacuum: sometimes it is as simple as stopping what you're doing and trusting that God will fill the vacuum that is left when you do that.
-Jesus is mighty to save: Enough said. My God is already victorious over my sin and every part of my story.
-It's not about you: Life is not about your story; rather, your story is a brick in the mural of God's great design. You tell His story - he does not tell yours.
-Redemption is for everyone: even our group leaders and co-leaders are participants in the group and in the process of sharing stories. Jesus is the propitiation for us all.
-Perception is everything: I heard multiple stories today that I would have sworn were the same as mine until the storyteller finished his tale. Many of us come from similar backgrounds but have perceived those backgrounds differently and therefore reacted very differently to similar upbringings or childhood circumstances.
-God will fill the vacuum: sometimes it is as simple as stopping what you're doing and trusting that God will fill the vacuum that is left when you do that.
-Jesus is mighty to save: Enough said. My God is already victorious over my sin and every part of my story.
-It's not about you: Life is not about your story; rather, your story is a brick in the mural of God's great design. You tell His story - he does not tell yours.
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