Ok... so I have been a little lax on my blogging lately. This post is an attempt to catch up and send me running towards the finish line of the semester. It has been a busy three weeks so I will succinctly provide the highlights and thoughts I have experienced. Here goes...
SURRENDER That was the last topic in our Road Signs series. What I discovered as I prepared for that message was simply that I don't like to surrender. Many of us don't. We like to control our lives and have our plans for the future. But then situations come up that are out of our "control" and we have to surrender those things to God and trust that he knows what is best--as hard as that may be. The bottom line of that message was: "Divine direction begins with surrender." Until we decide we want to surrender our lives totally to God and allow his Holy Spirit to guide us--we are working against the one who wants what is best for us. If we, if I, want the direction of my Heavenly Father, I must surrender myself to him completely. Easy right? Yeah...
FRAILTY I was assigned Psalm 8 to preach in my homiletics class. Hadn't thought too much about the Psalm until this point... but it has some beautiful images and theology about our relationship with God. Let me offer three points about the Psalm. First, the use of God's name in the opening lines shows us that God is a God who wants to be known publicly. The Psalmist cries out "O LORD, our Lord How majestic is your name in all the earth!" This is a prayer to YAHWEH God declaring how amazing he is and thanking him for making himself known to us through his name. No longer is he a God who sits high above in the heavens apart from his creation. NO! He is a God who has revealed himself to his creation and who wants a relationship with him. Second, the next few verses shows a contrast between to smallness of man and the big, creative power of God. I love this contrast because I can picture David standing outside on a starry night, marveling at the creative power of God. So David pens the line "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him." The Hebrew word used in that line reinforces the idea that human beings are frail and weak in comparison to our God. Indeed, I think the psalm is reminding us that we need to surrender to God because he is strong and he desires that we are dependent upon him. How convicting. As I look to the future and think about all the plans God has for each one of us... I think his desire is that we constantly depend on him and seek him in everything we say and do. How is that for surrender? Third, the end of the Psalm indicates that God wants to use us to impact the world. He has given us "dominion," over the earth... but that power and authority comes from God himself. He has put his "image" in us and when people see us he wants them to see him. God did not just save us for the sake of saving us... he saved us so that we can live with his purposes in mind and reveal himself to a dead and dying world. Wow! That is amazing. We must surrender to him so that he can use us.
A "POOR" STORY Last weekend we took 70 leaders and students and immersed them in the heart of the city of Denver. This was our "XA" weekend and our theme was "Love the city." We did that. I was amazed at how our students will rise to a challenge when it is presented to them. Some spent three hours with homeless people at a coffee shop or handing out food on a Saturday morning. Some spent hours building a wheelchair ramp, moving garbage, and "roto tilling" a front yard in the one of the poorest sections of Denver, and some even spent an entire morning with some troubled kids from a transitional housing community. It was an awesome weekend and I know lives were changed. Each time I go into the city I feel God's heart for the poor. It is humbling. And it brings me back to the idea of surrender and the main themes in Psalm 8. We are frail and weak. I see that in the faces of the poor and homeless people we encountered last weekend. When someone has to wake up at 5:00am because they are freezing and have to get in line at the soup kitchen, you realize how little power you have in life. Most homeless people never thought they would be in the situations they are in... but then something happened. Something unexpected. It could happen to any one of us. And if it does, to where will we look for our strength? I can think of no better verse that Psalm 121... "I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from YAHWEH GOD the maker of heaven and earth." If I am ever in a situation like some of the people I met, I pray that Psalm 121 would be my life verse.
All that said, it has been a moving three weeks. God has been good and I think his message to me and to the church in the United States is this--DEPEND ON ME. TRUST ME. SEEK ME. No matter where you are in life Jesus is calling to us and reaching out his hand. He loves us. He cares for us even though he does not have to. Some of us have gone through tremendous amount of pain in our lives. As when those situations and emotions rise up within us we have a choice: trust in ourselves or trust in God. I hope that we realize how big our God is and how much he cares for us, how much he wants to heal us. I hope that we surrender to him everything we have. It is only when we surrender to him and trust in him that he can fully use us.
If this presidential election has taught us anything it is that people are longing for a life change and for hope. My prayer is that we would find those things in Jesus--the one who can truly fulfill us and sustain us. He is the God who created the world, who delivered his people from slavery, who constantly calls us back to repentance, who sent his Son in the flesh to die a brutal death for us, who rose from the grave and conquered Satan and death, who is at work in this world, and who is coming again! He says "Surrender! Trust in me! Depend on me! Because I care and I know what is best." That is the God we serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment