True Hope

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  16 So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Hope. That is what this passage gives me and hopefully it gives it to you as well.  Why is hope important?  If you have no hope, then what is the point?  If you have hope then you will not despair, instead you will persevere.  All people go through times in their life when all they want to do is just lay down and give up.  However, as Christians we can take refuge in our hope that all trials for us are temporary.  Psalm 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. We may have be having a hard time in this life right now but we have to remember that since this is only a temporary life; it won't last forever and when it’s over we will never have another worry.

With every breath we take we get closer and closer to death.  But the thing is, although our bodies will eventually return to the dust from which they came, our souls are immortal and will continue on.  Now for the Christian this shouldn't be a worry, but for some reason I see a lot of Christians who live their life like they are afraid of losing it.  Why is it so many Christians are afraid to do as Paul commanded Timothy to do and take hold of their eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12)?  Why should we be afraid? What does it matter what happens to us?  Why fear death? As Christians we are called to die.  We are called to turn our bodies over to Christ and let him shape us into his image.  Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   

When Christ is in us we should be filled with an unbreakable resolve because we know that no matter what happens we will one day be standing by His side and sharing in His inheritance.  1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  Verse five tells us that God is guarding us through our faith.  So as long as we have faith then why worry so much about the things of this world? I'm not saying that we should just relax and rest on our laurels because God is going to take care of everything, but there is no sense in getting yourself worked into frenzy over temporal things.  Luke 12:25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of his life?

What then shall we do? Through the hope we have in Him, we should be content in Christ Jesus our Lord in every situation.  Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.  While powerful, verse thirteen is not a rallying cry for those who want to climb mountains or become a financial success.  Instead it is a statement that no matter what situation that he is in, be it good or bad, Paul knows that Jesus is with him and that Jesus will see His will done.  Paul recognizes that as a Christians our goal is to see Jesus's will done and that knowledge is the secret to his contentment.  Why can't more of us today be like that?  If we are doing God's will, then what do we have to be worried about?  Don't you trust in the promise of Jesus?  Do you not have enough faith to have hope?

King of Kings

1 Timothy 6:15 which he will display at the proper time-he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings, and the Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

In my last post I discussed God's role as our Creator and His purpose for doing so.  This time we are going to take a look at God's role as our King.  This role is vital in understanding a lot of God's decisions.  Today the word king has a very negative connotation to it, especially in the United States.  This was because we rebelled against the rule of a tyrant.  Would we still have rebelled if King George had been a kind and gracious king?  God isn't just a kind, gracious, and patient king.  God is the most kind, most gracious, and most patient king.  God is so gracious that he has never done anything that wasn't for our benefit. Psalm 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

I discussed a couple these things in my previous post.  One of those is that He created us and the world around us.  The other is that He gave us dominion over it.  Another thing that God did for our benefit is give us the Law through Moses on Mount Sinai.  Why is this for our benefit? At the time God had just delivered the Jews from their oppression in Egypt and they were a new nation.  Any nation needs laws so God gave them laws that if they kept them then they would be called His people.  It is important to point out that these laws (the Ten Commandments) are impossible for us to keep because they are God's standards and no one who is not Him can keep them.  As the King, God punished the Jews when they failed to keep His laws although more often than not it merely involved God standing aside to let them harvest the fruit of their own actions so that they would learn that God's way is always the best way. 1 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. But no matter how many times they turned away from Him, God was always willing to welcome them back with open arms once they realized just how much they needed Him.

God loves us very much and takes His duty as our King very seriously.  He knew that we would never be able to keep His holy laws because of our own sinful nature.  However, He can't change the laws because the Law is a reflection of who God is and changing them would mean that He denied His own holiness.  Yet all crime must be punished. Sin must be paid for.  So what did God do in the face of this dilemma, knowing that sin cannot be unpunished but still wanting us to be able to be with him? He sent his one and only Son to take the punishment in our stead. Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

As our King, God had to make a very hard decision in order to save His people.  He had to sacrifice His innocent Son to the death that we rightfully deserved for rebelling against His law.  I can't imagine what that would feel like but I don't know many fathers who would willingly sacrifice  their innocent children so that some outlaws might be saved.  That is what makes God such a merciful King.  He sacrificed his Son to the traitor’s death that we deserved, in order to save us from that very thing.  

Lord of Creation

Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.

Who is God?  That is a mighty big question.  The above verse in Isaiah 40 gives as good an explanation as can be said in short.  God is the Creator of the universe.  Of course, since He is the creator, He is also a great many other things.  For instance, He created us so therefore He rules over us as our eternal King.  As the King and Lord of creation, He handed down His laws to Moses in the form of the Ten Commandments.  This also makes Him our Judge.  These are just the three aspects of God that can be derived by His act of creating us as well as the world around us. Over the next few posts I am going to be addressing the different aspects of just who exactly God is.  This one will be dealing with God's role as our creator.

First, I am going to prove to you that God did create everything we see around us.  The odds are that you are reading this either on a computer or a smart phone.  Where did it come from? Someone in a factory put it together of course.  But you know that someone created it because the evidence is there before your eyes.  The same can be said for the trees outside of my window.  How do I know that there is a creator? Because I see the evidence in the mere fact that there is a creation.  If that logic wasn't enough for you then let's open up a Bible. Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. These verses also state that God speaks to us through his creation.  So the entire universe around us is the proof that God exist and that he created it.

Now that we have established that God created everything let's take a look at His role in creating us.  Genesis 2:7 then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. God then created us, the human race out of the dust.  What is the significance of this?  All the rest of creation He spoke into existence but with us He took the time to form us and breathe His very breath into us thereby separating us from the rest of creation.  Why is this the case? Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created us in His own image, and gave us authority over the rest of creation.  Then in Genesis 3 comes what is referred to as the fall of Man.  In trying to become like God, mankind ate fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thereby condemning mankind.  Why did this happen? It's a long story for another time but the short version is because God gave us free-will and because we are not God we use our free-will to make bad decisions.

God did not just create us and then turn us loose.  He has an individual plan for each and every one of us.  Jeremiah 1:5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Now while these are God's words to Jeremiah that doesn't make it any less true for anyone today.  God loves us and has a plan for each us, but because of the free-will He gifted us with we must choose whether or not to accept that plan.  What is God's plan in your life? That you accept His gift of grace offered through the sacrifice of His Son so that we might be reconciled back to God despite our inherent sinful nature. Romans 5:10 For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. After being reconciled back to God then we can further find His plans for us in His Word (the Bible).  But I can go ahead and tell you his overarching plan for all of us.  Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. God wants you to go and spread the Good News of his Son.  We who sinned against God are called to be reconciled to him so that we can go and spread the Gospel to all nations so that they might in turn be reconciled.  

Like I said earlier, we have been given free-will so that we might choose whether or not to follow God's plan for us.  He did this because He knows that in order for us to show our truest devotion to Him that we have to choose to give Him that devotion.  Do I know what God has specifically planned for your life? No. That's between you and Him.  But I do know that it is His will that all of his children be reconciled to Him (Romans 5:10) and to spread the good news of His grace to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20).