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I’m a pretty busy guy……for my age. I do a lot of things. I make things. This summer, I am learning how to make wooden buckets. For better or worse, I take some pride in what I have built, directly or indirectly, over the years. I say, “I did that.” We, mankind writ large, are busy too. We have built large cities. We have gone to the moon. For better or worse, we, too, are proud of what we have built. We tend to look at our surroundings with pride, and we say, “We did that.”

Today is beginning, as most of my days do, with some quiet time……time for prayer and meditation. BTW……I highly recommend it. It’s a little past 5 am. I am sitting on the back porch watching the day begin. There are trees: oak, walnut, sassafras, maple, and dozens more that I cannot even name. There is grass, a sky full of stars, a few patchy clouds, and more bugs, birds, and critters than I can count.

If I am being honest, I look out at all of this life unfolding before me and I realize something sobering:

I didn’t do that. You didn’t do that. We didn’t do that.

If I compiled a list of the most important and most treasured things in my world and wrote it down in two columns, the list might look like this:

“I did that”

My house and the stuff in it
My job
My hobbies

“I didn’t do that”

My wife
My sons
My granddaughters
The plants and animals in my yard
The sun, moon, and stars
The food I eat
The water I drink
The air I breathe

You get the point.

I exist in an amazing universe. The vast majority of this universe, the most important parts of it, are things that “I didn’t do”. At best, I am an innocent bystander. At worst, I am an interloper………a latecomer who has usurped a world that I did not create.

And yet, I am proud.

How do I reconcile my pride as a human being with a world, the largest and most important parts of which I did not create?

How do I deal with the column titled, “I didn’t do that.”

There are two possibilities:

This awesome world was created by someone else.

This awesome world just happened…….accidentally.

We cannot know with absolute certainty which of these possibilities is true. In either case, we have no justification for our pride. I have no justification for my pride.

But, there is another, more important, level to this dichotomy. This is the question of “who is in charge here.”

If there is an external creator, then it’s his world…..he is in charge.

If the universe just happened, accidentally, then there is nobody in charge. In practice, the world, which we call “our world,” is governed by a committee………a committee of 8 or 9 billion people, each with their own agenda.

And that is where human governance stands today. About half of us accept the concept of a creator, at least intellectually…….a creator who has expectations…….a creator who is in charge…….a creator who is sovereign. The other half accepts the concept of the “universal accident” and governance by committee. The result of this is that, we govern by committee. We may give the creationists seats on the committee. But, we are slowly, but surely, marginalizing them. We call this “separation of church and state”. This idea has become a pillar of global governance.

Creation has been effectively run out of our government. It is being run out of our schools. It is being run out of commerce. When was the last time you heard a Christmas carol or watched a Christmas themed show…….that had anything to do with Christ? I effect, our government, acting on our corporate behalf, has told our creator……”you have no place here”, ……..”we will run things as we see fit.”

This trend toward anti-creationism is a long-term trend. I do not see it reversing in the foreseeable future.

I wonder how God feels about it.

I wonder what God will do about it.

As for me…..I will enjoy the trees, grass and stars.

And I will remind myself:

I didn’t do that.

And I will praise the creator…….my creator…….the guy who actually did all of this.

In the beginning, God created…..

Genesis 1:1, ESV

This week, Cindy is dealing with the death of a lifelong friend. We are in our 70’s and this is getting to be a common experience. I am beginning to reflect on life……..my life…….and on what it means…….or in a few years……..what it meant. I am beginning to see that the most important metric of my life…….and yours is meaning. So……..what is “meaning?”

It turns out that the definition of a “meaningful life” is surprisingly hard to pin down. We go through our day working at hundreds of tasks, each of which has a short-term goal. But, these short-term goals do not determine the worth of our life. That is determined by the totality of our life. When we add it all up at the end, we want to have lived a meaningful life.

To explore meaning as it applies to our lives, I want to contrast two lives…….Solomon……..and Jesus.

Solomon

He was a son of King David and was himself king of Israel. He was arguably the most successful human being to ever live. He was the embodiment of wisdom. He had power. He had lots of stuff. He had hundreds of wives and thousands of children. He was respected the world over. People came from all over just to sit at his feet. But, when you look closely, you realize that every metric that he used to weigh the successes of his life was limited to the temporal/physical world. He was a Jew. He built the temple in Jerusalem. He believed in God. But, if you look closely…….he didn’t have much in the way of a relationship……..a conversation……with God. At the end of his life, he wrote a review assessing the quality of his life. That review is the book of Ecclesiastes. If Solomon had given his life a rating in “stars” at the end of Ecclesiastes………it would be a one-star review.

“meaningless…….a chasing after the wind”

Something here just doesn’t add up.

Jesus

He, too, was a descendant of David…….at least in the legal terms of the day. He spent most of his life as a tradesman. He studied the Torah. He accumulated nothing except what he carried on his person. He had no wife. He had no children. But he did have a following. By the metrics of the temporal/physical world, he was not a successful man. But, what he did have was an intimate, minute by minute, relationship with God……the father……his father. After his death, he returned to his father and became united with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. And there is the key difference between Jesus and Solomon. The meaningfulness of Jesus’s life flows out of his relationship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. The meaningfulness of Jesus’s life is measured by the metrics of the spiritual realm.

So……how does this apply to me……..in my search for meaning in my life?

I can run my life using the metrics of Solomon. In point of fact…….I have. It’s been fun. I have stuff. But meaningfulness? When I breathe my last breath, will my temporal/physical successes translate into meaningfulness? I have grave doubts.

Or

I can try to run my life using the metrics of the spiritual realm:

Talk to God
Listen to the Father
Listen to the Holy Spirit
Serve God
Give God priority over my appetites
In a word……..love……..love God and everyone else

I am certain that if I can do these things, at least some of the time, I will be able to say to myself………as I breathe my last breath:

My life had meaning.

the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless !”

Solomon, looking back at his temporal life, Ecclesiastes 12:7-8 NIV

God wants you……..with him……..in paradise……..forever.

When?

Only he knows…….Jesus didn’t know…….I certainly don’t.

Why?

Because he loves you with a parental love. He wants you to be safe, happy, and fulfilled. Not only that……like any parent……he wants to share those things with you.

How?

Now, we are getting down to the heart of the matter. God designed us in his image. There are parts of our nature that are a dim reflection of God’s nature. Parenthood is a great example. As parents, we want a strong relationship with our children. The basis of that parent child relationship is worth exploring.

There are three general foundations that a parent/child relationship can be built on………three foundations that our relationship with God can be built on:

Love:

This is intangible. At its heart, it is a loving relationship that is based on caring for, giving to, and sacrificing for the person you love. At its best, the giving in this relationship is a two-way street. This is the ideal. Every parent hopes for a relationship on this level with their child. A good parent gives…….and hopes that the love will be returned. A good child gives……..and hopes that the love will be returned. I believe that God wants this kind of relationship with me……with you. This was how God set up the Garden of Eden. This is what God had in mind for Adam and Eve. This is what God wants from you and me. This is God’s “plan A”.

Providence:

A providential relationship is an incomplete version of a loving relationship. A parent gives love and support to their child. The child appreciates the value of the gifts. The child recognizes his dependency on his parent. The child does the things that are necessary to maintain the relationship in order to get what they need. The relationship is purely transactional. There is love on the parental side……..but love is not the prime motivation on the child’s side. The parent misses out on the child’s love. The child misses out too……..not because she is not loved……..but because she fails to love. God is disappointed…….man is unfulfilled. This is God’s “plan B”

Punishment:

This is the bottom rung of the ladder. The parent still loves…… still provides. But, the child actively rejects the relationship. This is extraordinarily painful for the parent. I believe that God feels pain when one of his children rejects him. God feels pain when his sacrificial love is not reciprocated……..even worse when his child refuses to even recognize him. This brings up the problem……..of hell. Hell is God’s punishment for those who deny his existence…….for those who reject him. Hell is God replying to man’s rejection of God by returning the rejection. Hell is bad……..very bad. So…..what does this have to do with relationship? Once you are in hell, there is no relationship with God…….that boat has sailed. In terms of relationship, it is the threat of hell that is the issue. It is possible to have a relationship with God based primarily on the threat of hell. You can go to church, sing the songs, take communion, even tithe. But, if you shake the pastor’s hand and walk out satisfied that you have bought off hell for another week, you are missing out. Maybe this “plan C” will keep you out of hell. But, you are cheating yourself…….and you are cheating God out of a much richer relationship.

God may settle for “plan B” or “plan C”. But; God wants you to want “plan A”.

Theres no misery in not being loved,
only in not loving

Rod McKuen

Come Lord Jesus!

This is the most basic prayer in the Bible. It occurs at the end of the book of Revelation in a brief conversation between Jesus and John. It is at once, either the most comprehensively hopeful prayer in Christianity or the most terrifying. What is curious is that you rarely hear a Christian pray this foundational prayer. I have rarely heard it in a worship service in the thousands that I have attended.

Come Lord Jesus!

There are two ways to consider this prayer. This first and by far the most common is to petition Jesus to come to us and fix a specific problem. This morning, my prayer included a prayer for peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine…….for wisdom for our leaders. This is a hopeful prayer…….but a fairly small one when you consider the big picture. This prayer recognizes the sovereignty and power of Jesus. But, at its core, it is a prayer for Jesus to fix an isolated problem that is disrupting our life…….the way we want to run it. We hear a similar request often……at the grocery.

“Clean up…….on aisle six.”

This prayer hands a small specific problem over to Jesus, leaving us in charge of running the world. It is an attempt to preserve our global sovereignty by bringing in a consultant and delegating a particular job to him. In essence, we box Jesus up where he cannot compromise our sovereignty. Then we drag him out to fix something and then shove him back into his box.

The second way to see this prayer is rarely prayed. It takes a global perspective. This is a prayer for Jesus to return in his full sovereignty. It is a prayer for Jesus to return in the ” second coming”. This is a big deal. After creation, it will be the most consequential event in human history. It will include the tribulation, the rapture, a millennium of peace, and the final solution to the problem of Satan. But, the most important part of this event will be the end of human sovereignty and the full institution of the sovereignty of God. We are promised that this will be wonderful……..paradise…….for believers. For non-believers…….not so much. I will return to the second coming for non-believers in a future post. For now, I will consider the second coming for believers.

We will lay it all……everything…….at the feet of Jesus: our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our appetites. We will return control of the world, and more importantly, of our lives to God. This is where that control has always belonged anyway. For the strongest of Christians, this will be anticipated as a joyous event. For the vast majority of Christians, we will approach it with some degree of trepidation. For the secular humanist, this is something absolutely terrifying. It is so terrifying that they use the only defense available……..they deny the existence of God.

And so…….this simple prayer becomes a litmus test for the strength, even the validity, of the only tool we have to gain entry to paradise.

Our faith.

Do I believe in the existence of God…….in his power……in his justice……in his mercy……….and, ultimately, in his absolute sovereignty? Do I believe in his promises,

Or do I confine him to the little jobs.

“Cleanup on aisle six.”

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

Revelation 22: 16-21, ESV

We run our lives as a series of transitions. We go to work for a boss. In return, the boss gives us a paycheck. We feed the parking meter. In return, we get a spot to park our car. This goes on all day long.

But there is one transaction that stands out. It stands out because it involves an exchange of commodities that are priceless. This is the central transaction of the Christian faith. It undergirds our entire reason for living…….for being. This transaction defines us as Christians. This transaction dictates our eternal fate.

The background behind this transaction centers on who controls an extraordinarily valuable commodity and who wants that commodity. It is classic “supply and demand” at the highest level of the marketplace. Because of the interplay of supply and demand, the commodities involved in this transaction are the most valuable commodities in the universe.

So……who demands……..who supplies……..and what are the priceless commodities?

We are used to dealing with physical commodities in our temporal world: food, shelter, clothing, etc. But, the simple reality is that our time in this physical world is severely limited. The spiritual world is eternal. In the light of eternity, our time in the physical/temporal world is the blink of an eye. We need to consider supply, demand, and commodities in an eternal framework.

The cast of characters is very small……..God and us.

What commodity does each of us bring to the table?

God brings paradise…….eternal joy in his presence. There is nothing more valuable in the universe. Can you think of anything in your world that you would sacrifice eternal joy in order to acquire? Can you name any commodity that you would sacrifice eternal joy…….that you would accept eternal pain…….in order to acquire? Eternal joy, in the presence of our creator is the most valuable commodity in creation.

God controls the supply of the commodity of eternal joy……..we supply the demand.

We are the other side of the transaction. We are tiny. We have very little to offer. At least, that is how it looks from where we stand…….trapped in time. But, this is where it gets interesting. There is a commodity that we have complete control over. Furthermore, it is a commodity that God demands…….from us. Because of the nature of the commodity……..and because of God’s nature, God will not force……extort……this commodity from us. It must be given freely.

The commodity? Faith.

We control the supply of the commodity of faith………God supplies the demand.

And there it is. The most important, most valuable transaction in our brief lifetime:

We freely give God our faith……..our belief…….our trust…..our love. God freely gives us paradise……..forgiveness………justification. Each side of the transaction is a free will offering. Each side of the transaction costs the giver very little. And yet, on each side, the receiver gets something that they place extreme…….even unlimited……..value on.

Each side receives something that they did not earn…….something that they cannot or will not compell.

I can either give God my faith…….or withhold it.

God can either give me eternal joy……paradise……or withhold it.

And that transaction……..is the beating heart of Christianity. What amazes me is that so many good smart people refuse the transaction.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus describing the cost of our side of the transaction, Matthew 11: 28-30, ESV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Jesus describing the value of God’s side of the transaction, Matthew 13:44, ESV

I am 73 years old. For most of my life, I have enjoyed good health. I have been blessed with strength, intelligence, even with an occasional outburst of wisdom. And I am grateful to God……my creator. But, I am getting old. My strength, health, and even my little bit of wisdom are fading. Just about every day, there is a job that I once would have done, that I now farm out to someone younger…….stronger…….more capable. I am beginning to think about finding someone to care for me…….when I am no longer capable of managing the most basic tasks.

Clearly, I am past my physical and mental peak. And, the final outcome of my decline will be my death. This is the story of life in our temporal world……not just mine……but yours as well…….even if you are a 20 year old Olympic champion:

Birth……the rise to power……..the loss of power…….death.

The secular humanist will tell you that this is the normal deterioration of any living organism. Your telomeres are failing. Your DNA is degrading. Your body’s natural repair mechanisms are falling behind in their race against the ravages of time. And all of this is true.

But, I believe that there is more to it. I believe that the slow physical and mental decline that we all experience…….unless we die “before our time”………is a part of God’s plan. We begin as children……..completely helpless, completely powerless, ignorant, completely dependent. We rise to adulthood when we enjoy power, even a degree of sovereignty. We then get old, weak, befuddled, and powerless. We wind up utterly dependent. And then we die.

We tend to view the years of power and sovereignty as the “normal” years and the years of dependency as anomalies. But, that really isn’t true.

Years ago, I was in the middle of a heated argument with my oldest son. He called me out on some point…….he said, “what do you think you are trying to do?” I replied, “I’m just trying to get control of the situation”. He said, “what you really mean is ‘the illusion of control”.

Smart guy.

I sometimes reflect on where both of us were on the “Bell curve” of wisdom on that particular day.

When you consider eternity under God’s sovereignty, it is clear to me that dependency, childhood, is the normal state of mankind. Our brief foray into the realm of power and control is the anomaly. It is clear to me that the decrepitude of old age…….our “second childhood”……..is the beginning of our transition to the spiritual world. This is a world where God……our creator……is absolutely sovereign and we are completely dependent…….childlike. God will not ask us how we think things should be run. He will not ask us where we want to go today or what we want for breakfast. God will decide.

This dependency grates against our sensibilities as adult humans.

But; if we are honest, aren’t we absolutely dependent…….on God…..right now?

After you subtract out all of the problems that arise from other humans exercising their power…….their attempts at sovereignty………the dependency of paradise under a loving creator………begins to look very good………heavenly.

This perspective sheds an entirely new light on the aches and pains that are my reality…….at 73.

I am simply returning to my baseline…….completely dependent on a sovereign creator……..a sovereign creator who loves me and cares for me……..who always has.

I hope to enter paradise with a childlike humility. This will inform my relationship with my creator………my eternity.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus explaining human dependency, Matthew 18:3-4, ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus explaining God’s sovereignty, John 21:18-29, ESV

I am a Christian…….a 73 year old Christian.

I believe in the Trinity…….Father, Son, and Spirit.

I believe in heaven, hell, and eternal life.

I believe in God’s promise of eternal life in paradise for me specifically.

Sounds fabulous.

So…….why do I worry about death? Because I do worry about it……..and so do you.

If you are not a Christian, if you are a secular humanist, then your worry is absolutely justified. You will die and one of two things will happen:

The lights will just go out.

You will find yourself in an eternal burning hell.

I get this…….the secular humanist’s fear of death is absolutely logical and completely justified. It is the Christian’s fear of death, my fear of death, that I struggle with.

Why does my death worry me?

The Bible doesn’t give me a lot of guidance as to what things will be like…….after I die. The descriptions of paradise are nice…..but largely symbolic. It seems safe to assume that spending eternity in a spiritual world will be very different from spending a few decades in a temporal world. Whatever is troubling me must lie in that difference.

The first thing that worries me is my ignorance. I understand very little about paradise. In fact, I lack the intellectual tools to deal with it. Eternity means that time either does not exist……or is irrelevant. How do you plan your day without the framework of time? Space, as well, may be entirely different. Does paradise have borders? The only explanation Jesus offers us is to compare marriage in paradise to marriage in this world. He pretty much says, “it just doesn’t work that way”. About all that I can know is that paradise is the creation of a God who loves me. Paradise is a gift to me……unearned…….a manifestation of God’s grace. That should be enough.

And yet, I worry.

There must be more to the problem.

The second thing that worries me is that I will be powerless……or nearly so…….in the presence of my creator. Maybe I will have a job. Maybe I will have a few responsibilities. But, I will not be in control. I have spent 73 years controlling…….manipulating my temporal environment. I’ve done some things well……others…..not so much. But, it is safe to say that I have enjoyed the power. I am proud. I am pretty sure that in paradise, my power and my pride will be drastically reduced.

Ignorant and powerless. That, I think, sums up what worries me about my death. In paradise, I will be like a child. I will be cared for. I will be loved. I will be satisfied. I will be fulfilled. But………I will not be in charge. I will have what I have really needed all along…….relationship with my creator. What I will not have is all of the things that I have pursued in this temporal world. What I will not have is the power and control that I have enjoyed during my temporal life.

My death will be the end of my kingdom. My kingdom will be replaced by the fulfillment of God’s plan for me……his kingdom.

The solution to my worry?

I must firmly place my trust in my creator. I will trust his love for me. I will trust God’s plan for me.

I will trust that being a servant in God’s eternal kingdom will be much better……… than being a sovereign in my own little kingdom.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Paul comparing his ignorance of paradise to God’s knowledge,
2 Corinthians 12:2-4, ESV

Imagine that you pick up a copy of the NY Times. In the entertainment section, you find a review of a current musical on Broadway:

“The latest offering on Broadway is a sad little play about the history and the future of mankind. I won’t trouble you with the details. Suffice it to say that the show is violent, tasteless, insipid, and naive. The plot line goes beyond unbelievable……..it is patently impossible. Don’t waste your time and money”.

Later on, you learn that the reviewer never actually saw the play. He based his review on second and third hand accounts that he had heard from friends and strangers.

What would you think of the review?

More to the point……what would you think of the reviewer?

And yet, we hear book reviews about the Bible every day. If you drill down into the negative reviews, you will find that the reviewer has almost never actually read the book. Even worse, the reviews that are positive………are also written by reviewers, most of whom, have never read the book cover to cover.

Considering the eternal consequences…….heaven and hell……there is no escaping the fact that the Bible is the most important book that man has ever been exposed to. It is hard to conceive that our public conversation about this seminal piece of text, both positive and negative, is conducted, almost exclusively, by people on both sides of the argument………who have never read the Bible cover to cover.

The blind leading the blind.

You may believe the Bible to be true……..you may believe that it’s a myth. That is not today’s question. Today’s question is a little more basic. Today’s question deals with intellectual honesty.

“Have you actually read the book?”

Probably not.

Today’s post is for those who have never read the Bible cover to cover. This includes essentially all non-believers and the vast majority of believers.

I hope that you will run out and grab a copy and read every word.

But, I’m not very optimistic. It’s a pretty big book and it can be a little “thick”.

Today, I am not addrsssing a culture divided between believers and non-believers.

Today, I am addressing a culture divided between the intellectually honest……..and the intellectually dishonest.

So, what is your next step?

Ignore the honesty problem.

Grab a Bible and start at Genesis 1.

Or

Take a baby step.

Here is my suggestion:

Read the book of John…….then Acts…….then the letters of Paul.

Think of this as the “Cliff Notes” version of the Bible. Imagine this as a book titled:

“Love God……and Everybody Else”

As you read I must warn you of another honesty problem that you will encounter on almost every page. You will read a passage and say to yourself, “That’s impossible!” Just remember, what you actually mean is: “That’s impossible……for me”. God operates on a spiritual plane…….he is not bound by your narrow definition of what is possible.

Possible or impossible is not the question.

God is real. The consequences are real. The fact that you may not believe this……is irrelevant.

So……I return to the original question. What do you think of the reviewer in the first paragraph?

Because you are the reviewer.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Paul, Romans 1:19-20, ESV

I have been richly blessed:

A wonderful wife who has stuck with me for almost 50 years.

Sons and granddaughters

A home on a hilltop in the country

Health

And far more

I have also seen tragedy:

Illness in my family

The death of two sons

Your story is different. But, there has been, no doubt, a mix of blessing and tragedy.

We enjoy the blessings and we hate it when tragedy strikes. But……here’s the thing. God is the author of every one of our blessings. But, what about the tragedies? I believe that God is behind even the bad things that come our way. Perhaps he initiates the tragedies. Or, perhaps, he just allows them to happen. The story of Job is a case study in tragedy and blessing. God gives Satan explicit but limited permission to harm Job. The Bible never tells us why. God blesses Job…….God allows Satan to harm Job. In either event, God is working out his plan. He doesn’t need or ask for our approval. He doesn’t explain. We are left to fill in the blanks.

And so we do.

The Old Testament is full of this. God’s people sin and tragedy befalls them. They repent, and they are blessed. It is very tempting to view the blessings as rewards for good behavior and to view the tragedies as punishment for bad behavior. There is no doubt that this is sometimes the case. But, not always. God does reward us. God does punish us. But, often, perhaps most of the time, God is just working out the details of his plan.

Blessings are easy. Enjoy them. Praise God for them.

Tragedies, however, are an entirely different kettle of fish. How are we to react when God sends tragedy into our life…….when God allows Satan to harm us?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

God does not bless us because of who we are……or what we have done. God blesses us because of who he is.

God does not withhold his blessing because of who we are or what we have done. Sometimes, God withholds his blessing as a part of his plan. Sometimes, it really is a “zero sum game”. On a given Sunday, God may bless the Steelers at the expense of the Bengals.

The key thing to remember about God’s blessing?

It is about God…….not us.

Blessing is a tool that God uses to advance his plan…….not mine.

So……..enjoy God’s blessings. Try to run your life in line with God’s plan…….at least the parts of it that you and I can understand. This puts us in a place where we are more likely to enjoy God’s blessings…….his favor. When God withholds a blessing, be patient. God is working out his plan. He may be blessing someone else today.

Know this:

God loves you and me.

God has a plan.

God’s plan is good…….better than yours…..better than mine.

God sees the finish line when we cannot.

And his promise is that the finish line will be fabulous…….for those who love and serve him.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17, ESV

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job 2:6-7, ESV

Sovereignty…….we don’t talk about it much, probably because it is in our nature to reject the concept……..or, at least, to bend it to our purposes. Perhaps we should go back to the basics. Just what is sovereignty?

Sovereignty is absolute control. The sovereign makes the rules. The sovereign makes the decisions. The sovereign decides where everything is going. The sovereign decides who will live and who will die. Sovereignty is absolute. It covers every object, every living thing, every idea, every thought. There are no exceptions. There is no “happy place” where you can set God’s sovereignty aside and rest for a while. Perhaps the most important feature of sovereignty is that nobody gets to second guess the sovereign. Nobody gets to criticize the sovereign. Nobody has veto power over the sovereign.

In its pure form, sovereignty is complete. There are no exceptions.

God is sovereign. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are manifestations of God. Even Jesus honored God’s sovereignty in his prayer at Gethsemane.

So……the first and most obvious trait of a sovereign is that he is the decision-maker. He decides where he is going. He decides where his people are going. He tells us what we must do……and what we cannot do. In a word, the sovereign makes the rules.

The second trait of a sovereign is less obvious but more far-reaching. The sovereign defines everything in the universe. Because our sovereign is also the creator, this means that God defines the physical makeup of everyone and everthing. God defines every object. God defines every act. God assigns a value and a meaning to every thought. God has a plan. As creator, he builds the universe to suit his plan.

We see glimpses of God’s plan. But, we are not privy to the entire plan. This means that much of God’s plan…….perhaps most of it……makes no sense to us. And that is where we get into trouble.

We see some act……or thought…..or person……or object. We apply our limited fund of knowledge to it. And we conclude that it is wrong.

We conclude that God is wrong. Maybe we decide that God made a mistake. Maybe we conclude that he is not paying attention. Maybe we go so far as to deny the existence of God. This is the world of the secular humanist. This is the culture…….the environment…..that we live in. This is our society……which rejects God’s sovereignty:

God was wrong…….when he gave me breasts…….I have a better plan…….I am a man.

God was wrong……..when he said don’t lie…….liars get ahead.

God was wrong…..when he said don’t steal……stealing gets me good stuff and I don’t have to pay for it.

God was stupid…..when he said don’t murder……..killing your enemy stops him from interfering with your plan.

God doesn’t exist…….creation and life itself is a physical/ biochemical accident.

The ultimate act of rejection of God’s sovereignty?

My plan has primacy over God’s plan.

The rejection of God’s sovereignty……the usurpation of God’s sovereignty…..is the root of every failure in our culture. It is the root of every failure in my life.

Rejecting God’s sovereignty creates distance between us and God.

Rejection leads to distance…….distance is sin…….sin leads to spiritual death.

God is sovereign.

Ergo, God, by definition, is right.

God is not mocked.

When we disagree with God and what he is doing, we act out of ignorance.

Everything in creation is as it should be……until we interfere with God’s sovereignty.

Everything in my life is as it should be until I try to enlarge my little slice of sovereignty by denying……by stealing……God’s sovereignty

And I do this……every day.

I take my little slice of stolen sovereignty and I run with it. I enjoy it……because it allows me to take the things that I want. I like the power that it gives me. I want more. And, if I pursue this thought to its ultimate conclusion?

I can end up trying to seize all of God’s sovereignty.

This strategy works……for a while………but there is a problem. I’m going to die……soon. At that point, I will transition into God’s spiritual realm.

What will happen to my little slice of sovereignty…….when I meet God?

I don’t know.

But, I have to believe that my little slice of sovereignty will be completely……..or almost completely……..overpowered by God’s absolute sovereignty.

From where I stand today……..that is scary. I really enjoy my morning cup of coffee. What if God doesn’t approve of coffee? The list of things that I may have to surrender goes way beyond Starbucks. I worry about the pleasures that I enjoy here that may not exist there. I worry that my latte may be replaced by a harp and a cloud.

Here is what I believe:

I believe that the pleasures of the physical/temporal world will be replaced by experiences in the spiritual realm that I cannot even begin to conceive:

Living in close proximity to the ultimate source of love.

Experiencing the blend of absolute justice and absolute mercy.

Living in a perfect body forever.

Having an itimate relationship with my creator.

Ultimately…….God defines good and being close to God will be the best……..by definition.

It is not God’s definition of good that must be corrected.

It is my definition of good that must be and will be corrected.

Time to get started.

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?'”

Nebuchadnezzar’s epiphany about the sovereignty of God, Daniel 4:35, ESV