A Simple Way To Please God

The beauty of being created in the image and likeness of God, is knowing that God takes pleasure in us just for who we are. It’s not about working harder, smarter or at all - it is about simply being who God made us to be. But, for those of us that have a hard time just settling in to the fact that God is pleased with us just for who we are, there is one simple thing you can do to please Him:

…the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. - Psalm 147:11

It gives God pleasure when we expect to be loved by him. Read that again. This kind of expectation cuts anxiety and fear off at the knees. We can expect God’s love and that is really pleasing to Him. Try it and let me know how it feels.

Evidence Of God’s Love

One of the most liberating truths of life, is that we are loved by God. There are times when we know that to be true and there are times where we may need a bit more convincing. When times are hard, we have problems in our marriage or relationships, things may not be going well at work, or it just feels like life has dealt us a bad hand - it may be hard to truly feel that God loves us and delights in us. However, the following statement found in the Psalms shows one way to know God delights in us:

By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. - Psalm 41:11

In spite of what we may be going through or how we are feeling, the evidence that God delights in us is the fact that the enemy of our souls can’t say, “Ha, it’s over for you” - as if that is a true statement. Even if we feel like we are losers, we are not. Even if it feels like things will never be better, that is not the truth. Those that are against us would try to make us think that all is lost, that we might as well just pack it in. But we can know that God delights in us because all things eventually do work together for our good. If you look at your history, you will see the troubles of life can’t and won’t outlast the love of God.

How To Be Strong

Strength has always been viewed as a virtue and something to achieve. It makes a person stand out from the crowd. The fact that we spend much of our lives trying to be strong, implies the reality of weakness. Weakness is often viewed as an attribute we should avoid and hide. So much so, we would rather overcompensate and lie to ourselves - and others - rather than acknowledge what is real.

For the Christian, weakness is not something to be avoided…it’s something to embrace. Why? Because true strength is not something that we somehow have to muster up on our own in order to get us through. It is something that we receive from God himself.

The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. - Psalm 28:8

The strength that we try to muster up has a shelf life and will eventually wear out. But, the strength that is available from God never wears out - it is always accessible and within reach. If this seems like a paradox, it is… Life is really all about living in the tension of paradox. When God is our strength, He is the first place we run to for help, hope and safety. We often run to things like: our finances, our ingenuity, our network, etc. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but at some points, they will be either inaccessible or unhelpful. But, God’s strength is limitless and always accessible. That seems like a better deal to me.

The Demand of Christianity

Anything that doesn’t put a demand on us to grow as human beings, isn’t worth giving ourselves to. Christianity puts a demand on those who live according to its view of life and faith. The demand isn’t meant to enslave, but to liberate and set us free. The below quote by Kathleen Norris sums up the demand well:

The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies,
but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die,
and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.

Will you live up to this?

Learning To Wait

The below quote is from one of my spiritual heroes, Howard Thurman. He gives insightful commentary on the purpose of spiritual disciplines, like prayer, and how they teach us how to wait and prepare ourselves for the moments when we encounter God. As a note, by religious experience, he means our life of faith which includes moments of encounter with God’s Presence.

In the total religious experience we learn how to wait; we learn how to ready the mind and the spirit. It is in the waiting, brooding, lingering, tarrying timeless moments that the essence of the religious experience becomes most fruitful. It is here that I learn to listen, to swing wide the very doors of my being, to clean out the corners and the crevices of my life—so that when His Presence invades, I am free to enjoy His coming to Himself in me. . . .

Is God Just An Idea?

“Those who have no flame in their hearts for justice, no consciousness of personal responsibility for the reign of God, no raging commitment to human community may, indeed, be seeking God; but make no mistake, God is still, at best, only an idea to them not a living reality.
”

- Joan Chittister

What it means to be Christian

 “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of loveas if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you
no empire can give you and no empire can take away.” - Cornel West

Unexpected Discovery

Let us simply stop and start listening to our own hearts. There we will touch a lot of pain. We will possibly touch a lot of anger. We will possibly touch a lot of loneliness and anguish. Then we will hear something deeper. We will hear the voice of Jesus; we will hear the voice of God. We will discover that the heart of Christ, in some mysterious way, is hidden in my heart and there, we will hear, “I love you. You are precious to my eyes and I love you.” - Jean Vanier

Faith As Evidence

One of the most common definitions of faith is found in the New Testament of the Bible. In the 11th chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, faith is defined as the substance or assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

The more I read that definition the more clearer faith truly becomes. I once thought and believed that faith comes once I see evidence of something or I feel assured of what I hope.  It’s like having faith in the sun because you see it’s tip over the horizon during the break of day.  But, true faith is being assured of the sun even when it is night.  In other words, I used to believe that faith came after the evidence but I’m learning that faith is the evidence. 

Faith has a dis-orienting capacity about it - it stretches us and often places us in moments of tension. It often invites doubt to be its dance partner. Faith takes us to places we would not normally go and invites us into new environments of mystery and discovery. 

Consider where your faith is, it’s probably gesturing towards something surprising. 

What Faith Does

I deeply resonate with the words of Jurgen Moltmann regarding faith. When a person really experiences faith, things are never really the same.  

“ ...that is why faith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is...” - Jurgen Moltmann

What Is The Gospel?

I took two minutes to answer the question, “What Is The Gospel?”.

What God Is Not...

 

One way to define something, or attempt in this case, is to communicate what it isn’t first. At that point, what is can be more apparent. In terms of theology proper (understanding of the being of God), where do you even begin? Over at Patheos, Tim Suttle has a good article that begins a dialogue on what God is NOT, in order to discover what God is. Below is a snippet, but read the whole thing here.  

God is never gone, absent, or missing in action. Yet, God is also not obvious, prosaic, or overt. God us unseeable, but not un-detectible. God is unconcealed, but not plain to see. God is undisguised, but often imperceptible. God is not what I want God to be, but God is not lacking in what I most certainly need.

How To Grow In Relationship With God

Every relationship, whether it is business or personal, involves two necessary components.

Number one: Time.
Every healthy and growing relationship requires an investment of time.  It is human nature for us to make time for the things that are important to us. It’s not that we don’t have enough time, it’s that we choose to spend our time on things, or with people, that are important to us. If growing in relationship is important, then investment of time is nonnegotiable.

Number two: Shared Experience.
For any relationship to grow, there must be shared experience. This is a natural result of time spent. Shared experiences are the historical mile markers of relationships. Shared experiences are the framework within which we think of people we are in relationship with.

Both of these qualities are necessary if a relationship with God is a goal.

One Basic Reason To Believe Christianity

Watching the news can be a very enlightening experience. As I was listening to a reporter, I began focusing on where the reporter was and less on what the reporter was saying. Then, it dawned on me: the reason why news reporters are usually on site at the scene of an event is to give credibility to what they are saying. Often, when we try to tell someone about an event they seem more interested when they learn that we were actually there - that alone makes them more open to our account of the story.

The earliest believers of Jesus were influential because their account of the story of Jesus was rooted in the fact that they were actual eye-witnesses of the events. Eyewitness testimony is and has always been one of the determinative elements in the pursuit of truth. You find this principle in any court of law. Jesus sent out His earliest followers to share news of what they had seen and heard. The fact that they were eyewitnesses, gave their ‘testimony’ an open audience.

Statement of Faith

I recently had the privilege of participating in a celebration of life for a great man. During his memorial, we reflected on one of his favorite bible stories: David vs. Goliath. This is the quintessential underdog story. David, a young man, found himself on the battlefield against a giant named Goliath. Goliath was a battle-tested war champion. He had everything you would expect from a war champion - size, strength, and the intimidation factor that comes with all of that.

David was armed with a sling and five stones from a nearby stream. This is the equivalent of bringing brass knuckles to a gun fight, only you’d never get close enough for one lick. David probably used his sling before, but this was different. For all his experience, I believe the sling and the stones were secondary to David’s greatest weapon - a statement of faith, without which he probably would not have been successful. David believed in his God. He believed that God can be counted on in the face of the greatest odds and his victory over Goliath is proof.

The man we memorialized at recently had a statement of faith - “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). What is your statement of faith? What do you find yourself saying when times are hard and the odds seem to be against you? If you don’t have one, consider finding one…It could be your greatest weapon.