Knowing God

Born again

Posted on by Jesse Walker

Are you a child of God. Have you been born again? Have you died to yourself.? Be honest, if you have, how come so many are so easily offended? The preacher didn’t shake my hand. No one said hello to me.

Let me ask you a profoundly serious question. How did you die to yourself and have so many rights to be everything you’re not to be? If what she said he said, sets you off, makes you quit attending services, to walk away from your church family, your earthly family, a brother, a sister, a co-worker, have you really died to self?

Too many Christians think they have been saved to merely go to heaven. And they are right, but the story doesn’t end there. You were saved to be reunited with the Father. Jesus said all who come to the Father must come through me. Jesus came to show you the way back to the Father. Jesus also said, if you’ve seen me, you have seen the Father.  He went on to say, “This is eternal life that you might know him.” Jesus died so that you could be united with God. Christianity is not a church attendance.

2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” You are saved, to be transformed back into the image you were created to be in the garden of Eden before sin entered the world.

In Colossians 3:10 we read, “and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”   You were saved, in order that the new you, armed with renewed knowledge, is once again to reflect the image of your creator. You die to self, in order that God’s Spirit can live in you. Not when you get to heaven, but now and every day, every minute and every second of your life here on earth.

Do you know what the problem is for many Christians? They are waiting to go to haven before they change. They attend services. They show up to bible class, while holding onto their rights. I don’t like this, and I don’t like that. They said this, and they said that. Dead people have only one right. And that is to surrender their life in order that they may live. Anyone who finds his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life for the sake of Jesus, will find their life.

You were saved, so that in Christ you have all you need to shine forth the glory of God. To walk in his image. The image you were created to be from the beginning.  You were saved so you could communion again with the Father. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be open to see the immeasurable power of God’s Spirit, dwelling in you, to make you into the image of your heavenly Father.

God Cried

Posted on by Jesse Walker

How do we (mortal humanity) obtain Intimacy with an all-powerful God? I surely do not have the definitive answer. But for me, it helps to see Christ as my father. I know how a father loves his children. Especially since I am a dad. I know how much I love my children. How I would do anything for them. And how it hurts when they rebel.

God is not a force. He is a person. Jesus the Son of God in John 14:8-10 when asked by Phillip to show them the Father replied, Philip if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Do you not know that I am in the Father and He is in me. Jesus also said in John 5:19, I can only do what the Father is doing. In a true sense, what Jesus was saying is that me and my Father are a mirror image. In John chapter 7, when Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping over the death of Mary’s brother Lazarus, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And then in verse 35, it says “Jesus Wept”.  How can mortal man cause an Almighty God to weep? To be grieved in the spirit, and to be troubled. Because He cares. He desires the best for us, and he wants to be with us.

Then in 1 John 4:29, we learn that God loved us before we ever loved him. It’s as if he walked into the orphanage and picked me out as the best kid. I know he picked us all. But it’s personal, God picked me, and he picked you. He is your father and my father.

God is not seeking religiosity. What he is seeking is a relationship. The entire reason God created man was to be with him. To commune with him. God came looking for Adam. And he is looking for you as well. As unfathomable it is to me, God loves us and wants to be with us. He picked us to be on his team when others did not want us. It makes no earthly sense. We are full of flaws and wrinkles. Yet God loved us when we were unlovable. Will you join me today and thank God for selecting you to be a part of His family. I pray you will. And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood, Church of Christ.

Romans 8:28 – #2

Posted on by Bob Mathews

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. 

I think the NLT has it more accurately translated:

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. 

See the difference? “Things,” much less “all things” are not always going to work themselves out, much less for my good.  The events and circumstances of life are under no moral obligation to benefit me. It can be a crap shoot at times. BUT, Romans 8:28 is God’s word about what HE is doing with the events and circumstances of human history at a given moment, especially as they bear upon the lives of His own in Jesus. Romans 8:28 is not about what is going on, but about what God has going on with what is going on. We cannot fathom the immensity of all the workings of God in time and space, which is the world in which we live. We could not grasp it were it tossed into our laps. It is infinitely beyond our comprehension. It is a God-thing. But the Lord tells us enough to trust Him in how He is managing it all for our good, including its ultimate outcome.

It is our nature to want to make sense of things. That is a repeated scene in the Psalms: If I am trying to serve and honor God, why do people hate me, why am I suffering and/or sick, why do bad things happen, etc? Add to that the fact that the ungodly often seem to have it better than I. What is the deal? How can this possibly be for my blessing? You see, we want to make sense of, to UNDERSTAND things that are happening. Here is a thought: instead of demanding to understand it all, why not STAND UNDER what I clearly do know: about God, Who He is, what He has already done, how He already has proven His love and faithfulness, so forth? (That, by the way, is how most of those Psalms conclude: with an affirmation of confident trust in the Lord and His unfailing kindness. Check it out in your reading.)

Just how well do I know God? How well acquainted am I with the Lord? And isn’t that the gist of David in Psalm 23: that He knew God so well from past experience that he would trust Him in the present and with the future?

This leads to another kind of question, a deeper one: just how well do I know God? Not know “about” God, but God Himself? Not just facts about God, or even Jesus. I can know facts about a person without ever really knowing that person, right? The important question is: How well acquainted am I with the Lord? If someone were to ask me how to really know God, how would I help them?

This is so important. Whether or not I ever know the whys and wherefores of life, I can know God in His Son Jesus. In Christ, we see and hear God on earth applying His control and power to life on a daily basis, in all walks of life, the good, bad, and the ugly. (That’s exactly what He was doing with the twelve, is it not?) If He did so then, will He not do so now? If He was in control then, will He not also be in control now? He was FOR us then, to the point of the cross – 8:31,32. Is He not FOR us now? He wants us to see and hear and feel and know Him. He was on earth for us not Himself. Consider that in how you look at you and Him. The better I know Him, the better I can trust Him to do what only God can do about the workings of life.

And isn’t that the gist of David in Psalm 23: that He knew God so well from past experience that he would trust Him in the present and with the future? A relationship like that does not happen in a vacuum. God had proven Himself to David over a lifetime. David had experienced God in a personal and intimate sense. So, though now in the dark valley,  David couldn’t forget that. It sustained Him in the presence of his enemies. It does the same for me.

Life will not always be my friend. I cannot really trust it.  But not so with the Lord! Is it not comforting to know that, when things have gone haywire, God has not gone anywhere! He is with me. Beyond that, He is over all that other stuff. God is not controlled by life. Earth does not run heaven! Heaven runs earth! That is why God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him. It is because He CAN!

What about the questions we ask when things are going badly?  Things can be just so very hard for us at times, right? Well, why not think about the questions we ask, and if they are the ones most helpful?

For example, we usually ask WHY, right? Why NOW, why THIS, why ME, why US? (By the way, I don’t see God striking people with lightning in the Biblical record when they cried out with their “whys.” He loves us far beyond our doubts and confusion. Never tell someone that they cannot ask God, “Why?” Sometimes we kick people when they already are down.)

But I will agree that WHY is not the most helpful thought for my heart when life seems to be imploding. Here is a thought: would it be more useful for me to ask the Lord HOW: as in how do You want me to respond to the circumstances I face? See the difference that can make? Another good question to ask could be WHAT: as in what do You want me to remember and/or see in this situation? Above these could be the question of WHO: Lord, how can I best acknowledge You and Your glory and Your faithfulness and Your control and Your kindness and Your love during this hard time in my life. I just want to know and see You, God, and trust Your perfect compassion and control above all that is happening.

Think about the questions which can hurt and help. Romans 8:28 lies within a context of suffering in the world but also of God’s supremacy and absolute sovereignty, to the point of superintending the outcome of it all – AND THAT FOR MY GOOD IN JESUS!

That will have to do until our next talk on it. Our intention is to help and not in any way to make things more difficult.

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

peek