Isaiah 40:28:31

Lecrae gave a great gospel message to a packed out fringe stage crowd this afternoon. 

This shot is about half way back in the crowd.

Crushing Idols

God is in the idol crushing business. And reliance on any system other than dependance on him is an idol to be crushed, so that you may be free to experience what is far greater in him and his ways.
How can you date someone you can't even see? This still utterly boggles my mind.

for we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

photo: Italian Alps, 2007 

Faith, Obedience, and Two Circles

Today I listened to a 12 minute CCEF podcast called Does God Really Love My Children?
David Powlison talks about two "nested circles," and I'm half quoting half paraphrasing him below:

In the very big circle are all the things we are concerned about and want to turn out a certain way. We know these things are in God's control and not our own. The little circle is within the big one. This holds the things I'm actually responsible to do, how I'm called to live, etc.

We often wish the little circle was as big as the big one, and that there was something we could do to guarantee outcomes in health, money, loved ones, etc. But the little circle is always way smaller than the big circle. This is a major call to your faith: how to live with uncertainty. We are a morning mist. How do you live well with huge things you don't control?

That large circle is where we need to simply trust that God is in fact good. He is way bigger than we are. This is his universe, his kingdom, and he is weaving together a tapestry. Parts of it look ugly to us, and we don't understand how those can be there. But it is his universe and kingdom, and we are not the kings and queens. We are not called to know or control the future. We are called to trust. In the little circle, we are called to do everything that it means to live by faith and obey him.

So that is what I'm called to focus on - living by faith and obeying my king. For God is God, and there is no other.

...for I am God, and there is none like me,

declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, 'My cousel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,'

Isaiah 46:9-10

photo: bridge in Potter County, PA 2008

which will proper

As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. - Ecclesiastes 1:5-6

My dad noticed something in these verses. They do not give an option of nothing prospering, only which (this or that) or both. That can be encouraging when you see nothing but failure and fatigue - no fruit, growth, progress, or prospering from your labors in life. But what's even more encouraging to me is that I do not "know the work of God who makes everything."

For my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8.

I'm so glad my hope is outside of myself.

photo: fortress in Salzburg, Austria 2007

Sin or Sickness?

This past winter, I took a Vital Life class at church called Counseling for Everyday Life. Bill loaded us up with plenty of reading material and messages, including Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. One of the articles was by Ed Welch, called Sin or Sickness? Biblical Counseling and the Medical Model. The last paragraph of this article has been extremely helpful to me, and I've referenced it in multiple conversations since reading it. It's come up twice within this past week, and I thought I would share it here.

The resulting model, which includes the medical evidence without sacrificing a biblical view of personal responsibility, shows the heart and body in a dynamic interaction (Figure 1) and allows for various possibilities. For example, sin (from the heart) can make some people feel depressed (body), e.g. Psalm 32. The physical experience of depression can then influence the heart in such a way that the heart chooses hopelessness over faith, and the cycle might become a downward spiral. Another possibility is that a person may have had a disease that feels like depression (fatigue, feeling blue, concentration problems). The physical feelings then can influence the heart in such a way that the heart is more susceptible to forsaking biblical hope. Of course, the cycle can be stopped through repentance, faith, and obedience, in which case the physical symptoms may persist but no longer have the same power over the heart. The cycle also can be affected by treating the physical symptoms with available medical treatments.

I have found much help in this clear description of the interplay between sin, suffering, and repentance. It has helped me to acknowledge physical realities and see that my hope is not in the end of suffering, but in the power of God's grace to keep me from sin and at peace in the midst of the "heated" circumstances of discomfort and suffering. Although temptation to sin may increase from a physical reality, I am no longer a slave to sin but Christ's power is at work in me to lead me to repentance and faith - to freedom even if my body is still experiencing the effects of decay because of the fall.

And on top of that, as if that weren't enough, oh how sweet it is if/when God chooses to grant relief from that suffering. I no longer see it as something I "deserve" (to be perfectly healthy and without the "heat"/temptation to sin), but as an outpouring of His lavishly rich and kind grace on me. Our God is a loving Father!

You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26:3