“Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me?”
(Jeremiah 5:22 ESV)

Come on… Fear the Lord? Who has time to fear the Lord? There are real things to worry about. I am to busy worrying about my job, how much money I have, how I am going to eat, my possessions, a new computer, how I look, how much I weigh, how I wish I had a family, how I wish I had a new car, how frustrated I am with people, what I am going to do on the weekend (by the way I could of taken a few more pages with my fears, but I figured you got the point) etc. etc. etc.

Maybe that is one of my problems… I am to busy lost in my petty little fears to realize who God is.

“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.

(Jeremiah 5:21-25 ESV)

In Jeremiah God is preparing to show the people judgment for their sin.

Do we dare look at who God is? God is the God of justice and the God of righteousness and the God of Love. Knowing how much we deserve God’s wrath for our sin and how much we deserve punishment and Hell, do we ever tremble when we read verses like these?

““For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28 ESV)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:35-39 ESV)

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
(Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

““Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.””
(Exodus 14:13-14 ESV)

“Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.”
(Micah 7:8-9 ESVS)

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6 ESV)

““Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
(Matthew 6:25-31 ESV)

This is the God who spoke the world in to existence, this is the God who contained the Red Sea and drown the Egyptians. This is the God who day in and day out holds together the world preventing it from falling into chaos. I don’t believe God does anything casually. He didn’t decide on a whim to even at the beginning of time to decide to save us. God made a deliberate choice to love us, to take care of us, to give His Son to take our place and to take His wrath. His wrath is terrifying and yet I find it is His LOVE more than anything else that drives me to my knees and am driven to my knees trembling in fearful reverential, prayerful worship towards the Lord.

This last Sunday Pastor Craig preached a sermon called “From Death to Life“ (I am a little disappointed I have not seen any increase of traffic to my website because of his sermon). The text he was preaching from was 1 Peter 4:1-6. His main points was ”Arm yourself with the intention to suffer, understanding that it is inevitable. To do so is to make a decisive break with sin, imitating the thinking of Christ“.

He asked and answered several questions in this sermon such as:

What is the way of thinking we are to imitate Christ in regards to suffering?

1. Christ accepted suffering as part of being in the flesh.
2. Christ accepted suffering as the consequence of holiness.
3. Christ accepted suffering as doing the will of God.

He asked another question which was very pragmatic. He asked ”Why does it have to work this way?“ Why do we as Christians have to suffer, why is suffering inevitable for Christians?

Paraphrasing Pastor Craig’s answer (even typing on my computer I am not fast enough to keep up with him), he said ”When holiness touches a fallen world there is a violent reaction, there is push back, there are sparks of friction.” They are polar opposites.

With that answer is it at all surprising when Holiness personified (Jesus) touched the world that people reacted the way they did? Jesus was hated by the world but He was never polluted or stained by it.

So again why do we suffer (stealing from my notes again)?

• We suffer because we choose God’s will and we inherit suffering.
• We suffer because human beings hate holiness unless we embrace holiness

If we have been called (Romans 8:30) and we have chosen to follow God’s will, we will be transformed from the depraved lawless idolaters (1 Peter 4:2) to being holy and blameless, conformed into the image of his son (Colossians 1:22; Romans 8:29). The metaphors that describe this process in the bible is anything but fluffy bunnies, comfort and ease.

God knitted us together in the womb to make us the way he wanted us (Psalm 139:13-14). He once again takes up His tools to reshape and transform us into a holy image of His Son. One of His tools of choice is our suffering. God orchestrates our suffering to transform us as the master potter uses a clay knife and potter’s wheel (Isaiah 64:8) or as a metal smith uses a a refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2-3) or furnace and files to forge and shape metal. (See Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6-7; Titus 2:14)

God uses suffering to purify us from the world. Unlike Jesus we do get polluted and stained by the world. God needs to scrape, file and burn off the sludge of our sin and worldliness. That process hurts. We were born of the world and have always lived within it. Now God is scraping the worldly and sinful things that we have come to depend upon to replace it with His holiness, grace and love.

As God continues to work on me I am beginning to understand why both Peter and Paul see their suffering as a gift and are able to rejoice in it.

Thank you Lord for letting me suffer through my depression and bringing me from death to life. I pray that you continue to teach us all how to trust you especially in our suffering.

We talk often about the still soft voice of God. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel, for the first time was addressed directly by God. God called Samuel three times and if it wasn’t for his teacher Eli’s discernment Samuel may not have answered (1 Samuel 3:1-10 ESV). The encounter with God was definitely not a meet and greet. God just promised to “do a thing to Israel that will make the ears of anyone who hears about it tingle”. On top of that God told Samuel that he is going to punish Eli’s (his teacher) family forever (1 Samuel 4:10-21 ESV).

I am not sure I could imagine what Samuel was feeling at this time. First Samuel just encountered the Almighty God. Second God declared in direct revelation that something profound was going to happen to Israel. Third, he is struggling with the fact that he needs to tell his teacher everything including the punishment of his family.

Eli, demanded and threaten to curse Samuel if he did not tell everything of his encounter of God. I could picture Samuel bracing himself for some sort of profound reaction of grief or anger or something as Samuel shared everything that God said (1 Samuel 3:11-18 ESV).

A teaching moment has come and Eli’s reaction was anything but predictable to me and I suspect Samuel was surprised and awed by it too. Eli said:

““It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”” – (1 Samuel 3:18 ESV)

I have been thinking a lot about this story in the Bible and how it shows Eli’s trust in the sovereignty of God in a time of struggle. One of the struggle that I have is cyclical depression. Living with depression is a taste of Hell that I hope most will never encounter. When I sink into the bowels of depression, self-pity, hopelessness, anger and despair. I strike out towards God and everyone around me. I am angry and frustrated that though I believe in God, he allows me to suffer through these bouts of depression. I am angry because I know that he can cure the depression without effort. He can sanctify me. He can transform me in a second.

And yet God chooses not too. God chooses not to end suffering, mine and others. At first glance (and yes, second, third, fourth, three hundredth glance) that is a hard thing to swallow. Then you encounter texts like in 1 Samuel 3:18 where you see Eli is facing the disappointment in his sons who are dishonoring the priest and more importantly God and facing the inevitable death of not only his family but himself and yet has complete faith in the Lord.

Eli did not have the promises of the New Testament. He did not have the promise of Romans 8:28. Though he had a relationship with God which we will not have on this side of glory.

God will do what is good to Him. Thankfully what is good in His eyes is always good for us in His purposes.

I pray that we all are able to face our lives with the complete trust that Eli had in the Lord.

Toward a more effective definition of “accountability” for men. – 22 Words.

The other day when I was on Justin Taylor’s Between Two World blog. I saw this Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote and realized how true it is. After spending half of my life in counseling and at times medication through the world of psychology. It is a relief to find out that there are those who understand. I found the more counseling I got the sicker I was, the more hopeless I got. When I was introduced to Jesus Christ and his grace filled gospel I found understanding, forgiveness and hope.

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus.

The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is.

Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this.

In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.

The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness.

The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (pp. 118-119):

H/T: Between Two Worlds

John Piper’s response to our President in regards to abortion.
I respect how Piper respects the man and vehemently disagrees with him on abortion.

God put Barak Obama as our president for a reason. A man who we disagree with in a lot of ways. One of our challenges is to learn to respond to him in a God honoring way.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
(Romans 13:1-2 ESVS)

There is nothing that I can say other than watch this video.

My friend Scott Wiyninger has FINALLY started his blog on worship. The blog is called “To the Praise of His Glorious Grace”. His first entry “Worship – How do I do it?” is about Psalm 71. If this entry is any indication of what he will be writing about it will be a great blog. He is a compelling person and a great worship leader. Welcome him to the blogsphere and let’s keep encouraging him writing and focusing on worshipping our God.

I admit this right now. I didn’t write this. I thought it was so awesome that I took the whole post and copied it here. I wanted what he wrote here so that I can see this post. This is from a blog called Fallen and Flawed. Demian will you forgive me. If you get a chance take a look at his blog. It is worth reading.

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God lacks nothing. Craves nothing. He has everything he needs in himself.

In fact, to admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in God.

Why God created anything is a mystery then.

We do know that the emphatic teaching of the Bible is that God exists for himself and man for the glory of God.

So, with that in mind, let’s explore 10 biblical illustrations of what it means when we say that God is self-sufficient. And then look at how we should respond.

1. God is life. 
Self-sufficient, God requires nothing to give him life. He is the source of all life. Man, on the other hand, requires something else–something outside himself–to give him life.

2. God lives. 
Contrasted against the dead, dumb idols he is the living God. The God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah. The God who speaks from fire. The God who doesn’t beg for anything. But commands everything.

3. God is lord. 
The Hebrew word Lord used in Psalm 16:2 is adan…meaning master, ruler, owner, lord. Adan is thought to be the root of the noun adom, which is frequently used of men who own slaves. It’s were we get the word Adonia. It’s what believers mean when we prostrate ourselves before God in humble submission. We are slaves to the core.

4. God owns everything.
His possessions extend from the earth to the unknown regions of space. God sustains it like a man who sustains a small garden on the side of his house. He doesn’t need it to survive. He sustains it so he can enjoy it.

5. God provides everything.
God is our provider. What we have, we only have because God has opened up the way for us to get it. Our duty–especially in tithing–is to give back to the church. That is, God. The same is true for our lives.

6. God is jealous.
God is protective of his self-sufficiency. It’s what isolates him–and Him alone–from every other thing in the universe. Self-sufficiency is his air-tight silo. Except he can talk to us, comfort us, love us despite this barrier.

7. God is independent.
Man is dependent. God is necessary. Man is unnecessary. We get at the heart of God’s creation when we finally understand that God would still exist if all creation were dead. All animals. All birds. All plants. All men.

8. God gives life.
John uses the word “life” 36 times in his gospel–more than any other New Testament author. It refers not only to physical and temporal life that God gave to the world at creation, but especially to spiritual and eternal life imparted as a gift through belief in Him. Eternal life is at the beck-and-call of God.

9. God puts to death.
Self-sufficiency declares authority. Authority over birth, work, love and death. All things are slaves to him–the sea, the saint, the suicide. No once can escape Him or is out of His control. Including death.

10. God delivers.
The power of life is in God. As is the power of death. God cannot die, but he can kill. Furthermore, He is alive and without death and he is the one who can snatch people from the jaws of death. The Creator and the redeemer. That is the self-sufficient God we serve.

How Should You Respond to God’s Self-Sufficiency?

Get this: Gazing upon the face of God is a robust death sentence. Regardless, we are to pursue him. Any motion in His direction is upward for us. Away from him, a descent.

A. W. Tozer said about Christ, “The awful majesty of the Godhead was mercifully sheathed in the soft envelope of human nature to protect mankind.”

Self-sufficient God may be, but merciful, gracious and humble is he also, “who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.”

How will you respond?

I was reading today in the Wall Street Journal a story about how the army is dealing with the increasing number of suicides that are taking place, the article is called “A General’s Personal Battle“ (This is on the Wall Street Journal site and I am not sure how long they will let non-subscribers read the story). What struck me about this story was the last two small paragraphs of the story.

Gen. Graham wasn’t a physically affectionate man before Kevin’s suicide. Today, he makes a point of hugging every father he meets who has lost a lost a child to combat or suicide.

We are suppose to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Here in this story is how one man, one hug, affected this General and changed his whole outlook.

Isn’t bearing one another’s burden offering to take a little bit of the pain and help give it to God? This looks to me as an example of how we are suppose to help bear one another’s burdens.