The Miracle We are Really After

 
                                                  

                                                  The Miracle We Are Really After

 I love these words from Frederick Buechner:

"For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars, there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day lives who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around knee deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.

It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want, but the experience of God's Presence.

That is the miracle we are really after and that is also, I think, the miracle we really get."

That's true for me. I don't need a brilliant scientist to try to prove to me that there is or is not a God.

The question is, if there is  God, does He want anything from me? Anything to do with me?

I remember C S Lewis' words when he abandoned atheism and embraced Christ. His atheist colleagues were horrified at his decision to become a Christian and ridiculed him relentlessly that he decided to believe in God.

He said, "It's not that I believe in God, but that I believe in THIS God," he said, and he held out his Bible to them.

The miracle he was really after was the miracle he really received.

And so have I.

Pre-tuned Radios

I remember when....


When I was a child, missionaries often visited our church. I remember one couple who worked in Bible translation ministry in South America. They had translated a  tribal language and had small schools set up in the area to teach the residents how to read and write, in their own language,  and to be able to read for themselves  what the Bible said about Jesus.

Some of the tribal people could not come to the schools, however, and were out of contact most of the time.

And so these missionaries were raising money for pre-tuned portable radios to give out to them.

These radios were pre-tuned to the Christian radio station broadcasting the gospel in the native language - available 24 hours a day!

What a great way to reach these people with the gospel message.

Today we would call this an example of intentional evangelism.

Maybe we should ourselves be examples of intentional evangelism-- be pre-tuned to give out the gospel - always ready to broadcast the good news of Jesus - every time we leave the house and every time someone "tunes us in" -- it's the only message we have to share of any real importance!

Someone "turns us on" and we speak about Jesus!



But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you...1 Peter 3:15


Can you explain "the hope that is in you" to someone else?

Fill Up and Give Out - Gayle Rogers Foster

 From Front Porch Moments, by Gayle Rogers Foster

Thoughts from Day 2 --

"Yes, go on mission trips, but 99% of the people you are called to speak to are seated in the cubicle next to you or across the table from you.

Your responsibility is to consistently allow God to pour Himself into you each day.

You should have a constant awareness that whatever He has poured into you will, in turn, be needed by someone else who will become your Divine appointment in the very near future.

God's responsibility is to find the match. He will place those people into your path who need what He has purposely poured into you...your life should be a continual loop of filling up and pouring back out.

Live your life with the assumption that God is prescheduling specific people to cross your pathway each day.

When you are on the lookout for His assignments, as a servant and a steward, you will be overwhelmed by the way God will use you for His glory. Be spiritually prepared and instantly responsive."

The Departure

For to me, to live is Christ and to die gain. If I am to go on living in the  body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.

Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!

I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

Philippians 1:21-26

Death held no terrors for Paul.

It simply means "departing."

When used by soldiers, it meant, "to take down your tent and move on."

Paul elaborated on that image in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8:

     Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,

we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,

not built with human hands.

What a beautiful picture of death: The "tent" we live in now will be taken down and the spirit will go home to be with Christ in heaven.

After all, a tent is a temporary dwelling. It is not designed to be permanent, at least not in our culture.

The tabernacle in the Old Testament was a tent that was carried around in the wilderness until the Jews entered the Promised Land. 

It was a very important tent - it housed the altar, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, with the Ark of the Covenant. But it was not meant to be permanent.

Sailors at the time of Paul also used the word for departure:

it meant to loosen a ship and set sail.

Alfred Lord Tennyson expressed this idea in his memorable poem, Crossing the Bar.

Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep, turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell, when I embark.

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place the flood

may bear me far

I hope to see my Pilot face to face, when I have crossed the bar.

But departure was also a political term: it described the setting free of a prisoner. 

God's people are in bondage down here on earth, to the limitations of the body and temptations, but at death, we will be set free for ever!  Or earlier, if Christ comes while we are still inhabiting our earthly tents!

Departure was also used by farmers.  It meant "to unyoke the oxen."  The day's work was finished. Free the oxen and feed them, giving them rest.

Paul had taken Christ's yoke, which is a easy yoke to bear (Matthew 11:28-30), but look how many burdens he carried in his ministry.  Look at some of them he tells us about in 2 Corinthians 11:22-12:10.

To depart and be with Christ would mean laying aside all our burdens, because our work is finished, and going to be with Jesus for our eternal rest.

No matter how you look at it, death cannot steal our joy.

Paul was single-minded. He had a Godward Heart. Death could not trouble him - he looked to the hope God had given him.

Warren Wiersbe suggests a simple test to show us what we value most - what gives us the most pleasure and makes life worth living for us.

Take the verse in Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Leave two blanks: For me to live is_______________

and to die is___________.

Fill those blanks in for yourself.

For me to live is....money.....and to die is to ...leave it all behind? Or For me to live is....being famous....and to die is to...be forgotten...?  To live...is power....and to die is to....leave it all behind...?

How do you fill in the blanks?

Why God Created Everything - John Piper

 Observation from John Piper (2006)....

"God created the world to exhibit the fullness of His glory in the God-centered joy of His people."

                   (To display His glory through our joy!?!)

Four hundred years earlier theologians wrote this as the first teaching in the Westminster Catechism --

Question #1: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

 I love the consistency of these statements - God created everything to joyfully display His glory...forever!

Peter says it's "joy unspeakable and full of glory" - GOD'S glory!

I find these thoughts so exciting! How does God display His glory? Through the joy of His people! WOW!

Psalm 104:33 -- "I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my mediation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the LORD."

Let's exhibit His glory everywhere we go today!