The World is Out Of Sync! John Piper

Yes, the world is out of sync with God, but we aren't!

Words from John Piper --

"My feelings are not God.

God is God.

My feelings do not define truth. God's Word is truth.

My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes -- many times -- my feelings are out of sync with the truth.

When that happens -- and it happens every day, in some measure -- I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but, rather, I plead with God: 'Purify my perceptions of Your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.'"

[My prayer, too -- maybe yours?]

Not Just a Chicken

Remember the story of the eagle who was raised by chickens? 

From her nest in the barnyard, she spots an eagle soaring confidently through the clouds. Her heart beats rapidly. "I can do that!" she whispers. The other chickens laugh, but she knows better. She was born for something more. She can soar. She never lost hope, and then, one day, she lifted herself up and began to soar!

We are like that eagle!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us: "He has put eternity in their heart."

Deep down we have a hunch that our ordinary lives can have meaning and purpose and that we were made to know that meaning and purpose -- and we were made to live forever!

Think about Paul's words -

"Therefore we do not lose hope. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on what is seen, not what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Max Lucado reminds us --

"If life's troubles are momentary, can't we endure them for  just a moment? We can be sick for just a moment...we can be lonely for just a moment...we can be persecuted for just a moment....we can struggle for just a moment...can't we endure any challenge for just a moment?

It's not about us anyway. And it's not about now."

 -- from It's Not About Me

How Peterson paraphrases the passage --

"So we are not giving up.  How could we? Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared  to the coming good times, the lavish celebration  prepared for us. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever."

His Mercy is More!

A convicted and condemned criminal was sent to death for his crimes. He was "guilty as charged!" 

He yearned for mercy.

But who could he ask? Not the judge - he was the one who sentenced him. Not the victims -- they jeered at him and desperately sought revenge. The crowd watching was blood thirsty.  No mercy there.

So, as a last resort,  he turned to the bloodied body of the One who hung on the cross next to his. There was a sign on His cross that said, "King of the  Jews." A strange way to treat your King, he thought. But his time was running out, and that Man did seem different somehow. So he gave it a try.

"Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom." And he heard the answer, "Truly, today you will be with Me in paradise."

A dying thief on a cross, a pedophile in prison, a murderer on death row -- all can receive mercy. Witnesses say Jeffery Dahmer received Christ's mercy before he was killed. He received Christ as his Savior, read his Bible, confessed his sins will great remorse, and urged other prisoners to do the same.

No one of us beyond the reach of God's mercy. And none of us is  beyond the need for it!

How about the law-abiding citizen sitting on the pew in church? He goes to the altar, also seeking mercy. 

Does it matter to God where we are when we call to Him?

On a cross? On a pew? In a government prison or in our own personal, self-constructed prison?

I think not. We are all sinners who need mercy. "Our sins are so many, His mercy is more!"

He is in reach, right now! And reaching out to you! If you haven't already received His mercy,  ask for it now! Take His mercy and all the other gifts He includes and then tell everyone else!

Bookends - John Stott

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).


As we consider various means by which Christians grow think of each one of them as a book you're putting on the shelf of your life. In order to keep those books in place, you need two bookends.

The first bookend we need is the righteousness of Christ. The most important question any person can ask is: How can I, a sinful person, be accepted by an infinitely and righteous God?

Paul told us it is by trusting in the righteousness of Christ. Paul counted all his impressive religious credentials as rubbish in order that he might "gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Philippians 3:8-9).

Paul found his acceptance with God not in his own imperfect obedience, impressive as it was, but by trusting in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, which God credits to all who trust in Him as Savior. That is what faith is--trusting in Jesus Christ as one's Savior.

The second bookend we must set in place is the power of Christ.  Just as our acceptance with God must come through the righteousness of Christ, so our power to live the Christian life must come from Christ as well. As Jesus indicated in John15:5, we have no ability within ourselves to grow.

All that ability must come from Him.

The common element in these two bookends is the word dependence. We're dependent upon the righteousness of Christ for our acceptance with God and upon the power of Christ for our ability to pursue spiritual growth.

                 -- From John Stott

Whose Will?

                                                              

                                                                     Whose Will?

Jesus' prayer in the Garden was "Not My will, but Thine, be done."

Most often I would rather pray, "Let my will be done."

And that gets me into trouble! The sin in my life, and probably in yours, can be traced back to pursuing our own wills, goals and desires, rather than His -- the will of our heavenly Father who made us, knows everything and plans our best in all things all the time.

So when we pray we should ask  God to reshape our will, to realign it with His Will through the Word of God.

Our hearts are inclined toward sin, rebellion and walking out of step with God.

But God, in His infinite mercy and grace, has given us His Spirit and His Word to  reshape our will and recalibrate the desires of our hearts to bring us back into step with Him!

He always gives us what we need to obey and glorify Him!

 What a great and loving Father we have!