God's Awesome Mercy

Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It occurred to me once again just how much God has done for us and just how much we don't deserve it. I know these things in my head, but they often don't reach my heart as easily, and the depths of them are easily forgotten. But God just reminded me of how much he has done for me and how little I deserve it - so I thought I'd explore that a bit.

Romans 3:23 tells us that we are all sinners. Romans 5 says we are powerless and ungodly. We disobey God's law - which is the reflection of his character. God is good and holy and perfect, thus he demands us to be perfect. He is good, sin is evil - rebellion to his good standard. He is love, sin is about hate. He is just, sin is corrupt. Sin is a personal rejection of God and attack on his character.

But we can't hurt God. Our rejection of him doesn't hurt him. It doesn't make him depressed. No, God reigns over the universe. Our personal rebellion against him cannot hurt him and cannot undo his plan. He laughs at our puny attempts to defy him and he still works everything for his glory (Psalm 2). Because of our sin we deserve God's wrath. We have rejected our creator, the one who has blessed us with countless gifts: with life and everything good we have. Yet we rebel against him and try to live our own way.

Therefore God would be entirely just and right to send us all to hell. It would be good for him to do that - God isn't the bad guy. We're the bad guys, and we deserve the punishment.

Yet instead of just destroying us he decided to give us a second chance. He sent Jesus, his son, into the world. Jesus lived among us and did not sin even though he was surrounded by sin. He gave up the eternal glory that he had as part of the trinity from before time began so that he could become a man and save us. He gave up that glory and was willing even to die in our place: on the cross Jesus took God's wrath - the wrath we deserved for our sin. He was betrayed, forsaken and murdered so that he could save us. Jesus took the wrath that we would all personally suffer eternity in hell for. That was the plan from Genesis, and Jesus is the fulfilment of all those prophecies.

But that's not the end of the story. Jesus rose again. The wages of sin is death - death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned the first time. Jesus took the punishment for sin in full, and as a result death could not hold him. He rose again, proving that he truly is God, proving that he really did and can save us, and calling us to put our faith in him. Jesus takes our sin when we repent of them and put our faith in him.

God/Jesus could have rightly just condemned us to hell. Instead the God of the universe, the one who directs everything that happens, the creator and sustainer of all life, gave up his life for us. It cost God a lot to save us.

So why did he do it?

There are two reasons intertwined:

• The one we first think of is love. God loved us, and as a result he died for us.
• The second seems more selfish, but isn't: to glorify himself.

God is glorified by loving us. God is glorified by showing us his mercy and grace (and he is glorified in justly judging all those who continue to reject him). God created the universe for his glory. Everything is about God - it's not about us, it's not about how good we are. It is all about him. It's about how awesome he is. He doesn't choose to save us because we are worth saving. We aren't worth saving. We aren't worth loving - we reject him daily, we sin and rebel against him, we are powerless. Yet he chose to save us and love us to show the depths of his grace and mercy which we did not deserve to see.

God truly is awesome, and he has done awesome things for us.

Have you given your life to him?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Nat.

Chocolate, or Carrot and Stick?

Mark 8:34-38

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

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Here we see the comparison of two different lifestyles: Living for Christ, and living for ourselves. We can live for Christ, which will be harder in this life and often seem like we are missing out, or we can live for ourselves, reject God and his good plan and live how we want. What are the results? Those who follow Christ will be saved eternally, forgiven, redeemed and accepted as God's children, while those who reject him will be rejected by him and face his eternal wrath for their sin.

The Chocolate

I thought I'd sum these two lifestyles up with a comparison between Chocolate and being offered a carrot and a beating along with it. Living for God is more like the chocolate - he offers so many promises and the eternal benefits of following him are far better then anything Satan can offer us in this world.

Don't hear me wrong - we will be persecuted, and we will suffer on this earth for Christ. He calls us even in these verses to take up our cross daily, to suffer as he suffered and to be ready to die for him every day. 2 Timothy 3:12 tells us that we will be persecuted. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that even this is a blessing, and James 1:2-4 tells us that when we suffer God is using those things to make us more like him. If we are willing to lose our lives for God, we will save them eternally and be with him.

Yet as I said before, even though we suffer here, life is short. It comes to an end, and everyone will face God's judgement. The only way we can be saved is by putting our faith in Jesus and repenting of sin - he forgives completely. As a result, God also adopts us God's children, and we are made co-heirs with Jesus (Romans 8). We will go to heaven, where God will wipe away all our tears (Revelations 21) and we will be in his presence, glorifying him eternally. What an awesome blessing! That is the chocolate, and no matter what we go through here, it is definitely worth it.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. 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 not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The Carrot and Stick

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it...What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Living for ourselves is like a carrot when the gospel is fully understood. Yet it is still an appealing carrot. Having whatever we want, doing whatever we want to do is enjoyable. It does feel great and it is desirable. In fact, there are so many things that we long to do that God restricts us from doing - not because he is cruel, but because they don't fit within his law which is based on his character.

These things look so appealing, but in reality they mean nothing. They promise, and even deliver to some extent, but we all die. We all grow old, and these things cannot save us after we die. Who would take their best life now and forfeit a far better eternity? Who would take a carrot when chocolate is offered to them? Who would forfeit their souls in exchange for the world?

So what's the stick? I mentioned it before: it's God's wrath against sin. We all sin, and therefore we all miss God's perfect standard (he demands absolute obedience to his perfect law). This has been the case since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, and will be the case until Christ returns. Let me prove the point to you. The 1st commandment says "You shall have no other gods before me." Yet how many of us spend more time thinking about ourselves then God? Thinking about what will please us instead of thinking about how we can serve God. We all sin and that means we deserve God's wrath - his justice, eternally (i.e. hell). That's what we get if we choose the carrot - slavery in sin and then hell eternally.

Why would you choose the carrot? God made another way: he sent his son, Jesus, into the world as a man. Jesus came and he lived perfectly. He obeyed God's commands completely. Then he died in our place. The wages of sin is death, and Jesus alone had not sinned and did not deserve to die. Yet he not only died, he suffered. He took our sin if we put our faith in him - he took all of God's wrath for it (what we would suffer for eternity in hell). Then to prove that he had truly done it he rose again from the dead. Since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and he rose from the dead, sin must have been dealt with! And he tells us in Mark 1:15 to "Repent and believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand". Everyone who puts their faith in Jesus and who repents of their sins will be saved.

The conclusion

How could anyone accept a carrot after tasting Chocolate? Yet this is what we do constantly in our lives. We have the gospel, the rich truths of God's word, and we trade them for the lies of sin. We have the deep joy that comes from serving God, yet we take the carrot offered by Satan's temptation of pleasure in this world.

So what's the challenge out of this?

Keep an eternal perspective. Don't just weigh up the benefits in this life, compare them with eternity - salvation in Jesus, or eternal punishment if you serve yourself and reject God. Consider your life - have you put your faith in Jesus? Only he can save.

Treasure in Heaven

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Luke 18:18-25

 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!  Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

This passage again brings us back to the question of what we love. What is most important in your life? What would you give up anything else for? What do you run t for comfort? for meaning in life? What do you spend most of your time and effort in?

There is no point having God second in your life. He demands and deserves first place, and we need to put him in his rightful place as Lord of our lives. When we put God second, we are really just being proud and selfish, saying we know better then him, but holding onto the hope that he will still save us and give us the benefits without us taking any of the responsibility.

The rich man in the passage claimed that he had obeyed God all his life - I don't know who that man was, perhaps he did physically obey all of God's commands. But regardless of that, Jesus wasn't first in his life. He wanted eternal life, but he also wanted wealth and luxury in this life. The question came down to if he was wiling to give up his good life here and trust Jesus that there was a better life eternally with God.

That question still resounds in the world for us today. Am I willing to be hated, to be persecuted, to lose friends, to give away what I have? Am I willing even just to be laughed at for Christ? Do I trust him that he will save, and that his salvation is far better than anything in this world? Do you trust him in that?

It's a hard question to answer, because if we've grown up as Christians it's easy to just know intellectually the right answer and give a yes to all those questions. It's easy to say "I am not ashamed of the gospel", but is that really the truth? Have you ever had to prove those words?

Perhaps what we need to do is think deeply, decide on our answers and then act. Decide to put God first and then live it - telling people the gospel, loving those who it is socially unacceptable to love, giving up wealth, health and prosperity for Christ. Maybe instead of just saying "yes Jesus, you are first in my life" we should go and show it.

In saying all this, I want to point out once more that our actions do not save us.

The only thing our actions can do is condemn us because we are all sinful. Jesus told this man to give up all his wealth to show him how sinful he was and to smash his facade of righteousness. Our problem is one of the heart, and we cannot change that. Only Jesus can.

It isn't about what we do, it's about what Jesus did. He, who is God, came to earth and lived perfectly. He suffered and died on the cross, taking the sin of his people and God's wrath for it. He paid the price in full that we would spend eternity in hell for because we can never pay it. He then rose again, proving that he had paid entirely for sin, since death is the result of sin (No sin = death cannot contain him. Rose again = proof that he has defeated sin.)

It isn't about what we do. But we are called to repent and believe, putting our faith in Jesus as the only one who can save. The consequence of that for our lives is that we will also give up sin - you can't be genuinely sorry for sin and then keep doing it. But we aren't condemned when we stuff up after that point - Jesus paid it all.

Yet the question remains: if you are a Christian, if Jesus has died for your sins and paid the ultimate sacrifice for you, how will you respond? Will you be willing to give your life as a living sacrifice for him (Romans 12)?

Are you willing to give up every benefit you have for the sake of knowing Jesus?

What idols take from us.

Exodus 32:2-4

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf,fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

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Note: you might want some more context on this passage before you read the rest. Click here for the full chapter.

It occurred to me on Sunday that this passage tells us something about idols. They promise the world, but they steal our blessings. Let me show it to you.

In Exodus 12:35-36 we read that:

The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

In other words, God gave them wealth when they left Egypt, as he had promised. When they get to the foot of Sinai they call on Aaron to create for them an idol to lead them into the promised land. The first thing that this idol takes is one of the blessings they had received from God which had proved his faithfulness and grace toward them.

The idol was created out of their wealth, and as a result it was the elevation of that wealth - it showed off the gold they had received, boasting in the blessing, not the blesser. Our idols so often do the same. We worship our money or our friends or our family or our relationships, and in doing so we sacrifice the true benefit of those things. They become our gods and we forget the true God who gave us those blessings.

What was the result for Israel? God's and Moses' anger resulting in the smashing of the two tablets of the law that God had just given Moses and the death of 3000 people for their sin. God doesn't take idolatry lightly, and we shouldn't either. As Paul said in Romans 6:23a: "the wages of sin is death". But through Jesus there is forgiveness - he took the punishment that we deserved on the cross so that anyone who puts their faith in him will be forgiven. "The gift of God is eternal life." (Romans 6:23b)

What is the result for us? If we persist in our idolatry and refuse to turn to Jesus for salvation then we are under God's wrath. Consequently when we die we will face God's judgement, and because you (like everyone else) are sinful, you will go to hell (assuming you are not a Christian).

If we are Christians then we don't have to fear that because we know that through Jesus there is complete salvation. But when we replace God with idols in our lives we lose a number of blessings temporarily. We lose our love for God. We lose our hope and peace that is in him, and we lose our fellowship with him. We are also more easily drawn into other sins when we take our eyes of Christ. Satan uses our idols to draw us away from God and keep us from serving him as we should.

What are the idols of your heart? What are the things that get between you and your worship of the one true God? How are they affecting your walk with him?

I hope that was helpful.
God Bless.

Light.

As I was reading through John 3 yesterday afternoon I spent a bit of time considering the significance of the themes of light and dark in the bible. These are just a few connections that I've made - I'm certain there are many more cool, interesting and helpful ones that could be made, but it was good to think through a little.

When is light first mentioned in the bible?
At creation in Genesis 1:3-5

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Light was the first thing God created. It was the start of his glorious creation, the first step in his plan to bring us to life and eventually to show forth his glory through saving us. It was his first blessing for us and the first thing he created to glorify himself.

And it was also good. The first thing that God spoke into existence (as far as it is recorded).

In John 3:19-21, Jesus says:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. 

So when we hate the light because of our sin, we are actually hating God's plan, his blessings and his glory. We are hating his first words, and therefore we hate his whole word and Jesus who is the word (John 1).

God created everything and it was good. When we rejected him through sin we began to hate what is good and love what is evil. Instead of loving the light, which God made to symbolise his good creation, we loved the dark - the absence of God and his plan. We wanted to be in control and we rejected him. Instead of his eternal blessing we chose his wrath - hell - the absence of his blessing.

But if we turn to God in repentance there is salvation - we can live by the truth and rejoice in being part of God's plan, bringing glory to him - "so that it may be seen plainly that what [we] have done has been done in the sight of God."

How do we turn back to God's blessings and his plan?
We need to follow and trust in the light of the world.

'When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."' (John 8:12)

So the question for you is this: Have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you given up your sin and repented of it? Or are you still living in darkness, treasuring your sin instead of God's measureless grace and mercy and blessing? Are you rejecting God's good gifts and clinging to worthless things that will lead only to his wrath?

Are you a Christian?

God Bless
Nat.

"...Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

Romans 12:9

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

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The last two commands in this passage are basically opposites of the same coin. By doing one we have to do the other. If we hate evil, we need to cling to good. I we are clinging to good, we must hate evil. (Note: I've done a post on the first command here)

Hate what is evil

We are called to hate sin. As Christians, how do we do this? i think it comes from knowing God. When we know God and all he has done for us, we will love him sincerely. As a result of knowing God we will realise both how holy and perfect he is and therefore how much he hates sin. I think hatred for sin naturally comes from genuine love for God.
So how do we develop that love for God?

• Know him better. We do that by reading his word and spending time in prayer asking for his help. We need to know who God is to be able to love him, and he has revealed who he is through his word - not through anything else at this time.
• Know what he's done in the world and for us. Know what he did through Jesus for us. We do that again by spending time in his word, and reflecting on it. Through God's works we see his character more clearly. It's easy to know that God is love, but that becomes so much clearer when we see that he (The son) came to earth as a man, suffered and died in our place.
• Obey. Our obedience to God needs to come out of our love for God, but I think by obeying with the intention of growing in love for God then we begin to develop that love. I may be wrong on that, but we most certainly are called to obey out of love, and it seems to me that we also learn to love God more as we trust him enough to obey him.

But there are also other things we need to do to hate evil. We need to get rid of sin in our lives. We need to pray for God's help to hate our sin. We all have different temptations that we fall into and different sins that we love. For me there are many, but especially pride, selfishness and idolatry in putting both myself and my friends before my love for God. 

It's hard to hate these things that we love. But we need to hate them, and through the Holy Spirit, God can change us and help us to love him more. It's only through his grace that we can do this. But we have to work at it.

Cling to what is good.

As I said before, this is the flip side of hating what is evil. As part of hating evil, we need to cling to what is good. These two things work together. As we hate evil we will naturally love what is good. As we love what is good, we must hate evil - otherwise we cannot truly be loving good. The two are opposites: evil and good cannot ever both be loved by us. They are like opposing sides of a magnet that repel one another - they cannot be forced together

So what does clinging to good look like? God is good. He is the definition of goodness. He creates the standard for what is good. Therefore clinging to good is clinging to God and relying on him. In our society we love independence. We love being ourselves and living how we want. But God calls us to submit entirely to him, to rely on him and his grace.

The only way to cling to what is good is to cling to God.

But clinging to good does look a bit more specific then just saying you're a Christian. We need to obey God if we are relying on him and trusting him. If we hate evil, we need to do good - and as I said before, goodness is God's standard. Therefore we need to obey God. 

How do we know what God wants us to do? From his word again. We need to be pending time reading and thinking about and applying the bible to our lives. Thinking about where we are disobeying God and doing it.

Our actions do not save us. They don't make us right in God's sight - we have all sinned and cannot save ourselves. Jesus came to earth and he was perfect, and it is only through faith in him that our sins can be removed (that's why he died on the cross and rose again). But if we truly love God and truly trust in him - if our faith is truly in him, we will obey his commands. We will hate what is evil (our sin, which meant we deserve hell) and cling to what is good - to our saviour and to God's perfect standard.

I hope those thoughts were helpful - feel free to post any comments or thoughts below!

God Bless!
Nat.

Being transformed by the gospel

Romans 12:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

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This verse is attached to the previous one in this post. Within it Paul is explaining how we should act if we are living sacrifices.

Do not conform to the Pattern of this world

The world is full of ideas, values, actions and plans, most of which are built from our sinful hearts and motives. As Christians we shouldn't just be chasing after the new trends, trying to be popular in the world. As churches we shouldn't just be introducing new and exciting things for the sake of getting people in. Some of these things may be good (we'll get to that later), but we shouldn't just do them because they work. We should do them if they fit with God's word and will. 

What are the general patterns of the world at the moment? There are many, but here are three:

• Sex whenever you want with whoever you want. That's what we're told from almost every TV show and through so many other means, and it's how most non-christians live. It isn't how God calls us to live (Hebrews 13:4, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
• Selfishness. I'm constantly told that it's all about me. Everything should go how I want. life should be easier for me. No, that's all selfish - but it does make us feel good an thats why its so attractive. God tells us the opposite (Philippians 2:4, Galatians 6:2)
• Science is better then religion. We're told constantly that Science is right and God is wrong. In reality, true science always lines up with the bible. Theories such as evolution are not based on face or experimental method. They're theories based on things that cannot be proven or seen today. God's word is the truth and is useful (2 Timothy 3:16)

We need to stop conforming to the values of the times we live in, and instead we need to be transformed.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The word transformed "implies a radical, thorough, and universal change, both outward and inward." (Clarke). As Christians we should be completely different to those around us in how we think and act, and we should be completely different to how we used to live as non-Christians. The mind means the intellect - it is a choice to follow God and to obey him. 

How are we transformed? 

Well 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

If we are Christians, if we have repented of sin and have put our faith in Jesus, then we are new creations. We are changed and we are made alive in Christ instead of dead in sin. That's the start of the transformation process, but we still need to be sanctified - we're still sinful and we still have to work at weeding out sin from our lives.

We do that by knowing God's word and applying it. God's word is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16 again) and if we want to be transformed we need to take it on board. We also need to do this prayerfully, asking God for help and for the Holy Spirit to convict us of areas in our lives that we need to change.

The result is that we will be able to know God's will. His good, pleasing and perfect will. God's desire is for us to obey him - not out of legalism but out of joy and love for him because he has transformed us through Jesus. No, it won't always be easy or enjoyable, but we should find joy in trusting and submitting to God. His will is good - it is good for us and there is no evil in it. It is pleasing - it pleases God and it should please us to do it. Lastly it is perfect - God knows everything and his will is faultless. It is good to follow.

If we are Christians then we have been saved from our sins. We are no longer slaves to it. Instead we are transformed, made new creations and adopted as God's children. If we have been changed, then our lives and minds and hearts should reflect that - we should be looking to God and attached to him instead of the sin and evil in this world which we used to love.

Will you give your entire life to God for him to transform through his word?

The design of this passage is doubtless to produce a spirit that should not find pleasure in the pomp and vanity of the World; and which will regard all vain amusements and gaieties with disgust, and lead the mind to find pleasure in better things. (Barnes)

Overcoming Evil

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 There is a lot of evil in the world. That's undeniable if you just look around. Death, murder, rape, starvation, sexual immorality, homosexuality, abortion, slavery, lying, coveting, stealing, hatred, manipulation and selfishness are just a few examples. It's all around us and Satan uses it all to try to devour us and overcome us.

It's easy to see everything going on in the world and just be overwhelmed and depressed by it all. It's easy to give up and wonder why God allows any of it to happen. It's easy to get disillusioned. On the other hand, it's easy to see all the evil in the world and get drawn into it, because it is attractive and it promises so much in this life.

But what does Paul command us to do?

"Do not be overcome with Evil, but overcome evil with good."

Don't let all of the evil in the world swallow you up, and don't become part of it. Don't let yourself slip into sin and temptation and don't let yourself slip into depression and disillusionment about the world. But we can't really do either of those on our own strength. We are sinful and we are naturally drawn to sin. Only by relying on God and trusting in him can we achieve this. Seek to obey him and he will bless that and help you.

Instead of giving into evil we need to do the opposite. We need to overcome it with good. When tempted to fall into sin, instead submit to God and obey him. Do good even when the world is shouting out for you to join it in doing evil. Do good even when Satan is trying to tangle you into a web of depression about the evils around you. Do good and submit to God, trusting him because he is good.

Are you being overcome with evil, or overcoming it with good through Christ?

What do you worship?

I'm going to do a devotion for the school on Monday (God willing), and I thought I'd share it here. If you have any thoughts then feel free to comment below! All help will be appreciated.

Before I read the passage, I have a few questions for you to think about.

• Where do you get your approval or your meaning in life?

• What do you put most of your time, thought and effort into?

• What would you sacrifice anything for?

Have a think about that while I read this passage from Habakkuk 2:18-20.

“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.” 

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

We were created to worship. That’s why we find it so easy to worship things. But because of our sinfulness we so often worship created things instead of the creator. We find things to replace God in our lives. The problem with that is that created things cannot save us.

The type of idols that Habakkuk is talking about aren’t exactly the same as we see today. He is talking about statues that people worship – and in our world there are some examples of that: people worship statues of Buddha or they worship trees and animals, but usually we don’t see that as much in Australia. Habakkuk points out that those idols are just wood and stone, they aren’t actually gods and they cannot save.

Instead, we so often worship different things. Remember those questions I asked you to think about before? Your answers to them will probably point out what you worship. Instead of giving God the best of our time and running to him for our meaning in life we so often put other things first. Maybe for you it’s sport, maybe it’s family, maybe it’s having the newest gadget or being really really good at Call of Duty.

I find that for me, it’s often my friends that I put before God. I work hard to get their approval and I find that even when I’m reading the bible or praying I’d prefer to be hanging out with my friends.

Sometimes we even try to put God into a box and make him into an idol. We think about him one way and ignore other parts of his character to make ourselves feel better.

Ultimately though, whatever we worship points to one thing. Why do I want my friends approval? Because I enjoy being around them and it makes me feel good. Why do we like being really good at video games? So that people will look at us and tell us how good we are. Why do we try to shape God into someone who is more appealing to us? Because we want things to go our way, we don’t want God to be in control and we don’t want him to do what he wants – we want our own way. We replace the one true God with other things out of pride and selfishness. We put ourselves in first place when only God deserves that place.

I want to tell you three things about idols and then three ways we can work on worshipping God alone.

1. They never give what they promise. They may make us feel good for a little while, but they will always fail. Friends will stuff up and make mistakes, your PS3 will lag or break, your car will break down. We can't even trust in ourselves because we all sin and stuff up too. None of us are perfect. All of these things will slip away and if we build our lives on them then they’ll come crashing down like the house that was built on sand. Even if we base our lives on something that will last as long as we live, the truth is that we all die. God on the other hand always keeps his promises and he alone can give us eternal life.
2. They always demand more. We can always have more money, better friendships, a better car and more stuff. Satan uses these things to distract us so that we won’t look to God. Jesus doesn’t demand more from us because it isn’t about us. We couldn’t do it ourselves. He did it all, and we need to obey him out of love and thanksgiving.
3. These idols can’t help us because our problem isn’t physical, it’s spiritual. They cannot deal with our sin and our selfishness. Only God can. Only Jesus can take away our sin because he alone is perfect and he died in our place. Only God deserves our worship because he created us, he keeps us alive and he has done so much to save us. 

We worshipped our way into idolatry and we need to worship our way out. So how can we worship the one true God who satisfies completely and who alone can save?

1. The first step to worshipping God is asking yourself if you’re a Christian. If you aren’t then you are still living in sin and you are God’s enemy and under his punishment which leads to hell. So how do you turn to God? Repent and Believe – put your trust in Jesus as the only way that you can be forgiven and give up your sin and selfishness.
2. We can worship God more by understanding the gospel more. When we realise how much we don’t deserve Jesus’ sacrifice for us we will be more and more thankful for all he has done. Through Jesus there is complete forgiveness – we don’t need the approval of those around us. Through Jesus we are adopted as God’s children – we don’t need to be great and amazing in this world because it isn’t about us – it’s about God.
3. We also can be working to worship God more by changing our thinking. We do that through a lot of prayer and by reading God’s word. When you start focusing on those things that you worship instead of God then pray for God’s help to change and start thinking about him. 

So my question for you is this: if God isn’t first in your life then what is? Everything else will ultimately fail and cannot help you eternally. Only God will keep his promises and only he has the power to forgive sin. God is the one and only true God, our idols are nothing. I’m going to pray that we will worship him alone.

All Roads Don't Lead to Heaven (Part 1)

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One message our culture, and therefore we as people, love to hear is that "all roads lead to heaven". "You'll be al
right as long as you're not a murderer or rapist". "Live how you want to as long as it doesn't hurt others or force your values on them". The problem with this message is that it's from us, humans, not from God. It's us trying to make ourselves feel better and have some sense of security. Well, lets see what God says about this.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Wait a second. God (i.e. Jesus) is telling us clearly here that what our culture says, and what we so often want to believe is wrong. All roads don't lead to heaven - only Jesus does. Heaven is where God is, and "No one comes to the father except through [Jesus]" because he is the way, he is the truth and he is the life.

The way
Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. God is perfect, holy and entirely righteous. In him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). In contrast, we are all sinful. We have all stuffed up. We all reject God. We all disobey him. Obviously that means there's a problem. God demands and requires perfect obedience. No human can achieve that because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Yet, instead of just judging us as we deserve and sending us all to hell to suffer his wrath eternally, God sent Jesus (who is also God) into the world as a man. Jesus came and did not sin. He preached the gospel: That he would die for our sins, and that all who repent and believe (turn from sin and trust in him) will be saved. He then was crucified, taking God's wrath for all the sin of those who put their faith in him. he then rose again, proving that he had truly paid for our sin, since death is the result of sin.

You see, without payment for sin, God would justly have to condemn us. But because Jesus took that punishment and our sin on the cross if we're christians, we can be forgiven. Because he was perfect he could swap, taking our sin so we could take his perfection in God's sight. Because he was a man he could have our sin and live among sinful people. Because he is God he could pay the price that we never could. Jesus is the only way to God because he is the only way that we can be forgiven.

The question then has to be asked: Have you turned to Jesus as the only way to God? Have you given your life to him? Is this shown by how you live? Jesus is the only way to God - Mohammed isn't, nor is Buddha. Money can't get you to heaven, and your friends can't take you there because they're sinful too. God works won't even get you there, because no matter how much good you do, you're still guilty. A murderer doesn't suddenly become innocent by giving money to charity - that wouldn't be justice (I mean, I could go steal money and then give most it to charity: that wouldn't make me innocent). So many 'christians' don't truly follow Christ, they instead try to rely on their good works. This method will always fail because we cannot be good enough since we have sinned.

Jesus is truly the only way.

Can you say with Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

How much we need God.

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Psalm 70:5

But as for me, I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Lord, do not delay.

Do we really know our state before God? Do we truly understand that we are sinful and need his help, that without Jesus we could not be saved?

I don't think any of us truly understands how much we need God. He created us, he sustains us, he saved us. Without him we wouldn't exist. Without him we wouldn't be able to exist, and without Jesus we would all be destined only for his wrath.

We are truly poor and needy. We need God entirely.

Therefore there is no room for pride. We cannot help ourselves, we need God. There is no room for thinking ourselves better then others or worthy enough for his grace.

Our prayer should be that we will realise this more and more so that we may praise him more and more for it and so that we will not be proud, but rather be humble and serve him faithfully.

He is our help and deliverer - have you accepted him?

Taming the Tongue

James 3:7-8

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 We can tame animals, but we can't tame the tongue.

There are plenty of animals out there that we've been able to tame. Just go to a zoo and watch some of the amazing shows that they put on - seals doing tricks, massive eagles flying from place to place when directed. Maybe you don't even have to go that far - we tame our pets. My dogs can both give hi-fives (which I personally think is pretty awesome), and they definitely know to come when there's food involved.

We can tame these beasts that God created, yet we cannot tame our tongues. We lie, we gossip, we boast, we hurt and we retaliate when we are hurt. We say crude jokes, we talk instead of listening. In fact, we so often seem to use our tongues for everything except sharing the gospel.

It's just a fact of life: We speak before we think, and we speak what comes from our minds. We are sinful through and through and that is evident in our speech. No human can tame the tongue.

Jesus isn't just a human.

Jesus is God and he is a man. He came to the earth as 100% God and 100% man, and he lived perfectly. He had his tongue perfectly under control, using it to rebuke people for sinning and to encourage those who needed it. He used it to share God's word and to pray. He was perfect in every regard, and that perfection was displayed in his words.

What does that mean for us?

Well, if we turn to Jesus as saviour and LORD, he sends his Holy Spirit into us. He changes us. When we become Christians we die to sin and are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17), and as a result our use of our tongues changes. It's a gradual change, but Jesus/the Holy Spirit works in us and he transforms us so that we can honour and glorify God with our whole lives.

My simple question for you is, What do your words reveal about your character? Do they reveal a slave to sin, or a sinner saved by grace? Do they display someone who is Dead to sin and alive in Jesus? Or someone who is spiritually dead?

Only Jesus can change how we speak.

God Bless,
Nat.

Who can come before God?

Psalm 24:3-4

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.

 Who can come before God? Who can enter his presence? Who can stand before him? The short answer is that none of us can. Our hands are filthy, our hearts certainly aren't pure and we constantly put ourselves before God.

We are sinful, we disobey God and therefore we deserve his wrath. We cannot come before him asking for salvation while we're in this state, and we don't deserve anything except God's wrath. Yet he has made a way for us to be saved. He has provided someone who can enter his presence.

Jesus is God, he is perfect. He has clean hands, he is pure. He did not trust in himself or worship anything other than God (even though Satan tempted him to in Luke 4). He is God and he came to earth as a man, he lived perfectly and he died in our place.

Jesus, the creator of the universe, God the son, equally God along with the Holy Spirit and God the father from all eternity came to earth for our sakes and died in our place. Why? To take our sin, so that whoever turns to him can be entirely forgiven by him. He suffered the wrath that we deserve because he took our sin on himself. He was punished by God even though he was perfect so that he could save us.

So Repent and Believe! Turn to him! Jesus saves, put your faith in him, turn from sin and obey him. Jesus not only died, but he rose again. The wages of sin is death, and he suffered that, but he rose again proving that he had dealt with our sin in full, he had paid the price that we would spend eternity in hell paying. He rose again from the dead and ascended to heaven, and he is with God preparing a place for us.

Jesus has ascended the "mountain of the Lord" and he will return to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who puts their faith in him will be entirely forgiven and will be saved from his wrath. We will spend eternity with him in heaven, enjoying his presence. Anyone ho rejects him will be rejected by him and thrown into hell to suffer God's wrath on that day.

Jesus alone can save. He is the only true God: we need to worship him. He is the one who makes our hands and hearts clean, washing them in his blood so that we are righteous in God's sight. Nothing we can do can add to that or take away from it. Trust in him! Repent and Believe and be encouraged! Stand firm!

Jesus saves. This is love.

Soli Deo Gloria
Nat.