Luke 1:53

“He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” This verse is as beautiful as it is subtle. It seems to be a theme that God blesses the needy and rejects those who are satisfied in themselves. The interesting part of this passage is that He fills the hungry with “good things,” not food, while he sends the rich away empty, not penniless. I say that I do not believe money to be of much importance, and yet I wait upon blessings that are of the world. Perhaps “good things” are such things as faithfulness and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps being sent away empty has nothing to do with finances. After all, it seems that the rich are still rich and the hungry are still hungry. Do we really believe that man does not live on bread alone? Do we believe that someone with a belly full of food and a wallet full of money could be empty? By the looks of it, God does.

In Response to a Yahoo! News Article:

The headline aks the following question: The women's field for March Madness is officially set. Any surprises?

answer: yes, who gave march madness to women's basketball?!

Read 1 John

“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”—
but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2.9&10

The idea of sharing glory with God is exciting, convicting, empowering, terrifying. 1 Corinthians says that God’s secret wisdom is a wisdom that God has destined for our glory. 1 John says that when God appears we will be like Him! With the gift of the Holy Spirit we are no longer in the dark regarding God’s wisdom, it has been revealed to us by His Spirit. Still, we are not yet like God because we have not yet seen Him as He is in completion. We are in limbo. Even so, we are not clueless, for we know his secret wisdom; may we live accordingly. How can I do this? By living in the Spirit. Romans 8:5 “…but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” 1 Corinthians 2:11 “…no one knows the thoughts of God except by the Spirit of God.” And verse 12, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” It is God’s desire to bring us to glory alongside himself through the Spirit. This can only be accomplished through prayer and devotion. This era has a difficult time acknowledging the idea of a romance between man and God, but there is no greater love story. WE are His bride, and prayer is the mode by which we are able to pursue our love. May I recognize God’s pursuit of me and be compelled to pursue Him in return, and one day be like Him.

"To please God... to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son--it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is."

-C.S. Lewis

Pairs Well With Hebrews 2

I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to figure things out that are of no consequence to my life. God honors, and is pleased by, my pursuit of truth, but only when it is rooted in pure motivation. Oftentimes I am ensnared by deviations that pose as truth seeking questions. I feel like I need to know everything when that is simply not my place. In fact, an attempt to know all things is an attempt to make myself God, which is what got us into this sinful state in the first place. I do not see everything, I do not need to see everything, I should not see everything, I cannot see everything; I do see Jesus. This is what matters: that I see Jesus, that I fix my eyes, my heart, my mind, my intentions on Him and His glory. I must seek knowledge and understanding, but I must seek it for and through Christ. If my understanding is to be true, it cannot be my own, because my heart begets selfishness and lies. Therefore, in order to know truth, I must learn through my transformed heart, which only exists through Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Am I capable of explaining truth on my own? To an extent, I can parrot phrases and ideas that describe truth. Am I capable of understanding truth on my own? No! It is the Spirit that gives us understanding and discernment, and all reason or logic should not be abandoned, but rather it should be submitted to Him for fullness, completion, and refinement. No matter how sound my reason or how strong my argument; if it does not come from God, it is nothing because everything exists for Him and through Him.

Freedom

What is freedom? Is it the lack of constraints, the opportunity to do whatever we want, or the opportunity to do that which is most beneficial to us? When people are told that the gospel is freedom, they are often puzzled by the fact that it comes with many regulations on how they should live. If I am free, why am I not free to engage in debauchery? This question is valid because, on the surface, it seems that freedom is merely the absence of rules or constraints. The only problem with applying this definition to our lives is that it is a simple definition and it cannot be applied to a complex situation. If I am given the freedom to do anything I please, I may do something that will cause me to be incarcerated, or otherwise constrained. Therefore, freedom is not merely permission; it comes with a set of rules, which show us the way toward a life that is free of harmful constraints.

With this view toward freedom, many circular questions are avoided. “Why doesn’t God want me to get drunk?” “Why does it matter whether or not I give glory to God, if His glory is not subject to my actions?”…. I could go on. When we realize that part of freedom is rules that set us free from many things (things that we call sin), we see joy in the rules and cease to follow them without meaning or personality. This is why many Pharisees offended Jesus, they demeaned the rules that were created for freedom by making them into constraints; the very thing they were meant to destroy.

So, we see that there are two extremes when viewing moral law, and that neither is true. First we have the view of the anarchist: rules cannot beget freedom. Second we have the view of the legalist: rules should be followed for their own sake. Both of our characters have fallen into deadly traps of slavery. The anarchist is a slave to himself, while the legalist is a slave to rules. One has bastardized freedom, while the other has bastardized order. If only we could see that the two are not separate, I believe we would be on the road to the freedom that is promised through the gospel of Christ.

I'm Not a Politician

I wonder how many beliefs i hold for the sake of diplomacy.

You're probably right, God is probably wrong...

It seems like a contradiction that we would be fulfilled though service, that we would gain by giving. We wonder how God could love us if His will for us is only that we glorify Him. Is this a paradox or a contradiction? Does it benefit us to serve God without regard to ourselves? If so, why?

The discrepancy here arises due to an inaccurate view of who God is and who we are. When determining what is beneficial for anything, we must first determine what the thing is and why it exists. Let us apply this concept to humanity. What is humanity and why does it exist? This can be answered by first asking how it exists. The Bible teaches that we exist as a product of creation by an all-powerful God. This is so simple and so matter of fact to a Christian that it is often overlooked when he is considering the dynamic of his relationship to God. The profound revelation that is found in this simple truth is this; since God is our creator our meaning, purpose, and worth can be nothing greater, or less, or anything at all other than what is assigned by Him.

If the creator assigns the purpose, then humanity must look to its creator in order to find its purpose. The Bible teaches that our purpose is to please God, to glorify Him. It can be said in many ways, but any way it is put, we are meant to be servants. Is it any wonder then that the selfish are unfulfilled while the selfless live at peace? We were created for God, not God for us. God is for us, He does love us, and He does work for the good of those who love Him, but we cannot define a Godly good in human terms.

Now, if we are servants and God expects to be served, does this make Him any more selfish than we are for expecting our meals to sustain our bodies through the day? After all, that is what a meal is designed to do. This is not a case of pride or arrogance; this is a case of a God who created things, which would be made full by glorifying Him. How can one be called arrogant for calling something exactly what it is?