February 22, 2009, Sunday

24 02 2009

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Good God?  Or Means to Another End?

If you could see inside my mind, if I could see inside of yours, if I could go to the core of your deepest beliefs, what would be your opinion of God?  Is He loving?  Is He a good God?  Or is He a better means to another end?  Another god?  I may trust Him with my life, but do I trust Him with the quality of my life?  Do I pursue Him, not for who He is, but for what I get out of Him?

Do you know what most of us are looking for when we come to God?  How is He going to bless my life?  We’re all concerned about finances and jobs, relationships and feelings, hurts and forgiveness, hope and reason for being.  And He is critically interested in all of these things.  But they are secondary things.  “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33.  In the end, God is not so much our God as what He gives us is our god.  We serve the feeling.  We live for the blessing.  And with the instability of life, it appears that God is our best hope at getting both a positive feeling and a trustworthy blessing.  Our heart is where our treasure is, with the good things we hope to get from God and not the goodness of God Himself.

He is good in the sense that He is kind, intent on our benefit, full of good will toward men.  He is tenderhearted and full of sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all mortal beings is open, frank and friendly.  By His nature He is inclined to bless, and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.  He is good.  But, He is great in the sense that you cannot improve on Him.  He is better than the feelings He at times inspires or the blessings He so often gives.  It is not merely that He gives great things.  It’s that He is good – great beyond everything or anything else.

Do you trust in the goodness of God?  Or are you pursuing Him for something better?

If you totally surrender yourself to God, no holds barred, nothing held back, He will begin renewing your mind, and the way you live will begin to change.  And as you live this life of complete surrender, you will discover He is good…pleasing…perfect. 


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Sunday, February 15, 2009

17 02 2009

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Is God Loving?
Why does a loving God let bad things happen to good people? If God is loving, why have you or your loved ones faced what you have faced?
To say God is loving is not totally accurate. 1 John 4:8 whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. God is not defined by love. He is the definition. He IS love.
Our definition of love is off, because our understanding of God is off. And our understanding of God is off, because we take God and try to force Him into our own faulty definition.
Instead of looking at God and asking whether He is loving, the real challenge is to look at God and discover what it means to be loving.
Is God loving? Not really…He IS love, pursue Him and find in Him your definition.


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Sunday, February 8, 2009

10 02 2009

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Why Your God Matters

Listen to Sunday’s message by Pastor Phil Olsen

Millions of people who live in the land of Bibles, who belong to churches or have lived around them all their lives, who may even promote the Christian religion, may pass their entire life on this earth without ever having  understood the God of the Bible. 

The challenge we face in America today is that we will misunderstand the truth about the one true God that we will either walk away (disinterested or disheartened) or worse yet, stay Christian and end up serving a Christian God who is not actually anything like the Christ of the Bible.

The most significant question about our lives, the thing that determines everything, is what do we think about God, who do we really think He is, what do we think He’s like, and what do we do about it.

If you supposedly worship this “Christian God, “ yet the God that you worship is nothing like or only vaguely resembles God as He really is, then you are actually worshipping and idol. An idol not made by hands, but by your mind.

What you truly believe about God will determine how passionately you pursue Him.  It will determine how you pursue Him and what you expect to get when you find Him.  It will determine whether He actually is your God, or whether He is just a means to the thing, or person, or experience that is your real god (the thing you actually live for).

So what kind of God have you created?  

Ø  It will determine how you purse Him

Ø  Whether you even want to pursue Him

Ø  Whether you think He has come through for you or not

Ø  It will determine the way you look at life

Ø  How you deal with adversity

Ø  What you do when life doesn’t respond to you the way you think it should

Ø  What you do when He gives you more than you hoped for

So pick a G(g)od.  We all do.  Just pick the one the Bible describes.

Scripture to read: Exodus 19:10-11, 16-19, Exodus 31:17-32:6


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Sunday, February 1, 2009

2 02 2009

impact-logo

Take a perfectly smooth pond, throw a pebble in it, and watch the ripple effect.

We never fully live to ourselves.  Our actions impact outside our own lives, outside of the immediate moment.   Whether you know it or like it, your life is constantly making impact.  This is the way God put it through Paul, our responsibility to each other. 

Take a perfectly smooth pond, throw a pebble in it, and watch the ripple effect.

We never fully live to ourselves.  Our actions impact outside our own lives, outside of the immediate moment.   Whether you know it or like it, your life is constantly making impact.  This is the way God put it through Paul, our responsibility to each other.  Galatians 6:7-10.

Your life is creating ripples.   Ripples are always far larger than the initial stone.  In fact, one little stone can send ripples way across the pond.  Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you.   1 Thessalonians 4: 11.  God understands our tendency to become so enamored with the big and the awesome that we fail to deal adequately with the everyday and the common.  As a result, we end up making far less impact with our lives.  He completes that challenge by saying, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.  1 Thessalonians 4: 12.  This is not a challenge to be mediocre.  This is a challenge to do the everyday, common things excellently.

Live for the ripple, not the splash.  When looking for ultimate impact, don’t just look at point of entry.  Look at the resulting ripples.  They are there.  Can you see them?  Do you know the ripples of your life? You cannot throw the stone and avoid the ripple.  Neither ignore them, nor become discouraged because you can’t see them.  Don’t become fascinated by the splash, and ignore the ripple. 

God has created your life for impact.  The natural response to the actions of your life is that it will send ripple effects that move constantly out, away from the life you are living and impact a greater and greater scope of the world around you. 

The most basic way to live that out is do the right thing; it’s the simple power of obedience.  Do the right thing because the ripple effect will have impact far beyond what you will know.   God can do far more through you being obedient than can ever be accomplished through your own willful attempts to make a splash. 

Live daily for the Ripple and not the Splash.

 

 

 

 


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