Could you describe your interest in God as mathematical? As in, God is an equation of some kind to be solved, and if He doesn’t add up, you lose interest in Him? For example, God is described as “love.” God is described as “powerful.” And yet bad things happen. Evil things happen. Just yesterday, for example, the five-year-old daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman as accidentally killed by her older brother in a freak car accident (story). How can a God who is described as loving and powerful allow such a heart-breaking thing to happen? So we quest for some kind of solution to this mathematical conundrum. Something isn’t “adding up” in this equation. We’re driven to dismiss God altogether, put Him on the shelf for the time being, or look for alternative explanations to make the equation pan out. But God isn’t a math problem. He isn’t a “problem” to be solved. He’s a Person to be enjoyed and adored. Pastor John mentioned this as a key idea that gave him the desire to change from a professor at Bethel to a pastor at Bethlehem. This is what he said he learned about God from Romans 9. > I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy, it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will. (from The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What is Romans 9 Is All About?) God is way bigger than something you’re supposed to “solve.” He’s Someone who takes your breath away when you see a true glimpse of Him. His God-centeredness is a cause of wonder and mouth-stopping amazement. This is what Job said in Job 42:1-6 after he had been questioning how just it was for God to take away his health, wealth, and family: > Then Job answered the Lord and said: > > “I know that you can do all things, > and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. > ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ > Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, > things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. > ‘Hear, and I will speak; > I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ > I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, > but now my eye sees you; > therefore I despise myself, > and repent in dust and ashes.” When we’re granted the immeasurable blessing of having “eyes to see” the living God, in a mere moment all of our questions become moot. And this seeing can happen even today, not just after we die. We are being changed, as Paul said, from “one degree of glory to the next.” We get access to these glimpses, according to the Bible, by turning to the Lord. To me, that involves turning from something so that I may turn to Him. > But when one turns to the Lord, the veil [that blinds us from glory] is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) So if you’re struggling in trying to understand the infinitely high and unsearchable ways of God, start by turning back to Him and searching for Him with your whole heart. Trade your affections in other things for affections for Him. He has never disappointed me when I’ve sought Him in this way. Speaking of, I owe you guys a post on that Edwards sermon I referenced before. It totally applies here. Putting that into Things.app as we speak.

I’ve been reading Jonathan Edwards again. Dang, that bro was one smart guy. His sermon about obtaining the blessing of God is, well, earth-shattering in my view of God. It’s so applicable in my life now. Yes, I will post about it. It’ll take a few posts to get through, but it will be worth it. I hope that MovableType gets an iPhone app next month. I’d blog sooooo much more. It isn’t easy to balance between this blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Maybe I’ll find the right balance soon. Social networking can be tiresome!

Just because God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure doesn’t mean you are passive in the Christian life; rather, you are empowered.

Repeatedly in the history of the Church, Christians have been tempted to devalue the richness of creation and therefore to devalue also the arts, as if it would be somehow more “spiritual” to live a life devoid of beauty, of good things, of music, of literature, of painting, of color, etc. It is as if bare simplicity, barrenness, and even ugliness were somehow considered to be more pleasing to God. Behind this idea is the conviction that it is only what is “spiritual” that matters, and that the physical, therefore, is only of secondary value at best. In this view, the arts are thought of as an optional, rather extravagant, and unnecessary extra in life. But this belief is nonsense, and is, according to Paul, a heresy of the most serious kind, for in the end it is a denial of the goodness of creation.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Paul also in Ephesians 4:28,

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

I’m coming to realize that making “just enough” money for yourself and/or your family is often a guise for selfishness and is little or no better than making lots of money and hoarding it. We think that because “I’m not making as much money as that guy who owns that SUV and a boat and a bigger house” that this somehow makes us more spiritual, content, and loving than he is. The amount of money you make is no necessary barometer of your spiritual state.

From Luke 12:13-21,

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.“

Right now, time is tight and I can’t post as much as I’d like. But I think I’ll gather together verses I can find about money and wealth in the meantime and then comment later. One thing to note is that it’s not “the one who lays up treasure for himself” that’s mainly the problem, but doing so without being rich towards God. It is a selfish lifestyle that seeks to comfort itself through the gaining of wealth instead of taking enough for yourself to gratefully enjoy and seeking to meet the needs of others who, like you, desire comfort.