In Whose Image?

 I recently saw a tweet by Tim Keller that said:

"If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself."

Idealized and idolized. Am I too busy trying to make God agree with me and my agenda? 

As it says in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Because we are so inherently different, because God is so absolutely holy, of course He will often not agree with me. 

So I need to change my ways, and not try mold God into mine. He is God and I am not. I need to let God be God. After all, if he thinks exactly like me, is he really God, or am I just making him in my own image?

Be Holy

 "The lie we’re telling ourselves is that compromising holiness will ensure church growth. That’s false. Embracing and raising up those who are faithful and obedient, as witnesses to our culture, will attract the world. Without holiness, Jesus Christ can’t be seen in us by the world; and without love, the world will resist the truth of this holiness.”

— David Bennett

It's becoming increasingly tricky and challenging to be counter-culture as we try to hold to the holiness of Jesus while loving and living in our broken world. Reading this reminded me that, despite the difficulty and indignity it may cause, it's a cause absolutely worth giving my life to. 

"Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” — 1 Peter 1:13-16

God Is Love

"Love, I have come to learn, is not God. Flip that. God is love. The God revealed in Jesus Christ is the definition of love. This difference changes everything."

— David Bennett

God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

God so loved the world. (John 3:16) 

God showed his love among us. (1 John 4:9-11)

God's unfailing love for you will not be shaken. (Isaiah 54:10)

The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:26)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)

The love of God is fierce and says, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). But it also says, “Pick up your cross and follow me!” (Matt. 16:24). It’s not a cheap love; it is a holy love that changes lives.

The Thunderclap of God

 "If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God’s, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior."

—John Stott

Confrontation is not a popular thing these days. When something or someone is different to us or disagrees with our beliefs, they just get cancelled. No time is invested to try and understand and evaluate the difference and see if an adjustment on our part is required. If we don't like something, we just get to oppose or ignore it. 

Are we doing that with the Bible too? Are we just ignoring the parts we don't like? Cancelling the concepts that go against the prevailing opinions and culture? Only accepting the ideas that make us feel good and important? Leaving out the things that make us feel challenged and uncomfortable? Are we just looking for an echo of our own thoughts? 

Or are we truly asking God to speak, to thunder His truth out over us, even when it confronts and disturbs our happy little existence? Truly believing that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that we, the servants of God, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 2:16-17).

God Is Good.

Satan has no more effective weapon in his arsenal than to make us question—not so much whether God exists, but whether God is really good. And perhaps today that question rings extra loud in your heart.

So in the most basic of ways I just want to remind you of the simple, yet eternally profound truth: God is good. 

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" - Psalm 34:8

"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." - Exodus 34:6

"The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting." - Psalm 100:5

"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him." - Nahum 1:7

"You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes." - Psalm 119:68

Speak this truth to your soul, preach it to your heart and mind: The Lord is good. 

Patchwork

"Jesus told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old."
- Luke 5:36

God is in the business of complete overhaul renovation, not trendy patchwork improvements. What a zombie needs isn’t to be taken to H&M to pick out a new outfit and taken to a fancy barber for a fresh, hipster haircut. What a zombie needs is for someone to come and make it human again from the inside out.

There’s a way of doing Christianity that’s more like trying to give a zombie a makeover, like white-washing tombs, than it is like dead people being made alive, broken people being made new.

It's not about trying to add Jesus as a noddy badge to our high-functional, self-righteous, ticking all the religious boxes, striving existence. Tearing off some of Jesus when it suits us to patch the holes of our loneliness, sadness, disappointments, insecurities. 

It's all or nothing. We need to be born again of the Spirit, receive a new heart of flesh that is after God to replace our hearts of stone. We need to be transformed by His power through the renewing of our minds, and open up all the doors that Jesus knocks at allowing Him to fill us in every way. 

As John Legend would say, "All of [Jesus] wants all of you." Just little patches will never do.

The Wine Always Runs Out

 In John 2, we read about Jesus turning water into wine. We all know how it goes: the party starts going south real quick, Mary asks Jesus to intervene to save the bridal couple's shame, Jesus steps in and BAM best wine ever! 

Now, being someone who has neither gotten married nor even slightly enjoyed or desired wine, this story has the potential to miss the mark. But the one point we can all absolutely relate to on every level is that the wine always runs out. 

Sure, it will look different for each of us, but for all of us, at some stage and in some way, things will turn south and the good party times will start to dry up. People change. Plans don't work out. We let ourselves down. The bank balance leaks out. The roof leaks in the rain. Our grace for our boss/spouse/children/neighbour also leaks out of our flawed, broken barrel. As Jeremiah said in 2v13, we are broken cisterns that can hold no water. The wine always runs out.  

That's the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus makes the best wine. 

Jesus can take the average and depleted and make it not only better but abundantly so. As Paul Miller, reflecting on this says, “When Jesus shows up to a party, it doesn’t just keep going. It gets better.”

Beyond that, Jesus points us to the best wedding reception the world will ever know. It'll make the Royal weddings look cheap and boring. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb where communion remembering Jesus' work will become a literal feast in the very presence of Jesus, paid for with His own body and blood (aka the best wine). It's the banquet that every delicious meal we’ve ever tasted is but a shadow of. It is the reception every one of our lonely hearts longs for. 

The cheap and nasty box wine of all the earthly things we put our hope will always run out. But at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the wine never runs out because Jesus the Lamb IS the Wine. And He promises to be with us forever. Once again, He is keeping the best wine until last. 

Truly, our cup does overflow. It overflows with the wine of Jesus’s neverending grace to us.

Broken & Beloved

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
- Hebrews 12:1-3

On this, Tim Keller writes, “What was His joy? His joy was you. His joy was me.” 

As Sammy Rhodes says, "The Beloved was broken so that everyone who feels broken might become the beloved of God through Him." That is the joy of Jesus. His joy was entering into our broken world, our broken situations, our broken lives, and taking that brokenness upon himself that we might become whole and be reconciled to our Creator. 

The reality is that our brokenness is very real, and in and of ourselves there’s sweet nothing we can do about it. There is an honest relief in admitting that fact. 

But there is a quiet, constant hope that yet whispers through the darkness, through the brokenness, to our despair. The only One who can do something about it is very near and He longs to break in to our broken places to bring breakthrough. 

He is both Broken and Beloved. He is the one who says, “This is My body broken for you.” And He is the Beloved Son of God, with whom the Father is well pleased. His brokenness is our healing. His belovedness is our hope.

Prodigal James

If I just showed up at your party

Would you have me? Would you want me?

Would you tell me to go straight to hell

Or lead me to the garden?

~ Taylor Swift, Betty

Tonight I was thinking about these lyrics, because we, like James in this song, have done stupid things and require forgiveness and quite frankly deserve to be told to go straight to hell. But it made me specifically think of the prodigal son in Luke 15, and the difference between James's Betty and our God that we need forgiveness from is that God doesn't wait for us to show up at His party; instead even while we are a long way off, He runs out to us to embrace us, forgive us and bring us home. 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

And then God throws a cracker party, where the answers are yes: Yes, He would have me; Yes, He would want me. He leads us into His garden of promises where we are absolutely wanted and loved and held forever! 

So as I listen to Betty, I find myself grateful once again that Jesus shows up so that we can party with Him. 

Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes

 You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes

~ Taylor Swift, Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince

What games am I playing? What prizes am I spending my life trying to win? These are the questions that always pop into my mind when I hear this song. 

I want to be playing for a prize that really matters, for a prize that lasts, to look back at the end and know I have achieved something of meaning. I certainly don't want to pour out my life in the pursuit of something that doesn't even matter. I don't want to play stupid games to win stupid prizes. 

It also makes me think of the times of playing Candy Crush when I start a level without taking in what the goal is, and then I get caught up clearing out the chocolate or collecting the pieces that seem the most obvious, only to get to the end of my moves and realise I completely missed the mark in what I needed to do. 

I don't want that to be true of my life. When my moves are up at the end of my days, I don't want to have just done my own thing, thinking I know best, and completely miss the true goal of my life. So I need to pause often and remember what the goal and the prize set before me is: 

Philippians 3:12-14 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

The upward call of God in Christ Jesus is the goal I am striving for, the game I am called to play; and the crown of life, which God has promised to me, is the prize I am living for. 

Everlasting

You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.

~ Taylor Swift, The 1

T Sweezy was onto something with these lyrics. Because no matter how epic the love story, there will always eventually come a point where either death or distance or disagreement do them part. 

Except (thank the Lord!) God's love is different. Death, distance, disagreement, demons, depth, despair can't touch it. 

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

The good news of the Gospel is that there is no expiry date on God's love for us. There is no end to His love, because God is love and from everlasting to everlasting He is. God's love for us is everlasting and His faithfulness continues always. 

So, Taylor, my humble request to update that line: 

The Greatest Love of all time is everlasting and you can know it right now. 

 

Out Of The Woods

 

The above three lines are from the ending of Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods music video. The video is a journey of Taylor fighting and struggling in mountains, snow, oceans, and of course the woods; something of a picture of the struggles of a relationship in a rocky place. At the end of the video, she emerges onto a peaceful beach looking ragged and broken by her experiences and finds there an untouched, unblemished version of herself, and the words appear:

She lost him.
But she found herself.
And somehow that was everything.

She lost him. Their relationship never made it out of the woods. They failed. 

But she found herself. Taylor speaks to the idea of “expressive individualism", that the purpose of life is to find and express your individuality and that you “find yourself” by fighting through and emerging triumphant from all the constraints placed upon you by others.

And somehow that was everything. Why does this song/concept so resonate with us? Because, deep down, we all just want to be fully known and totally loved. And we are sold the shortcut of “knowing yourself” and “loving yourself” so we no longer have to be dependent on anyone else for our happiness.

While I agree with the longing and desire this conveys, I'd like to challenge Taylor's solution here to this problem. 

Yes, even in the Christian life there is an overarching story of discovery that makes sense of all our trials. But the difference is that it's radically God-focused, not self-focused. It is the story of how Jesus finds and rescues unworthy sinners; it's not our own attempts to find ourselves. It’s all about how God expresses Himself in amazing grace to the world through the death and resurrection of His Son, not how we express the worth we think we have in ourselves.

Jesus told us (in Matt 10:39) that "the one who finds their life will lose it, but the one who loses their life – for His sake – will find it." Sounds like it's not self-discovery, but Jesus-discovery that is key. 

The Gospel that calls us out of the woods of sin and brokenness and into the clear of Jesus' grace and redemption beautifully rewrites those lines from the music video:

She lost herself. 

But she found Him. 

And somehow that was everything.

The Shiniest Wheels

I had the shiniest wheels, now they're rusting

~ Taylor Swift, This Is Me Trying

How much time do we waste trying to make all our wheels the shiniest, only for the rust to inevitably come. We invest so much time and energy and elbow grease in shining up the things that, in the greater scheme of things, matter very little. 

Status, wealth, comfort, fame, popularity, instagram likes, promotions, fancy cars, pretty houses, perfect wardrobes. These might shine for a little while, but the rust will always eventually inescapably destroy. 

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

So let us pour our lives, instead, into the treasures that will last; the treasures that no rust can touch. Advancing God's kingdom, loving people, building relationships, giving generously, making disciples. 

These are the wheels that will forever be shiny. 

Out The Doubt

The Internet is a fascinating place. So many loud voices with strong opinions screaming their contradicting views—it can be a lot. Some voices are straight up in your face: Twitter, blogs, YouTube channels. Others are more subliminal than that: news articles, Instagram captions, lyrics and Netflix shows. 

But all (intentionally or not) have a message, a "truth" that they are trying to sell. And it feels like more and more, these are messages that are straying further and further from the ultimate Truth of God. 

So what do we do with that? We want to love all people, but can we really do that while still holding to the real Truth that goes against so much of our current culture? When the world is saying "everything is true if you want it to be", how do we stand strong calling out the lies of the enemy? When the people ask where our God is in the midst of all the tragedies, pandemics, shootings, politics, hatred, racism, poverty, how do we hold on and believe that God is good, that He is enough to satisfy?

Cry to God

In January 2021, a word that sums up so much of our current state is turmoil: a state of great disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty; great anxiety. All the way back in time, David could say to us, "I feel you, bro."

In Psalm 43, David lays out his fear, distress, and anxiety:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”

It is often a lonely and personal struggle when the mind goes to war—and that is why it is so dangerous. It has been said before that to be passive in thought is the easiest way to drown. Because doubt is a quiet whisperer and a sneaky silencer, it cannot be fought if it is not addressed.

David follows up his question with the simple resolution:

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

When we reach out to God, crying “I don’t understand, I need help, my faith is failing!” doubt loses its strategy of loneliness. When doubt reaches out, seeking mercy and grace, it ceases to be doubt. Instead, it becomes faith.

Seek the Truth

David faced many a struggle in his time, and his reaction to turmoil was consistently the same—to pour out his doubts and fears, and then lift his eyes and cry out for mercy from God and to find strength in His character. So many of David's psalms that started with turmoil and doubt ended with praise and proclamation of God's Truth. 

But to proclaim the Truth to ourselves, we need to know the Truth, we need to be actively absorbing it (Psalm 119:11 "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."). This is why we are encouraged to seek after truth and to search the Bible and compare it to what we are hearing (Acts 17:11 "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true"). 

Not as the world

The world is full of thoughts, ideas and agendas, but it is definitely not full of wisdom. Many ideas of the world are designed to tug on our heartstrings, to make us feel good, to capture our attention (and our bank accounts), to promise our pleasure and comfort. 

But Jesus doesn't ever try and fit that mould. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

I think a key aspect of working through our doubts is remembering that God's Truth doesn't make sense when viewed through the lenses of our current culture. God's Truth is counter-culture, or actually we should say, culture is counter God's Truth. 

Jesus said in His prayer in John 17, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world." Jesus knew that following Him meant we would never fit in, that His perfect design could never fit the mould of the world. 

Trying to make Truth fit into our culture is a burden that we need to lay down. And as we become more comfortable with the concept of "not of the world", "not as the world", I think it will become increasingly easier to stand strong in God's Truth. Not that we won't ever doubt, but that we will be quicker to take that doubt to our God and ask for His Truth to prevail. 

Nothing New Under The Sun

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." ~ Ecclesiastes 1:9

I've been reading a book called Technology vs Humanity. It's all about how technology is transforming our world with "exponential and all-encompassing technological change" and where we, as humans, fit into that. Technology is surging ahead to bring us previously unimaginable software and systems and solutions and the way we do many things will never be the same. Discoveries in this field will change the way we view some things and and change the way that we operate and go about our business, but that’s as far as it goes.

The most important part of this world (i.e. humanity) remains unchanged.

Yes, ideas and outlooks will change, business strategies and our daily routines will look different, but the person who is carrying out those actions never changes more than superficially. It never penetrates deeper than the "doing" and it neglects the core, the "being".

In order for a revolution to truly change the world it must change the very nature of the world.

To change the world, hearts must be changed.

The living, beating heart of this world, placed at the very center of the system by the Creator, is humanity and human nature. To see the world change, we need to do more than simply modify the mechanical functions of the world’s operating system by changing how we do things. 

Sure, I completely agree that there is a laundry list of things in this world that need to be done differently. Reading the news over the past year just brings horrified chills and a deep disappointment in our actions as a human race. But even if we were to somehow bring about a miraculous change in everyone's actions to be nice and kind, it wouldn't last. If only the surface level actions are changed, the relentless, deadly cycle of hatred, fear and pride would inevitably rear its ugly head yet again.  

Change needs to delve deeper—beyond a catchy slogan posted on an Instagram story, beyond a popular kindness movement, beyond a rah-rah speech that gets us motivated for a little while—into the real flesh and blood of the world’s substance: the heart. 

This is where we see the beauty and power of the gospel.

The Gospel of Jesus is the only thing that does more than change the way humanity operates, but changes humanity itself. History repeats itself because humanity hasn’t changed. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Humans are still selfish, still terrified, still angry, still hopeless, still sinful.

But when the genuinely life-changing power of God enters our space, it’s the spirit, the soul, the heart of the world that changes. And when the inner man—motives, attitude, mindset—changes, more than just the surface-level actions are transformed. 

Our world is crumbling in hopelessness and despair. There is only one thing that brings hope.

Humanity is running around like headless chickens trying to find pleasure and meaning in a wildly confusing existence. There is only one thing that will bring purpose.

One thing that goes so much deeper than the inconsequential, superficial, perishing surface stuff and brings life and true transformation to the dying, searching, desperate people.

The Gospel of Jesus is the only thing that will ever truly change this world, because it does more than just alter our daily routines or our way of thinking, but it whole-scale changes the nature of how the world operates, from the inside out.

It changes art and literature, it changes science and technology, it changes music and social media, and it changes our future because it changes the actual people behind all these things.

And as Taylor Swift said: 

"These things will change

Can you feel it now?

These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down

It's a revolution, the time will come

For us to finally win

And we'll sing hallelujah, we'll sing hallelujah"

When the Gospel changes a person, fear, selfishness, hatred and pride are no longer the driving forces behind change, but it’s the love and power of the Creator to bring His beloved Creation back to its original purpose: fellowship with the One, True God. 

Now that's some real change worth singing hallelujah for.