Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things… 9 Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker…
Deuteronomy 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no-one can deliver out of my hand.
Exodus 4:11 Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
Acts 17:26 …he determined the times set for them…
James 4:15 …If it is the Lord’s will, we will live…
Hebrews 9:27 …man is destined to die…
Job 1:21 …the LORD has taken away…
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 16:20 …those who trust the LORD will be joyful.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Empty But Full
I have been experimenting, trying to replace temporal hope with eternal hope. So far it has proved a dismal failure. Eternal hope is like poured concrete which provides a good foundation, but one does not furnish his home with concrete.
We are temporal beings who need some kind of temporal goals and dreams in order to muster strength for the day-in, day-out. So what do we do when there is no short-term desire and aim?
After bouts of exhausting grief and crying jags that leave my eyes parched, I am beginning to realize and experience God as my present-tense strength, hope and joy.
He is my strength to love his people and serve them.
He is my hope. I have him. I don’t need him to do more or be more than he already is.
He is my joy, where every other can seem as though it has been stripped away. I have Christ and rejoice in him and so have joy that enables me to enjoy those he has given me.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
We are temporal beings who need some kind of temporal goals and dreams in order to muster strength for the day-in, day-out. So what do we do when there is no short-term desire and aim?
After bouts of exhausting grief and crying jags that leave my eyes parched, I am beginning to realize and experience God as my present-tense strength, hope and joy.
He is my strength to love his people and serve them.
He is my hope. I have him. I don’t need him to do more or be more than he already is.
He is my joy, where every other can seem as though it has been stripped away. I have Christ and rejoice in him and so have joy that enables me to enjoy those he has given me.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Genuine Christian Hedonist
1 Peter 1:6b …now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine.
If my faith is being proved genuine, at very least to myself, by means of its continuance and growth through these difficult times, then I need to affirm and others should know that it is the faith of a Christian-Hedonist that is being tested and confirmed.
Psalm 84:5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
If God himself, standing by me, is my strength and strength is the means by which we may experience victorious joy in the battle against doubt and bitterness and anger and apathy and temptation which constantly attack the one in grief, then I have found my joy even as I walk through the valley of weeping.
How could I ask for more than the Apostle Paul who described himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”? (2 Corinthians 6:10) This is what a Christian Hedonist seeks: Strength in God, Joy in God that frees one to pursue the priorities of God to the glory of God which includes the believers eternal joy.
Psalms 50:15 “…call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
God gets glory by our rejoicing in him for the sanctification he accomplishes by means of our trials. Sanctification means holding on to faith and growing in holiness as the necessary prelude to glorification.
Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 12:14 without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
If you are not finding your strength in Christ which gives you joy amidst grief, then I encourage you to find out what a Christian Hedonist is and become one.
http://www.desiringgod.org/about/our-distinctives/our-beliefs/what-is-christian-hedonism
If my faith is being proved genuine, at very least to myself, by means of its continuance and growth through these difficult times, then I need to affirm and others should know that it is the faith of a Christian-Hedonist that is being tested and confirmed.
Psalm 84:5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
If God himself, standing by me, is my strength and strength is the means by which we may experience victorious joy in the battle against doubt and bitterness and anger and apathy and temptation which constantly attack the one in grief, then I have found my joy even as I walk through the valley of weeping.
How could I ask for more than the Apostle Paul who described himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”? (2 Corinthians 6:10) This is what a Christian Hedonist seeks: Strength in God, Joy in God that frees one to pursue the priorities of God to the glory of God which includes the believers eternal joy.
Psalms 50:15 “…call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
God gets glory by our rejoicing in him for the sanctification he accomplishes by means of our trials. Sanctification means holding on to faith and growing in holiness as the necessary prelude to glorification.
Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 12:14 without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
If you are not finding your strength in Christ which gives you joy amidst grief, then I encourage you to find out what a Christian Hedonist is and become one.
http://www.desiringgod.org/about/our-distinctives/our-beliefs/what-is-christian-hedonism
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