Hello friends! I hope you are all having a great week and are looking forward to celebrating Christmas!! The title of this chapter kind of took me aback for a moment. God's SURPRISING Sovereignty. I was curious to see what CS meant by the word surprising. It's one of those things that I feel we know, but sometimes we can't fully comprehend and understand the purpose and meaning. So lets dig in!
On page 123 CS opens referencing Job. And how Job took God's silence and slow response as Him neglecting Job. I feel this a lot. Taking God's silence as absence. How often do we assume that God is not there because He refuses to act on our timing?!
Page 125 CS directs our attention to this fault we have. "God has no night. God has no day. God has no month. God has no year. God has no past, present, or future... He transcends it all... He sees all the movie of our life all at once, in a flash, along with millions and billions of others going on simultaneously-- past, present, and future. Which makes our little bit of space on the lake seem like a cage called time."
How perfect is this description? How real is this description? And at the same time, it is infinitely difficult for our minds to grasp. God. Has. No. Time. Because God is time. He created time. He created us to think of beginning and end.
But this is tricky: "No matter how we rationalize, God will sometimes seem unfair from the perspective of a person trapped in time...until then (when we are with God in Heaven), we will not know, and can only trust in God who does know" (Yancey qtd. by CS 126).
Again, also cool. We were made to want God. So. Cool.
Another thing that I LOVED. Yancey's definition of faith: "Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse" (qtd 126).
Hebrews 11:1 :"Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."
A friends sometimes asks why I believe in what I believe as I have no physical proof. My answer always comes back to faith.
But it's not easy being a Christian. Waiting for God is difficult. We are prone to live in immediate action. We want quick answers. But even worse is when we need answers, when we need help. On page 127 CS references the Holocaust. I still have no idea the plan behind the homicide of an entire nation. I just have faith and know that God is sovereign. CS wants us to remember:
1. "Life is filled with sustained periods of silence. Often. But those periods of God's silence are just as significant as the times when He speaks. They're far more painful, but they are nevertheless significant" (128).
Silence and waiting scare me. As I sit and think and circle my mind around this topic, I still feel lost. I do know, that when I pray tonight, I will cling to the comfort that God is listening.
2. "The turning points of life, the significant events, are often subtle... In the mystery of God's timing, subtle things occur that the sensitive heart picks up. That's the role wisdom plays in life. Reading life's subtleties is what Christian maturity is all about" (129).
Again, I'm going to go back to David Platt's Radical. He says it so uniquely.. it resounds: "In our quest for the extraordinary, we often overlook the importance of the ordinary, and I'm proposing that a radical lifestyle actually begins with an extraordinary commitment to ordinary practices that have marked Christians who have affected the world throughout history."
God is using these humdrum moments to shape us... Sigh... I know. I feel like everything is shaping us. But think back to Esther. She went from being an orphan to being queen. At times she probably experienced boredom. Loneliness. Maybe she dealt with angry customers every day in her previous lifestyle only to learn patience. She had to learn to notice subtleties in life... open circumstances to allow her to share happiness... maybe she had opportunties to share her faith. All elements that God used to shape her for this time!
"Esther had a sensitive ear, a wise heart; she sensed something wasn't quite right. So she didn't push it. She knew when to act-- and she knew when to wait.
Are you as sensitive as that? Do you know when to listen? Do you know when to speak up-- and when to keep quitet? [...] Are you sufficiently in tune with God to read His subtle signals?" (CS 130).
This is something I need to learn. I do pray for complacence in my present situation. I pray for signs. I get angry when I don't get signs... or sometimes I try to make a sign out of nothing. I need more sensitive ears...
But aren't we so thankful that we have Esther to reference! God's name is absent from the entire book. He is silent in many areas. But when he is very vocal, He is heard.
CS points out again God's surprising sovereignty: "Don't ever try to convince me that some situation in this life is absolutely permanent [...] He can move in the affairs of your community. He can alter decisions of presidents and prime ministers and present-day kings and national dicators. No barrier is too high, no chasm is too wide for Him, because He is not limited by space or time, by the visible ot the invisible" (132).
To nonbelievers, God's suprising sovereignty has other names: luck. coincidence. chance. fate. irony. I love how CS points this out. Cause if you think about it, God has everything numbered. He is motion and time. He makes the patterns and framework. Shouldn't we take great comfort in knowing that He made all things, and He knows what is going to happen??
To close, CS gives us "life preservers" on pages 135-136 to help us with our wait.
1. "The Fog on your lake is neither accidental nor fatal. So while swimming, listen very carefully and patiently for His voice [...] God gave you a mind. God gave you reason. God gave you a unique sensitivity; it's built into your spiritual system, and each person's system is tuned differently."
2. "The workings of God are not related to our clocks; they are related to our crises." Enough said.
3. "The suprises in store are not merely ironic or coinidental, that are sovereignly designed." I love this. We are a mere design in his plan. And He is precise and perfect. As is His timing.
lets rejoice in the upcoming event that is my favorite time of year. also, when you are listening to carols about Baby Jesus, I hope your heart smiles and your day brightens! My favorite part of Little Drummer Boy (Faith Hill edition is my fav.) is the very end.... "then He smiled at me."
loveandprayers
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Chapter Seven: What Goes Around Comes Around
And we're back... whoa, it's been a break. a long long time. and in the midst of all things chaotic, it is time to pull back anchor and come home.
this might be a bunch of ramblings... but sometimes we all need it. maconica, i again completely understand where you are coming from. i had a conversation today with a new friend and we were talking about where God has us in our life. i never thought i would be content with living in bham so close to home. but kicking and screaming, i am here and God has me completely content (for now). i just feel that he is going to place me in specific situations and places and no matter where i am, he will give me contentment. yes, i have the humdrum days still, but He has given me so many blessings right now, i have no other reason but to rejoice in His name... and what better time than CHRISTMAS!!!!
so relating back to the chapter... things are seldom what they seem. suggestion: take each day and think about how God wants you to use this day in proclaiming his love! even if its just one simple thing a day. For example: a girl at my work is flying home on Christmas Eve to see her family in St. Louis for holiday.... but it snows in St. Louis. it snows a lot. So I told her that I wrote in my planner that I will be praying for her trip and her travels... and i really think it meant a lot to her.
anywho, back to CS. I love the outline title on page 113: Four Principles For All of Life. for. all. of. life.
1. "When all seems lost, it isn't [...] When it seems things can get no worse, they can" (CS 113). This phrase reminded me of something Pastor Hodges (from Church of the Highlands) always said about his grandmother. When someone would ask her how she was, her response was always "I'm better off than most." What a great phrase to remember. Even in our dull days, our bad days, our trivial or difficult days, we are still living in better conditions than most of the human race. CRAZY right?
2. "When no one seems to notice, they do." I love this part. How incredibly wonderful is God? doesn't this part about the king not being able to sleep make you smile? And how of ALL things, they bring him the chronicles that recorded Mordecai's report! I mean, of ALLLLLLL records, they bring the king THAT one! Isn't God so cool?? Try and think of all the things in your life that were too great and perfect to be coincidental... and then place God our Creator into the picture. He DID that.
"Momentous events often hang upon the tiniest trivialities. Have you discovered that? here is a wonderful case in point [...] I love the first three words of 6:1, 'During that night.' That's the way it is with God. At the eleventh hour, He steps in. He does the unexpected. When no one seems to notice and no one seems to care, He notices and He cares 'during that night'' (CS 114).
I take great comfort in this. Please break right now and appreciate the love God has for us. Listen to "How He loves" by David Crowder... and also enjoy a little needtobreathe....
I completely agree with CS on page 115 and love that he points out Psalms 56:8... He even keeps our tears in a bottle. What wonderful perspective.
3. "When everything seems great, it's not." Haman got what was coming to him. But lets reexamine Mordecai. To be honest, I personally would find it difficult to mimic Mordecai's actions. He is quiet. He doesn't act with a vengeance. He waits on the Lord. WHICH we are learning, right? to wait? I pray to be like Mordecai. And THEN, Mordecai gets the highest recognition.... BUT he is so incredibly humble! I pray to be like Mordecai.
"How rare are the people who can be promoted to a place of highly visible significance and not live for their own clippings or crave the spotlight or demand center stage. Soft-spoken, genuinely humble celebrities are rare" (CS 118).
4. "When nothing seems just, it is." I kind of laugh at this.... do we really think things are just when NOTHING goes our way? Or when we truly feel someone or something is out to get us? How incredibly hard is this to follow. But how much fruitful would our lives be if we could have the mentality to think " I have been humbled through this' [...] or 'God has crushed my spirit, but thankfully, I've learned to rely on Him" (CS 120). Thoughts on this??
The last story about the shipwrecked man is my favorite out of the whole chapter. "Everything the marooned man owned had to be destroyed before he could be discovered-- and rescued. God seemed so distant for so long, but He was working on both ends--to bring the ship of rescue near at just the right time and to reduce the marooned man to nothing in order to bring him to his knees" (CS 122).
How true is this. God wants to give us everything. Love. Joy. Bliss. but in return he wants everything from us. Right now I am trying to grow in my walk with God. I want to give Him everything. One of the hardest things though to give Him is my time. He has brought me to my knees before and like the almighty Savior He is, came swooping in and saved me. Time after time.
"In the final analysis, God will have His way. He's not impressed with earthly kingdoms and personal towers, with pride and prestige and wealth and fame. He's impressed with a humble heart that comes to Him on His terms" (CS 122).
Loving being back... will probably post Chapter Eight this week too, so be on the lookout!
loveandprayers
this might be a bunch of ramblings... but sometimes we all need it. maconica, i again completely understand where you are coming from. i had a conversation today with a new friend and we were talking about where God has us in our life. i never thought i would be content with living in bham so close to home. but kicking and screaming, i am here and God has me completely content (for now). i just feel that he is going to place me in specific situations and places and no matter where i am, he will give me contentment. yes, i have the humdrum days still, but He has given me so many blessings right now, i have no other reason but to rejoice in His name... and what better time than CHRISTMAS!!!!
so relating back to the chapter... things are seldom what they seem. suggestion: take each day and think about how God wants you to use this day in proclaiming his love! even if its just one simple thing a day. For example: a girl at my work is flying home on Christmas Eve to see her family in St. Louis for holiday.... but it snows in St. Louis. it snows a lot. So I told her that I wrote in my planner that I will be praying for her trip and her travels... and i really think it meant a lot to her.
anywho, back to CS. I love the outline title on page 113: Four Principles For All of Life. for. all. of. life.
1. "When all seems lost, it isn't [...] When it seems things can get no worse, they can" (CS 113). This phrase reminded me of something Pastor Hodges (from Church of the Highlands) always said about his grandmother. When someone would ask her how she was, her response was always "I'm better off than most." What a great phrase to remember. Even in our dull days, our bad days, our trivial or difficult days, we are still living in better conditions than most of the human race. CRAZY right?
2. "When no one seems to notice, they do." I love this part. How incredibly wonderful is God? doesn't this part about the king not being able to sleep make you smile? And how of ALL things, they bring him the chronicles that recorded Mordecai's report! I mean, of ALLLLLLL records, they bring the king THAT one! Isn't God so cool?? Try and think of all the things in your life that were too great and perfect to be coincidental... and then place God our Creator into the picture. He DID that.
"Momentous events often hang upon the tiniest trivialities. Have you discovered that? here is a wonderful case in point [...] I love the first three words of 6:1, 'During that night.' That's the way it is with God. At the eleventh hour, He steps in. He does the unexpected. When no one seems to notice and no one seems to care, He notices and He cares 'during that night'' (CS 114).
I take great comfort in this. Please break right now and appreciate the love God has for us. Listen to "How He loves" by David Crowder... and also enjoy a little needtobreathe....
I completely agree with CS on page 115 and love that he points out Psalms 56:8... He even keeps our tears in a bottle. What wonderful perspective.
3. "When everything seems great, it's not." Haman got what was coming to him. But lets reexamine Mordecai. To be honest, I personally would find it difficult to mimic Mordecai's actions. He is quiet. He doesn't act with a vengeance. He waits on the Lord. WHICH we are learning, right? to wait? I pray to be like Mordecai. And THEN, Mordecai gets the highest recognition.... BUT he is so incredibly humble! I pray to be like Mordecai.
"How rare are the people who can be promoted to a place of highly visible significance and not live for their own clippings or crave the spotlight or demand center stage. Soft-spoken, genuinely humble celebrities are rare" (CS 118).
4. "When nothing seems just, it is." I kind of laugh at this.... do we really think things are just when NOTHING goes our way? Or when we truly feel someone or something is out to get us? How incredibly hard is this to follow. But how much fruitful would our lives be if we could have the mentality to think " I have been humbled through this' [...] or 'God has crushed my spirit, but thankfully, I've learned to rely on Him" (CS 120). Thoughts on this??
The last story about the shipwrecked man is my favorite out of the whole chapter. "Everything the marooned man owned had to be destroyed before he could be discovered-- and rescued. God seemed so distant for so long, but He was working on both ends--to bring the ship of rescue near at just the right time and to reduce the marooned man to nothing in order to bring him to his knees" (CS 122).
How true is this. God wants to give us everything. Love. Joy. Bliss. but in return he wants everything from us. Right now I am trying to grow in my walk with God. I want to give Him everything. One of the hardest things though to give Him is my time. He has brought me to my knees before and like the almighty Savior He is, came swooping in and saved me. Time after time.
"In the final analysis, God will have His way. He's not impressed with earthly kingdoms and personal towers, with pride and prestige and wealth and fame. He's impressed with a humble heart that comes to Him on His terms" (CS 122).
Loving being back... will probably post Chapter Eight this week too, so be on the lookout!
loveandprayers
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