"Do you love God?"

When was the last time you were asked a seemingly simple question like this? And no, I'm not talking about the sort of question accompanied by a sort of damning tone that mothers are best at. You know, the ones where you just did something 'naughty' and she lays on the guilt trip? Of course, you reluctantly have to answer the only way you can without getting into more trouble, and then comes the punch, "Well God doesn't like it when you do that..." This is not what I am talking about.

For me, it came last night during the usual end-of-the-day reminiscing when my wife suddenly yet casually asked me, "Do you love God?" I was taken aback. I didn't know why, but the question unnerved me.

God. Creator of the Universe. Definer of Good. Author of Beauty.

I love music, I love pepperoni and ham pizza, I love my family, my church, my wife...but this? It was like asking an ant what he thought of the Eiffel Tower. How could I begin to even understand God, much less love Him in the same intimate way as I love my wife? Or the way a great blues guitarist captures my soul and I can feel the emotion with every bending note?

My wife was still waiting for my reply. "I don't know...I try," came my latent and somewhat awestruck answer.

It is hard to understand how we could be in an intimate, loving relationship with Someone so complex in the same simple way that we love music. He created it! Every note, every progression, every genre- none would exist had He not built the foundations for its discovery.

Maybe for you it's computers. You love tinkering with them and finding out the way that they work because, for whatever reason, that relates to your personality. But how do you relate to the one who laid the framework for the binary code?

Or perhaps you go to a singles group because you can find people there who are going through the same things as you. But how do you relate to God? How do you define a intimate loving relationship with Him?

How do we relate to a perfect and infinite God, when we are imperfect finite beings?

We only know the simple things that our heart can get a hold of- if we try to wrap our minds around a way to love God that is not of ourselves, we can't do it.

Yet He not only loves us, but He commands us to love Him.

Could it be that the One, the True God calls us to simply love Him? To simply worship Him? To simply say, "Here is my heart, my mind, and my soul- I don't know what good it will do You, but here it is." And could God take our simple offering and enter into a personal relationship with us?

I believe that He can and He does, everyday.

And when we offer up this simple plea to the God of the Universe, something begins to happen- if we watch for it.

I love the song 'Stars' by the David Crowder Band. If I was really honest, I would say I tear up most times I hear it. The song depicts the glory of God on display in the rising and setting of the sun and in the moon and the stars at night. And the song goes on:

And how could such a thing shine its light on me

and make everything beautiful again?

You should hear the angels sing,

all gathered 'round their king,

more beautiful than you could dream,

I've been quietly listening,

You can hear them now,

I can hear them now.

And how could such a King shine His light on me,

and make everything beautiful again?

And in this moment I can feel the song take hold of my soul. I can picture the glory of God and the angels shouting praise unto Him! And yet, He looks down at me and takes the time to dust off the things that keep from being all that He made me to be. And as the song climax's and I can hear the emotion in Crowders voice, it becomes the emotion that is in mine.

And the thing that is interesting, is that it is not in David Crowders words or great songwriting skills- I know it's not, because not everybody feels this same way when they hear the song. Rather it is God peeling the scales off of my eyes to see that in everything beautiful, He is singing a love song to me.

This must be why God created music in the first place. Why He created the binary code. Why He created the moon and the stars. And why He created the longing for love and community within our hearts. It is so that I can see His glory in the simple things. In the things that delight my soul. And know that in those moments He is singing me a love song. A song I know well. A song I can relate to.

God. Creator of the Universe. Definer of Good. Author of Beauty.

...He sung to me today in the simple form of a question.

Duo

Life gets stretched thin. Everyday we are saying 'yes' to something new. It's Commitments, commitments. Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. But often times as Christians we let this doing, doing mentality get in the way of being, being. Yet Christ calls us to both being and doing as we become more like Him.


I was recently thumbing through an intriguing book about an evangelist who paid an atheist to go on tour with him and visit churches of different denominations, size, and ideologies. The idea was to see what really strikes a chord with unchurched people. Casper (the atheist, not the friendly ghost) was not remotely impressed with "seeker-friendly", well dressed up, program and presentation oriented churches. Rather, he was far more impressed with churches that we're able to keep in loving community as brothers and sisters in Christ, delivered a raw uncensored and uncut gospel, and actually took 'outreach' beyond the church walls.

James 1:27 sums up this idea well, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

Unfortunatly though, many people with good hearts and intentions put the action step before they know what they are truly supposed to do. I will be the first to admit I have fallen guilty to this. God has been working in my heart to show me that even in ministry, I don't always have to have something on my plate. (music, speaking, making powerpoints, event programming, etc.) Instead, I should be walking with other Christians. Having accountability. Discipleship. Enjoying the goodness of God.

But how did I come to this realization? It took time. I had to learn that although having a servant's heart is great, I can also be wasting my time underneath the guise of 'serving God'. Me and a close friend recently put on a worship event at our church. We spent hours trying to figure out how to set up a smoke machine to set the mood. In the end, it didn't even work right, so we turned it off.

Although both of our hearts were in the right place, I learned something that night. I was not being a good steward of the time that I had to 'serve God' ; and while God wants us to enjoy life, he also doesn't want us to spend our time serving Him in vain.

Paul said to "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ." But there was a prerequesite even for the apostle Paul- he had to first know who he was imitating.

Christ was all about time with people. About lifting up one's spirit in the midst of trial. He was about honoring God in all aspects of life. He was about love, charity, forgiveness, and encouragement. Most certainly Jesus, the creator of the universe, could have put on the most amazing spectacle the world has ever seen. Actually, at times he did. You often see Jesus doing miracles in the Bible, yet you also see him telling people not to tell of these miracles.

Jesus depended on miracles only when it was a reflection of his character. Jesus always is more intrested in leading by example than by mere authority.

Yet we are called not only to be but also to do. James 1:22 exhorts us to, "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, decieving yourselves."

It is a two part equation: being+doing=becoming

(there may be a question of how you are becoming if you are already being. The being is merely supposed to reflect an inward change of the heart, while the doing is the outward expression of such change. In conjuntion, these propel us to to becoming more like Christ who himself was both God in spirit and in body.)

Yesterday I was reading Max Lucado's 'It's Not About Me' and he uses a verse that I think can paint a good picture of what I mean.

2 Corinthians 3:18 reads, "And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit." Another, more familiar translation states it this way, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

Now there is a distinct difference between the two translations. One speaks of beholding, and the other of reflecting. One of contemplation, and one of refraction. One of being, and one of doing.

...so which one is right?

Lucado points out that it's most likely both. The greek word katoptrizo can be translated both ways. In fact, it seems as though Paul may be paralleling the Christian walk to the Mount Sinai experience of Moses. "After the patriarch beheld the glory of God, his face reflected the glory of God," Lucado states. 2 Corinthians 3:7 states, "The people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God."

Only when we spend time with God, asking Him to grant us wisdom will we begin to reflect His character. It will then begin to be less of an effort to 'serve God' and more of a constant becoming like Him. After all, JESUS is the answer to peoples deepest desires and needs.

When we serve our community,we should not be asking ourselves when we are going to tell them about Jesus- the reality is we already are.

Vent

Getting through life can suck.

If we're honest with ourselves, I think all of us have felt this way before. Whether we know ourselves to be blessed or not, there are times in our life we just want to hide in a corner and wish we could be somewhere else, in some other time.

It is often in those times that we question God the most. "Where are you?" "Why did you leave me here all alone?" "Why is the world such a hard place to live?" These and other questions may very well find their way into our heads and hearts. We are broken, and seeking answers.

And that's where God wants us.

Ephesians 1:3-5 says,"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

In our vulnerability, God wants to draw us near; He wants to be our comforter. Paul tells us that God chose us in Christ before he created us. He knew we were going to need a Savior. He knew we were going to mess things up. He knew our pain before we were born.

Yet He still chose to create us.

He knew that all our present suffering would be worth it. He knew that although we were going to face back breaking opposition, the relationship and faith we would gain in Him would be worth it. In our agony, our pain, and our doubts He wants us to cry out to Him.

1 Chronicles 16:35 tells us to "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out,'Save us, O God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations."

Anger is not a bad thing. There is a lot to be angry about in the world and in Christianity itself. But is that God's fault? Do I have to remind you who turned their back on who?

We need to understand that our present pain and suffering are not a reflection of God's goodness and faithfulness- it is the evidence of our weakness. And God says that's ok. "Come to me all you who are wearied and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28)

Being a Christian doesn't make things easy; we are but children learning the ways of our Righteous Father. The time of comfort may not come today, tomorrow, or even in this earthly life: but there will be a day when we will forever declare, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty" (Rev.4:8)

The Mysteries Of Undulation

New Years seems to ignite something within people. This hope that they can change some sort of nasty habit or something. You know the story: Barbara swears she's going to stop drinking soda, Matt is saying goodbye to the 2-a-day cigarette packs, and Sam hopes to be benching 250 by this time next year. They are all filled with the passion and drive to meet their goals...or so they think.

Unfortunatly, these goals are often never met. As humans we struggle to stay emotionally consistant. One year we want to write a book, the next we're picking up ballet lessons. While I highly doubt that I will be taking ballet next January, I do believe my passions and interests will lie somewhere I might not have expected. This is the simple Law of Undulation. It basically suggests a waveform pattern in our lives where our interest in any given duty, commodity, or relationship is in constant variance. Basically a series of peaks and valleys.

As a Christian, this Law of Undulation can be both a nuisance and a blessing. This is where the mystery comes in.

There have been times in my life where I have set aside my musical endeavors to seek out only the Lord through scripture reading and volunteer work at my church. Then I will notice myself going back to music, and reading less and less of God's word. This is a bad thing, as I am to let God, "...direct my steps by [His] word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me." (Psalm 119:133) The less I am in His word, the weaker I am to fall into the temptations of this world, "...my soul melts from heaviness, strengthen me according to Your word." (Psalm 119:28) As Christians we are supposed to, "...press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philipians 3:14) But it seems I'm contantly falling asleep on the race track, and the result is a more distant and less intimate relationship with my Savior.

Yet these times of distance can be the times where God can do the most work in our lives! He cherishes the moments he gets to rattle our world a little bit, so that we can again see the destitute state we are in without Him; and we are immediately back to clinging on to Him with a passion and thankfulness like never before. This is what God wants for us, to cling to Him; not because we give in to His will, but that our will is now, more than ever, craving to be found in Him.

So what does this all mean? Is undulation just a fact of life with some pro's and con's? Yes. But I do not think we can leave it at that.

We must know that these up and downs are coming. When you are on fire for God, don't expect to stay that way forever. This is a mistake many new believers can make. And as soon as that fire dwindles, they immediatly assume that the passionate relationship with Christ they we're feeling was just a phase- not reality. This is when Satan can do most of His work. He gets the Christian to start doubting the church, and whether he really needs all that 'good, touchy-feely' stuff.

We need to expect drought. During the drought, we need to expect the rain is coming.

The last thing God wants is for us to hang our heads during the drought and give up on our commitments to Him. He wants to prove to us He is faithful and just. If we give up on Him, we start buying into Satan's lies, and we might never see when God comes back to rescue us.

The point is, be a do-er. Not a feel-er. Emotions and passions come and go; never make a descision based on something we know to be inconsistent. God wants to know if we will stay faithful to Him, even when we don't feel like it. He will bring the passion back into your life as He always does, for now just worry about your faithfulness. Go back to all the verses in the 4th paragraph. Notice how they aren't dependent on emotions or passions, rather they are a commitment.

See, It is not because people cannot stay true to their New Years Resolutions, it is that, as time goes on, they don't want to. So don't let your commitment to God be dependent on your feelings. If you do this, Satan can't touch you and you're in for a life full of blessing and meaning.