Dear Friends,
“Given the size of the universe why would God care about earth?” So I asked the questioner, “How small would the universe have to be before the love for us by an infinite God would make sense?” He understood the point. The reason that we have a cosmic sized inferiority complex is that we think we are only loved if we are great. Christianity teaches that we are loved because God is great. The size of the universe serves to demonstrate the size of the Creator. It is the great-heartedness of God that so loved the world that He gave his only Son to save us. The reason He loves us so much is still a mystery, but that only makes His love even more wonderful, not impossible.” (Don Barkley – Search Ministries)
As Christians we know both the greatness and love of God yet we are constantly tempted to trust in our own greatness (abilities) and the love and help of other people MORE than the One true God. Scripture says it this way: “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:20-23 NLT) An idol is something or some person we put energy and effort into to get what we want and need – physical, relational and spiritual needs, anything from food and shelter to love, meaning, purpose, hope, etc. God tells us to look to Him for all these needs (Romans 8:32) but as the picture shows we are bent toward looking to the creation of God (people and things- now fallen because of man’s sin) versus God Himself, the Creator, to meet our needs.
☺ L L L
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Our idolatry begins as children when we look to our peers to meet our needs for love and acceptance and thus wrongly yield to sinful peer pressure to fit in. The Lord uses our parents and others to meet our needs but as parents we are to continually model our own dependence on God from giving thanks at meals to praying for them when they are sick and thus constantly point them to God as the One Who is their only Savior and true Father/Parent – and Who alone is always with them (omnipresent) and always able to help them, omnipotent (all powerful). The truth is we are all ultimately powerless as children and adults and when we depend on ourselves or others instead of God, we become, as the Scripture says, confused and utter fools. The great shift comes when we finally repent of this foolishness and trust God to be our all and all. But we can only truly know Him as our all in all on His terms not ours. “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (John 14:21 NIV) Obedience to God brings revelation and personal knowledge of God which is what meets the deep abyss of our heart for love, security and hope. The Jews longed for and prayed earnestly for the Messiah prophesied to come, the Deliverer and King promised by God. Yet when Jesus came as a babe in a manger and a suffering servant versus a powerful King to boot the Romans out of power, they nailed Him to a cross. And in our own lives when we expect the God of the universe to meet our distorted, selfish and temporal expectations we too can and do “worship idols made to look like mere people” looking to our own resources and fallen humanity to meet our needs. Like the picture in the diagram above this foolishness and idolatry makes us very angry and/or sad. This is the story of human history from the fall of man till today and will be until the end when Christ comes again this time in His glory and then, “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15 NLT) Only in heaven where He rules us completely and perfectly will we finally and fully be perfect ourselves. Yet God’s Word calls us to move toward that full submission and purity now: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he (Jesus) is pure.” (I John 3:2- 3NIV) When we begin to trust our God fully we repent of the futility of trusting ourselves and man and receive God’s forgiveness wrought so lovingly and painfully at Calvary and then forgive our fellow man who, like us, desperately needs God’s forgiveness and help. I believe our unwillingness to forgive our fellow human beings, like us, both wounded and sinful, after it cost God so much to forgive us, may be the greatest block in receiving a revelation of the Reality of God and of His incredible love for us. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15) I have witnessed this amazing transformation and revelation of God in the lives of others as they forgave those who have hurt them and I too have experienced this. And even as the Lord continually forgives us as we hurt Him in our idolatry and foolishly looking to created things to satisfy our hungry soul, we too must walk in forgiveness toward those who hurt us in this way.
This morning as I sought the Lord I so needed to encounter His Reality, His Presence, His love and He was so gracious to manifest Himself to me, to speak so personally to me and in response I wrote this song of thanksgiving and praise, I AM, from which came the thoughts for this letter to you. I close with Paul’s great
prayer for all of us who long to know Him more intimately.“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT)
Amen,
Len and Kristen
I AM (Exodus 3:14)
I AM YOUR GOD THE THREE IN ONE
FATHER, SPIRIT AND THE SON
I AM YOUR LORD YOUR LIFE
I AM YOUR ALL
FROM BEGINNING TO THE END
I AM – HAVE ALWAYS BEEN
AND I’LL FOREVER BE
I AM YOUR ALL
I CREATED ALL THAT IS
AND ALL THAT WILL EVER BE
ROCKS AND BIRDS, HUMANITY
ALL THIS CAME THROUGH ME
I’VE BEEN WITH YOU ALL YOUR LIFE
IN JOY IN SORROW PAIN AND STRIFE
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU CHILD
YOU CAN LEAN ON ME
SO LOOK TO ME AND NOT TO MAN
FOR MY PURPOSE AND MY PLAN
FOR MY POWER TO SEE YOU THROUGH
FOR ALL I’VE PLANNED FOR YOU
LET YOUR PRAYER FOREVER BE
“YES MY LORD I YIELD TO THEE
NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE”
FIX YOUR EYES UPON MY SON
I PROMISE YOU ABUNDANT LIFE
REWARDS AND GIFTS NOT SIN AND STRIFE
SIMPLY TRUST ME AND OBEY
I WILL SHOW THE WAY
THEN MY LIGHT IN YOU WILL GROW
GRACE AND TRUTH AND LOVE YOU’LL SHOW
TO THOSE I LOVE WHO DO NOT KNOW
I AM THEIR ALL
I AM YOUR GOD THE THREE IN ONE
FATHER, SPIRIT AND THE SON
I AM YOUR LORD YOUR LIFE
I AM YOUR ALL