Thoughts from aSacredRebel following the SacredRebel
Today is the anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.
So I thought I would share some information about this historic event. Here is a link to some information on the confession Presentation of the Augsburg Confession.
Here is a link to the confession itself in case you would like to read it for the celebration of the anniversary.
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
(Psalm 65 ESV)
God is due our praise because of the awesome deeds He has done. Psalm 65 goes through some of them, but there are many many more deeds that God has done for all of us. Then there are those things that he has done for the body that we could say He has done just for us. Things we see that He has done for a friend/a loved one/ourselves are things that are really for all of creation, because what effects me, effects you and what effects you effects me…
I recently found a video of the song Awesome God by Rich Mullins from a live recording. I love the introduction Rich gives for this song, and thought I would share it with you today.
Job 38:1-11 is the beginning of God’s 4 chapter answer to Job who has laid out his complaints against God. As I read these first 11 verses, in which God begins – “Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.” Or my paraphrase – Stand up and get ready for a smack down and you will take this like a man. I’m going to tell you what is going on and ask you if you really understand…
You see God asks Job if he thinks that God isn’t qualified to be the creator of everything and the one who is actually in control of Job’s life. Job is asked where he was when God created. And does Job actually think that he is better qualified than God to be the one in control…
I think we all get to this point. I remember it being called – Being to big for your britches…
Well we all get there and we all know that God is the one who needs to be in control. It made me think of Todd Agnew’s Song Where Were You. I include it here for listening enjoyment…
I thought up all the question that my human mind
could bring and laid them out before the Lord
And demanded a reason for these things
I asked about inequality and about the success of evil men
But what was I to say to Him
When He answered with this question
Where were you when I split the sky and sea
Where were you when I taught the lion to roar
Where were you when I made electricity
Fall from the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm
Where were you
I had no response, I had no reply
As the One who spoke and is the Truth
opened up my eyes
I laid my time of doubt at the feet of the Infinite
But what was left for me to say
When he answered with this question
Where were you when I split the sky and sea
Where were you when I taught the lion to roar
Where were you when I made electricity
fall from the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm
Where were you when I put stars in the sky
Where were you when I taught the eagle to fly
Where were you when I made that little child look just
like her mom but she had her Daddy’s eyes
Where were you
Christian lyrics – WHERE WERE YOU LYRICS – TODD AGNEW
Have you seen the commercial recently where the little boy is following a man around and asking him why about everything… and finally at the end of the commercial we discover that this boy is not the son of the man but asking him these questions because of the intelligence the man has because of the type of car he drives…
Why is something we all want to know.
Why do good people have to suffer?
Why is there pain in the world?
Why are my prayers not answered?
Why does God allow those things to happen?
Job is a wonderful story of a man who is a devoted follower of God and does not question what happens to him. Even when Satan comes in and gets God to allow him to do anything to Job except kill him, Job still follows God. Even when Job’s friends tell him that he must have done something and needs to curse God if he didn’t Job still follows God. Why?
Because Job knows that following God does not mean that everything will be good, that it is a walk in the park, that life is suddenly always sunshine and moon beams…
Job 37 tells us about the rumbling of the earth at the sound of God’s voice. About snow falling because God said so. How God does not contain the lightnings that come with the thundering of His voice, or He does not contain the stuff that comes with the falling of the snow. Animals must seek shelter, and the ground and all around will freeze. Things change because God commanded the snow to fall. And Why?
“Whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, he causes it to happen.” (Job 37:13)
Why? Because God made it happen. It really does not matter why, for some reason God had to have it happen in just this way. Maybe for our correction, or so that the land could be nourished or returned to some state, or simply because He loves the person or thing that received a special gift… For some reason God had to have it happen, and that is why.
So trust. Trust that God is who we have been promised He is. And do not worry about why.
We all work hard to make something out of ourselves. Some of us have to work harder than others, maybe because of the side of the tracks we come from, maybe because of how many resources are availed to us from mommy and daddy. Maybe because of the country we are born in.
In the USA we talk a lot about being a self made man. (Sorry should have said person – maybe that is something we need to over come…) We say we pull ourselves up by our own boot straps. Well you know it is kind of hard to put boots on without using the boot straps. They are there to help us, because we can not do it on our own otherwise…
I have been reading the Hunger Games Trilogy and am over half way through Catching Fire. This series so far is an interesting look at life and the haves and the have nots and how when someone who was a have not wins at the games for the haves and becomes a haves even what they have still can be taken from them by the real haves. Makes me think of Job. Today’s lectionary reading Job 29:21-30:15 Job talks about how he is mocked by the people because he use to be a have and then he lost it all. So now they mock him and deride him. “Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.” He is pursued by terror and his honor and prosperity are taken away by the wind and he is left with nothing.
But isn’t this really like all of us? I mean who is really a have? Who can stand except for the fact that God lets us stand? Can not God take everything from us in the blink of an eye? (Careful how you answer that…) God is really the only have and we are merely players, and stewards in this game. Well it’s not a game, it is life, but we are only managers of what we have been given, we did not make it on our own. We did not make our lives ourselves, they were given to us. So us your life in service of the one who gave it to you. Not because if you don’t He will take it all away, but because it was a gift and therefore live out of a gracious heart and give what has been given to others.
help everyone see that they are really a have not and that they are loved and so have been gifted!
I really don’t feel like giving thanks.
I have been without a call for over 4 months (that’s 120+ days). Now my wife is working and coming home bone tired, not that the work she did before did not wear her out, but it was here and we could help (and every now and then we did). I really have no reason to give thanks. My life seems to be in shambles, I am not the one providing for my family and it seems like everything is coming apart at the seems.
On top of this I have friends on Twitter who are in the same boat as I am, the club is huge it seems of pastors out of work, and not able to find a congregation. So I watch and walk with them as they share the pains of life as they know it. We are all struggling. And in this we are to give thanks!?!?!?!?!
YES!!! Give thanks to the Lord for HE is Good! God never said your life would be easy, that it would be a walk in the park, but he did promise to be there. Just like in Psalm 107:23-30:
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the mighty waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their calamity;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunkards,
and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out from their distress;
29 he made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad because they had quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
You see they went to the sea and a calamity arose. Actually if you read this version of the Psalm closely, it was God that raised the stormy wind and caused the storm to rise upon them! But they called out and God saved them and brought them to their desired haven! God never said it would be a walk in the park, sometimes it is more like an all out run through a dark forest with someone chasing you and the sounds of dogs gaining on your heels… But through it all God is with us. He is walking or running with us, and He will see us through.
So yes give thanks to the Lord, even when you don’t feel like it, because He has done great things for you, He is doing great things for you (even if you can’t see them, and He will do great things for you! He loves you, and gave His son for you. So give Him thanks!
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45 ESV)
This is an interesting passage. Basically from this passage we are either good or bad and we can not change. There is no room for redemption. For is you have a store house of good in your heart then you are good, and you can do nothing that is evil. And if you have evil in your heart, then you can do no good and everything you do is evil.
Yet is everything you do good? I know everything I do is not good, and yes I am a sinner. So there must be evil in me. I do things wrong and that are sinful everyday. Yet I also hope that some of the things I do during the day are good. But according to the passage above, this is not possible. Someone that has evil in them and does evil can not do good. And someone who has good in them and does good, can not do evil. We are either Saint or Sinner, not Saint and Sinner at the same time…
So what gives? Is this passage wrong? Or can we not believe just this passage of scripture by itself?
This text is not wrong, but it can not stand by itself. We know that we are both good and evil, Saint and Sinner, and the fruit we produce is what lies inside of us, but our flesh fights our sanctification…
So bad tress produce good fruit and good trees slip…
The good news here is that Jesus loves us and has gone to the extreme of dying so that you can have a relationship with God. Live in that relationship and let Him worry about how fruity you are…
But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. (Jeremiah 20:11-12 ESV)
The Lord is with me as a dreaded warrior to smite all of my enemies because I have committed my self and my cause to the Lord. So all those who are against me are against the Lord because I am with Him…
Have you ever heard this? Have you ever said this?
I wonder how it is we get to this point… Makes me think of a cartoon I saw recently…
We all think we have heard the Lord speak to us and tell us what needs to be done. And sometimes He really has, and sometimes we only imagined it. It helps to think it through and to get the rest of the communities input on it. We all believe we are following what God has asked us to do and we have committed our causes to the Lord – even when we fully disagree with another person who believes they have fulled committed their cause to the Lord…
So who is right?
God is the only one who is right. And I am hopeful when His vengeance is placed upon those who are against Him, I will not be in that group…
Cling to the Lord and love as He does. And allow Him to move and change and judge others… As that is His job and not ours!
See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. (Galatians 6:11-18 ESV)
This is an interesting section of scripture from Paul to the Galatians. Here he writes with his own hand… and it is bigger than the rest of the text. Why? Some scholars think he had a problem with his sight and therefore needed to write big to see it. This could be the thorn in his side that he is talking about. There are other things that could be the thorn, but I digress… This to me is not the most impressive thing in this text.
Paul tells the Galatians “For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.” Those who are the religious leaders and the ones pushing for you to mutilate yourself do not do what they are suppose to do. So what will mutilating yourself help? Will being circumcised help you in any way? Why do they want you to get circumcised when it obviously has not helped them in any way shape of form to be the people that God has asked for them to be? Basically they want us all to be circumcised so that they can say look at the numbers we have. Look at all of those who belong to us. It is a numbers thing.
When have you seen a group of people try to get others to go along with them because they want to look like a bigger group than they are? Or they think that being bigger is what needs to happen? Or they judge the success of somethign by the number of people that join after the mission, or are affected by the ministry being done. Does God ever ask us to look at the numbers? He gives us great examples of what can be done when you are focused on Him and doing His work. Acts 2 has 3000 being added to their number, but not by the group gathering, these are added by God because of the people truly seeking after Him and gathering for the reason to praise and worship Him. He never asks them to count the numbers though. Jesus feeds 5000 and 4000 but this is to show us the magnitude of God’s plan and mission.
So why are we so hung up on numbers and getting more people to belong to our collective?
There was another place that did this. Assyria:
Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds. The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots. All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations. It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; neither were the plane trees like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was its equal in beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.
“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. (Ezekiel 31:3-12 ESV)
You see God made low the one who puffed himself up.
Do not boast in your greatness, but humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord and He will lift you up and do great things through you. Not because you add to your collective and make others like you, but because you follow Him and love as He does.
aSacredRebel