Isaiah 43:6-7 says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.”

We were created for ONE purpose:  for God’s glory.  To magnify, to glorify God.  Our whole lives, everything we do everyday, should be done with that goal.

Why would God want this?  Well two reasons: 1) He deserves it 2) He has been so kind to save us who rebel against Him daily.  (there are zillions more reasons)

So…I don’t need a degree for my career; I’ve been doing IT stuff a long time.  I don’t need or want more money, I thank God for what He has already provided.  BUT…I am going to college.  I work full time and go to school full time.  I have classes, papers, presentations, reading, and learning to do those in addition to private prayer and Bible study and learning/trying to be a godly husband.

Why?  I’m doing all this so that, one day, if God wants to use me for his glory as a missionary or a teacher or a manager, or a whatever and it so happens that the role would require someone with a degree, well, I’ll have one in my back pocket.  That’s it.  I’m doing all this just to have the piece of paper in my back pocket in case God sees fit to give me work to do in the future.  And I do all of it because He saved me….I was dead, I was an enemy of God, I *hated* Him…but He pulled me out of death, cleaned me up, and gave me life.

How does this apply to your situation?  Well how do you think you can you best use your life to give God the credit He deserves?  How can you best serve him?  Is it through math?  Praise God!  Is it through communications?  Praise God!  Is it maybe not even college at all but on-the-job training?  Praise God!  The important thing is thinking and living in such a way as to make good decisions that ultimately accomplish God’s goal (Is 43:7) of glorifying Himself.  When we surrender our goals to get on board with God’s goals that’s when we know we are truly His.

Thanks to John Piper for his powerful exposition of that verse.  It has really helped shape my understanding of a lot of things and was the inspiration for this post.

Posted: September 26th, 2008 under Challenge, Testimony.
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For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
- Psalm 50 :10-12

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
- Isaiah 40:12

You, O LORD, rule forever;
Your throne is from generation to generation.
- Lamentations 5:19

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved
- Psalm 93:1

In these historic uncertain economic times, when the president of the most powerful nation on earth has to announce that that nation’s “entire economy is in danger”, it is no small blessing to know that the Lord reigns.  Jesus’ glory and power are undiminished.  He is sovereign and in total control of absolutely everything.

Pray for our nation.  Pray for our leaders.  Pray for the Lord to receive the glory He deserves, no matter what.  Ask God for opportunities to lovingly share the gospel with people who may be under incredible stress and strain by all the uncertainty in the world.  Infinitely worse than financial ruin in this life is the spiritual ruin of someone spending eternity in hell.  If God is not willing that any should perish, how great a sin it is if we are.

Posted: September 25th, 2008 under Announcements, Challenge, Current Events, Encouragement, Evangelism, Scripture, World Events.
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Psalm 3:3, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory…” (emphasis added)

It should be the primary prayer of every believer that his glory would be the Lord Himself.

Psalm 5:7, “But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy: and in your fear will I worship toward your holy temple.”

Can we not use this as a template for our attitude in approaching the Lord in his heavenly temple?  When I don’t “feel” like praying it is often because my perception of who the Lord is has gotten skewed.  The Lord showed me this verse that I hope to remember next time that happens.  By first calling to mind the abundant mercy of the Lord we remember his character, not the slanderous deception of it we hold onto.  Furthermore, while we begin to rejoice in remembering his mercy we can remember to have a proper reverent fear of our God.

Posted: September 24th, 2008 under Encouragement, Prayer, Scripture.
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Lynn Kennedy and her husband were already preparing to serve the Lord as missionaries to the people of Burkina Faso when he went home to be with the Lord.  Lynn knew her Lord was calling her to continue in the direction He had been leading them, and she simply said, “Yes, Lord.”

My wife and I had the privilege of hearing sister Lynn speak tonight at our church.  She reminded me of the missionary philosophy of Paul Washer and HeartCry, which, simply stated, is genuine evangelism-centered missions work for no purpose but the further glory of God.

Please take time to view this short video from her ministry’s website, http://shatteringdarkness.org and, should the Lord put it on your heart, support what He is doing through her and Pastor Patrice there among the unreached people groups of West Africa.

Posted: September 21st, 2008 under Testimony, World Missions.
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I just got back from meeting up with some believers who regularly evangelize in Ybor (pronounced “ee-bor”).  Here are a couple of quick stories:

God started the night with some Scientologists on the main corner.  I asked them what happens, should they ever reach “clear” in this life, what happens when they die?  The chief problem is that they will come face to Face with a holy, sovereign, and just God to Whom they will still have to give an account.  Their conscience may be “clear” on earth, but that doesn’t justify them before the Lord.  The discussion starts.  Probably not two minutes later this dude comes up and joins the conversation and starts asking them questions.  At first I think he’s a Christian too since he actually tells me not get ahead on a point he was making.  They refuse to explain even a single tennant of the beliefs except to say a) they’re not a religion (ummm “Church” of Scientology??) and b) come to our offices around the corner and you can watch a movie to learn more.  After their shift leader comes over and refuses to answer questions, they leave.  Meanwhile I’m kinda just relegated to watching all this happen.  The dude turns to me and says, “I don’t believe what you believe at all…but ‘Praise Jesus!’ the corner’s all clear for ya” and he walks away!  Yeah, I’m still scratching my head on that one.

Story 2 – “Bob” is in his early 20’s and dressed in a suit.  He has to be; his job is to get attractive women into the club he works for.  He comes to tell me I’m doing a “good thing” and that, after tonight, he’s quitting the job to be closer to God. ”Seriously?” I ask.  Yup.  I spent the next 20+ minutes trying to get him to walk off the job but he wouldn’t do it.  He was going to get paid $300 at the end of the night.  After about 20+ minutes of telling him that he is serving two masters (well, actually, only one tonight), God has plenty of money to honor his quitting immediately, Jesus commands us to do it, etc. etc. He won’t do it.  In the end, I tell him I would pray that since he doesn’t have the strength to walk away from this God-dishonoring job I would pray that the Lord does it Himself and has him get fired.  Not sure if that was biblical, but God deserves to be obeyed. Period.

Story 3 – I hand a gospel tract to a guy walking by and ask my usual, “Did you get one of these?”  He takes it, looks at (an illustrastion of a bloodied figure, head bowed, on a cross with the words “He Did This For You” on the front); looks me dead in the eye and starts going off about “you people pushing your religion”.  I calmly let him talk a bit and then ask him, “Do you have any spiritual beliefs?”  By now I can tell he’s seething.  He crumples the tract up and puts it in my hand and again talks about “pushing” beliefs.  I say nothing. As he walks away I call out (hoping to get him to come back) “But Sir, you talked more than me!”

I post these things because once you get out and start sharing your faith you will encounter everything.  People believe wholeheartedly in some strange things (by any circumstances); or they’ve been burned by religion/unbiblical Christianity and are still smarting from it; or whatever.  But Jesus is right there and He will give the Holy Spirit to help you.

I like to keep posts to about 200 words, this time I went way over.  Hopefully you found it helpful though.  Thanks for sticking with it.  Go share your faith!

Posted: September 21st, 2008 under Challenge, Evangelism, Getting Started, Gospel Tracts, Testimony, Witness Encounters.
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Did you see this?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/20/hadron.collider.damage.ap/index.html

Incidentally, did you see anything in the news that the super collider was dead *just 36 hours* after it was fired up?! No, you didn’t. That’s partly because the agency that boasted of it with such fanfare (CERN) didn’t announce the thing had broken until two days ago.

As for the thing failing, doesn’t surprise me at all, except for how quickly it did…and now they’ve done let their Lemon Law window close so they’re stuck with the thing.

Men set out to prove a big bang that never happened but Genesis 1:1 still stands. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Psalm 2 sums up how God doesn’t even have to lift a finger to show how foolish the “wisdom” of men is. In this case all He had to do is tell a couple of superconducting magnets to sieze up and they immediately obeyed.  No irreverance intended, but “Go God!” I think that is just the coolest

Dear scientists at CERN, this one’s for you:

Psalm 2
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Posted: September 21st, 2008 under Apologetics, Creation/Evolution, Current Events, Scripture, World Events.
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