What is Your God Worth?

While visiting Cancun, Mexico in January, we traveled to the ancient ruins of Tulum. After looking at the entrance to the inner city and walking past crumbled domiciles, our guide stopped in front of the temple, looked across the group and singled out our 11-year-old daughter. He motioned her to the front of the group so he could demonstrate the Aztecs annual sacrifice. We refused. As he explained the horrible, pagan ritual, we were struck by their reasoning: their gods deserved the best so that is what they gave--their young, virgin daughters.
We cringe and shudder at the thought.  They probably did, too--those who hadn't grown calloused.
How very different is our God! 

"Thus says the Lord: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place… the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever” and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord” (Jeremiah 33:12-11).

I was reminded of our visit to Tulum as I read the book of Nehemiah. The people of Judah left homes they'd lived in for nearly 70 years. They traveled to Jerusalem, worked to build a wall around the city, and settled into new homes and lifestyles. After the completion of the wall, they stood for hours, listening to the Word of God--and responded with confession and obedience. The reality of God and His true nature affected worship and honor. 
Show me your worship and I will show you your God. Follow the money. Follow the affection. Follow the time. Follow the focus of your conversation. Follow your thoughts. "Behold, your god!" 
Our worship reveals our god.
How easily we slip in and out of the pew on Sunday with no thought to how we reflected God's worth. Did we come in our best? Or did we simply crawl out of bed? Did we offer something costly? What was expected? Or nothing at all. Did we stand for the reading of the Holy Word, or distract ourselves with the mundane? How awful to think that we, like the Aztecs, would make abominable sacrifices because we do not know our God; that we would provoke His wrath rather than His pleasure because we lack an awesome fear and reverence for God. To think that we might enter the King's presence dressed in our own filthy righteous rags rather than the royal robe provided through the death and resurrection of His only Son! By faith we have access to the throne room of the Father, with bold confidence and thanksgiving.
Worship and rejoicing and giving result from knowledge. Knowledge of The Holy. What does your worship say about your God? Need God? Read His Word. And, perhaps for the first time in a long time, you will experience the scent of your carpet, the feel of the ground, as you fall on your face--a living sacrifice, the giving of your life, a reasonable act of worship.

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" Romans 11:31-12:2.

"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise" Psalm 51:16-17.
 

When I Am Loved...

When life is meaningless and has no purpose, morality is lost. There is little reason to preserve or extend it--yours, mine or others. 
When life is hopeless and dark and callous, motivation comes in the form of pleasure and self. "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!"
When life is empty and hard and lonely, it is impossible to put one's feet on the ground and move into the day.
But God.
Loves.
But God.
Gave.
But God.
Calls.
How does one see the love of God when he is dead? He doesn't. How does one accept the extension of God's hand when he is blind? He can't. How does one hear the call of God when he is deaf? He won't.
But. God.
For you He made alive--you who were dead in trespasses and sins  Alive. Are you alive, though once you were dead? Or are you still searching, listening, longing?
Cry out. Look to Jesus. Ask--to see Him, to know Him, to understand. Throw yourself on His mercy. And then...
Then, accept. Take the gift. Follow His voice.
You will have life. You will find peace. You will see as never before. You will walk on a different plane.
For where there is Love--the true, sacrificial, undeniable love of God--we are filled to the fullness of Christ.
Where there is Love, we walk with humility, gentleness and patience, preserving unity.
Where there is Love we are no longer tossed and driven by words, circumstances and deceit.  We are confident that He who called us is faithful, who also will do it.   
Where there is Love, we see the futility, the emptiness of life without Him, of life without a purpose.  And we rejoice in hope. We are filled with purpose.  We are alive.  And life is meant to be lived. In a very real sense, we experience the resurrection each day, with each confession of sin, with each glimpse at what used to matter, with each acknowledgement of our dependence on Almighty God.  We live.
Because of Love.
"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:14-21).


((Ephesians 2:5) (Ephesians 3:16-19) (Ephesians 4:1-3) (Ephesians 4:11-15) (1Thessalonians 5:24)

Do You Really Want to See Jesus?

Most of the time, if we admit it, we are quite content with life--when it moves according to our routines and preferences. We settle in: coffee and a shower, personal time and a place to realign before leaving home, anticipated schedules and people and movement throughout the day. We're people. Routine gives us a sense of security and control.

But then God shakes our world. He has always been there, but in this moment we have the opportunity to see Him; to become aware.  Aware of His presence.  Aware of the need to be aware of His presence.  And we are faced with a choice: to bow the knee or refuse, to forgive or bear a grudge, to listen or harden the heart.  Not to obey is to disobey. Not to love is to hate.  Not to forgive is to grow bitter.

Mary, who loved Jesus, who poured out her offering with tears at His feet, thought all was lost.  And she became more aware, in an even deeper way than before, of her need.  She had desperately needed forgiveness and it was granted. Her belief and worship opened the Door from darkness to light. But now, now that she was forgiven, she needed Him, needed Jesus, daily. She longed for Him, looked for Him, sought Him.

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

And why, do we, the forgiven, seek Jesus among the dead? Among the busyness of ministry, the baubles of society, the adrenaline of sports and power and fame? 

"He is not here, He is risen as He said.  Come see the place where He lay."

Have we looked at the empty place?  Have we gazed on the stained, bloodied linen; our sin dried out, soaked up, left behind, folded up, laid aside, our debt paid in full? Have we seen the resurrected Christ, living victoriously, gloriously, the standard of faith waving on the breeze as He rides before us?

We have a choice. We can follow in step, our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith or we can sit in the darkened tomb and wrap ourselves in the sin He cast aside. To take on ourselves that which He has left behind is no faith at all.  "For let not that man (the one who doubts) suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-7).

If we truly want to see Jesus, we must leave the tomb. We must leave behind the desire to wallow in our sin, our past, our failure, and follow Christ.

To see Jesus is to turn from sin and seek Him; prayerfully, desperately read His Word. Ask questions, bow at His feet, pour out our hearts, confess our sin and wait upon Him. As He speaks we will suddenly find that life is not about us, that people do not deserve the credit we give them for the good or the bad, but that He is. He is the Creator, the Sustainer; He is before all things and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).

Do you really want to see Jesus? If you look for Him, you will find Him. If you know Him, you will share Him; for we cannot know Him and keep silent.

"'He is not dead, for He has risen just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.  Go quickly and tell His disciples...'  And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy.
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen" (Matthew 28:6,8,18-20).