Wednesday, September 29, 2010

"Knowing" God Takes Work, Devotion

Last post we talked about how we were created by God with purpose, protection, and also a sense of belonging. This post, however, will address the crummy reality of our current lives living in the "post-fall" world. While we are are still created with a purpose by God, protected by God, and with the desire to belong with other people, we now have to work for our knowledge of God. Let me be clear from the beginning, we do not work for our salvation - we are saved by grace, but we do have to work on our relationship with God. When you look at the relationship Adam had with God prior to the eating of the fruit in the garden, you'll notice an intimate an natural relationship where God and man conversed and walked together in the Garden of Eden.

This is in stark contrast, however, of the relationship Adam and Eve had with God after disobeying the one command God gave them. In reading Genesis 3:8, the immediate response of Adam and Eve upon eating the fruit and hearing God approaching was illogical: they hid from God. Immediately upon the fall of man, Adam and Eve lost some of their knowledge of God. They knew God as creator and omnipotent. They knew that he could not be hidden from, yet they panicked and hid from God, an action that made no sense at all.

Ephesians 4:18 says of mankind, "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Because of our ignorance, we are darkened. We are not born with knowledge of God. Even as we grow up we lack an understanding and knowledge of the true God. We may know some things ABOUT God, but we don't know God. I know a lot ABOUT Tim Tebow, but if I walked up to him tomorrow and said "Hey Tim!" he'd look at me and ask, "Who are you?" Only until we place our faith in Christ can we truly know God, and even then, we have to work to understand Him more. It doesn't happen naturally or by osmosis.

What is my point? Too many Christians sit back and wonder why we don't understand our faith better, or we are lazy and figure salvation is enough for me so why bother trying to understand it better? Knowing God takes devotion, hence the term "devotions." We must be devoted in our study to better understand God. In order to do this, we must be "devoted" to reading our Bibles, and "devoted" to prayer. If you truly want to know God, you have to put in the work. This is a direct consequence of the fall of Adam and Eve. Before the fall, no work was necessary for man to know God. After the fall, the world in which we all live, we must work to know God better. Are you willing to put in the work?

-Pastor Adam

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The "Good Stuff" We Were Created With

This past week in the high school SYMOTA group, we started a series that strives to discover who we are in Christ and what that means for our outlook and perspective on life. The first discussion we engaged in on Sunday dove into how we, as people, were created with significance, security, and with the need for belonging.

A unique feature of human beings is that we were created with a higher responsibility and purpose than the rest of creation. I know that sounds elitist, but the only thing that should be offended is a shrub or a duck. We, as homosapiens, are more significant than all the rest of earthly creation. We know this from Genesis chapter, 1 verse 28, which instructs Adam and Eve to “subdue” the earth. God goes on to tell his first children to “rule” over all of the living creatures. This is an important point because we were not created by chance, meaning we have a purpose to our lives. Every one of us has a reason for being here. God doesn’t make accidents, so when He made you; he made you for a significant reason. Plants and animals were created to offer God glory through their appearance, complexity, and beauty, but when all is said and done, their mission in life is to exist. Ours is not merely to exist. It is to accomplish great things for God.

As God’s children, we are also covered by a heavenly security blanket. We first see this in Adam and Eve as well. In Genesis 1:29, we read about how God provided for all of their needs in the garden. Even after their fall, God provided for them by fashioning clothes for them before banishing them from the Garden (Gen. 3:21). This promise of provision has not changed. Jesus reiterates this promise in Matthew 6:25-34, in which he urges his listeners to quit worrying about their physical needs, as God knows what they need and will provide for their needs. Paul reminds us as well in Philippians 4:19 that God provides according to His will. This is a significant concept that many of us fail to grasp. First of all, we need to rely more on God and less on ourselves. (This does not, however, mean to quit your job and just wait for God’s provision. His provision may be through the job he has provided for you!) Secondly, we must prioritize what a need is in our lives. Do we need cable television or a Wii? We often behave as if we do.

Finally, we also learned that God created us to live in a community with one another. Our lives, and our faiths, are not meant to be alone. Harkening back to Adam and Eve once more, we see this in God providing a wife for Adam, stating “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). I will venture to say that God would also say, “It is not good for woman to be alone” either. I say this because our faith is not meant to be practiced in solitude. Not everyone is meant to be married, but everyone is meant to have relationships. The church, our Christian brothers and sisters, as well as the non-believing friends we witness to, all fill a need that God intended us to have – a need for companionship. This includes our fellowship as believers. Hebrews 10:25 warns us to not give up meeting together. Our faith, and our lives, were meant to be spent with others. We must avoid the temptation of holing up by ourselves and shutting the world out. Make an effort to find a good support system of believers whom you can trust to rejoice with, pray with, and be held accountable by.

Next week’s topic is the “bad stuff” of our nature that led to the fall of Adam and Eve, and what that means for us believers.

Till then,
Adam

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Be Known For What What You Do.

Last week kicked off a new season of our SYMOTA youth group for 2010-2011. My goal this year is to blog each week about the topic (or topics) we talk about at youth group that week. This past Sunday we challenged the teens to be known this year for the things they do, and not for what they don’t do. In other words, don’t be known for what you don’t do; don’t be known as the kid that doesn’t drink, or doesn’t smoke, or doesn’t have sex. Our aspirations should be greater than just the kid who abstains. We, as believers, should be known for the great things that we are doing for Christ, and not the great accomplishments we may get on the sports field, in the classroom, or in music. We should be known for helping others, regardless of their appearance, ethnicity, or interests. We should be known as people who sacrifice personal comfort for the benefit of someone else. We should be known as people willing to listen to the problems of others. We should be known for our faith being lived out in action. Our physical accomplishments are not bad, especially if provide us an opportunity to praise God and bring people’s attention on Him, but we must be careful to not set our goals to be physical accomplishments as they all stay here on earth when we perish.

We see this happen in both Colossae and Ephesus. In the opening verses of both Colossians and Ephesians we see that Paul, while stuck in prison, hears about the faith of the believers in Colossae and Ephesus and commends them for it (Ephesians 1:15-21 and Colossians 1:3-14). The account in Colossians gives details of Paul’s expectations for the continual good works of the believers there. In Colossians 1: 9-13, Paul instructs the believers he is praising to continue to become as knowledgeable as possible, to endure, to have patience, to be joyful while giving thanks, and to bear fruit. What type of fruit should we bear? Galatians 5:16-24 offers us two types of fruit, the good and the sour. You know the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As you examine your life, how are you doing with bearing and displaying the good fruit? It cannot be just a display, but a genuine effort to exude the fruits of the spirit. For when we do, we may draw some to Christ.

It is interesting that the fruit of the spirit passage is found in Galatians, as Galatians is written as a bit of a tongue lashing to the Galatian believers who were known for something as well. They were known for being easily swayed from their faith by false teachers (Galatians 1:6-10). Paul writes the letter of Galatians to remind those in the church there to return to a gospel of Grace and not be swayed by false teachers. Paul also warns them to avoid a whole myriad of negative behaviors prevalent around them (5:19-21). Unfortunately many Christian teens today become known by their peers for many negative behaviors instead of for bearing the fruit of the Spirit.

My challenge to all of you is to be known for doing great things for God, not for negative behaviors, or being the person who abstains from everything. It may not be popular, but it is what we are called to do, and it will have an impact for the Gospel upon those around you.

-Pastor Adam