God's wonderful plan

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" Simplistic, or true? True, if we understand that the wonderful plan is not to get the things we want, or to be free from trouble, but to grow in character. Jeremiah 29:11 is a well known promise: "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." The context is God telling the people not to listen to the false prophets predicting pleasant circumstances. God's plan to prosper his people at that point involve going to Babylon for 70 years of exile. This will be good, not evil, because God will be with them in exile, and they will learn to walk more closely with him. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." So let us not assume God is not with us when life is difficult.

More than we can ask or think

This line comes from one of my wife's favorite verses.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Ephesians 3:20

This verse has bugged me at times, because while God is able to do far more than I ask or think, I've felt like he frequently does much less than I ask for. I've come to understand that while his power can instantly resolve any problem, his wisdom usually opts for demonstrating I can trust him even as the problem persists.

An earlier post about wisdom and power.

What about my dream?

O Lord, you know my dream. You know how much it is a part of me. And yet I have no guarantee it will come true. What shall I do? I must admit I don't deserve to have this dream come true. I cannot be sure that having it come true will make me a better person or will bring your kingdom closer. But it is a part of me, and you do not condemn me for it, for you are gracious and merciful to the longings of my heart. You may well want to give me this dream that I know anew your goodness. Yet you may well want to show me your goodness and your ability to encourage me without fulfilling my dream. Do what you will. Lord, help me trust you with this dream. Help me to remember whether you choose to make it come true or not, you are ever with me. When your kingdom comes in all its fullness, that will be the best possible fulfillment of all our dreams, the ones that really matter.

Honesty of a worship leader

I just read a blog post by a worship leader that challenges my self-righteousness. I think of myself as a "mature ordinary Christian" who would never say any of those foolish things that worship leaders sometimes say. My least favorite thing, when the worship leader says "Good morning", then judges our response too feeble and says "Let's try that again." As if the problem of apathy of heart goes away as soon as we say "Good morning" or "Amen" adequately loud. His closing statement of what worship ought to be and how it just is not natural for any of us without God's grace is a good one:

At the end of the day, regardless of what side of the microphone we're on, we're all suffering from varying degrees of misdirection, and in desperate need of re-direction. We all come to church on Sunday faced with the dilemma of who we've been worshiping and whose kingdom we've been building all week. It's that humble truth that causes me to once again remember what I'm called to do this morning: magnify the name of Christ, confess our desperate need for him, and sing the truths of the gospel with people who are far too consumed with themselves. Like me.

All I've done is feed the fish

This morning, I stumbled across a blog in Portuguese, which Google translated for me, and I found it inspiring. The 21st century does have its good points. What Google and I think he's saying: Come fish with me in my lake. The lake isn't mine, God gave it to me. The fish aren't mine, God gave me them, too. All I've done is feed the fish. This reminds me of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians.

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

All we have, whether it is our "natural" gifts, talents and skills, things we've had to labor to attain or perfect, or things we just "lucked" into, are gifts from God. They aren't inalienably mine. All I've done is receive them. Like Senhor Campo says, all I've done is feed the fish. The original: http://arrazmaz.blogspot.com/2011/08/venha-pescar-comigo.html The translated version: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Farrazmaz.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fvenha-pescar-comigo.html

Lamenting in hope

I woke up yesterday morning thinking about Lamentations.
What was the secret that kept Jeremiah believing, when all around him was destroyed?
He kept his hope in the Lord, despite the destruction and conquest of all he knew.

I see a key idea in verses 19-23, his great statement of hope.

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope.
Because of the Lord's great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:19-23

Jeremiah doesn't pretend that he's not upset about what has happened. He lays his pain out before God. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall The book is indeed a lament, mourning the disaster that has come. But he reminds himself of God's great love and compassion.

What I take as a principle: Lament in hope.
Lament: don't pretend all is well, don't hide your emotions
in Hope: as you pour your heart out to God, trust that he is still with you no matter how bad it feels.

Have I learned to do this myself? Not yet, I still struggle.

Real Wisdom

Wisdom does not mean being so smart you won't be surprised by life. No one is that smart.

Wisdom means knowing who God is and knowing who you are, so that when the unexpected comes, you know how to cope.

This was inspired by a post by Paul Tripp, Prepared Spontaneity (Mon Aug 22nd).

I also like this quote from his "About Me" text.

We believe it is not enough to believe in life after death, we believe in real hope of life before death. We believe in real hope of personal growth and change. We believe in real hope of community and institutional change. Why? Because we believe in the transforming power of Jesus Christ.