How we see the world

 

Lord give me your eyes...

We don't see the world the way God does, or for that matter even the way he intended we see it.  We see the world through a lense that distorts things based on our experiences.  We see hate and fear where God sees hope and love...

Take for example the sad event of Trayvon Martin.  If George Zimmerman had been able to see an unobstructed view of the world, not tempered by his fear and bias, Trayvon would still be alive and with his parents.  If the police that responded could see clearly... we could go on and on...

We cannot escape our experiences though, and they do shape us.  If we are raped by a black man, we will likely be fearful of other black men.  If we were abused by an older women, we may harbor anger toward older women.  If we always see bad news about religious zealots, we may have a negative view of religion.  This is part of how the world shapes us.

So how do we overcome this?  After all, it is just part of our human nature.

The only answer is by turning to God... Asking to please see the world through his eyes.

How distorted is your view?

How has your past changed the way you see the world?

How do you keep this from negatively affecting your view?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In 1726, St. Patrick used a three leaf clover to demonstrate the Holy Trinity, the three distinct parts of God in one.  What a great object lesson, almost like God himself had placed a  clue there waiting for us to find.

How many times does this sort of thing happen? How many times do these clues, that may help further our relationship with God, go unnoticed?

What things do you see in your surrounding that remind you of aspects of God?

How can we use the things around us to help others understand God and his love for us?

Please Rescue Me

Falling on my knees in worship

Giving all I am to seek your face

Lord all I am is yours

My whole life

I place in your hands

God of Mercy

Humbled I bow down

In your presence at your throne

I called you answered

And you came to my rescue and I

I wanna be where you are

In my life be lifted high

In our world be lifted high

In our love be lifted high

- Written by Hillsong United  

- Performed by Aaron Gillespie

Sometimes we need rescued.  During this season of Lent as we prepare to remember the sacrifice Christ made for each of us, let us all remember, that if we need rescued... He is there.

Every year I play out the Jesus Christ's life story in my head as we go through the holidays.  At Christmas time we celebrate the amazing birth of our Savior.  I like to think of this as the part of the movie where the world doesn't even know that it is going to need a hero.  There is always plenty of joy and celebrating.  As we approach Lent, this is when we start to see the gritty dark parts of the story.  Things are starting to fall apart.  And the Good Friday comes and it is a dark and stormy day and the hero dies to save us even though we are undeserving and some of us even condemn him.  None the less, he dies for all of us.  Then Easter arrives and the hero concurs death.  Amazing.

So during this time of year, when I'm remembering the broken world that sent Jesus to the cross, how am I broken?

How do I need rescued?  Am I placing my whole life in His hands?

Sinner

What is a sin?
How do you define sin?
How does the Bible define sin?
Are some sins worse than others?

If you start looking for answers to questions like this on the internet, you see lots of different view points.  You will find some people that are trying to reason if being homosexual (and discussing if that is a sin) is less of a sin than killing someone.  You will find lots of verses in the Bible that talk about sin.  First let's try to define what sin is.

If you look the word up in the dictionary you will find that sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.  I define sin in a much broader manner.  Sin is anything that goes against the will of God.

So once you dig through what sin is and are left with discussion after discussion trying to rank sins you realize that the Bible does not give us an all inclusive list of what sins there are and which ones are the worst, and maybe some others that aren't that bad.

What you will find if you keep searching for answers in the Bible is that we are assured that we are all sinners.

FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD - Romans 3:23

If you are reading this, you are a sinner.  If you never read this, you are a sinner. But, keep reading...

YET GOD, WITH UNDESERVED KINDNESS, DECLARES THAT WE ARE RIGHTEOUS. HE DID THIS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS WHEN HE FREED US FROM THE PENALTY FOR OUR SINS - Romans 3:24

Yes, God sent his son to pay for your sins and set things right.  Even though none of us deserve this grace, we all receive it if we believe in the Lord.  It doesn't matter which sins you have committed, or how you rank them, or if you rank them.  You have been given the same gift that the sinner next to you has been given.

God love each and every one of us with the same unconditional love, so do you really think it matters to figure out which sins are worse than others???

If God is love...

If God is love, why did he kick Satan out of heaven?

This was the question Dylan came up with last week...

My first thought was wow, how do you answer that? Then as I thought a little, I realized that God never stopped loving Satan. He simply realized that if Satan stayed in heaven that he would have destroyed it. So, while he stilled loved Satan, God knew he had to get him put of heaven.

This is an important point for us to remember. Sometimes love is tough. When we find ourselves asking things like why does God allow pain? Maybe there is a reason... Maybe we are seeing tough love...

We don't always understand God's actions (or inactions), but God always loves us.

Have you seen or experienced God's tough love?

What would God look like to reach you?

If God was tyring to get your attention by showing up in your life, or by placing someone in your life, what would he look like?

In William P. Young's book, The Shack, the main character had a rocky relationship with his father, so God appears to him as an old woman. This made him much more receptive to what God had to say.

Or in the TV show Touched By An Angel, different characters were met by different angels. Some women, some men, some young, some old. They always seemed to know which one would be the right one to reach the person they were trying to help.

So if God needed to get you to listen to him, what would he look like? Who would he be?