Self-help or God-help (Followed by a Note on Why Look to the Bible)

What is the power of humanity?

What is the result of our greatest thoughts? Atom bombs - destruction

What are the highest aspirations of our people? World power - Riches and Fame - Comfort - Pleasure

Is this the pinnacle of human thought? Is this the best we can do?

Yes, it is.

Man's ideas lead to Concentration Camps, Empty pursuits, and Selfish behavior at the expense of others.

And yet we want to look to man to save our souls. Be a better you! Think Positive!
What you need is a self-help seminar....more human wisdom and human ideas.

You need to puff yourself up in pride and in your abilities.

Yet you can't control tomorrow, you are gone with the wind, everything we so cherish is gone with the wind. What kind of trust do you place on sinking sand that washes away? Who would build on sinking sand? Who would base a life on dust in the wind?

As we step into eternity, money rots, fame is worthless, and human power is confronted with true power in our maker.

But yet, they say all you need to do is dig down deep and be a better person. This is the height of human wisdom. On what do we base this confidence in human wisdom? Because it has worked so well and because we seem to do such good things based on our human understandings?

The greatest empire on the planet today - what is so great - its guns, its bombs? Its wide-spread sexual perversion? Its do whatever it takes to get rich upon the shoulders of the poor and expendable? Idolizing of celebrities who offer us no character, no righteousness, no role models for young peole to look up to? And yet we reward them more than any other in our society?

How promising a prospect is it to look to the same wisdom of humanity on how to save himself? How hopeless a thought, that man can save himself? How ridiculous!

Even the church is chiming in on self-help. The faith becomes so watered down that God has no place in it. The faith is presented as all about us, all about what we get, all about what we do - empty of God. It becomes selfish. It becomes nothing more than self-fulfillment, how to have the best marriage, how to have joy, how to have peace in life, how to be a good person, how to live the life you've always wanted.

Thats not Biblical. Biblical faith is not focused on man - it is focused on God and what He is doing with man!

Biblical faith points to man's need for help outside himself. Man's inability to do anything that will stand. Man's wickedness cries out in the Bible and as we look around today. Even though the world will call sin good, sin is always evil and we reap what we sow.

Man needs help. A help found in God. We need God-help, not self-help. A help from God stepping down from heaven to take on flesh in Jesus Christ. To do for us on our behalf what none of us could do on our own.

We are totally dependent upon Christ. Upon the Cross. The Cross is the place our wickedness receives its due. And we receive forgiveness by Christ, not because we deserved it - by no means. It is the gift and goodness of God toward us.

And as Christ was risen by the power of God from the dead, He reigns today - forever. And He has begun to raise us to new life, as we accept the Cross of Christ, realizing what He has offered to us - salvation from our wickedness and our inability to free ourselves from our own follies - we accept His help and receive the Holy Spirit. In God's power, we walk in newness of life. We walk in a life of obedience to God, obedience to His Biblical revelation given to us, dependent on Him and no longer in rebellion against Him. It is His doing, His power, His intervention, His guiding, His new creation. A journey onward with God perfected as we enter glory prepared for life ever-lasting.

I am afraid for a people that tries to depend so much on man - and refuses to look to God. The answers to our questions, failures, brokenness is not found in ourselves, our help is only found in God.

And if you come to God for help, don't come to be a better you, don't come because you want a better life, if you come to Him, come to Him because He is worthy, come because you're desperate for the Living God, come because you know you need Him. Come because this world is empty without Him and He is everything. Come to him to die to yourself. Allow Him to rebuild you in His ways, in His plan, not looking to get His help in what your plans are - NO - looking to burn your plans and receive His in their place. A total rejection of trust in yourself, a total rejection of your wisdom, a total rejection of what you thought was good, or what you thought life was about - a death to self. Trust God as the answer, for the plan, for whats good, for what your life should be about. Because you desperately see that nothing in you can be trusted - only God is to be trusted. Its about Him and His willingness to show us!

Who are you counting on for eternity?
Yourself, what you've done.
Don't count on yourself and your goodness built on your own efforts, count on God.
What reason do you have to trust yourself? What have you done to prove yourself capable of creating your own tailored-plan of salvation?
We are hopeless in ourselves. This is the clear declaration of history. A history of human wickedness and rebellion against God and the result of sinful choices flowing from generation to generation.
Find your sole salvation in God and God alone - in His finished work on the Cross - in His promises to you found in the Bible.

Why the Bible:

Because over 40 men were inspired by God to write His story for us. Because over a 1,500 year time period these men were all coordinated to produce one consistent theme throughout the Bible. The need for Jesus Christ, Man's inability to do right without God, and God's passion to reach out to a rebellious mankind.

Because there is no other book that has such a large testimony of God's inspiration. Because you don't have to take my word for it, or the word of just one man who says he had an experience with God and expects us to believe it. Because over 40 men who didn't know each other over 1500 years were led to testify to the very same God and this God's plan for His creation.

Because a dozen men witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ first hand, because over 500 saw Him risen from death. Because in any court of law, this many first-hand witnesses would be enough to make a decision. Because Christianity is founded on historical realities, concrete realities. Jesus is a historical fact and the power of the Cross stands forever. Pointing to us the only way of man's salvation found in God stepping down from heaven to take the suffering sin deserved and His promise to forgive us in accepting what He has done in our place.

Not self-help, God-help.

misundertood word: gospel

When you hear the word gospel, what do you think of?

It is the most important part of the Christian faith. Do we know it?

Gospel literally means, good news.

Why don't we just say good news...? Maybe then it won't sound like such a foreign concept to people who have never heard the word gospel.

Good news.

We all like good news.

Good news, even though we have all messed up and done bad things in our lives, God wanted to provide a way to cover all our bad choices and remove them from his sight. He did this by coming in the flesh as Jesus Christ, and took on the penalty, Himself, for all of our bad decisions. God chose to do this for us. God chose to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. None of us deserved it. None of us earned any favor with God. It was a free gift given by God, the same God who gave us life in our mother's womb.

Good news of a forgiven past.

It is belief in the good news that can purify a heart, after all Jesus loved you enough to die for you. It is belief in the good news that can cleanse a conscience, after all it was all of your wrong choices that required Jesus to be crucified. It is belief in the good news that can break through idle talk, after all there is a world that needs to feel the good news. The good news brings our dead souls to life. Fully alive, in God.

Good news! You have been forgiven, so forgive others. Good news! You have been helped, so stop and help others. Good news! You have been loved by the greatest lover of everything that exists, so love others.

Observations from 1 Tim 6:11-21

God alone possess immortality.
He was in the beginning, He is now, and He will be in the future.

God dwells in inapproachable light.
Just as light removes darkness,
God's presence cannot stand spiritual darkness.
Just as light pierces the dark,
God's truth pierces our consciences and illuminates the true path.
God's light is inapproachable, His goodness is beyond our highest thoughts of Good, His goodness is blinding to our eyes,
eyes that are used to and grow accustomed to darkness.

God gives life to all things.
God gives, its his nature.
He is a giver and generous with what He gives to us.
He gives the most precious of gifts, life.
Not because He had to, because He chose to.

God is the only sovereign.
There is only one King.
Every person who thinks they rule anything by a title or by force,
they are deceived.
There is only one who truly rules over this universe and this Earth.

So believer in God,
pursue righteousness (v. 11).
righteousness: being as we ought to be; the condition acceptable to God
Be full of integrity, virtue, purity of life, and seek correctness of thinking and acting.

Be who God made you to be.

Battle in the Mind

If one is seeking to reform their thought life, where does one begin? How does one do it?

If there are thought patterns that make me cringe when Im looking into the eyes of my Creator, when I look upon His holiness and His righteousness in His Word, then what can I do about it?
How can I defame God by thinking of things that are so worthless and unholy in His sight and then think about Him?

Are we destined to accept failure? Is it acceptable to chalk it up to: "its just human nature; there is nothing I can do about it?"

Or should we choose to think more about God?

What do I mean by think more about God? Like a greater quantity or a greater quality? Both.

First of all, we could work on quality. Pick up a copy of Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy. Then, think about the characteristics of Who God is (His Attributes). Or Pick up a Basic Theology book like: The Faith Once for All by Jack Cottrell. I know this ones a big book, but spend time on just reading and reflecting on God's attributes.

When you start contemplating things like eternity, like infinite love, infinite mercy, infinite holiness, unlimited power, the ability to be everywhere all the time, perfect justice, goodness, and grace, it is inevitable that the thought-life improve. Not to mention the prayer-life. After all, how we think about God matters.

After you exhaust some of God's attributes, you could study some of His primary works: Creation, Providence, and Redemption.

You could spend time studying God's providential work in every person's life all the time throughout history and forever and the wonder of it all.

Or you could spend time studying creation and how God created things out of nothing, that before anything was, God was. That God is totally immaterial and not even on the same plane as angels or other immaterial spirits.

Or you could spend time studying the God-Man Jesus Christ Himself and redemption. Equally human and equally divine. Able to sin and yet not ever choosing it. Sinless perfection choosing the Cross to infinitely cover the infinite punishment which sin calls for. Being God in the flesh only He could infinitely suffer to cover over all sin by one act of sacrifice.

Look, the better the quality one's thoughts of God are, the better the alternative of things to think about someone has. Unless our thoughts attempt to reach as far as our finite minds can reach when approaching God, we are probably not really thinking about God. Think about it, God is infinite and we are finite. By very definition of terms we are incapable of fully grasping something that is infinite by using a finite brain. But this very act gives us something truly worthy to contemplate that can help us not think about things which are truly not worthy.

If we wish to take away or change old thought patterns, you better have something better to fill it with. God is better.

Secondly, quantity matters. Regularity matters. You can't starve yourself of worthy contemplation or you will find something else to contemplate. If we aren't centered on God, we will center somewhere else.

It seems that if the quality of thoughts improves, the quantity won't be far behind. If the quality is better, watch out, you will find yourself enjoying entering into contemplation of God (Which is a form of prayer).

Know Him

He is infinite . . .
His love is never-ending,
His presence is all surrounding,
His mercy is limitless,
His blessings continual,
His grace extends forever,
His power cannot be measured,
His wisdom is matchless.

He is always watching,
Always around.
Always hoping,
Always willing,
Always listening.

He enjoys creating and giving.
He enjoys giving life,
to you and I

He is worthy:

He is Everything.
Oh, how I wish to give Him something!
I wish I had something to give Him,
But I have nothing,
I am poor.
I have nothing.
Nothing, but what He himself gave me,
My life, my being, my person.
This I gladfully wish to give back to Him.
That I might in some way give Him the praise
He so rightfully deserves.

But it seems He won't let me do this.
As I attempt to turn myself over,
As I attempt to lay down my life,
He keeps giving
and giving.
I keep receiving,
deeper,
better,
peace,
blessing,
love,
joy.

But I thought I was dying to self?
I thought I was embracing a cross?
I thought duty meant boring.
I thought discipline meant mean.
I thought repentance meant no more fun.
Apparently, I didn't know whats going on here.
Apparently, God is not one to be out-given.
Apparently, God has something better in mind
than what my human reasoning would lead me
to believe about life with God;
He confirms that life with Him is life-giving,
easy,
and wonderful.

No matter how much I desire to give to You,
I stand at your mercy while You give as you please.
I stand with tears of joy bursting from my eyes
for the wonders of which you pour upon me.
I stand naked as you clothe me with treasures of
infinite worth.

I am left to cry out in my utter poverty:

"You are God Almighty,
and I have felt your love.
It is beyond the power of
my words to express what it
means to me."