Blog
Monday, August 31, 2020
“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” —Acts 17:27-28
In Acts 17, the apostle Paul arrives in the city of Athens. While waiting in Athens for the arrival of some co-workers, Paul observes the religious practices of the city’s people. Paul is on a mission from God, so naturally he decides to spend time in both the local synagogue and marketplace, trying to persuade anyone who’ll listen of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ: that there is one God who is Lord over the whole earth and desires a relationship with each and every one of us through the work of his Son.
Eventually, Paul is invited to an elite philosophical forum. While speaking to this group, he contrasts the true God who made all of us with false “gods” built by human hands. Paul quotes Greek philosophers who, despite not yet knowing the one true God, spoke wise words about our relationship to God. Idols (things we pretend are God) are always our own creation. By contrast, the true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, made each of us and all that we know. He is the creator, and we are his creation. Our lives are his handiwork.
There’s a lot going on in this story of Paul’s time in Athens. For today though, let’s keep it simple: You have life because God has given you life. When you move, you move in God’s world with the body God has given you. Your very being is the product of God’s intentional act to create a world. And God created that world so that he could love that world.
You are not alone. You’re not disconnected from the source of life. You’re not an accident. God is not far from you. You are you because God wants you to be you. You are his child, a claimed, beloved child of the one true God and King.
So today, let’s live like it. Let’s remember that every move we make, we make as God’s children. “In him we live and move and have our being.”
Friday, August 28, 2020
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you. —Psalm 63:1
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me.” —John 7:37
In grade school, when my class would come in from recess on a hot day, we’d stop at the water fountain before heading back to the classroom. After putting all we had into climbing on monkey bars, playing freeze tag, and racing each other on the black top, we’d pour back into the school building and discover we were all desperately thirsty. I remember reaching the front of the line at the water fountain and feeling like I could drink forever and never get enough. And because we all felt that way, each kid had a five-second limit, or else we’d be there till the afternoon bell rang. As the kid behind me would count 1…2…3…4…5, I’d gulp down as much water as I could, each second precious and wonderful. Somehow this post-recess water was always cooler, sweeter, and more satisfying than anything else, and we couldn’t get enough of it.
I love when the Bible taps into our physical sensations to help us understand God. Today’s passages invite us to access our experience of thirst. Take a moment to recall what it feels like to be very thirsty. Now take a moment to recall how deeply satisfying it is to quench that kind of thirst with a generous sip of fresh water. This is the kind of interaction that occurs between our spirit and God. When Jesus invites all who are thirsty to come to him, we are reminded that he is essential for our survival. We are reminded that drawing closer to him is sweeter and more satisfying that anything else.
Consider your current state of spiritual thirst. Perhaps, you’re staying hydrated: turning to God with regularity, steadily bringing God your needs and concerns, relying on Scripture routinely to sustain you, getting your spiritual 6-8 glasses a day. Perhaps, you’re like a child on the playground, running around getting thirstier by the minute without even knowing it, and only understanding just how parched you are when you stop and take stock. Maybe your thirst has grown gradually; you’re not especially uncomfortable yet, but you know that soon you will be, if you don’t stop and hydrate. Or perhaps you’ve recently taken a sip, and that cool rush you feel when it hits your belly lets you know just how badly you needed it. Or maybe you know perfectly well that you’re thirsty, but you keep drinking coffee and eating salty food, all the time aware that it’s time to pour yourself a tall glass of what your spirit really needs. How would you describe your current awareness of your own spiritual thirst, and how are you responding to it? How would you like to respond to it?
The fact is, sometimes we’re like the psalmist and we recognize our thirst. At other times, we ignore it or forget about it or try to satisfy it with things that only make us thirstier. But Jesus’ ability to quench our thirst always stands. Whether you can feel your soul’s thirst or not, these passages remind us that we need Jesus on a regular and ongoing basis in order to keep our souls healthy and hydrated. Only Jesus can provide that kind of life-giving, life-sustaining refreshment. And this goodness is to be enjoyed and shared generously for the well being of us all.
As you go through this day, consider turning your own encounters with thirst and water into acts of prayer. Each time your body feels thirsty, meditate on your soul’s need for God. And each time you quench that thirst with a sip of water, meditate on how God is the one who satisfies and sustains you.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
You have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:24-25
We all know what it feels like to want to be forgiven by someone. You’ve probably even had a time where you wanted to be forgiven so badly that you got angry at someone for their refusal to forgive you! It’s funny how quickly we forget this when we’re the ones who have been hurt. I’m sure we all have times where we are embarrassed about how angry we got about something or how we let a simple misunderstanding snowball into a bigger deal that it ever should have been.
But we also have relationships where extending forgiveness really takes work. Where the wrong that was done to us cut too deep, became too frequent, or was simply too painful. Where we aren’t even ready to want to forgive let alone extend forgiveness. When I think about those times in my life I feel convicted by, and grateful for, the words God speaks in today’s verses.
In Isaiah we read that God is pained by the fact that he’s given so much and the one thing he’s asked for in return, the love and trust of God’s people, they haven’t really even tried to do. God says, that this is a burden to him. In effect, the weight of the world’s sin, those things we do that pain God (and then sometimes blame God for), become God’s responsibility to forgive. God, who has done nothing wrong, is the one who has to do all the heavy lifting to repair the relationship. As one theologian puts it, in these verses “we sense the cross that God is already carrying.”
Recognizing then that God had taken it upon Godself to repair this relationship with us, may you go through today, forgiving as you have been forgiven and loving others as you are loved.
