God is God: I Am Not!
04/08/2007 Filed in: The Paradox of Our Time
God is God: I Am Not!
Psalm 43
Psalm 43:1-5 (NIV): Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men. [2] You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?[3] Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. [4] Then will I go to the altar of God, o God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. [5] Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Choose spiritual beliefs wisely.
It hurts more to have a belief pulled than to have a tooth pulled, and no intellectual Novocain is available.
"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand." Augustine.
Exodus 16:1-3 (NIV): The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. [2] In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. [3] The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Correctly craft your image of God.
Courageously change your approach to God.
Philip. 3:7-11 (NLT): I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. [8] Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ [9] and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. [10] As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, [11] so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!
Psalm 43
Psalm 43:1-5 (NIV): Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men. [2] You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?[3] Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. [4] Then will I go to the altar of God, o God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. [5] Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Choose spiritual beliefs wisely.
It hurts more to have a belief pulled than to have a tooth pulled, and no intellectual Novocain is available.
"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand." Augustine.
Exodus 16:1-3 (NIV): The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. [2] In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. [3] The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
- Retreat: Go back and starve
- Remain: Do nothing and die
- Realize: God is God; I am not!
- Risk: Take the chance and surrender
Correctly craft your image of God.
- God knows all about your situation (Psalm 56:8)
- God cares about your situation (Psalm 103:13-14)
- God can change your situation (Luke 18:27)
Courageously change your approach to God.
- God formulated his strategy by giving His best
- God desires your best effort (Romans 12:1, The Message)
- God rewards your best effort (Eph. 3:20)
Philip. 3:7-11 (NLT): I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. [8] Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ [9] and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. [10] As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, [11] so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!