God Told Me To

Jesus’ ministry was framed by a desire to do God’s will. It started with a prayer of "your kingdom come, your will be done" and ended with "not my will but yours". All true followers of Jesus cultivate that same desire. The rub comes in figuring out exactly what his will is. 
A growing number of students are coming to me with "God told me to X". What drives this is probably a combination of things. If we could step back and view all factors, I think we would find some to be legitimate and some to be wishful / hopeful thinking attributed to God. Its when God seems to change his mind between Thursday and Friday that I get concerned. Or when God seems to be saying what the student wanted to here. (Ever notice how God always seems to directly command people to take the higher salary job, date the prettier girl or move to the more beautiful location?) I've always thought that if God is thinking the way I think, he is probably not very godly and we are all in big trouble.

So how do YOU determine God's will?
Food for thought; more later.

 

Material or Spiritual Worldview?

Recently (May 24-26) I was blessed to present at the Capital Forum on Global Missions in DC. It was a great experience to be with many missionaries from the Dominican Republic, Swaziland, Scotland and other places.

I was moved to speak about how we as North American Christians view our world. If you look at our recent history, I think it speaks volumes about how we view the world. We are moved when a disaster destroys material goods but not when a spiritual disaster strikes. I fear we are more North American than Christian.

Jr Sheets of Peterhead, Scotland transcribed some of what I said and elaborated on it in his own blog posts. Here are links you might check out:

Part 1:  http://sheetstoscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/physical-vs-spiritual-worldview-and-its.html

Part 2: http://sheetstoscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/physical-vs-spiritual-worldview-and-its_11.html

What does it mean to be broken?

So what does it meant to a “fallen” or “broken” person? Does it simply mean that I sometimes drive too fast on the highway, let my temper get the better of me (no one hits a 4 iron perfectly!) or respond too strongly to a comment? Is that what it means to sin?

Recent study has caused me to think that it goes much deeper. Adam’s sin was to rely on self rather than God, thinking that he knew better than divinity. His motivation and focus ceased to be his relationship with his Creator and became self. So how deep does that run?

Is it possible that even in my good moments of advice giving, sharing, caring, etc., I still am broken? Is it possible that my good efforts are driven neither by the Spirit of God nor a concern that wells up from a redeemed image of God in me but rather from a desire to be seen as good? Are good actions that come from the wrong motivation still considered good? Can they ever reach their potential in the life of another? Do they honor a good Creator if they originate from a self-centered heart? Do they bless others or simply propagate another level of brokenness?

I Know You

"I know you." Its what we say to someone that we have not seen in a long time but whose face is familiar. Its what we love to hear from the lips of those we respect. Yet its significance goes deeper than that.

I've spend a lot of time in the sermon on the mount over the past few months. Matthew 7:21-23 is intriguing and even a little scary to me. People come before God at the end of time and recount their deeds performed in Jesus' name. These are not charlatans but people who used his name. They did the right things at the right times . . . and got results. Not many people can say they cast out demons, performed miracles and prophesied. Yet, they fell short. Not only short, but they missed out on eternity.

When all is said and done, what counts will be hearing the creator say, "I know you". It won't be my list of accomplishments or nice resume. It won't matter at all if I know him. I can claim a relationship with God just like those who missed out. The only thing that will matter is whether the one who holds the keys to eternity looks at me and says, "I know you."

That reframes everything. I can read the sermon on the mount and still view it as a list of things to do. But remembering that the last judgment is whether God knows me or not suddenly shifts the focus from performing deeds to putting myself in a relationship. Its not about being accomplished, its only about being acknowledged -- acknowledged tomorrow by the One that I must acknowledge today.

Discernment

It took many months of study to finally come to a clear conviction about discerning the will of God. I'm sure many people would not agree with me but I feel solid about what I believe and why I believe it. For those of you who would like to follow my logic, here is the link to the presentations I gave at the ACU SUMMIT.

Presentation #1


Presentation #2
https://docs.google.com/a/acu.edu/present/edit?id=0AaC3dwyz3LXTZGRwOWs3M2RfMTM2ZGRoZndqY3A&hl=en_US

Though I read widely, I found the following to be the core references I kept coming back to:
Decision Making and the Will of God, Freisen
The Openness of God, Pinock et. al
God's Voice Within, Thibodeaux
Each of these books deals with a different area. The first two are quite in-depth while the third is more pragmatic. All are quite valuable.

May God bless your efforts to enhance your own discernment.

Can You Hear Me Now?

What began as a simple question back in April became an ongoing study shortly after. This past weekend I presented my thoughts on "Discernment and the Will of God" at our university retreat. Next I will present those thoughts (and some more) during ACU's Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. After that, I'll try to put them down on this blog. Feel free to join me at Summit.

Can You Hear Me Now?

What began as a simple question back in April became a ongoing study shortly after. This past weekend I presented my thoughts on "Discernment and the Will of God" at our university retreat. Next I will present those thoughts (and some more) during ACU's Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. After that, I'll try to put them down on this blog. Feel free to join me at Summit.