Peace That Passes Understanding–And an Update

Well, let’s get to the last first. If you don’t know, there have been some hiccups regarding me getting to Texas. Be that as it may, I am pulling out Saturday…finally. So, for those of you who have been on the edge of your seat wondering what is up–there you have it. Also, I am working on a video blog. I actually had one ready, but my computer encoded it with the wrong encoding and so, I am left to try again another day. I can tell you that I will be video-logging my move to Texas. It will be a funny, humor-filled misadventure. More details will be available as I get closer to completion. Call it a YouTube mini-movie so-to-speak.

Now for some Word.

Things with my computer and this move have had me stressed out. But I heard a podcast sermon today where the Pastor speaking said “the message of Christ is to value rest over stress.” I thought to myself “yes, that makes sense”. But it’s a lot easier said than done. I sometimes wonder why I worry–why we all worry. Is it really because it’s going to make a difference? That certainly can’t be the reason. And, do we worry about things we really should be worried about? I read a story about a guy who was worried that his grass might not grow quite as tall next year. It actually sent him to the hospital for “stress related health issues.”

There are what would appear more meaningful things to worry about. Like money. Don’t we worry about money a lot? With the Economy the way it is right now and banks merging right and left, we almost have no choice but to worry about money. But what is money? What do we use it for? I know there are things we need, but do we have faith that God will provide for those needs?

The bottom line is that we worry about money so that we can sustain the lifestyle WE want; or better yet, the lifestyle we think we deserve. But what do we deserve? Does the world owe us? Does God owe us? Perhaps maybe we have the wrong attitude toward it.

America is the wealthiest country in the world. Even our poor have it better than most other countries do. Yet roughly half of 18-49 year-olds are stressed. I think the problem is selfishness. In a previous post, I quoted the Scripture where Jesus states one of the greatest commandments is love your neighbor as yourself. Have you ever felt stressed when you put others first? I firmly agree with that Pastor I heard today that stress comes from worrying about ourselves.

If we attend to the things of God and realize that ALL belong to Him, then what do we have to worry about? We are merely stewards entrusted with the things we have–this includes money. Yet time and time again we yell and scream because we can’t pay some stupid bill we probably don’t even need. I sometimes wonder if God doesn’t have a hand in that. Could He be telling us to cut that from our life? “But we worked so hard for our money.” This is a sense of entitlement.

It’s true that many of us work hard and as a result, feel like we deserve to benefit from what we have made. But something else we deserve is death. Romans 3:23 says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus didn’t deserve death. He suffered so badly for our sins and yet, went willing to die for us anyone. He knew that so many people would reject Him and so many would still sin. But He died anyway. So who are we to say we deserve anything!? We don’t but for some reason, we still get stressed out!

We sing that song “I’ve got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart.” Peace that passes understanding is a peace and a joy that is not dependant on our situation. It’s a joy and a peace that is not about us. We should be experiencing a “peace” no matter what is happening because we have Christ as a filter to receive a gift we haven’t earned nor deserve. That is peace. That is joy. My circumstance as it is has been rather lousy, by worldly terms. But nothing I’ve been through in the past few months can compare to the agony and pain that Christ went through because of His love for me. If nothing else, He owes us nothing–we owe Him everything. Jesus was clear as to where we should set our treasures. In Matthew 6:19-24, we are told not to set our treasures here on earth where “moth and rust destroy”. Yet, it is because of those things that we get stressed and worked up over.

What am I getting at? The more I read, the more I want to draw closer to Christ. The more we set our eyes on Him, the less we have to worry about ourselves. He loves us so much that He took more humiliation, pain, and shame than any of us could ever handle. He wants us to emulate that love to others. He wants us to resonate His glory. If we are worried about ourselves and our present state, we can’t effectively do that. This is the connecting theme that resounds throughout the scriptures. When we put God and others first, we don’t have time to worry about ourselves because we are to busy meeting the needs of those around us. As a result, we will find our needs met.

I believe God ALWAYS meets the needs of His children. We taint it though because we don’t think He is meeting our needs the way we think He should. I’ve been guilty of this. I’ve expected or wanted things to go a certain way. When they don’t, I’m ready to say “well God, you didn’t meet my need this time.” In reality, He did, I just didn’t see it because of my selfish bias.

God loves us. He doesn’t want us to be stressed. And I believe He will take that burden from us if we only let Him.

Oh Lord, please remove our distractions so we can turn our eyes on you. Help us to realize that it’s only through you that we can receive peace beyond understanding.

When are you peaceful? Is it when things are good or when things are bad? If you trust God, shouldn’t you be peaceful no matter what YOUR situation is?

I encourage you to read Matthew 6:19-24. Ask God to help you apply it to your current life and situation–whether good or bad. Perhaps it’s better than you see it. Maybe after looking at your situation from God’s perspective, you will see how silly it is to be so stressed about things.

Mr. Josh

**ALL Posts are published by me unless otherwise noted.**

Gaining The World

Today’s Blog: Gaining the world. In an earlier post, I likened the accessories in life to Internet Browsers. I feel compelled to comment further on this. It is a given that wanting the newest item distracts us. But it does so much more. It goes deeper to the point where it actually robs us of love. We put our love in these things and it takes away from our love from God. There is a saying that says kids spell love T-I-M-E. I believe God spells love the same way. After all, how can you love something or someone if you don’t spend time with it/them? So, when we over accessorize, they rob us of our time which essential robs us of our love for God. This amateur music video is an honest attempt to show this with the help of Toby Mac’s song “Lose Your Soul”. It comes complete with the verses I feel I wanted to share. Enjoy!

The song mentioned something that kind of stood out. It said “Forgive us because of the things that compete for our love and PASSION.” (Yes, I know, I paraphrased). It was the word PASSION that stood out to me. Why have we let things become our passion? I could blame it all on T.V. but even sitting here typing this, I am hit with an ad or two for something. Then we see ads on the freeway and ads in the newspapers. Now, even our rides at amusement parks have sponsors.

It’s clear that Satan has done an excellent job at diverting our attention from important things. Satan knows that he can’t separate us from God’s love. But, he can interfere with our time for God. He can distract us with little things that aren’t evil or bad but do just enough to divert our time away from things that we should focus on. Remember Matthew 5? We should hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should seek God. He should be our passion.

Christ is knocking. Have you let Him? Or worst yet, have distractions taken you somewhere that you aren’t even home to answer the door and something else has taken up residence?

Tonight, I leave you with this passage that I believe sums up the song:

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:34-39 (ESV, Emphasis Mine)

The Laws of Science and God

An ongoing discussion I’ve been having with a Christian gone Atheists has proposed that Science proves there is no God and that there is no room for a God in Science. Obviously, I disagree as there are a few laws of science that can allow for God. Granted, it may not necessarily prove just the existence of the Christian God, but it does give a scientific argument for Creationists that secularists can’t argue with. View the following video and then read my continuing thoughts.

We know that the statement “Nothing creates Nothing” is true by looking at science. Have you ever seen a tree appear out of thin air? Do adult humans just suddenly appear or are we born first? We came from somewhere. So if nothing can create nothing, where does “something” come from? Since science confirms that the first law of Thermodynamics is true and can be tested, we are FORCED to believe that “Energy can not be created or destroyed.” So, it MUST have always existed. As the video suggests, it’s either some dumb, unthinking entity or an intelligent Creator that designed the universe the way it is.

One could argue (an Atheists generally do) that more than one energy source is responsible for the matter we have in our universe.  This poses a problem. Do all of these intelligent energy sources have the same idea in mind about what to create and how it should work? And, if they are multiple unintelligent sources, how did all this come about without causing utter chaos?

If Science holds true to their own theories and laws, then there are a lot of questions it has to answer for. This means things like miracles would not be impossible even if they fall outside the laws of nature. Wouldn’t the originating energy source be more powerful than the laws of science it created? So, science would by default have to acknowledge either “God” or a powerful Entity outside of our realm of thinking and testable sciences.

This of course would not force an individual to run and seek God and love and worship Him which He desires. It does make it harder to deny His presence and hand in the universe. It just appears to me that Science has stumbled across proof that God exists but our own stubborness as imperfect humans causes us to be blind to the truth–even if we created our own truth that proved the real truth, we still refuse to believe it.

Psalm 14:1 says: “The fool ^[a] says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.” (NIV, Copied from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2014:1;&version=31;)

Sometimes knowledge gets in the way of truly worshipping God. We are so obssessed with knowing all we can that we sometimes learn to much. That was the whole idea behind the tree in the garden. God knew that by eating the fruit, we would gain more knowledge than we know what to do with. Look around. How many useless gizmos and gadgets do we have? How many do YOU have? This is all based on our pursuit of knowledge.

I think the beauty of God is that He doesn’t require you to know everything about Him. He only desires that your heart is to seek Him. By staying close to Him and reading His words, He will fill us with knowledge as we show a hungry heart. After all, we were told by Christ that “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV) We don’t have to have all the answers, we just have to be willing to allow God to reveal His truths to us. Where do you find your knowledge?

I leave you with these words from “The Message”:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this.

-Proverbs 3:5-12 “The Message”