The Supremacy of God

Today is a different day. Most of you probably have something tragic going on. It may be news of cancer, or the loss of a loved one. But today is different isn't it? For some reason we wake up and find that our economy is collapsing, our jobs may be on a thin wire, our family is drifting away or lost and yet we get up and do what? For some it is to "be normal," to ignore it or to fight it. We wake up and do the same 'ol thing. But does that satisfy our hearts or our souls?

I'm struggling with all that's happening in this world too. Struggling with how to pray. Struggling with how to cope, how to grieve, how to mourn. When life is snatched out of our hands do we feel "the sting of death is taken away but the sting of loss still hurts"? Loss is the hardest part. We hold tightly to what we have and yet when it's gone we realize we didn't have it very tight do we? We are filled with regret, filled with anguish. With all these emotions filling us, is it possible to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us as well?

Today I am being brought back to the supremacy of God. That is rolling around in my heart and in my mind. I think of John Piper's voice saying those words: "Is God supreme in your life?" I'd rather ask is God supreme today, since today seems to be so different.

I don't have the right answers for you who know that today is different. All I do know is that the teachings of Jesus are supreme and his Holy Spirit comforts those who are heavy laden. But how do we feel comforted? How do we feel loved back from Jesus? Simple. Through others. Through those closest in your circle. Christ's love is always felt through the love of others.

Maybe today you take on the heart of thankfulness. Thank your loved ones one more time today. Thank teachers or professors. Thank your Mom. Thank your Dad. Thank the Lord who IS supreme and IS also sovereign over all your life. Thank him for your breath, your vision, your sense of smell and your soul. He has bought you with a price and it's the Holy Spirit in you that is stamp of guarantee.

I don't know what I'm writing. I'm trying to figure all this. But I do know that Christ must remain on top, he must be in the forefront of our minds, our lips, our prayers. He must remain supreme in our lives.

Know Your Poverty

We know our bodies wage war against our spirit. We know we're "in" battle constantly, and that we conform more times than not. But how do we have total "conformation to Christ" in our bodies?

We also know that the Spirit is willing but the body is weak (Matthew 26:41). How then can we move and use our "body" to interact with God for his glorification? This something I've been reading about from all sorts of literature. I try to grasp it, yet my grip is loosened almost immediately. And that is why I write about this topic...

I was reading in Luke today about Jesus' first great big sermon to the mulititudes who follow him. He said Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry, who weep and who are spit on you for the sake of Me (Jesus). Poor, hungry, weep. Those aren't exciting words. But they are words of poverty, the emptying of "self." Jesus then gives the "woes." Woe to you who are rich, who are full, who laugh now and speak well of yourself. Woe to us who think we are self-relient and who are self-glorifying. It makes so much sense that he says these right after one another. We must be poor, self-emptied before we may follow him.

Oswald Chambers wrote: "We are apt to say that because a man has natural ability therefore he will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge and experience - all that is of no avail in this matter. The only thing that avails is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made his comrades. The comradeship of God is made up out of men who know their poverty."

For me as of late, it is going back to the first "beatitude": blessed are the poor in spirit. I have to start there. I have to wake up everyday and know that I am not capable - in my carnal flesh - to bring glorification to God. I actually "need" God and have to be God-reliant, not self-reliant. Do we have this attitude when life goes well? I tend to forget to tell you the truth. But it is imperative that the first of the beatitudes is implemented daily. We already are prone to evil... that is why we need to start at the bottom, to re-prioritize and re-plan our days.

Dallas Willard says the habit of self-indulgence can be broken if we train our thoughts by appropriate disciplines of study, meditation and service. Once we start there it will be a "place where faith meets grace to achieve conformity to Christ."

He also states: "In our fallen world this life is prepossessed by evil, so that we do not have to think to do what is wrong, but must think and plan and practice - and receive grace - if we are to succeed in doing what is right."

I have to end with this because it is so good...

"Learning Christ-likeness is not passive. It is active engagement with and in God. And we act with our bodies. Moreover this bodily engagement is what lays the foundation in our bodily members for readiness for holiness, and increasingly removes readiness to sin - so that "Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain" (Philippians 1:20-21).

I will continue in striving to know my poverty. Knowing who I am to Christ, but knowing who I am IN Christ as well. I want to be Christ-like. I want to be active, not passive. I want to have that comradeship that Chambers speaks of. I want to wake up everyday and be Christ-reliant. I have to relocate and reorient my body in this world to achieve that. I need to participate in these disciplines so that I will finally conform to Christ.

My goal, may it be yours as well...
Blessings.