5.13.2010
5.11.2010
A 'Weightless' God?- Lesson 7- "Living to Prove He is More Precious than Life"
Leading Question to start us out:
1. "If someone who did not know that you were a Christian observed the way you spend your money, the kind of clothes you wear, the way you spend your free time, and how you raised your family, would they notice a significant difference between you and the world? What differences would they notice?"
I still remember clearly the day I was sitting on my dorm bed at college and deeply affected by this verse in Matthew, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means; "I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Seriously, that hit me SO hard. It is not the healthy. In light of where God has you right now, would you consider yourself 'healthy'? or 'sick'? Are you in need of His mercy or are you sacrificing worthless items to walk a path of deeper 'righteousness'?
We are clearly called as followers of Jesus to be holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [cross reference is Lev. 11:44,45] And so walking in a deeper righteousness is essential, however at the same time we are called to "live according to God in regard to the spirit." (1 Pet. 4:6) As he continues to speak about this, he says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."
We do this all in the power and strength that God provides us through His Spirit, and it is not contingent upon what the people we serve look like, smell like, what they say, or where they came from.
Christ's call was one to compassion, one that stores up treasures in heaven, and one that receives the kingdom of God by making much of Christ rather than making much of one's self. [Mk 10:21; Lk 6:20,24; Lk 18:25]
2. Take a look at those verses in brackets above and underline the theme of each verse. Consider how you are seeking to obey these texts in your life
In chapter 7 living to prove he is more precious than life, Piper reminds followers of Jesus that magnifying Christ through generosity and mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. The question which is uses to probe our consciences is this; 'Is Christ our "all satisfying treasure"?' This question reminds us of John 4 where Christ is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Jews and Samaritan's were at odds with each other because the Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married with the Gentiles (which was against Jewish law) and so when Jesus opened his mouth and directly addressed the woman, she was incredibly shocked. Not only was this experience odd because of the culture surrounding it, but what seems to even me as being odd is Jesus offering her water living water that will satisfy her in such a way that all other things are not needed. Maybe I have been disillusioned in ways, but I do find it difficult to think that all I EVER need is just Jesus.
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Christ is to be our all-satisfying treasure. Piper challenges Christ followers to live lives of faith-filled risk and challenges us to use our money and our lifestyles to impact the kingdom of God. If this is not the case, it could very well be that we have created a "weightless God."
"It is one of the defining marks of Our time that God is now weightless. He has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life." (Piper, 121)
Will the things of our life point to a God who is all powerful? Do our clothes or our lifestyles, how we spend our evenings magnify Christ? Do they point to Christ as the treasure of our lives?
These are questions to think on, and things we will be discussing next week at study.
1. "If someone who did not know that you were a Christian observed the way you spend your money, the kind of clothes you wear, the way you spend your free time, and how you raised your family, would they notice a significant difference between you and the world? What differences would they notice?"
I still remember clearly the day I was sitting on my dorm bed at college and deeply affected by this verse in Matthew, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means; "I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Seriously, that hit me SO hard. It is not the healthy. In light of where God has you right now, would you consider yourself 'healthy'? or 'sick'? Are you in need of His mercy or are you sacrificing worthless items to walk a path of deeper 'righteousness'?
We are clearly called as followers of Jesus to be holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [cross reference is Lev. 11:44,45] And so walking in a deeper righteousness is essential, however at the same time we are called to "live according to God in regard to the spirit." (1 Pet. 4:6) As he continues to speak about this, he says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."
We do this all in the power and strength that God provides us through His Spirit, and it is not contingent upon what the people we serve look like, smell like, what they say, or where they came from.
Christ's call was one to compassion, one that stores up treasures in heaven, and one that receives the kingdom of God by making much of Christ rather than making much of one's self. [Mk 10:21; Lk 6:20,24; Lk 18:25]
2. Take a look at those verses in brackets above and underline the theme of each verse. Consider how you are seeking to obey these texts in your life
In chapter 7 living to prove he is more precious than life, Piper reminds followers of Jesus that magnifying Christ through generosity and mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. The question which is uses to probe our consciences is this; 'Is Christ our "all satisfying treasure"?' This question reminds us of John 4 where Christ is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Jews and Samaritan's were at odds with each other because the Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married with the Gentiles (which was against Jewish law) and so when Jesus opened his mouth and directly addressed the woman, she was incredibly shocked. Not only was this experience odd because of the culture surrounding it, but what seems to even me as being odd is Jesus offering her water living water that will satisfy her in such a way that all other things are not needed. Maybe I have been disillusioned in ways, but I do find it difficult to think that all I EVER need is just Jesus.
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Christ is to be our all-satisfying treasure. Piper challenges Christ followers to live lives of faith-filled risk and challenges us to use our money and our lifestyles to impact the kingdom of God. If this is not the case, it could very well be that we have created a "weightless God."
"It is one of the defining marks of Our time that God is now weightless. He has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life." (Piper, 121)
Will the things of our life point to a God who is all powerful? Do our clothes or our lifestyles, how we spend our evenings magnify Christ? Do they point to Christ as the treasure of our lives?
These are questions to think on, and things we will be discussing next week at study.
4.10.2010
My Search for A Single Passion to Live By: Lesson 2
I love stories. Stories have a way of painting beautiful pictures and coordinating thoughts in a way that weave us through the pain and hardships to a conclusion that often brings resolution to the main conflicts in a tale. Somewhere during my college experience I began to love to hear people's life stories. Being a part of a touring group while in college exposed me many different places and homes and we were required to spend a good amount of time getting to know who we were staying with. These experiences have actually brought me to all sorts of different people's homes in Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Each person had a unique story of how they got to where they are today and what kinds of events caused them to get to where they are today.
Now, you may be reading this thinking, this is all pretty logical but it has been my experience that we rarely take the time to sit back and reflect on our lives. Instead I hear many people caught up in the moments they find themselves in crying out for help or just looking to vent their frustrations with other people or God to someone who will listen. I'm not downplaying the need to vent or to work out your emotions, but what I am advocating for is that we do not live our lives blindly.
When Paul, while in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ, writes to the Philippians, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain....Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." He is preaching a message that reminds us that in everything we do we should be working towards an eternal treasure that will last. So let's put our lives in perspective... what are we living for? What is the purpose to all we do? In the end, when all is stripped away will it matter if I ran the full half marathon or if I walked some? Or if I looked like a fool trying to make someone smile? Or will it be my attitudes and motives that are brought under judgement?
At any rate, this week in Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper shares his story where he grappled with the idea of what it meant to not waste his life. One of his wake up moments came from a sermon illustration that his dad presented at his church growing up about a man he was visiting in the hospital weeping over the fact that he was nearing the end of his life and just now realizing that he had wasted it.
He brings up the point of differing world-views that people tend to view life through. One of them being existentialism. Basically existentialism is a philosophy that basically states, "The only 'essence' or 'truth' that exists is the kind that we create." In this line of thinking, we have the ability to define our own purpose and meaning in life. Everything we do is contingent upon the values that we individually uphold.
Genesis 1:1 combats this world-view right from the very beginning saying, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." John 1:1-3 also backs this up by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Existentialists argue that man has the ability to create his/her own truth, but the Bible declares that nothing that has been made has been created without God's signature attached. Thus we are subject to the objective truths that God has created.
The next thing that Piper points out is that while the world likes to make excuses and exclusive statements about people; such that you are either logical or rational or you are emotional and playful, the bible portrays that God calls all of our being to love Him and obey Him. (See Mat. 22:35-38) We are called to worship in spirit and in truth which encompasses both the rational and emotional parts of our being. God is not mutually exclusive. "He [God] combined things that almost everybody today assumes are mutually exclusive: rationalism and poetry, cool logic and warm feeling, disciplined prose and free imagination." (Piper, 19).
God is the ultimate reality, and until we submit our whole being to Him, we will be wasting our lives. Take a moment to reflect with these questions:
1. How is it that you got to where you are today?
2. Read Exodus 3:13-14. According to this passage, God's name is "I AM WHO I AM." How does this verse respond to those who say that there is no Reality (Meaning, Essence, Purpose) until we create it? Where is Ultimate Reality found?
3. Read Romans 1:18-23. Is there "Truth" (with a capital T) in the world? Are men ignorant of Truth, or do they suppress it?
Now, you may be reading this thinking, this is all pretty logical but it has been my experience that we rarely take the time to sit back and reflect on our lives. Instead I hear many people caught up in the moments they find themselves in crying out for help or just looking to vent their frustrations with other people or God to someone who will listen. I'm not downplaying the need to vent or to work out your emotions, but what I am advocating for is that we do not live our lives blindly.
When Paul, while in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ, writes to the Philippians, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain....Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." He is preaching a message that reminds us that in everything we do we should be working towards an eternal treasure that will last. So let's put our lives in perspective... what are we living for? What is the purpose to all we do? In the end, when all is stripped away will it matter if I ran the full half marathon or if I walked some? Or if I looked like a fool trying to make someone smile? Or will it be my attitudes and motives that are brought under judgement?
At any rate, this week in Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper shares his story where he grappled with the idea of what it meant to not waste his life. One of his wake up moments came from a sermon illustration that his dad presented at his church growing up about a man he was visiting in the hospital weeping over the fact that he was nearing the end of his life and just now realizing that he had wasted it.
He brings up the point of differing world-views that people tend to view life through. One of them being existentialism. Basically existentialism is a philosophy that basically states, "The only 'essence' or 'truth' that exists is the kind that we create." In this line of thinking, we have the ability to define our own purpose and meaning in life. Everything we do is contingent upon the values that we individually uphold.
Genesis 1:1 combats this world-view right from the very beginning saying, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." John 1:1-3 also backs this up by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Existentialists argue that man has the ability to create his/her own truth, but the Bible declares that nothing that has been made has been created without God's signature attached. Thus we are subject to the objective truths that God has created.
The next thing that Piper points out is that while the world likes to make excuses and exclusive statements about people; such that you are either logical or rational or you are emotional and playful, the bible portrays that God calls all of our being to love Him and obey Him. (See Mat. 22:35-38) We are called to worship in spirit and in truth which encompasses both the rational and emotional parts of our being. God is not mutually exclusive. "He [God] combined things that almost everybody today assumes are mutually exclusive: rationalism and poetry, cool logic and warm feeling, disciplined prose and free imagination." (Piper, 19).
God is the ultimate reality, and until we submit our whole being to Him, we will be wasting our lives. Take a moment to reflect with these questions:
1. How is it that you got to where you are today?
2. Read Exodus 3:13-14. According to this passage, God's name is "I AM WHO I AM." How does this verse respond to those who say that there is no Reality (Meaning, Essence, Purpose) until we create it? Where is Ultimate Reality found?
3. Read Romans 1:18-23. Is there "Truth" (with a capital T) in the world? Are men ignorant of Truth, or do they suppress it?
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