Reflections from July 9, 2006

2006-07-09

• We need more than people who are only willing to sit in pews on Sunday. We need people who are willing to be used of Jesus to change the world.
• Much of this postmodern world and culture is like a fly trapped on the wrong side of a pane of glass. They keep buzzing along the transparent barrier to set themselves free, but have no idea there is something bigger than themselves needed to let them go.
• From Pastor Gerry’s sermon on July 9, 2006: You only fear what you don’t think the Lord can accomplish.
• Opinions about what people think God is like vary as the number of grains of sand by the sea. Only God Himself can tell us what He is like: the cold awful truth about the condition of humankind and His loving outreach to those who in their own opinions have invented other puppet-gods to replace Him.
• Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, Islam’s Five Pillars, Hinduism’s endless cycle of reincarnation, Evolution’s Survival of the Fittest and all the other religious systems of world history all have the same thing in common. All of them attempt to manipulate their gods (which are either deities or humankind itself) by intrinsic human effort. God, wanting to laugh and weep, peers down from an infinite chasm and says, “They will never reach me.” So He sent His Son to reach them.
• Love is one of the most sought after entities by the human race. It is a legitimate longing endowed by God. Not merely an emotion, it is an action of service and sacrifice. It is only infallibly demonstrated in Christ’s sacrificial death. Those who seek perfect true love elsewhere will be curled up in gut-wrenching pain until the end of their days.
• Feeling lonely is something very natural in a fallen world. Being alone, on the other hand, especially for Jesus’ disciples, is usually a choice.
• If Jesus isn’t the Good Shepherd, the Door, the way and the truth and the life and the single way of salvation, Jesus is the biggest liar and Christianity the biggest scam since the dawn of time. But if He is the only way to the Father, and it is by faith alone we can have eternal fellowship with God, our response should be twofold: A great relief for ourselves who believe, and a great urgency to tell as many others about Jesus as possible.
• If Jesus isn’t everything in our lives, then we have missed the point of His coming, chasing idol after idol, being let down time after time, like a fool who robs a bank with a water pistol on the day of his parole.
• In our weakness, God’s strength in our lives is made perfect, and in weakness is our opportunity to grow and trust in Christ. In our own strength we find pride and apostasy knocking at the door. The former example of strength is godly wisdom; the latter is what we are naturally inclined to do. I’ll let you guess which type of person I am and which one I long to be.