Our God is BIG!

Psalm 97:1-6

The Lord reigns;
Let the earth rejoice;
Let the multitude of isles be glad!

Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

A fire goes before Him,
And burns up His enemies round about.

His lightnings light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory.

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad, let the multitude of islands rejoice! Why? because God reigns! That's good news for us! OUR God reigns, not some other God, not any earthly president or king, but our GOD reigns! And our God is BIG!

I think we sometimes forget how big our God is. Remember, He is the Creator, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end. We tend to put God in human terms so that we can better understand Him, but we need to remember that God is not bound by our limitations and our weaknesses, He is as far above them as we can possibly imagine. Our God is not a God we can put in a box, or keep in control, He's not a tame God or a "safe" God. I love what Mr. Beaver says about Him (in the character of Aslan) in C.S. Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe:

"Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. but he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

I tell you, He's the King! Our God holds all things together. (Colossians 1:17) He holds everything from the invisible forces that keep the atoms of our bodies together to the galaxies and constellations in the heavens. In Job 38, God answers Job's questions about God's reasons for His actions by contrasting God's power and majesty with Job's. Here's a little snippet from that conversation:

Job 38:31-33
"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
Or loose the cords of Orion?
"Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
"Do you know the (rdinances of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?


God is talking about star constellations here, and how He alone has the power to do with them as He pleases, in fact, He holds them and guides them! Here is a picture of the Pleiades star cluster that God is talking with Job about:

Just out of curiosity, can you hold that star cluster together? Can you even hold that star cluster? Can you even visit that start cluster? Obviously, the answer is no! You and I are not even specs of dust in comparison with that star cluster. But God, God holds that thing in His hand, and he binds it together with the forces of gravity and electricity and keeps it where He wants it to be. Wow are we small, but man is God big!

In case that doesn't do it for you, check out this verse:

Isaiah 40:12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?

Our God has marked off the heavens with a span. That means that He takes His hand and holds it up, and the space between His finger and His thumb holds the whole universe. Do you know how big the universe is? Right now, estimates place the size of the universe at around 28 billion light years in diameter, we can never really know the actual size, so that's a small estimate, based on what we can see. A light year is 5,878,630,000,000 miles. So the estimated size of the universe is 28,000,000,000 X 5,878,630,000,000 miles wide at it's diameter. I'll let you do the math on that one.

Here's a picture of what the universe might look like were you to look at it the way that God does, by the span of your hand.

You can't find earth in that image, you can't even find our solar system, in fact, looking at this image, it would be near impossible to point out our galaxy, the Milky Way. The spots that look like stars are galaxies, and even clusters of galaxies! Bigger than our minds can comprehend. Our God holds THAT in the palm of His hand. We serve a BIG God.

When you think about how big our God is, and how small we are, it's pretty amazing that He would care about us isn't it?

Psalm 8:3-9
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

The same God who made those stars and galaxies, and who measures the universe by the span of His hand, loves you enough that He came to earth and lived as a man, and died the death of a lowly criminal for YOU. The God who measures the universe in His hand became smaller than an atom in relation to the universe, and lived humbly, submitting to men, dying on a cross, so that you could have life in Him.

When you think about how big God is, doesn't it make your problems seem small? If God is that powerful, He can take care of the problems and struggles in my life can't He? Of course He can! How small are my problems in relation to the universe? And when God doesn't do things the way that I think they should be done, and I'm going through struggles or hardship, I need to realize that doesn't mean God can't handle it. It means He is handling it in exactly the way He wants to handle it. He is allowing things to happen the way that He wants them to be. He has the power to change every situation I am in, and if He doesn't it's because He is doing a work in my life, and His plans are infinitely better than mine.

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad, let the multitude of islands rejoice! Why? Because God reigns! That's good news for us!

I'm glad that a God that loves me is in charge.

God's Faithfulness

OK, OK I know.... It's been forever since I've posted a blog.

But, so much has happened in the last six months, I haven't really been able to process it all, and haven't had much time to think.

As I look back on this last year, one thing sticks out in my mind. God's faithfulness. Jen and I started the year out with a sense of desperation. We were hopeless, churchless, feeling pretty much dead spiritually and really just not enjoying life. We prayed and prayed about God's direction for our life, we talked with close friends, thought things through, and were pretty much grasping at straws... We went from being heavily involved in the planting of a church in Longmont that was not where God wanted us to be, to being churchless, and thinking of starting a church on our own... we were desperate. Our lives were not what God had for us, we knew it, we just didn't know what he did have for us.

Then, one weekend in May, I decided that we needed to get away and pray and think things through. So, I rented a room up in Estes Park, and we spent some time relaxing and talking. It wasn't until we were on our way home that it hit me. I was talking with Jen about God's direction in our life, and she brought up something that I hadn't thought about in almost a year. You see, the year before, we felt very strongly that God had told us to move to Vail, CO. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... God TOLD you to move to VAIL... right. No, He really did. We had no idea why, but He did. So, anyways, we realized that we had never obeyed God's command to us, we (I) got distracted with this church plant we were involved in and forgot all about it.

So, we started to pray about it, and God kept confirming, over and over again that that is what we were supposed to do. Finally, we decided on it. We were moving to Vail. We still had no idea how it was going to work, or when that was going to be. It was amazing how it worked out. We decided to rent our house instead of selling it, and God provided the perfect renters. It was a responsible family of 3, a Grandmother, her Daughter and her Daughter's son. And they wanted to pay 5 months rent up front!

Then God provided a place for us in Vail. We had been praying for a lock-off on someone's house, so we could keep our dog, and not have the apartment feel. We looked and looked, and couldn't find anything, so we were about to settle for an apartment, and then, no apartments would let us have our dog. Doors seemed to be closed. People told us, Oh, you'll never find a 2 bedroom lock-off, they don't make them. Then, God's provision.... on craigslist, we found a 2 bedroom lockoff walk-out basement apartment. The owners would let us keep our dog, the rent was the same as we were paying for our house in denver (which is pretty amazing, considering our apartment is the same size, and it is expensive up here!), and they said we could keep our dog in the yard!

We prayed for Jen to have a part-time job, so she could also work for me part-time and hopefully get a job that would get us free or discounted ski passes. Then, God provided Jen with a part-time job at our new church. Which is something she's wanted to do for years, using her administrative giftings for ministry purposes. And, he gave her a job working 4 hours a week a beaver creek to get us both free ski passes! (actually, mine was $25, in case you don't understand how huge that is... a vail/beaver creek ski pass is $1800.00.)

God met our every prayer, and provided for our every need as we followed Him and His plan for us. It was amazing!

Now we have been up here 4 months, are settled, love our new church (Calvary Chapel Vail Valley), are making friends and serving the Lord. The transition has been a bit of a shock, leaving our friends and family, and having to make new ones, but it has been incredible.

All that to say, God is Faithful!

We just had to follow his plan for us. Not to say that everything should be easy when you follow God, this has not been an easy transition, but it has been a good one. A fulfillment of God's promises and his plan.

God is good!

Love in Christ,
Nate

True Salvation: The life and Spirit of God in our Souls

Sin is a hot issue for Christians, what is sin? Or to some, more importantly what isn't sin? It seems that as Christians, many people are simply trying to see what they can get away with without putting the label "sin" on it.

Many teachers and pastors give us lessons in avoiding sin, or try to convict us not to sin. We are constantly told to try hard not to sin. But the bible gives us a different insight into sin and salvation, and what it really is and is not.

Your conviction need not be to not sin, because sin is not something that you can control (I know that's not what most people will tell you, but read on). Your conviction should be to turn to God, who alone can keep you from sin, and will keep you from sin as you walk with Him.

What is sin but the operation of self? What is righteousness but the death of self and life of God within? Our salvation is the death of ourselves and the life of God within us. We cannot claim to be saved and not have the life of God within.

1 John 1:6 (New American Standard Bible)
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;"

1 John 2:3-5 (New American Standard Bible)
"By this we know that we have come to (B)know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:"

How do we know that we are in Him? That we keep his commandments. But doesn't that mean that we should be convicted not to sin? No! How do we keep His commandments then? Only b ythe life and light of God brought to a new birth within our souls! We cannot do it on our own, it must be Christ in us, which is our only hope of glory!

Philippians 2:13 (New American Standard Bible)
"for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

So what can possibly be our salvation but the life of God brought forth in our souls?