By now many of you have probably read about or watched Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. If you haven't, you can watch it below
I don't normally like that sort of show but when I came across this this morning I was completely blown away. Here is someone who spent her entire life being despised and rejected. She got up in front of the crowd and was mocked by 3,000 people. Then, over the course of a three minute song all that got turned on its head. Just as He promised He would, God used the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.
The whole time I was watching it God kept raising in my heart Romans 8:19, "For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are."
Christianity offers is a return to the glory we were always meant to have. It's a restoration process that will ultimately one day culminate in God revealing our restored and glorious hearts to the world.
It's so easy to forget that. In our day to day lives a casual agnosticism sets in. We forget that God is fighting for us, is restoring us, is transforming us. We don't worship a distant God. We worship a God who wants to be active in every part of our lives so He can spread His glory in us.
That's why stories like Susan Boyle's, not to mention all the other stories, true and fiction, that stir your heart, are so important. They point us to the larger truth of what God is up to. We might be despised, hated and mocked but in the end He'll reveal the glory, the good work as Paul says, that He's been building in our hearts since we came to Christ.
Susan Boyle's performance is one of the most powerful examples of this I've ever seen. But it's nothing compared to what's coming, the day when God reveals His true children and the glory He's created in them.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Six Months Later
Six months ago I started working on the largest puzzle in the world (24,000 pieces). As of yesterday it's all done: put together, glued and hung!
I finished it on February 14th, about Four months after starting. It took a few days to glue and then. Annie and I decided to put it in the upstairs living room. Since it wouldn't fit going up the downstairs stairs, I had to wait two months for the snow to melt so I could take it outside and get it in through the front door.
It's great to have it done but unfortunately there's no where else to go but down with my hobby. That might be a good thing though since I don't think I have wall space for another one this size!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Whole and Holy
I've been spending some time this past week reflecting on Holy Week. What God keeps bringing back to my mind is the Lord's Supper, the wine and bread, His body and blood.
The human race didn't get very far before we crashed and crashed bad. We were intended for glory. Instead we exchanged the glory God had given us for a life of shame and evil. We were meant to live full and complete lives. Instead we willing let ourselves, our hearts, be literally shattered.
We hear a lot of different theories in today's world about why Christ came. Some say He came to be a good teacher or give us a new way to go about our day to day lives. These reasons, and others like them, are true but incomplete. The main reason Christ came, His central mission, was to put us back together again. He came to rescue us from our fall and the eternal consequences that would follow, He came to release us from the sin we turned to in our brokenness and He came to restore us to the glory we were always meant to have. To put it another way, He came so we could be whole and holy.
That's what the Lord's Supper is all about. With His blood He covers our sins. But it doesn't end with forgiveness. His blood might start as a covering but it is meant to go onto complete transformation. The goal of the atonement is not only to set us right with God, though without that we could not go any further, but to make it so that one day, though not one in this world, we can look back on sin as a half forgotten nightmare.
In the second part of the Lord's Supper, Christ's body is broken so that our hearts can be made whole. After the fall, our hearts became evil and wicked (Jer. 17:9). Christ's being broken turns all that around. Our heart of stone is removed and we are given a heart of flesh (Ezk. 36:26). But like with the atonement this is only the beginning. Our basic nature has been changed but the work of Christ isn't done. He wants to put us back together again so that we can be restored to glory. So that we can be whole.
If you spend some time this weekend reflecting on Christ's death and resurrection, remember that it's about more than just forgiveness. Christ wants to restore you to who you were always meant to be. That's why He came, so that we could be whole and holy before Him. No wonder we've spent 2,000 years calling this good news!
The human race didn't get very far before we crashed and crashed bad. We were intended for glory. Instead we exchanged the glory God had given us for a life of shame and evil. We were meant to live full and complete lives. Instead we willing let ourselves, our hearts, be literally shattered.
We hear a lot of different theories in today's world about why Christ came. Some say He came to be a good teacher or give us a new way to go about our day to day lives. These reasons, and others like them, are true but incomplete. The main reason Christ came, His central mission, was to put us back together again. He came to rescue us from our fall and the eternal consequences that would follow, He came to release us from the sin we turned to in our brokenness and He came to restore us to the glory we were always meant to have. To put it another way, He came so we could be whole and holy.
That's what the Lord's Supper is all about. With His blood He covers our sins. But it doesn't end with forgiveness. His blood might start as a covering but it is meant to go onto complete transformation. The goal of the atonement is not only to set us right with God, though without that we could not go any further, but to make it so that one day, though not one in this world, we can look back on sin as a half forgotten nightmare.
In the second part of the Lord's Supper, Christ's body is broken so that our hearts can be made whole. After the fall, our hearts became evil and wicked (Jer. 17:9). Christ's being broken turns all that around. Our heart of stone is removed and we are given a heart of flesh (Ezk. 36:26). But like with the atonement this is only the beginning. Our basic nature has been changed but the work of Christ isn't done. He wants to put us back together again so that we can be restored to glory. So that we can be whole.
If you spend some time this weekend reflecting on Christ's death and resurrection, remember that it's about more than just forgiveness. Christ wants to restore you to who you were always meant to be. That's why He came, so that we could be whole and holy before Him. No wonder we've spent 2,000 years calling this good news!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
