Dueteronomy 4:29 - Confronting Yourself with God

It is clear from the Bible that God desires relationship with us and scripture makes all kinds of references as to what that relationship is:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, Ephesians 5:25

Throughout scripture God sets up the idea of a positive, incredibly intimate relationship with God...parent...best friend...spouse. But if you are like me, you find it a challenge to hold God in one of those spots; to see God in the same way you see that parents who you have an amazingly special relationship with, the best friend that you can call anytime day or night, or the spouse that you never want to spend a moment separated from. The big difference is that those people are physical and tangible and we are confronted with them, standing in front of us, on a regular basis.

But we do get glimpses of this, moments when God feels that close and that real. This comes at those times when we are see and are closest to God, at those times when we confront ourselves with God on a regular basis and we feel the intimacy. Dueteronomy tells us:

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. Dueteronomy 4:29

But how do we confront ourselves with God?

• Intentionally look for God - As you walk through your day, see what God has done and thank God. Make it a habit so that your response to beauty, a positive event, or something that causes wonder is, "Thank you God!"
• Meditate and think on God - Maybe this is a regular reading and meditation of scripture, maybe it is a time of prayer, or maybe it is a time of complete contemplation, emptying your thoughts of all distractions of the world and focusing on the divine. Make a time of meditation a daily habit
• Involve God in regular everyday activities - Bring God into routine activities, such as eating. Say grace before a meal, using your exercise time to memorize a key scripture verse, post scriptures on your bathroom mirror that you read to yourself every time you are in front of it. Make God a part of each day, just as your would a person who is incredibly important and special to you. 

When we are confronting ourselves with God on a regular basis, our relationship grows and we see those glimpses of God in the intimate relationship that he desires to be in with us.  We will find moments when we feel like God is that loving parent, loyal best friend, our other half.For me, the song The More I Seek You by Kari Jobe embodies this desired intimacy.

What are the ways you confront yourself with God and build that intimate relationship?

Luke 15:20b,28 - Grace

As I mentioned several posts ago, my small group is studying Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 using a book and study called Prodigal God. The title of the study is one of the things that really captures me. Traditionally, we think of the younger son as the prodigal, but this study directs you to think of the Father as the prodigal. Crazy...until you examine a definition of prodigal:

1. recklessly extravagant
2. having spent everything

 ...so maybe you are still thinking that fits the son and not the father, but I want you to consider these two verses.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (20b)

 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him." (28)

What the Father is recklessly extravagant about is love. He abandons all dignity and lifts his garment to run to and embrace the younger son who has returned and he again abandons dignity to leave the celebration to beg the older son to come in and celebrate too. This is grace! Neither son deserved this reckless love, but the father gives it to him.

Grace is a tricky concept for us to grasp. We want to insist on making restitution, as the younger son wanted to or we stand proud as the older son, holding onto our righteousness, and not receiving the gift, as the older son does. We struggle with receiving something that we don't feel we deserve...and yet we want it...but we can't accept it. We feel we need to do something to earn it. 


The idea of grace has become the topic of many songs and messages in an effort for us to understand and grasp the reality of grace. God has been giving grace for a long time though and as this video from the Skit Guys points out, even the disciples struggle with grace. The bible tells so many stories that involve grace and we see so many receive this and yet we continue to struggle with it in our own lives.

Click for Video

In fact, the struggle to accept grace impacts the way we approach God. In my small group this week, as we watched the Prodigal God video in its entirety again, Tim Keller made a statement that caught my attention. He expresses the idea that Jesus uses this story to tell us that we need to reexamine everything we ever understood about how to approach God. This week I latched onto that and started looking at how I approach God...

Think about that for a moment. How do you approach God? Are you heavy with the mistakes you have made? Are you confident that you have been good and can stand up tall with God? Are you ready to receive an absolutely free gift, knowing that you can not EVER balance the scale between you and God? Can you just BE with God?

Our understanding of grace has a big impact on how we approach God. Until we can fully wrap our head around grace, we will come to God with baggage. The good news is, that God is ready and willing to take that baggage from us. Like with the sons in the Luke, God is ready to willingly, extravagantly, and recklessly love us until we understand and embrace grace.

This week, I am reexamining my understandings of grace and how I approach God. Will you join me?

Psalm 51 - The Cleaning Only God Can Do

This is a favorite psalm of mine and there is so much that can be discussed in it, but I want to focus on this verse:

⁷ Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
      wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

We are all sinners and if we examine our lives, we can see the stain of sin all over it. Stains that we can't take back or erase. You know exactly which ones they are. But look at this verse...purify me and I will be clean...wash me and i will be whiter than snow. God is capable of removing our sin and cleansing us. In fact, Jesus traded his purity for our sin on the cross.

Do you really accept that? Do you really allow God to purify and cleanse you or are you holding on to the stains of your sin?

Since we can clean it up, we often have trouble letting God do it. We are creatures of control and independence and want to do it ourselves. we don't like to rely on others including God, but the truth is that we either let God cleanse us in a way that only God can or we remain stained.

And just the knowledge of our stain can hold us back from being who we were created to be and accepting all the blessings that are available to us.

Will you let God clean you? Will you accept God's grace and mercy? Let today be the day that you are purified and become whiter than snow.