foundation

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.” -Jesus, Luke 6:43-45

We’re always reaching for that next step. If we could, we’d take them two at a time just to get to our destination. Our destination is that place of approval and importance in purpose. We want a show-n-tell for our efforts. We want to be recognized for our work. In chasing that, we neglect our foundation.

Your purpose is the task at hand. It’s the mundane sprinkled with moments of ‘extra-ordinary.’ If you try to make the ‘extra-ordinary’ ordinary then you become a thrill junkie. Right now is never enough. You’ll never be content.

Get a handle on what is right in front of you so that when that illusive ‘crossroad’ of opportunity takes place, you can move into it with practiced ease. When the ‘extraordinary’ task is finished you can go back to practicing in the mundane for the next one.

If you can’t excel at the small things, how can you be trusted with the bigger tasks you’ve been called to do?

The ordinary is your foundation. It’s the ground on which you stand. If you only tend to the larger things, the things that get noticed, you lose everything when your foundation crumbles.

Practice. Get a grip on what you have. Practice with what is right in front of you so that you’ll be ready when the big stuff comes.

Approval comes with disapproval. Popularity comes with infamy. Your importance is gauged by your foundation. How can you handle with wind on the mountain if you aren’t burrowed into it? How can you take the slander out in the world if you don’t know who you are at home?

Life’s tests are like fire burning up the cheap materials and leaving what it solid. The better your foundation, the more that will be left standing when it’s your turn to get hit.

To put it practically: A well tended marriage, well cared for kids and a smoothly running home make for a safe place to land when the world bites at your back and chips away at your self-worth.

Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. -1 Corinthians 3:9-15

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stolen water

“Stolen water is sweet,…” -Proverbs 9:17 ESV

If God cares about you at all, your secret will be found out. The storm-wet footprints of those who slip through the dark may dry by morning, but if you have to work with the lights off, you won’t see the other evidence you left behind. You’re careful not to leave scars, but those who love you can feel when your blood leaves your veins. You erase all the messages, but all it takes is getting your timing off one time and there’s nothing you can do about it. You clear your history, but your brain is missing that button. You can bury the bottle, but you renew your problem every time you empty a new one.

You can’t make yourself not want it and you can’t control how fast you need more. You have an addiction. The honeymoon period lasts a long time, but it’s not long before you realize you’re attached to a ball and chain.

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” -Proverbs 9:17 ESV

How many holes do you have to dig before you’ve dug up all your good and you’re nothing but a backyard of buried secrets? No green, no new life and you’re tripping on a rusty chain. Why would anyone take the time to wash a dog that keeps going back to his dingy holes? Maybe you’d prefer the backyard. You can be the paranoid guard of secret holes, always looking over your shoulder.

You think it would be better if nobody knew and you can get this under control by yourself. You may be able to make it to the shower before anybody sees what you brought home, but there are some things you can’t wash off. There are things you can’t fix by yourself.

These things burn images into your retina. They carve their messages into the lining of your skin. Nobody can see just how bad it is, but they watch you squirm like a worm on a hot sidewalk, like a princess with a rash, like a star athlete with a twisted ankle.

“Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.” -Proverbs 20:17 ESV

Your digging has damaged roots. You’ve isolated yourself with burned bridges. You were giddy with the attention of seduction, but now you’re just alone. Now you have to face what you’ve become. A fence climber, a gravedigger, a child left behind after a funeral.

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there. -Proverbs 9:17-18 ESV

You may describe what happened as ‘getting caught’, but you’ve got it wrong. You’ve been found. The backyard has been seized and you’re being questioned while you watch them dig up your secrets. The excruciating shame shocks your body as the cloak of darkness is ripped away. You see your naked form in the light of day and don’t recognize the emaciated mass of gray you’ve become. You’re not so sexy when everybody around you isn’t drunk on stolen water.

There will be gawkers who snap your image while you’re stripped down and squinting under the bright lights of reality. You will be let down by those who you used to respect because when the lights come on, you’ll see them for who they are, too: immature and blind. Don’t pay attention to them. You’ll see the backs of heads more than you will the kindness in eyes. It takes a team of fighters with a lot of faith and a few scars of their own to help you walk.

You’ve been found out because you have a purpose. You’ve gone through your ‘boot camp’ of sin recognition and utter helplessness so that you can be part of a team who help the fallen make the long walk home. We all have impurities in our making. A little pressure, a little heat, a little dance with the devil will make some of those dormant weeds bloom. If you can see it, you can follow it down to the source and root it out.

There are many things you may have built in your life, but if they’re not meant to be there, they’ll be destroyed.

Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. -1 Corinthians 9:13-15

If you have been caught in your sin, then your shackles have been cut. There is an upward climb through rocky woods before the open spaces of freedom. Sometimes slaves are afraid of the space between chains and freedom, but you don’t have to go this alone. There are others who have been there and there is One who has walked this before. No matter how many times you slip back and lose ground, you will never be left behind. He will never give up on you. When you can run, run. But, even if you have to crawl, keep moving.

The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. -1 Peter 5:9

thoughts on ‘pain’s purpose’

Today I’m over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee talking about ‘Pain’s Purpose’. There are many ways we respond to pain and many ways that pain is introduced to our lives. Be it sickness, injury, or our own failure, pain has a purpose. It makes us weak and it makes us want to let go. It has a purpose because where you are weak, He is strong and where you want to let go, you now have free hands to grab on to Him.

I have an analogy: Pretend that someone gave you a bucket of marbles and told you to use all of them except one of the colors. You don’t know what colors are, they’re all marbles to you. So, you try some way to separate them out based on your guesses, ease of use and feelings. Marbles that don’t roll the way you want them to are rejected for that task and marbles that are not ‘pretty’ are rejected, too. The formula doesn’t work all the time because the colors don’t match up and every task is different. What didn’t work yesterday works today. We get used to the inconsistency and learn how to roll with ‘not knowing everything.’ But there are those times where nothing makes sense and you’re standing there with a mess of marbles and no clue what to do.

Life is like that. God tells us to die to our ’selves’. We have a task to do and we can’t use a particular color of ‘marble’. We don’t know exactly what that is. It’s all ‘life’ and separating spirit from flesh is confusing. Especially if we think spiritual well being feels good to the ‘flesh.’ So, we reject things that don’t roll smooth or look pretty. Sometimes we’ve got it figured out and sometimes what worked before doesn’t work now. Sometimes we see our pain/failure/inadequacy and wonder how to complete the task to get rid of the discomfort. It’s a mess and we need clearer answers. It would be easier if we were told what that color was or what our ’selves’ were so that we could take them out of the picture.

Then it clicks…

Our pain is God telling us what our ’self’ is. Does sickness hurt your spirit or your body? Does a broken leg hurt your spirit or your body? Have you ever sinned and saw the separation between your spiritual desire and your ’selfish’ desire? When someone dies, does it hurt your heart or your spirit? Pain is a tool. Paul was given a ‘thorn in his flesh’. There are many different interpretations as to what that was. I have a few of my own. But, the outcome is the same: His flesh was marked so that he never forgot where it was. When you forget where your flesh is, you get cocky, self-righteous and impatient with others. The ‘thorn’ was a handle, a grip. It was a blessing.

At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, ‘My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.’ Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. -2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Pain, sickness, death, failure are all things that show us the difference between flesh and spirit. It only serves as a tool to help you know what not to consider when completing your task. To die to your ’self’ as instructed. These things actually make it easier for someone to do just that.

Check out the original blog and join the conversation here. I’d love to hear your thoughts. (I’ve disabled comments here, so we can all communicate in one place.)

where else would I go?

Morning fog rose up from the ground and swirled around the feet and legs of the gathered crowd.

“Rabbi, when did you get here?” -John 6:25

They were looking at him like a circus freak. Their excitement radiated around them like needle junkies looking for the next hit.

They had seen him walk through baskets of bread and meat broken from five loaves and two fish. They stuffed themselves as the buzz of new celebrity swarmed around them like drunk flies. They gawked and talked as they sprinkled their shirts with crumbs.

Jesus was their new drug.

They searched for him all morning until they finally found him.

Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free. -John 6:26

They were coming around for what they got out of it. Fat hungry flies forming a new addiction.

‘…what do we do then to get in on God’s works?” -John 6:28

There are no cheat codes for getting this. People want to know what they have to do because, although believing is the simplest instruction, it’s the hardest thing to do. They want a way to get by without giving in.

I’ve seen many people come and go. Collision victims stumble in to a Jesus experience until the guilt is gone and the new rubs off. The municipally prudent add the Jesus spice to their baking because that’s the proverbial cherry on top of a socially responsible life. Some trade the church life in for a damaged, dead-end life they can’t seem to escape otherwise. Jesus is not a band-aid, he’s not a decoration and he’s more than a lifestyle change.

There are those who have been abducted by an unmistakable overtaking of experience and witness that cannot be mistaken for anything other than the living God. They cannot deny it because the vision is forever seared into the pupils of their eyes. If I could paint you a picture, I would show you the sky. The stars in the Northern hemisphere, the sun setting across an endless ocean and the sun rising over the mountains try to tell you what no set of words can properly articulate.

Jesus said, “Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.”

They waffled: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. -John 6:29-30

‘Dance, Monkey. Then we’ll put money in your tin cup.’

All Jesus had to do was start talking ‘kingdom’ talk and not apologize for how it offends the natural senses. He says he’s the ‘Bread of Life’ and by consuming his flesh and drinking his blood, they would have eternal life.

A person will die if they don’t eat or drink. Jesus is saying he’s the source of life for the real life, the spirit life. ‘Eating and drinking’ are believing. You get eternal life by believing.

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. -John 6:35-36

For a man who spent his life walking from town to town to announce who he was and what he was doing, he never seemed to care what people thought of him. He never freaked out if people walked out while he taught. He didn’t even care if they ran off to spread the news that the Galilean lunatic was encouraging cannibalism.

Jesus didn’t care about what he looked or sounded like because what was supposed to happen would happen. It’s just a matter of time.

Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. -John 6:37

Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. -John 6:43-44

Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.” -John 6:60

“Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.” -John 61-65

Jesus was not worried about losing a follower at intersections of contention. There is always that point and the sooner you get there, the better. He knew that the group would be sifted by the truth and he said as much. It came as no surprise or discouragement that several walked away.

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. -John 6:66

I think the scripture reference numbers are interesting. 666.

Jesus turned to his twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave, too. I love the way Peter answered him. I’m with Peter.

Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? -John 6:68

inspired by John 6

purpose and insignificance

“But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.” -Isaiah 49:4

Running full steam ahead, following dusty feet through dusty paths on dusty nights. Pacing and replacing old cares for new wares and taking my fill of all shares. A one-step turns two and I can hold my own. Toe tap into the four on the floor and a little turn of my hips to earn my own tips. The sky lights spin and my laugh seeps into the spaces joining faces and I’m off to the races. A little silence and my laugh slips. A quiet record with divided time and suddenly my dance is out of rhyme. I’m looking for the feet I used to trust, the flattened foot printed dust. My hands are cold, the fear makes me old and I forget what I’m told. Grooves in the feet still hold dirt from when it didn’t hurt. Feeling disregarded, strangely uncarded, a wasted opportunity scrapped before started. Did He change His mind, am I biding with time to re-polish the same dime? One body making a pale spot on a suntanned ground. A new replacement for the last disillusioned hound. I’ve taken my lesson at the base of this mountain and I’ve yet to see the fountain. I think He’s forgotten the blisters and girl who wanted to change the world. The commission with an omission. I’ve worked out my suspicion, still set for the mission. The no named, no gamed, brutally lamed is still untamed. I’m nobody with a tsunami of Somebody busting through my pores with the might of an unquenchable light. What a sight to see a gray rock sparkle in the night. I’ll don my rags until my skin sags. No glory for the one in Someone else’s dog tags. And that’s the way it is. I’ll only be when the being is His. Running full steam ahead following dusty feet through dusty paths on dusty nights.

the hunt

what do rocks know?

They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. -Genesis 22:9-10

If I could have a conversation with Abraham, I would want to hear him talk about what he knew about God that gave his legs move.

For now, I can only guess. Abraham had seen a lot by this time. His wife had a baby, he saw fire destroy a pair of cities, a woman turn into salt, God appear as three men, the debacle with calling his wife his sister. Maybe that was it? Maybe because of what he learned when he lied about his wife, God showed him who was in control?

Abraham comes from new blood. He’s not far down the line from Adam. What kind of stories about God were passed down from Adam? Or Noah. Noah had to have some crazy stories. What did he talk about when he had too much wine from his vineyard?

Abraham’s great-grandfather never died, he was just taken up with God …long before Elijah. Whatever Abraham knew, it gave him the release to not worry about what that day looked like and just keep walking.

“Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” -Abraham, Genesis 22:5

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A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! -Mark 4:37-38

What did Jesus know that eased him enough to sleep when everyone else was sure they were going to die?

He moved about with ease. I don’t remember reading anywhere that said He was worried. He had emotions, but he had no fear. He cried with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died. He got angry at the corruption happening within the church and he was blunt and unapologetic to those who thought they were religious superiors. He even broke down in the the garden of Gethsemane because He knew they were about to murder Him, but He never panicked and never forgot…what? What did He know that made it seem, to others, that He didn’t even care?

They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” -Mark 4:38

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“I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” -Luke 19:40 NAS

What do the rocks know? What is creation aching to scream?

“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!” -Luke 19:38

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I don’t know what Abraham thought was going to happen when he brought the knife down on his son. But, he knew that God was bigger than whatever came from that day and he trusted God more than he trusted what made sense.

There is something bigger going on right now. It has deep roots and a purpose that goes way beyond your physical existence. You are a part of something. Nothing more.

The place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son is said to be the same place where God dug his fingers in the dirt to create Adam. That it was used as Araunah’s threshing floor…where chaff was separated from wheat. It’s said that David built an alter there. It’s the same place where Solomon built his temple. The same place where the temple Jesus turned tables over in was located. The same place where the temple split when Jesus died.

Abraham was asked to honor God in a place that was much bigger than he was. If that were us, we wouldn’t do it. We have learned how to make God fit into our lives and make our little worlds run the way we want. You’re a bead on a string. You’re a mist before dawn. You have a purpose, but that purpose is not you.

Abraham knew something we need to learn. He didn’t say, ‘What about me?’ because the testimony of creation would answer back, ‘What about you?’ God can do whatever He wants to do and if He asks you to be a part of it, then jump at that opportunity. Who cares what role you play…you get to play a role!

Do you know the thing you need to know that lets you sleep in peace when everything around you tells you it’s time to panic? God can do whatever He wants to do and no amount of panic will stop the storm unless He calls for it to stop. If you knew that you had a specific date assigned for your death and you could not die until then, what risks would you take and goals would you accomplish in the interim? Forget ‘live like you were dying.’ Live like you weren’t. Abraham won a battle where he was ridiculously outnumbered just because he fought it. Is it possible that he knew he wouldn’t die until his wife bore a son and so, until then, he wouldn’t live in fear?

They say that a person with no common sense and no capacity for intelligence is ‘dumb as a rock.’ But the rocks have been a witness to the timelessness of God stringing beads of stories and lives of purpose together for centuries. Rocks have seen the miracle of our Creator at work and has seen this masterpiece come together. The rocks bear witness (Josh24:27) and if you don’t get it and if it doesn’t rip through your body in an outburst of praise, the rocks will cry out in your place.

“Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework.” -Habakkuk 2:11 NAS

who brought you here?

“You would not have called to me if I had not been calling you.” –Lion, The Silver Chair by CS Lewis

Tell me about your choices again. Tell me how you chose your way.

You pick who you marry. You choose where you work. You decided where you eat and what side of the pond you drink from. You choose where you find shelter and you choose where you run.

Have you ever thought about who is giving you those choices? How many things, which you cannot control, are affecting the choices in front of you? Does the color of your skin limit or enhance your options? Does your geographical location affect your possibilities? How does your economic status play into your plans?

Do you choose who you love or does love overcome you? Would that affect who you’d marry? Do you choose what your natural abilities are or were you born with them? Does that affect what you do for a living? Do you have health issues or taste issues that limit your diet? Is that why you chose where you ate?

Whose are you? Did someone place you in this particular pasture or did you decide from some cosmic supernatural pre-birth disposition which field you would roam? Is your mother a prostitute, a farmer’s daughter or a debutante? Is your father a Saudi Arabian king, a Japanese fisherman or a truck driver from Little Rock?

Is there someone else making the big decisions? Is there some unfathomable Infinite who puts designs on us and we travel in the grooves cut out for us?

The ‘me’ in the men, who were created with skill, starts to bristle and kick against the hands at the wheel. The ‘man’ in mankind beats his chest with his fist and flexes his muscles against the One with the Book.

The Book. Older than time if time starts with dirt. The Book was written before the foundation of the world was set.

Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world’s foundation in the slaughtered Lamb’s Book of Life... -Revelation 13:6

Earth dwellers whose names weren’t written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world … -Revelation 17:8

If that’s true, then where do we come in? What about our choices?

Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do. -Psalm 139:16

What about our plans and dreams?

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. -Proverbs 19:21 NIV

What if you miss God’s call? What if you decide not to choose Jesus?

‘Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go.’ -Jesus, John 6:37

‘You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you…’ -John 15:16

So, now your control is gone. You are at the mercy of One who has written you down and planned you out. Who counts the hairs on your head? Who calls the stars by name? Who spoke the waters and land into existence? Are you greater than He? Are you shivering? You should be. But our hope is that He is Good. If you are worried, you are called. If you are called, you will come running.

Fear has no place in the knowledge of Him. How can you fear when He IS?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? -Psalm 127:1 NIV

Mother’s, stop crying. Preacher’s stop shouting. Friends, stop pushing. He holds on and He doesn’t let go.

Does this upset you? This choosing being limited by choices? Even if you were to deny it, it wouldn’t suddenly open up more choices. You can acknowledge God’s sovereignty or not, but it doesn’t change the Truth. It changes you.

Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?” Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? -Romans 9:19-20

God, in all of His terror inducing power, is GOOD (Psalm 145:9), JUST (1Thess1:6) and MERCIFUL (Daniel 9:9). In all of this intentional calling of creation, planning and writing there may be an infringement on your own authority and control. There may be coiling up within against the ‘Sovereign Strong’ (Rev1:8).

The Bible spells out the fact that God is actually God.

Have you not been paying attention? Have you not been listening? Haven’t you heard these stories all your life? Don’t you understand the foundation of all things? God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants…

So—who is like me? Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy. Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name —so magnificent!…

Why would you ever complain, … or, whine…, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. -(pulled from the last half of Isaiah 40)

So, Who brought you here and why are you afraid?

The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? -Psalm 27:1 NIV

connect

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Click here to be heard, to listen and to connect with the rest of us. I can’t wait to see you there.

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| Tags: purpose

the set up

The authors of the New Testament refer to ‘the elect’ twenty five times. The ‘elect’ are ‘God’s chosen’, God’s ‘divine selection.’ Mark called them ‘God’s chosen ones.’ Matthew called them ‘Those God has picked for Himself.’

Isaac, son of ‘Father Abraham’, was supposed to be a link in a long, long line of son’s. Yet, Isaac’s soulmate couldn’t have kids. How can God’s plan be carried out when His people can’t even make the right choices?

We spend so much of our time trying to figure out God’s will for our lives so that we don’t mess up His plan. We’re harsh to others who ‘obviously aren’t following God’s will for their lives’ and we make fear based decisions because we don’t have a clue how this thing works.

Even so, in order further to carry out God’s purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them]. -Romans 9:11 AMP

God can do (and does) whatever He wants to do. It’s in spite of you and it’s through you.

God ‘opened’ Rebecca’s womb and she carried twins. God chose Jacob before he was born and not his twin brother, Esau. God chose, yet still Esau was born first. God had a plan, man has free will and the two collided to play into God’s purpose. Lies, deception, manipulation and secrets are all part of human nature clawing for their own way and they are all used by God to fulfill His plan.

God isn’t unnerved about those who don’t understand and He’s not freaking out about those who are acting opposite of what you would think He wants. He doesn’t need you to be the MVP and He’s not concerned about ‘weak links’.

It’s because of the certainty that everything ends up the way He wants it to, that He can let the worst players have their turn on the court. He’s paid all the fines because He knows you’ll wrack them up, so He lets you play and be part of something that you would always want to be a part of, but never be able to qualify on your own.

The score is fixed. It’s been a set up from the beginning, but sometimes we forget and need a little reminder. You can’t mess this up. If He wanted to, He could hand you a piece of paper with every single one of your tailspins and wipeouts listed, but then why suck the mystery out of life? Life is a gift, it’s a chance for us to learn, grow and love.

He’s actively a part of your life, He talks to you where you are, on your level, because He wants you to win. Have you ever learned some spiritual truth right before you needed it? How about the ‘timely’ devotions that make it seem like He’s spoon feeding you through a valley of who-knows-what?

Many will find comfort in these words, but the truth remains that if it were not for God’s choosing, you would be out in the dark. None of this would make sense.

Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.” Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy. -Romans 9:14-15

God does things, allows things and uses things to play exactly the way He wants. He does this without touching our free will. He doesn’t entrust His plan to us because He knows what’s in our hearts.

He hardened Pharaoh’s heart when Moses came to lead the Israelites out of slavery. God chose Pharaoh to play a role. How does that feel?

The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, “I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power.” All we’re saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill. -Romans 9:17-18

Are you okay with that? Some find their point of submission when they hear the truth in such an unapologetic way. Pharaoh got be a huge part of God’s story of salvation….just not as a hero. Is this why our disobedience is taken care of? We don’t know what’s going on, we’re just supposed to do the best we can. Meanwhile, God gets to suck the power out of Satan’s toys when He uses them to make the world talk about how God saved them.

The only thing Satan has left is to attack what you believe. What do you believe?

Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?” -Romans 9:19

Satan convinced Adam and Eve that they could rule themselves. Before their disobedience, they didn’t even know they had a ’self’. After they chose, they were so aware that it freaked them out and sent them hiding in shame and vomit inducing remorse. Have you forgotten what it’s like to feel that? Do you still think you can choose your own way and label it ‘God’s will’? Are you so far away from where you started that when you hear about God’s sovereignty it makes you uncomfortable? Did you not get the part you wanted?

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” -Romans 9:20

God chooses and we can either submit or not, but He still gets His way. He made us with a purpose and we always just assume we’ll like the details of that purpose. If you’re after your own glory, you’ll be hugely disappointed. If you’re after His, then take your role and do your best. If it’s your failure that He used, then you’re in good company. Every character in the Bible went through it, too.

If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? -Romans 9:32

He tells us not to worry, but we worry because we don’t know what He is doing. He tells us not to be afraid and we’re still afraid because we don’t understand that He’s not bound by anything. God’s sovereignty is what we should be afraid of, but His goodness is what we should put our hope in.

Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” -Romans 10:11