And tacking on to that last post, I'm gonna say:
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."
- 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
And... read the funniest 2 verses of my life today:
"The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her."
- Judges 14:6-7
Really? "He liked her"? So anticlimactic...
Often, I find myself really frustrated because I can't understand the gospel, nor can I convey it in a way that makes sense.
But I want to be a laughingstock. For if it made sense to the world, then this would not be true:
"This is why I speak to them in parables:
'Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.'"
- Matthew 13:13
Right this moment, I'm okay with it not making sense to me or to the world.
Knowing God is the best thing in life. God loves us more than we can ever know, because He sent His Son to die for us, so that we could be free from ourselves, the desires of the world, and the sin that will keep us from God. He died to make a way back to the Father, by being our righteousness and defense. He died so that the chains of sin would be broken. He died as our ransom to the kingdom of darkness, so that we could be free to serve the kingdom of light. He died so that we could receive Him and trust in Him to change our hearts to return to Him. And so I turn to love and seek Jesus, because He's my hope for change, He's the only good thing on my permanent record, and because nothing in this world can satisfy me like the presence of God.
And this morning, Psalm 71 really spoke to me. I'm really thankful because I've been anxious and confused the past week. God is faithful - if we wait on Him, He will not let us be put to shame.
"My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
of your saving acts all day long -
though I know not how to relate them all.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come."
- Psalm 71:15-18
A few excerpts from Francis Chan's Crazy Love, Chapter 6 ("When You're in Love"):
"'The critical question for our generation - and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?'"
- John Piper, God is the Gospel
"The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives."
"When you are pursuing love, running toward Christ, you do not have opportunity to wonder, Am I doing this right? or Did I serve enough this week? When you are running toward Christ, you are freed up to serve, love, and give thanks without guilt, worry, or fear. As long as you are running, you are safe."
"In reality, not one of us will ever be worthy. It is useless to attempt earning it; you will never feel ready. It is unknown and uncomfortable. But there really is a God who forgives everything and loves endlessly."
I love this chapter. This is all that matters in life, when you're in love. Loving God is the greatest joy in life - sometimes we don't believe it, but we need God for that. And Jesus died so that we could be set free from sin to experience that joy.
I was super tired today. At one point I fell asleep on the bus on what was definitely a 20-second nap, and when I opened my eyes, everyone was getting off. I was confused. That describes most of my day... and yet, tired as I might be, it ended on a good note during LIFE group after a Bible study that I stumbled through in a stupor...
This is my prayer for the next few weeks:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you...
You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit - with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.
- Psalm 51:12-13, 16-19 (NLT)
The theme of this semester has definitely been "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) for me. And as Christ works in me "to will and to act according to His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13), I pray He'll teach me to obey Him, to make His ways known to rebels, and to return them to Him. To be used for His glory like that.
And this psalm we read at the end of LIFE group today just seems to tie it all together. In spite of all the "you don't know what you're asking for"s I've gotten from people, I've been sensing and praying for brokenness. God will not reject a broken and repentant heart. And that's exactly the kind of living sacrifice I want to be.
Make it happen, God.
First things first, I've ventured on a $10 a month journey to mess with a personal website. Web tech was always over my head but the flood of lessons from being on Web Team and EECS 485 have cultured a passion for geeky things.
Therefore, this blog can now be reached at:
blog.chrisbaik.com
and my tumblr is at:
tumblr.chrisbaik.com
So..
This is what I wrote down on my phone yesterday:
"Fire fall down consume our offering show the world who is the true God"
And the thought arose when I saw a picture on BBC of Muslims in Bahrain crying at their morning prayers because of the protests and people having died there. It gave me a thought - if they are truly crying out to a false god, someone's gotta direct them to the truth.
It reminds me of the 1:450 showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah prays:
"Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."
- 1 Kings 18:37
I pray that God is going to bring about His workers in all those regions and nations where revolutions are happening. HISTORY is being made, and the Church, all people who profess to follow Christ, need to be a part of it. May God be glorified because we throw our lives upon Him and put all our faith in Him - because He is that worthy of praise.
"This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
- John 15:8
For me these days, the greatest joy seems to be the turning of our hearts back to the Father. The greatest joy of knowing Christ is knowing that through Him, we are transformed to love and desire the One who was meant to be desired. The prodigal son returns, and he returns looking not for sanctification nor gifts nor any other kind of blessing - he returns into the Father's arms. What is more meaningful in life?
Thank You, Jesus, for dying so that we might learn to desire God once again, and make Him our greatest joy. The way it was meant to be.
Give a shout if you think God is unifying His Church in a way like you've never seen before.
I'm SHOUTING. Ask me why if you see me in person. Things are crazy.
...that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
- John 17:21-23
1) I love comfort. This moment, I was just challenged as I was praying that I don't want God to move. I really don't. It's like our pastor always says, "Don't pray for revival. It's gonna mess up your schedule."
I don't want God to do amazing things through me. It makes me squirm on the inside because I know it's going to involve discomfort, and it's going to involve God doing things and not me. When I pray for amazing things to happen, my heart is seldom in it. Let that change, God.
I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.
- Psalm 44:6-8
And life isn't always going to be peaches and cream just because we trust in God either. I don't think that actually struck me until just now, but later in Psalm 44, the psalmist is basically asking God, "Why? It's not like we worshipped idols? Why are we getting screwed over? Why are our enemies victorious? What did we do to deserve this?"
And they speak the inevitable prayer of so many psalms:
Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.
- Psalm 44:26
2) In Chapter 3 of Crazy Love, Francis Chan talks about a conversation he had with someone and a question that arose from it:
If God is so loving, then why does He force us to love Him?
It was referring to the idea of hell. Why is God saying, if You don't love me, then You're going to hell? Why does he threaten us?
Francis Chan explains it as saying that God wouldn't truly be loving if He didn't use every means possible to bring us back to Him and to realize that our greatest joy is Him. I'm still kinda meh/iffy on that, but it's an acceptable answer.
On the other hand, what I do realize is that God isn't a God of empty threats. Hell is real. He's not going to say, "Just kidding, I just said that so you would try harder." No.
And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.
- Ezekiel 6:10
He's not kidding when He says hell is... yeah. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. I've never seen teeth gnashed, and that says something about hell.
And I remember this yesterday, when David told us we're gonna run this last set of suicides, and that we're gonna run another one unless we beat him. I thought he was joking. He wasn't.
I ran till I died on that one that I thought was the last, and when it turned out not to be the last, I literally died on the next one. My legs were lactic-acidified before we even started. David didn't make an empty threat. I don't think God is, either.
