Most of us go through life unable to see through the veil of history. The future is a mystery that only God knows. Sometimes, however, he gives a glimpse, and in the Bible, those glimpses often look like catastrophic judgement. This is an uncomfortable topic, but one that should lead us, ultimately, to rejoice. Painting by David Teniers the Younger.
Today, we open up the mailbag and answer listener questions. Topics covered include emotion in worship, God's judgement, and the relationship between covetousness and greed. Photo from Archives New Zealand
All of us have a worship problem. "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord,and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee," Augustine famously penned of God. We were made to worship God, and anything less will ultimately fail to satisfy.
For many people, worship conjures up the sight and sounds of incense, bells, and singing. But worship is something much bigger. Worship happens every day in every sphere of life. All of us worship something, but we were made to worship only one thing: God himself.
In the wilderness of everyday life, it can be hard to believe that anything of any significance is really going on. Moses felt it, Jacob felt it, we all feel it. But behind all the ordinariness, God is at work and God is here, even if we cannot see. Photo by Rod Waddington
What can man do to us? A lot, actually. Trusting God does not prevent us from suffering and there may be some things we never understand this side of Christ's return. Nevertheless, God's blessing will prevail.
Life can be discouraging sometimes—both for us as individuals, but also collectively as God's people. The church is in constant conflict with the powers of the age and sometimes it seems as though they will win. The book of Exodus assures us that God promises to bless his people, whatever they might think, and through them to bless the world.
None of us live as isolated individuals. All of us come into contact with others, and our actions have consequences. Some of them are eternal. Christians are to make disciples of all nations, including their own backyards. Thankfully, we are not called to do it alone, but to encourage and spur one another along in love.
It is entirely possible to live life totally unaware of the things that really matter. There are spiritual realities towards which many have never been awoken, or have simply fallen asleep. God exhorts us to, but also give us the tools and the stamina to stay awake; chiefly through prayer.
True Christianity is spiritually comforting, but it is also supremely practical. True Christianity informs the lives of young and old, parents and children, employers and employees.
"I'm spiritual, not religious." This increasingly common statement has a vagueness to it. What does it mean to be spiritual? Often spirituality is meant to comfort us, but rarely does it make demands on us. True Christianity is different: it is supremely practical, affecting not just our "spirituality," but also the stuff of life such as marriage, parenting, and work.
Is living morally just a matter of "fake it until you make it?" Not if you are united with Christ! If you have placed your faith in Christ, who you are is fundamentally different. You, in Christ, are merciful, gentle, honest, and loving. All of life is learning to "put on Christ" and become who you already are.
You've received more than you can possibly imagine if you are united with Christ. And one of the great tragedies is that many who are in Christ are not taking hold of the life they now have in Jesus. You are called to be proactive in our Christian growth, not in order to work our way up to God, but because that is now what you are: you are you with Jesus.
Christian growth means becoming who we are in Christ. That involves changing direction, learning to put behind us the way we used to be—to lose our old habits, which are no longer true to our identity.
When you become a Christian, you experience an inexpressibly significant shift in who you are. Christian growth means learning how to be true to your new self.
One of the great dangers Christians face is to fall back into religiosity. We forget what it means that our new identity is "me with Jesus," and seek to move toward God entirely apart from Christ. We do "good things" for the wrong reasons, to our deep spiritual harm.
Is Christianity a religion? Not if by religion we mean a system of rituals and behaviors that enable us to get close to God. Using that definition, Christianity is the anti-religion. Colossians 2:11-23
How do we grow? By daily choosing to receive the gift that we have in Jesus, by seeking more of Jesus. Colossians gives us 3 metaphors for this pursuit: walking in Christ, being rooted in Jesus, and being built up in Jesus. Passage: Colossians 2:6-10
Colossians warns us of a danger we rarely notice. "Philosophies"--ways of thinking--threaten to take us captive. Whether it's "Follow Your Bliss" or modern secularism, or another mindset altogether, these human ways of understanding ourselves and this world can ruin us, because they can pull us away from Christ. When we feel unsettled or incomplete, Colossians tells us that our problem is not that we need more THAN Jesus. It's that we need more OF Jesus. Passage: Colossians 2:6-10...
When we find ourselves in "the dip" we are uniquely vulnerable to temptation. We can experience physical temptations, disillusionment, and the desire to give up on our faith altogether. The truth the Colossians gives us to battle these is that there is inexpressible glory and joy found in Christ for those who wait on him.
Business guru Seth Godin speaks of the difficulty of "the dip." When we set out to accomplish something, if it's anything of significance, we will eventually come to a point in time when the effort we invest does not seem to yield any progress or success. We are faced with a decision. Is this a dead end, where we should turn back? Or is this something we should push through in order to achieve our goal? Is this "the dip?" Christian growth involves an experience of the dip. As we seek to grow, we...
Our world is tearing apart because we've lost our true center. We're not as important as we think we are, and Christ is far more important than we possibly can imagine. God shows his unimaginable love for us by in Christ renovating this broken world, renovating us, that all things in Christ might become what they were created to be. Passage: Colossians 1:12-23
Our greatest problem, and the central reason we do not grow, has to do with our center. As long as we maintain a sense of entitlement, as long as we see ourselves as the center of our own lives, our souls will be sick. Wholeness comes only as "self" recedes from the center of our lives and Christ, who is the center of the universe, becomes the center of who we are. Passage: Colossians 1:12-23
Why is it that we are stuck? Why do we have a hard time growing? Quite often the reason is fear. We do not grow because we are afraid. The gospel, when rightly understood, is a fear-killer. It proclaims God's grace, which means we don't need to be afraid of our past, and it proclaims the hope that we have from God, which means we don't need to be afraid of our future. And so Paul prays that we would be changed as we are filled with the knowledge of God's gracious and hope-bringing will. Passage:...
We begin our first season by considering a common human predicament: stuckness. Most of us feel a desire to grow in our lives, in our relationships with others, and even in our relationship with God. And yet we can often feel thwarted, incapable of making progress. This frustration raises a question: is true growth actually possible? Paul's letter to the Colossian church answers this decisively. Yes, you can grow--through the gospel. Passage: Colossians 1:1-14
Welcome to Gospel Mindfulness, a podcast created to awaken you to the realities of who God is and how he makes a difference in the simple moments of every day. Meet your co-hosts Betsy Hart and Geoff Ziegler as they introduce this new podcast.
