I needed this today. Maybe you do too.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)
I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 45:3)
God, I know You have summoned me. You created me to bring You glory. You created me to be a part of Your story. And so I respond,
You, my friend, have also been set apart by God and summoned by Him. How will you respond?
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Astronomers admit that they cannot observe the entire universe, because it’s simply too vast for any equipment that has been made. In the Milky Way galaxy alone there are something like 10 trillion stars.
But that’s just one galaxy.
Astronomers used to estimate that there are another 10 trillion galaxies, but they have recently admitted that there are likely three times more stars than they originally thought. Which makes the total number in the observable universe 300 sextillion stars.
But here’s what is more amazing: God knows each of those stars by name!
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)
As awesome as the stars are, here’s what God thinks about you…
When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers—the moon and the stars You set in place—what are mere mortals that You should think about them, human beings that You should care for them? Yet You made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:3-5)
And most amazingly of all, God not only knows the 300 sextillion stars by name, but He knows you by name too (Exodus 33:17)!
Friend, in God’s eyes you shine brighter than a star! He knows you by name. If not one star is missing from His view, how much more does He see you!
If you’re feeling discouraged or alone or forgotten, step outside tonight and look up at the stars. God knows them all by name, but He knows you too—and He thinks the world of you!
You are not alone—God sees you and He loves you!
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Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Things seem to be going very, very well for Israel! Check out what Isaiah wrote:
Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.
Sounds like a success story to me!
But wait: the next verse sounds a bit ominous:
Their land is full of idols; the people worship things they have made with their own hands.
Money? Yes.
Influence? Lots.
Prosperity? For everyone.
Idolatry? Widespread.
They were no longer looking to God, but they were looking to what they had made with their own hands. In other words, they made Money their god.
Money can save us!
Money can fix all our problems!
Without Money we are lost!
Only those with Money can be saved!
Sadly, I believe what was said of Israel 2500 years ago could be said of the United States of America today. In God We Trust is printed on all our currency, but it really has become In Money We Trust. We have made Money our god.
Don’t believe me? How do you think most people would answer these fill-in-the-blanks:
But check out what Jesus says about clothes, food, and our means of survival.
What should go in the blank: Money or God? Again, let’s let Jesus have the final word: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13).
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This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
Bad Theology
Job’s friends came slowly to the conclusion that their view of God was right, therefore Job must be wrong. They had the ban of finality [the limitation or “curse” of having one’s mind made up] about their views, which is always the result of theology being put before God.
From Baffled To Fight Better
Putting theology before God makes a god out of my mind—and a very weak god at that. Or as G.K. Chesterton put it, “A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.”
Or maybe God said it best of all: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Job got it right. He continued to believe that God was doing something bigger than he could think or imagine. He didn’t close off his mind, or put his theology before God, or make a god out of his own ideas.
I pray that when the pressure is on, I can continue to trust God and not give in to the ban of finality.
Yesterday God closed a pretty significant door in my life. It will mean some short-term changes, but I am confident that it also means some great long-term rewards! I’m not worried; just prayerful for the next steps I need to take.
Here’s where I base my confidence:
This didn’t take God by surprise: All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
In fact, God was the One who closed this door: A man’s steps are directed by the Lord.
And now I’m just waiting: Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Or as Corrie ten Boom so beautifully said it:
As I watch the snow falling outside today, slowly covering everything in a pure, unblemished whiteness, the same thought enters my mind every year at the first snowfall. God says,
Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”
And this line from the great old hymn,
My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the Cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Doing good, seeking justice, helping the oppressed, defending orphans, and fighting for widows doesn’t cleanse my crimson sin, but when my sin has been covered I DESIRE TO do these things!
What do you think of the snow?
What do you think of God’s incredible whiteness applied to your life?
We’re fasting today.
I believe in this: Prayer + Fasting = Breakthroughs.
Even though this looks like a mathematical formula, it doesn’t work like a formula. Jesus challenged religious people who fasted just because. Jesus was really echoing the words God spoke in Isaiah about religious people simply going through pious acts, but their hearts were still far away from God. They thought God operated on a formula: “If we fast, then God has to….” It doesn’t work that way.
We met together for a time of worship and Bible study last night, and we’ll conclude our fast with corporate prayer this evening. We are focusing on our heart attitude. Not fasting just because or even the pastor asked us to. But fasting because we are hungry for God to move … for Him to break chains … for Him to set people free … for breakthroughs!
I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in us and then through us as we spend this time seeking His heart. Prayer + Fasting = Breakthroughs.
In our series on Building Blocks, I’ve been talking about the basics of a relationship with Jesus Christ. An obvious foundation for any relationship is meaningful conversation.
If you think about any close relationship you have, the closeness was developed through conversation. Gradually you began to know their voice and know their heart. Our meaningful conversation with God produces the same increased intimacy. We talk with Him through reading His Word and through prayer.
The more you read the Bible and the more you pray, the clearer His voice becomes. Isaiah said it this way:
Your own ears will hear Him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. (Isaiah 30:21)
Earlier this week I was on a long road trip, so I took our dog Grace with me. After grabbing some lunch, I wanted to find a place for Grace to run around and stretch her legs, but I was in a town I didn’t know. As I came to the end of the driveway, my next appointment would have been right, but I felt I should turn left instead.
I did, and two blocks away was a huge, grassy park where I could sit and eat my lunch and Grace could frolic to her heart’s content.
Did I actually hear a Voice? No, but I felt a Voice. His Voice. Yes, I believe God even cares about helping me find a place for my lunch and for my dog to run. He cares that much about me. And you too!
He’s speaking to you all the time. Are you listening to the Voice behind you?
Good Friday? Good for whom?
For you and me? Yes.
Good for Jesus, no. It was Bad Friday for Him, wasn’t it?
Or was it?
The writer of Hebrews says, “For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the Cross, scorning its shame.”
What joy?
It was for the joy of what was nailed to the Cross.
So what exactly was nailed to the Cross?
Isaiah records an usual statement from God –
Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
That seems unfair! We receive double (!) for our sins! Here’s a brief video where I explain what this means culturally –
Only when invoices were paid-in-full did they get doubled-up.
The Bible tells us that we’ve all sinned, and that the invoice or penalty for our sin is death. We have the IOUs of sin nailed to the door of our heart where God says “You owe Me your life!” But we cannot pay this debt by ourselves.
But Jesus can. And Jesus did! Check this out –
He personally carried our sins in His body on the Cross…. (1 Peter 2:24, NLT)
Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us. This He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to His Cross. (Colossians 2:14, AMP)
That’s what is good about Good Friday. Jesus knew that taking our sins on His body, and then allowing His body to be nailed to the Cross, would double-up and nail-down our sin once and for all!
When Jesus said, “It is finished!” He was really saying, “It is was paid-in-full!”
While I was preparing for our Spiritual Self-Defense class, Rick Warren tweeted this timely reminder: “If you spend more time defending the truth than actually sharing it, you will have missed the point of the Gospel.”
What is the point of the Gospel? Isn’t it simply that mankind is lost without God, and that only a relationship with Jesus can bring true life? If that’s the point, we can never argue someone into this divine relationship.
Here are some other thoughts I’m trying to keep in mind for this exciting class:
I’m really looking forward to leading this class, but I’m also excited about what I’m learning in the process.
Craig T. Owens 