Big River
I've only been white water rafting a couple of times. We went on the Ocoee River in Tennessee, and it was really fun. Sure we got tossed around a little bit, but nothing too major. In this chapter, Louie is talking about rafting down the Zambezei River in Africa (which flows out of Victoria Falls). Now that is a big time trip. It is a river filled with class IV and V rapids that kill hippos and some "that could drag a bus under." He says that they made it half way through when they decided to take a break and celebrate their survival on the shore, when their guide told them that they could continue if they wanted, but it was going to get even more dangerous the farther they went. The group decided unanimously to call it a day and just say that the river had won. Currents are dangerous, and if we aren't careful they can sweep us away.
Even more dangerous than a rushing river current is the current that still flows out of Eden. It's called pride, it was the downfall of Adam and Eve, and it is still our downfall today. It all started so well for Adam. Here he was, in a perfect world (literally) that was just days old walking and talking with the Great I AM! Then, as if it couldn't get any better, God made Eve! Soon they realized that the story wasn't about them, I mean they didn't even come on stage until day 6, and all creation was praising I AM, and not them. The problem occurred when they decided that supporting roles weren't enough for them. They wanted to be as big as God. They wanted to be I AMS instead of i am nots.
"When someone named i am not decides to live as though his or her name is really I AM, one consequence always follows: death."
The danger to trying to make ourselves out to be bigger than we are is this: "...we might succeed-at least in earthly terms-in making a name for ourselves. We night draw a crowd, grab some fame, amass some riches, hear the roar of applause. We might succeed at building a tower to the sky with our name emblazoned on it. All that hard work, only to have the River Pride deposit us on a sandbar called "The End." And in that moment, when the tiny story of us comes to a close, all the glory we could garner for ourselves will fade to nothing." But Jesus "gave Himself for us so that we could die to self-fame, self-glory, self-effort, self-centeredness, and the self-stories that are quickly coming to an end."
You see we don't need the spotlight, because we already know the star! "Not only do we know I AM, but I AM lives in us. He displays His power in us and glorifies His name through us. And in so doing we stake our claim in immortality, sowing our lives for His renown, investing in the applause of heaven that never, ever ends."
There will still be times when we are swept away in the current of pride. But we can rest easy in the fact that I AM is there to save us from the death we deserve. "The truth is we can be free of sin's power when we die to pride and self, and live instead in the powerful current of Christ's life in us-that eternal kind of life flowing in the veins of all who put their trust in Him."
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Chapter 3: BEcame
I've never been to Israel, although I've always wanted to go. Louie talks about a church called the Church of the Annunciation at the beginning of this chapter. It is located in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. It gets its name because it was in that little village that the angel appeared to Mary to give her the news of Jesus' birth. Inscribed above the entrance to the church is a Latin phrase which means, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,' which we read in John chapter 1. He says that he dwelled on those words for the next several days, one word per day. The first day was simply the word 'and.' I don't know about you, but I don't know how much time I could spend just thinking about the word and. Louie however pointed out that when you put this word in its context, it summarizes the entire Old Testament! It is as if God is saying, you remember all that stuff that happened back there? The flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Goliath, all of it...you haven't seen anything yet! The next day he got to the word 'the.' Well, the only thing more exciting than 'and' is 'the' right? But think about this, the whole verse hinges on this word. "God did one thing. He sent one Son to be the way. John doesn't right that a Word became flesh. Or that some Word became flesh. Or that the flavor-of-the-day Word became flesh. And certainly not that one of many Words became flesh. John carefully wrote the Word. He was saying that Jesus is the Christ, the only Word there has ever been or ever will be.
Next he comes to 'Word' with a capital w. He is talking about Jesus. Next is the word 'became.' It is a great word! 'Do you see it? Became is a compound word, meaning it is comprised of two words-the word be and the word came. Wow, now do you see it? This verse is about Jesus, the one who bears the same name as the God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush. That day God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM-I AM THAT I AM-the present tense, active form of the verb, to be. Or, simply, BE. God told Moses His name is BE, the very name Jesus used when He claimed, 'Before Abraham was, I AM.' In an instant, became became BE came, and I wanted to shout for joy. Wake the world. Jesus came! BE came! I AM came! But in a most surprising form."
Flesh is the next word in the verse. "BE came flesh. God arrived with skin, the Divine in the form of a sweaty, laughing boy playing with other kids in a narrow street on a summer afternoon. Why does it matter? Because you can touch flesh. You can identify with flesh. You can wrap your arms around flesh and feel its heartbeat. You can hear the voice of flesh and look into its eyes. And if you're searching for a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, you can pierce flesh and it will bleed. You can nail flesh to a cross."
We'll move quickly through the rest. Next is 'and.' Jesus didn't just come in skin and move into Nazareth, there's more. Next is 'dwelled.' He didn't come to sit in a palace, he came to be one of us, to live like us. To feel all the joy and the hurt and the pain that everyone else feels. Next is 'among.' Not only did He come and live here, but He did it with people! He didn't just live out in the desert or on some island, His passion was for people. So he lived with them. And finally 'us.' Jesus didn't just come for certain people. He didn't just come for a chosen few. He came for us, for all, for everyone. The great I AM came to earth for all the little i am nots. Wow. 'The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.'
Enjoy the Journey
I've never been to Israel, although I've always wanted to go. Louie talks about a church called the Church of the Annunciation at the beginning of this chapter. It is located in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. It gets its name because it was in that little village that the angel appeared to Mary to give her the news of Jesus' birth. Inscribed above the entrance to the church is a Latin phrase which means, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,' which we read in John chapter 1. He says that he dwelled on those words for the next several days, one word per day. The first day was simply the word 'and.' I don't know about you, but I don't know how much time I could spend just thinking about the word and. Louie however pointed out that when you put this word in its context, it summarizes the entire Old Testament! It is as if God is saying, you remember all that stuff that happened back there? The flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Goliath, all of it...you haven't seen anything yet! The next day he got to the word 'the.' Well, the only thing more exciting than 'and' is 'the' right? But think about this, the whole verse hinges on this word. "God did one thing. He sent one Son to be the way. John doesn't right that a Word became flesh. Or that some Word became flesh. Or that the flavor-of-the-day Word became flesh. And certainly not that one of many Words became flesh. John carefully wrote the Word. He was saying that Jesus is the Christ, the only Word there has ever been or ever will be.
Next he comes to 'Word' with a capital w. He is talking about Jesus. Next is the word 'became.' It is a great word! 'Do you see it? Became is a compound word, meaning it is comprised of two words-the word be and the word came. Wow, now do you see it? This verse is about Jesus, the one who bears the same name as the God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush. That day God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM-I AM THAT I AM-the present tense, active form of the verb, to be. Or, simply, BE. God told Moses His name is BE, the very name Jesus used when He claimed, 'Before Abraham was, I AM.' In an instant, became became BE came, and I wanted to shout for joy. Wake the world. Jesus came! BE came! I AM came! But in a most surprising form."
Flesh is the next word in the verse. "BE came flesh. God arrived with skin, the Divine in the form of a sweaty, laughing boy playing with other kids in a narrow street on a summer afternoon. Why does it matter? Because you can touch flesh. You can identify with flesh. You can wrap your arms around flesh and feel its heartbeat. You can hear the voice of flesh and look into its eyes. And if you're searching for a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, you can pierce flesh and it will bleed. You can nail flesh to a cross."
We'll move quickly through the rest. Next is 'and.' Jesus didn't just come in skin and move into Nazareth, there's more. Next is 'dwelled.' He didn't come to sit in a palace, he came to be one of us, to live like us. To feel all the joy and the hurt and the pain that everyone else feels. Next is 'among.' Not only did He come and live here, but He did it with people! He didn't just live out in the desert or on some island, His passion was for people. So he lived with them. And finally 'us.' Jesus didn't just come for certain people. He didn't just come for a chosen few. He came for us, for all, for everyone. The great I AM came to earth for all the little i am nots. Wow. 'The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.'
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Light Flies
Light does fly. It flies at 186,000 miles per second. Snap your finger one time. Light just traveled around the globe seven times! Astrophysicists have discovered what is the farthest known object from earth that is 13 billion light years away! A lightyear is the distance light travels in a year, and it travels 186,000 miles per second, so a lightyear is 5.88 trillion miles! Wow. I thought driving to Kentucky was far. To put that in perspective. It is about 3,000 miles from Atlanta to LA. We live on a tiny planet that orbits our sun, which is 25,000 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. And just like our planets orbit the sun, our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, but it will take it 250 million earth years to complete one rotation! To sum it up, "We have no idea just how big the universe is, but it's so big we have to use a ruler that's 5.88 trillion miles long to measure stuff. The ruler is called a light year."
That may seem a little overwhelming, but all of that is just a speck to God. Scripture says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. God is the one who makes light fly. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers (to Him). He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 'To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
"God is constant. He blinks and a lifetime comes and goes. To Him one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. All of human history could be written on His fingernail, with plenty of room left over for more. And God is doing well today, thanks you. He has no dilemmas. No quandaries. No counselors. No shortages. No rivals. No fears. No cracks. No worries. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, and self-aware. In other words, He's God and He knows it."
Us on the other hand..."You and I are tiny. Miniscule. Transient. Microscopic. A momentary and infinitesimal blip on the timeline of the universe. A seemingly undetectable alliance of dust particles held together by the breath of God. If this fact makes you just a tad bit uncomfortable, you're not alone. Invariably, when I talk about the vastness of God and the cosmos, someone will say, 'You're making me feel bad about myself and making me feel really, really small,' as if that's the worst thing that could happen. But the point is not to make you FEEL small, rather to help you see and embrace the reality that you ARE small. Really, really small."
But the great thing is that though we are just dust particles held together by the breath of God, we are loved by the God of all Creation! So we can say proudly, "I am not, but He knows my name. I am not, but He has pursued me in His love. I am not, but I have been purchased and redeemed. I am not, but I have been invited into The Story, I am not, but I know the Creator of the universe. I am not, but I know I AM!" We are small, but we are on a first name basis with I AM! We are galactic nobody's...99.99% of people on the planet have never heard of us, but God knows everything about us.
So I can live with that shrinking feeling. Because at the end of the day, the only One who really matters, the great I AM, knows me and loves me! That is awesome.
Enjoy the Journey
Light does fly. It flies at 186,000 miles per second. Snap your finger one time. Light just traveled around the globe seven times! Astrophysicists have discovered what is the farthest known object from earth that is 13 billion light years away! A lightyear is the distance light travels in a year, and it travels 186,000 miles per second, so a lightyear is 5.88 trillion miles! Wow. I thought driving to Kentucky was far. To put that in perspective. It is about 3,000 miles from Atlanta to LA. We live on a tiny planet that orbits our sun, which is 25,000 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. And just like our planets orbit the sun, our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, but it will take it 250 million earth years to complete one rotation! To sum it up, "We have no idea just how big the universe is, but it's so big we have to use a ruler that's 5.88 trillion miles long to measure stuff. The ruler is called a light year."
That may seem a little overwhelming, but all of that is just a speck to God. Scripture says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. God is the one who makes light fly. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers (to Him). He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 'To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
"God is constant. He blinks and a lifetime comes and goes. To Him one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. All of human history could be written on His fingernail, with plenty of room left over for more. And God is doing well today, thanks you. He has no dilemmas. No quandaries. No counselors. No shortages. No rivals. No fears. No cracks. No worries. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, and self-aware. In other words, He's God and He knows it."
Us on the other hand..."You and I are tiny. Miniscule. Transient. Microscopic. A momentary and infinitesimal blip on the timeline of the universe. A seemingly undetectable alliance of dust particles held together by the breath of God. If this fact makes you just a tad bit uncomfortable, you're not alone. Invariably, when I talk about the vastness of God and the cosmos, someone will say, 'You're making me feel bad about myself and making me feel really, really small,' as if that's the worst thing that could happen. But the point is not to make you FEEL small, rather to help you see and embrace the reality that you ARE small. Really, really small."
But the great thing is that though we are just dust particles held together by the breath of God, we are loved by the God of all Creation! So we can say proudly, "I am not, but He knows my name. I am not, but He has pursued me in His love. I am not, but I have been purchased and redeemed. I am not, but I have been invited into The Story, I am not, but I know the Creator of the universe. I am not, but I know I AM!" We are small, but we are on a first name basis with I AM! We are galactic nobody's...99.99% of people on the planet have never heard of us, but God knows everything about us.
So I can live with that shrinking feeling. Because at the end of the day, the only One who really matters, the great I AM, knows me and loves me! That is awesome.
Enjoy the Journey
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