Memorizing scripture is like memorizing anything. It just takes discipline to learn it. The point of scripture is to help us engage with Jesus, which will help us engage in the world differently. But remember Jesus never said, bring your bible and go to church, He said, “Love people and love God.”
The box that we hold God in only expands when we let it expands. Scripture is one of those things that can help us expand our view of God, because it comes from Him. Nobody knows God like God.
Video Clip: Remember the Titans – Denzel Washington sets up the young quarterback to succeed. A big vision of someone from the outside brings big change.
Review:
Define Idol – Something we focus on, and something we focus to give us our well-being. When we have gaps in our heart we try to fill those gaps with something other than God. And then we try to give something without power, power.
Three ways to take down idols:
St. John of the Cross – “The Dark Nights Of the Soul” - It’s a hard place where you don’t want to be. These times have a way of surfacing our attachments. At these times we can ask God, “Show me where I need you.” You don’t directly bring this on yourself.
Spiritual Practices – They are not the goal, they can become idols; however, they can help us gain control over our appetites. (i.e. reading scripture, the more I read His word, the more it gets in me)
Worship – To ascribe worth to….we just have to find the right thing (a relationship with God) to bring worth to. It’s when our hearts applaud beauty and they can’t help it. It’s a thankful heart for what it has. It is for you and I to live our lives in response to God.
Today:
To help us expand our image of God, He had to self declare, come down to our level without losing Himself (Philippians 2) and show us the glory of God.
Colossians 1:15-20 (New International Version) - The Supremacy of Christ
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
God wanted us to truly know what He was like, saving us from our sins was not the only thing, He came to reconcile Himself to all things and bring the kingdom of God to us and set it in motion. Through Jesus Christ we begin to understand the heart of God.
Jesus is 100% human and 100% God. Jesus was angry, sad and tired, if Jesus was those things, so can we.
Salvation: Jesus didn’t come to rescue Christianity. Jesus didn’t ask us to be a Christian, He asked us to follow Him. He came to restore us to the kingdom.
The Bible, the history of the world breaks into four categories.
Creation – The way life ought to be.
Fall – The way life is.
Redemption – The way life can be different.
Restoration – The way life will be.
Often the Gospel gets limited to the fall and redemption, Jesus went after what things ought to be, questioned how can it be different and how it will be different.
In the presence of Jesus Christ we really get to see the heart of God, which leads us to trusting God.
Recommend Reading: Trivialization of God – Donald W. McCullough
No comments:
Post a Comment