That's Harmony

So check this out -
I've never really spent a whole lot of time thinking about the Father/Son thing that God and Jesus have, but after reading Hebrews 1, that imagery came to life more vivid in my mind than ever and I just had to write it down.

You've already clicked on it, so track with me all the way to the end! :)

Hebrews 1 says:
-God appointed Jesus as the heir of all things.
-Through Jesus, God created the world.

Can you imagine the two of them creating the world together? 

{The father directing his son's hands and empowering him to create galaxies and mold continents...and then smiling and saying, "it's GOOD!" when he's done.}

"Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God" (his father, duh) and "the exact imprint of his nature"...
                   ...This means when you look at the way Jesus lived on earth, it is the exact
                   picture of who his father is!

Imagine the coolest father/son relationship possible...
Where you can see so much love, where one knows what the other is thinking, where you look at the son and see the spitting image of his father - mannerisms, language, and all
- that's an intentional fingerprint left by our creator!

[Because God appointed Jesus and made him heir of everything and because he created the universe with him, it implies that God didn't create Jesus, but rather they have existed as father and son alongside the Spirit for all of past eternity.] 

It is in this beautiful, harmonious relationship that 
they catch the same squint on their masterpiece...
their hearts break the same for the most broken in this world...
they love the unlovable and touch the untouchable...
they dine with sinners.
                       ______________________________________________________

Here's what this means.

When Jesus died to purify us from sins, it was not only a gift of salvation, but also a proposal to enter into their beautiful relationship and harmony...
This is where our hearts will break and beat the same,
where we will experience the joy of his masterpiece in full
...as his sons and daughters!

Now just in transparency, for me, a life distant from Jesus means:
...I don't really want to dine with "prostitutes" & "tax collectors"
...it means I don't really care about the most broken people and places in this world
...it means the cool spring breezes I enjoy dearly become mere breezes
...it means I feel distant & disconnected with the people around me and with the Father, the lover of my soul

I don't really know what it looks like all the time, but ya know, I'm tryin to live all up in harmony with my Father!

Life is a response to love

Take the good things you know to be true of God: creativity, relationships, love, joy, beauty, etc...

He has enjoyed all of these things with himself (i.e. Jesus and the Holy Spirit) for ALL past eternity and 

A) he initially created us to enjoy these things with him &

B) when we spat on it, he ran to meet us and invited us back in, giving us everything!

Huh? Really?

-To us older brothers, he says, "What're you waiting for?! You're missing the point, get in here where there is dancing and feasting and love!"

Knowing this provokes me to live in response to his love, joy, and creativity. But "the freedom of living loved is not the sort of thing that happens overnight." 

So DIG DEEP into the character of God, rest in it and watch your life change! You'll find ways to stir affections for Jesus in the world around you...

Hear Past the Explosions

Sometimes, the voices in my head and the voices all around me are so loud that all I really know is this: " 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his Word."

In the midst of a chaotic reality where everything is but a shattered image of the way it was designed to be, I KNOW that "all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together." [Colossians 1:16-17]

This is a pretty good place to start...

Rest.....

&

Keep laboring in love.

[Matthew 11:28-30]

Hope...Rest!

Imagine if the universe had a personality...what if the universe, as big and infinite as it is, could think and talk? What if it had eyes and those eyes had life in them?

[ I'm not on drugs, bear with me :) ]

Think about the largest animals on earth...think about the devastating, unforgiving natural disasters on earth. What if you tried to control that stuff? Think you could? Think you can make a hurricane bow down to you? 

How unforgiving, massive, and devastating is the universe, then? What if it had a vendetta or a chip on its shoulder and it was out to get us? And what if it was your job to stand up to the universe and tell it chill out?

I don't care how strong you are, go stand in front of a tornado and tell it to bow down! Good luck...tornado don't care! 

No matter how great my "kingdom" is here on earth, the sea will never submit to me (Luke 8:25). 

Never in my lifetime, will the universe bow down to me. 

Not only does Jesus control the universe and hold it together (as if that's not enough!), the universe bows to him!

Y'all, here is hope: 

This same Jesus is the one that breathed life into your individual personality.

The same Jesus that created love and laughter and cool breezes...he same Jesus that offers life in the midst of a chaotic world (John 10:10). The same Jesus that chose to give us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3-4)...I don't even know the extent of what that means but it gives me hope! 

Seriously, when life gets chaotic, where else am I gonna go? What else is gonna hold me together and stand me up? Even the seas and storms bow down to Jesus. This I can rest in! 

Hope and Creativity

Consider this:

- God created chicken to taste so great...isn't that wild? Would you have ever thought to look at a chicken and say, "man I bet that's some good eatin right there!"? Or even seen a pig wallowing in the mud and said to yourself, "I bet if I ate the backside of that thing, it would be delicious!"

- Have you ever noticed (of course you have) that when we see/hear something funny, happy, or exciting it triggers an involuntary movement of the muscles in our faces so that we smile and laugh? 

- When you get a cut or scratch, your blood clots on its own to stop the bleeding.

- There is no way the amazing feeling of a cool breeze running through your hair and skin is merely an accident!

-God knew that one day, man would mush up peanuts and grapes and spread them on bread...I'd be willing to bet that He said, "man I can't wait for them to discover the deliciousness of peanut butter and jelly!" 

- Hot water is somehow therapeutic and can sometimes get down to my soul...doesn't have to be, but it is!

- The roasting of the fruit of the coffea tree doesn't have to produce a glorious, brown nectar (coffee)...but it does!

- There has never been an identical sunset...ultimate artistry!

- The ostrich is a bird that can't fly but can outrun most of its predators....really? That one's just for kicks :)

- You are physically capable of performing this very complex process of reading...crazy, right?

- The Bible says that the hairs on our heads are numbered...sounds elementary, but really?

- When the tiny muscles inside of a cicada were created, God knew he was making a beautiful evening chorus for us here in the South.

[This is the God of the Bible who has made all of the promises you've always heard...]

Isn't it cool to think about how the Creator of the universe created things a specific way so that they would work for your good and his glory simultaneously? 

THIS I can rest in...THIS is what can sustain me when I'm not who I thought I was or when my own self-built "kingdom" crumbles. I don't know about you, but for me, believing that God is who he says he is is essential to believing his promises of sustainment, peace, rest, joy, etc...

How can you share hope with a broken world if you don't know what you hope in?

Ain't My Universe!

"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?" -Job 38:25-27

Job 38-39 has quickly become one of my favorite pieces of Scripture....there isn't even an INKLING of anything about us in there! 

What God has essentially said in the above verses is, "Look dude, I make it rain and I take care of the parts of the Earth that no man has EVER set foot on or even knew existed! It ain't about you, this is MY universe!"

God gives us glimpses of who he is, but we're looking through a keyhole at a being that is larger than the universe.

He is creator, controller, ruler, provider, sustainer, lover, and good...I DO know those things! But as far as presuming to know exactly how God works? Man....it's his universe, he does whatever he wants to!

So regardless of circumstances or what's going on around me and in the world, I know that it's his universe, everything is his, he does what he wants and he is still good! 

And knowing this about God, believers, makes him enough! 

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him!" -John Piper

The Beauty of the Creator

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim..."

A frequent theme of my life as a believer has been my preference of creation over Creator. Like a lot of really good thoughts, in my mind it was a very "tweetable" thing to say and although very true, not real personal...but ok, in REAL LIFE, what does that look like? More than not choosing creation, how do I begin to choose the Creator?

Look at Habakkuk's prayer (Hab 3:6). Praying to God about God, Habakkuk said, "He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered."
Reread those words before moving on.

In a sense, Habakkuk says, "O Lord, I know who you are. I've heard of your power. You can do whatever you want. So because of who you are, I will take joy in you regardless of what happens!"

Habakkuk saw the beauty of the Creator.
The result (that we see) wasn't wealth or health, the result was that (in his heart) the things of earth paled in comparison to who the Creator is. An easy thing to talk about and nod our heads at in agreement, but in real life?

In a sense, the truths of the character of God exploded Habakkuk's mind. Believing that God can "look and shake nations" and "make mountains scatter" was enough for Habakkuk to throw his hands up!
"Game over, its all yours, you created everything! Why would I not trust you and take joy in you, the King of everything?"

In Romans 5:2, Paul says, "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." See how this has nothing to do with rejoicing in hope of us or in hope of what God gives us? We absolutely cannot rejoice in hope of the glory of God if the beauty of God isn't real to us. We will continue to rejoice in the things God gives us when far greater joy is offered in the rejoicing of who he is.

Paul- "For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him." Philippians 3:8

When Nebuchadnezzar woke up from his funk (Daniel 4:34-35), he said, "for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him,'What have you done?'"

It seems that the real joy in life now IS the beauty of the Creator. We were created to worship, so even if you have a basic knowledge of who God is, that should be beautiful! If all you know now is that God stood and measured the earth, looks and shakes nations...ain't that beautiful? Isn't that mind-blowing?!
How are YOU gonna make mountains scatter?

It's not just what God does that makes him beautiful, it's who he is! We get to see who he is by what he does and has done.

I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that rejoicing in the character of God makes life make more sense and more enjoyable.

It becomes about him and not about us.