Oh, The Humanity!

It's been a few days since i have posted and a few things have happened in the lives of people around me. There have been numerous stories of loved ones battling cancer, loved ones dying, people breaking up, people getting sick. A question that is usually asked when things like this happen is "why?" Why did this person have to go through this at such a young age? Why did this happen to me? Why do I have to go through this and the person who seems to be doing all the wrong things is sitting on his pedestal, seemingly loving life? Why do bad things happen to good people? For that matter, why do bad things happen to anybody? Why? Why? WHY????

Why is a tough question to answer, no matter who you are. However, we are just finite pieces of dust. We don't know all of the big picture. There is no way to possibly know why certain things happen. I mean, sure, science can try to explain why things like cancer and death and sickness and any kind of hurt happens, bu they are missing the point. There is something bigger going on, something that none of us can possibly understand. Here is some good news. The God of the universe knows why. The God that I serve knows why these things happen. He is not surprised by any of them. God knows what is going on everywhere. He does not just wake up one day and say, "Oh look, Jeremy just died. I wonder how that happened..." If He did that, He wouldn't really be God, would He?

Check this out - Jesus, the only begotten Son of God came to earth and lived among us. Jesus was fully God and fully man, a phenomenon known as the hypostatic union. This means that while He was one, He was also the other. It's like being in two places at once, but better. So Jesus, who is and was fully God, came to earth and lived as one of us, setting aside His status as God so that He could be with us. So he could feel like us, taste like us, laugh with us, cry with us, die FOR us. You might be asking yourself where I am going with this. Hang on, I am getting there - I do remember that the aim of this blog is to figure out how to glorify God in all things.

In the book of Colossians, the first chapter talks about the preeminence of Christ (1:15-20) and what this means. Without going into a TON of detail, let me just explain what this means. I am just going to paste the Scripture here so that you can follow along with my train of thought.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1&version=ESV

First of all, it begins by saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. This means that if we want to know who God is, we look to Jesus. Like I explained before, Jesus was fully God and fully man. Next is the important part. Not that it isn't all important, but this is important to fully get what is being said here. Verses 16 &17 say that in Him all things are and were and always will be. All things are held together by Him. This means that all things, good and bad, whether we see them or not, are made for His glory. This means that nothing happens that He does not know about and that it is all for His glory. Sickness, death, cancer, heartache, He knows it all. He experienced it all when He was on earth. Finally, it says that He is the head of the church and that all of God was pleased to dwell within Him, and that Jesus sacrificed himself to make peace between God and those who believe, by the cross.

Let me tie this all together. The purpose of this blog is to figure out how to glorify God in everything. I am not going to sugar coat this. This includes all of these bad things that I have mentioned. This means we glorify Him in the good an the bad. So how do we glorify God through all the bad things? How do we glorify God through all of the "why's" in our lives? Well, and this is easier said than done, we lay it before God. We lay it at the feet of King Jesus. Jesus knows what is going on. Once again, Jesus lived through this stuff. If it is all for His glory, then we should be able to glorify God through everything. This does not mean that we should never be sad or angry or upset. Jesus cried, got angry, and was upset with His disciples more than once. This means that through these emotions, we glorify God. A friend and I were talking about this the other day, which is what sparked this blog entry. She said, "Instead of why, we should ask "how"." How can God be glorified in this situation? How can I glorify God with how I am feeling? How can God be attempting to show me his glory through this?

You see, it's not about why bad things happen. It's about how, even through these trials, we can glorify God. There will always be another trial to get through, to the day that eventually we die, and then that gives a trial to our loved ones. If we go through life asking God why, we will miss His greater picture of the glory that He is trying to show us. So, if you are going through a trial today, tomorrow or next year, remember that it is ultimately for God's glory. Remember that all things are held together by Him and that He has you in His very capable hands. To glorify God...

Sacrifice

This past week has been a very interesting week for me to say the least. I had to give up something that was great in my life. But the reason I had to give it up was so that somebody else could further glorify God. Now, if you have ever been in this predicament, you know that it is a bittersweet feeling. You know you want to glorify God in all that you do, but you know that you don't want to let go of something that you thought was in God's will and also something that makes you happy. Recently I was leading a Jr. High small group and we were talking about Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make, even though it was his only son. Think about giving up something so important to you that you know you could not stand to let it go. You would hate it wouldn't you? Now think about giving it up to glorify God. Does it make it any more appealing? If your answer was no, then in my opinion, you are not of the right mindset to even be sacrificing. However, if your answer was yes, then it is truly in your heart that you want to please God in everything you do. Making sacrifices to God will not always be easy, and I am not saying that you will always enjoy it. However, the pleasure that your true sacrifices bring to God should make you want to do it all the more. It is not about the sacrifice. If it were, it would be about you. It is about the heart behind the sacrifice. This makes it about God and about an act of worship rather than an act of religion and legalism. It is so easy to say the words to God..."I surrender." However, the action that follows is not easy. The action is what makes it count. The action is what gives it meaning. The action shows whether it has truly been laid at His feet or whether it was laid there for a moment but then picked back up again the moment we feel it is out of our hands and out of our control. Jesus does not want our words (our burnt offerings) He wants our hearts, because out of the heart flows what is really meaningful to the person. We also need to think of the ultimate sacrifice that both Jesus the Son, and God the Father made when Jesus came to earth and laid down his life as a living sacrifice for our iniquities. Can any earthly sacrifice we make even begin to compare to this? NO! Then why do we find it so hard to sacrifice things that will eventually fade? Why is it that we can't just glorify God in everything we do? Why is it that we keep on doing the wrong we know we should not be doing, when the good that God wants us to do is so much more important? This is part of this struggle. Why can't I just glorify God and lay it all at his feet? The lyrics of Carl Cartee in his song "Honestly" best describes how I feel. "Could I let go of all that you've given, if it meant that it all would be yours? Could I sit at your feet and forget about me, and remember what I'm here for?" It is all His! None of it is ours. Not our hard earned money. Not our time. Not our lives. So why, if God sacrificed His only son, can we not sacrifice stuff that doesn't even belong to us? I think to glorify God in everything, we need to realize that nothing we have is ours. Nothing we do is by our strength. Only when we come to this very humbling realization can we truly lay it all at His feet. Only then can we glorify Him in true sacrifice. This is not to say we need to be perfect or anywhere close to it to make true sacrifice. Far from it! This is saying that when we realize that it is by Him that we do all things will we be able to have the strength through Him to lay it down. Permanently.

What does it mean?

What does it mean to glorify God in everything we do? Honestly, I have no idea. But through blogging throughout the summer and growing at the same time, hopefully I can shed some light on this. There will be sometimes where there is just a poem. There will be some weeks that go by and there is nothing posted. However, I hope to post as often as I can, so that I can keep up with this crazy summer and so can you. Now, if you are reading this, you might be thinking, what do I care about how his summer goes? Well, in all reality, you just might not. But this is my blog, so I will post whatever I want :P. Anyways, if you do find yourself reading this, I would appreciate your input as well. A lot of the hard stuff in life is learned through debating and learning from each others' mistakes. By all means, comment - though please try to avoid bashing other people. The whole idea of this blog is to try to figure out what glorifying God in everything can look like. Whether it is going on a missions trip, or just flying a kite, or talking to friends over coffee or going to a baseball game, it is important that we glorify God through everything. Recently I heard a sermon that said something like "just to enjoy the gifts that God gave us is an act of worship in itself. We don't always need to say God or Jesus or Holy Spirit or bring them into conversations to glorify them." This was so interesting to me because it really changed the meaning of the question "What does it mean to glorify God with everything I have?" So, that was the basis of me wanting to start this blog. Hopefully, though I am going to say I doubt it because God is so infinite we can't even fathom it, by the end of this summer I can have some sort of grasp of what it means to glorify God in everything. It is also my prayer that through this you would all be blessed and understand more in your own life what it means to glorify God. Everyone WILL be different, so if I say something that doesn't fit your life exactly, try something else. Or if someone else says something to the same effect, these posts are NOT direct attacks on anybody ever. Hence being able to glorify God in all things :P Anyways, that's it for this post. If you have any ideas of what I could write on or a question, just email me. May the blessings of God be upon you wherever this finds you.