I 'm sitting here at my desk at a very awful hour and yet, I find myself going over some things that really have struck a chord for me. I have been thinking about Louie Giglio's message "Indescribable" and just how true his message is.
Louie tells about how great God's universe is and about just how small and insignificant we really are. God is completely sovereign...Who has authority over God? Who has power over God? Nobody! God is the creator of everything and we are just a tiny speck, not even big enough to be called microscopic, in the whole of God's creation. Now, I know many people could find that as a discouraging thing; I did at first. But I have gotten to thinking about it from a new perspective.
Pastor John Piper has said that living in America is possibly the hardest place in the world to be a christian...and I believe he is right. Piper did not mean that we have more threats and dangers to face here than anywhere else. Obviously it is more dangerous to be a christian in one of the many places in the world where christians are killed just for being christian. What He meant is that unlike most other places in the world, America is a place where we have a whacked out sense of self that really can make it difficult to truly see God as infinitely valuable above all things.
Looking at everything that we have been able to see of God's creation, it makes it obvious that we are very small. We could blow up this planet tomorrow and honestly, the universe would still be here just as if nothing had happened. The problem is that we don't always see that. We are by nature a very selfish people here in america. We have that "American Way" type of thinking that we can be self made and important based on our freedoms that our country give us.
I believe that the idea that we are small and insignificant in all of creation is very uplifting. What makes that so amazing is something simple, yet extremely important and profound. God looks at us...as unimportant and small as we are, and has made the decision to love us and to value us and to care about us...so much so that he sent his Son here to die both for our sins and to display the greatness of the glory of his grace to us. If you think of us as having great value in and of ourselves, you lose a bit of just how amazing that really is. God has given us worth and knows us each by name and loves us and cares for us...even though we are in and of ourselves completely worthless. THAT is something that is truly indescribable.
Now..to go to the flipside of this. I was in a discussion earlier this evening with a friend and our topic was sin. I won't go into the details for the sake of not turning this into a book, but put yourself in the mindset that we are of no value other than the value that God gives us. Think about how amazing that grace and love is that we do not deserve. Now...think about how much it has to disappoint God and how hurtful it is to God when we sin. The bible says that God DETESTS sin. I know it is sometimes hard to truly grasp how horrible sin is. I struggle with that all the time...When I thought of this tonight, I nearly was brought to tears...God does so much for us when we deserve nothing...yet we continue to sin.
Thinking about all of this has made me aware of just how badly I need to recommit myself to God; not just now, but every day. God is the one who truly holds everything together. As the song says "Jesus paid it all. ALL to Him I owe." We owe everything to God. My prayer is that this 'rant' of mine is used by God to touch somebody and that it is used by God to help lead others to have the same passion to recommit themselves to the Lord of all...The one we owe EVERYTHING to. God bless you!
I can't seem to find the right words to respond to this. So all I will say is that I very much appreciated your thoughts and am proud to watch you grow in Christ.
Posted by: Miranda | January 27, 2009 at 11:13 AM