Patience

Patience

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is 2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

The year after 911 I saw articles in the pages of the New York Times saying basically this:  "If there is a God, considering all the horrible things that have happened in the last year, shouldn't we be mad at Him?" 

In the late 90's I never saw anybody saying, "If there is a God, in light of all the prosperity we're experiencing, shouldn't we get down on our knees and praise His holy name?"  Somehow I never saw those articles in the New York Times.  

It works corporately the way it works individually.   Things that God did 30 minutes ago feels like 30 years ago in our hearts.  Disappointments we've had 30 years ago feel like 30 minutes ago in our hearts, and that is the way we all are.  Because of that we're always freaking out because we do not have a bird's eye perspective showing that God is continually being patient with us.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Cornerstone

The Cornerstone

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller and the Scripture is 1 Peter 2:6 See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him (Jesus) will never be put to shame.

The cornerstone is your foundation.  The cornerstone of a building is the thing on which everything rested.  If the cornerstone was unsteady in any way, the whole building trembled. 

I remember talking years ago to a counselor at an Ivey League School, and she said that what is interesting is that everybody who comes to an Ivey League School made A's where they came from and somebody is going to get B's, somebody is going to get C's and a lot of them showed up on my couch.  She said that it is one thing to want good grades, but it's another thing to basically build your identity on the idea that I am smart.  When the cornerstone shakes, then the whole life shakes. 

A lot of athletes start to feel good about themselves until they retire and very often their life falls apart.   It's great to want to be an athlete, but it's another thing to build your identity on it. 

The one who puts their trust in Him will never be put to shame.  If you build your life on any other cornerstone, you will be put to shame.  You'll feel like a failure,  and you'll be shaken to the roots.  You'll feel like you don't have a self.  You have to recognize that you do have a cornerstone, and Jesus has to become precious to you. 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Thy Will Be Done

Thy Will Be Done

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Romans 1:22-24 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

To those who object to the doctrine of hell C.S. Lewis asked several questions.  What are you asking God to do?  Wipe out all past sins?  He did so on the cross. To forgive them? They will not ask for forgiveness. To leave them alone? Alas, that is what He must do.

 

Lewis points out the truth of Romans 1 – God gives people what they want.  Do you want to be your own person and live without God?  He will let you. Hell is a monument to human freedom.

 

There are two kinds of people.  There are those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, thy will be done.  It is such hell because it is a self choice. Most people have a bad view of hell – people in a pit trying to get out and God laughs and closes the lid to keep them in. Not so. No one in hell is saying let me out because God gives them up to THEIR desires.

 

2 Peter 3:9 . . . The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  We serve a God that would rather die for us than to live without us.