Praise God!

“I will praise God’s name with song 

and exalt Him with thanksgiving. 

That will please Yahweh more than an ox, 

more than a bull with horns and hooves.”

Psalms 69:30-31 

Praise is a beautiful thing, like praising a child for a job well done at a science project or the praise of a lover for being attractive, but what is the meaning of praise? 

Praise is adoration.

Praise necessitates contemplation.

Praise is uplifting and buoys the heart of the praised. 

Praise renders a person to joy. 

Who gets more out of praise?  

The one who is praising or the one who is praised?

Before we answer that we should define what "more" is.  More what?  

The praiser gets more out of praise if joy is the main substance.  However, if being the object of affection is the substance then the one being praise obviously gets more.  

So looking at the two it would mean pinpointing what it is you want more of in one's life.  Are you living for the joy set before you or to be the object of praise?

If praise feels good--being praised by others--it's because feeling like the object of affection is really nice.  And, if you love to praise it means you have found joy in the objects of your affection.  Such as praising a child or a lover.  

“I will praise (to become a praiser)

God’s name (object of our praise) 

with song and exalt Him with thanksgiving. 

That will please Yahweh (the praised)

more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves.” 

Psalms 69:30-31

To praise God is perfectly good because God is an eternal object of praise.  

This means that our joy is fueled from His existence, and when we praise we have affections for our object of praise being stirred within us:  we have love and joy in our hearts because we have an object at which our praise can be directed towards.  When the object of our affection is praised we get joy, because that is the goal and saturation of what or who we are finding joy in beholding, but if the object of our affections dies, our joy dies too.  It is like a plug without an outlet.  We have an ability to praise but no object to direct it towards when the object disintegrates.  Which is why God is the perfect object of our affections, because He cannot ever die or disintegrate.  When our joy is plugged into God we have an endless supply of His existence to keep our joy alive forever.  

So what is the wrong kind of praise?  Well, perhaps instead of the word wrong it would be more descriptive to use the word temporary.  There is a praise or a joy that comes from praising things that make us happy, but those things may not last.  In fact, we know most things will not last, and their mortality makes us rush to get all the joy out of them that we can before it dies or disintegrates.  This is called rushing toward fatality.  People live with this kind of joy all the time.  To find something and then hold on to it for as long as possible until it dies or fades out.  They know it will...one day.  So they do what they can until that day comes. 

Is that the only way to live or is there a way to live that does not rush toward the reality of all things being temporary.  Sometimes that kind of life can make life fun, but it cannot erase the fact that when objects of our affections die our joy in them must die too.  It's all fun and games until ...it's not.  

So, can we live for eternity?  

For all things being forever?  

And if so, which is better and why? 

These are the things I think about. 

I think God desires for us to have joy for all eternity, and that is why He made us for Himself.  Once we find our main source of joy in Him we are more able to enjoy the temporary joys in this life as well.  Understanding that they will come to an end, but that's okay because our true joy will never come to an end so long as our true object of affections remains alive.  

Praise God, praise God, praise God! 

What stirs or gets your affections for Christ going?  What makes you fall more and more deeply in love with Him?  If you don't know, then seeking to know or find out would be a worthwhile venture.  

Fall in love with God today. 

Jmegrey

You are right (but first you were wrong)

A message to my spiritual family, 

“For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

John 3:17

You've heard the saying "the healthy don't need a doctor, only the sick do".  Feeling "healthy" or fine can actually be detrimental for a Christian.  That sounds bad, but hear me out. 

Do you know that there's something wrong with you?  

Or do you find it much easier to find something wrong about other people?  

It's easier to blame others while justifying ourselves and we do that naturally all day long!  

It's not because other people aren't wrong, they probably are very wrong!  But we neglect to see the extent of our own wrong because everyone has a deep longing to be right....to be righteous.  We were made in the image of God so deep down we all desire to be true--even if we get there by making others more wrong.  

So, HOW do you get to being "right"?  

Is it by a sense of your own understanding or logic?  By educating yourself?

Is it because you worked on being "right" and "good"? 

Or do you get there by you realizing you're actually wrong and Jesus's gift of His being right is now yours to take. 

Just. Like. That.  No work.  

Just freebie righteousness. 

It matters HOW you get to your sense of "right."

Jesus shows us the ONLY way to truth, to being right, to obtain righteousness.  TO FREEDOM.  

That is by believing in Him and the gospel which says that we were dead in our own sin when Christ died to take our sins away and in return put His obedience/rightness on us for free.  (Romans 5:8) 

So if you believe in Jesus it means you believe that the only reason you're now true and right is because 

Jesus and you made an exchange: 

your lies and disobedience to God 

(what He got from you) 

for His truth and obedience/rightness 

(what you got from Him.). 

This gift means it's free....there's no work involved.  You just receive it.  

You know you've received this when you realize you can't even judge anyone anymore because the "right" that you are is not your own, and you yourself were not judged by God prior to recieving it.  Jesus took your place of being judged by God and forsaken.  Now you get what Jesus had which is adoption into God's family as a child of God. 

Your identity as being right is grounded in a gift not a sense of "I earned this."  Which means you are aware that everyone else is on the same plane as you.  

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

Do you know this gospel truth for yourself?  That you are actually more wrong than you think?  That you actually benefit from realizing how wrong you are, and that being wrong leads you to see the truth that will set you free? 

As children we are wrong and we are right, and it matters HOW we understand to be one and the other.  

Be washed in truth today family, it is what will unlock so much of your joy! 

Jmegrey

Building a life built around Christ being alive

How do people build things? 

Microsoft has a webpage describing their vision, their tag line or the phrase they put up that will "grab" people by the heart.  Because without a purpose or a vision whatever you build will not have an appeal to people's hearts.  We are attracted to purpose not product.  Just examine anything you own, and see whether you like it because it exists or because it serves a specific purpose.  

Here's what Microsoft's vision states:

We believe the future of work will be centered around people. The following four themes guide our thinking.

1. COLLABORATIVE

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER

2. INTELLIGENT

LIVING SMARTER

3. NATURAL

FRICTION FREE CREATIVITY

4. MOBILE

FLUID MOBILITY

It sounds pretty good!  For a company building computers and advanced technology meant to serve human beings, this is a great vision!  It brings people together, helps them grow smarter, provides the freedom of creativity and does not get stuck.  This purpose is centered around serving humanity, and so the people who buy Microsoft products will be agreeing to the desire to be served by their products.  This is good!  Products made by man should serve man.  The made should serve the maker.  So what about man?  If a product made by man serves the maker (man), then what about man who was made by God?  Made serves maker, and this simply reveals order.  Apart from this truth is disorder, as when a man begins to serve his computer.  That just ain't right. 

So what does it look like to build something with a center?  

From the Microsoft example that means that whatever you build has a purpose and that purpose sits at the center of every idea, action, critique, and conversation.  From hiring, working, new products, product changes, and even the lunch breaks serve to bring the central vision alive.  For Microsoft, the center is man.  For man the center is his maker, which is God.  So it's good for computers and advanced technology to serve man so long as man himself lives to serve God.  

Without the center in mind everything becomes chaotic and ambiguous.  Confusion and disorder come into play. 

So I can consider a few questions:

1.  Do I know what my life centers around?  (The purpose of my time, money and feelings).  

My answer would be sometimes, because I forget what my purpose is and only when I am reminded can I make intentional steps toward serving it.  If I forget what my life centers around then I'm like a Microsoft worker who doesn't know what the purpose of the new project is, and without the purpose not only will I be disconnected from my teammates but I will be making something with my own agenda or without a clue as to what I'm doing.  

2. Does my perceived center and the results of it match up?  (Is what I declare to be my center reflecting on the results of my actions?) 

My answer would be again sometimes, because there are results in my life that I see matching up to what I want my center to be, and there are strands that lead to results that seem out of place as well....as if my center is contaminated.  It's not fully disordered but it is disordered.  In other words my center is in need of some clean up if I am to get rid of the results that do not serve it. 

3. If my results do not reflect the center I claim on my life, then what?  Am I open to consider that my center is something unknown to me?  

My answer is a definite yes.  This is hard, but this makes me realize how weak and needy I am for God to show me things beyond my ability to see.  If I acknowledge that what I see does not match up with what I believe then it must mean that there is something I am not seeing and if I desire to see it then the means will not matter, so long as I can begin seeing.  

4. If my center is unknown to me am I able or willing to change that?  

I think not.  I think that the only power I have in this situation is what I can see, and if what I can see is that I can't see then it is what it is.  I accept that I cannot see, and this acceptance leads me closer to depending on someone else to see for me.  People don't like being dependent but it gets easier when we accept who we are and what we need if our goal is to see the truth.  If I cannot see, yet want to see, then I will go to someone, namely God, to see for me...even if my own eyes cannot see I will put on the eyes of God to see what He sees.  Otherwise I am left unseeing as I am. 

5. If my center is known, but not what I want it to be, am I able or willing to change that?  

I think not based on what I believe about myself and about God.  I believe that only God can change a person's heart (center), but I believe God desires for us to be changed so it's not a matter of whether or not He will change us but a matter of when He will change us.  Timing is not ours to dictate, but if we see that something is off we also see that we are at the mercy of Him who uses time to change our hearts.  This leads me to remember that what I see is not what God sees, because I see only what is right in front of me, but God sees what is further into eternity.  Therefore, if my center is known and I see what it is, I remember that God is the one who is changing me into what it will be so I bank on His outcome not my own. 

Therefore, once I realize that I am not in control of changing my center (the purpose), whether it is good or bad, but that I can see only as far as my results and the purpose for which I desire my results to match up with--just as a Microsoft worker cannot change the purpose of Microsoft but can only see as far as he or she is on board with it--so we too can only go so far as to what we can see.  

This is all I can do, and this is what one will do if they desire to be on board with the purpose.  It's humbling because after seeing my results I am left there.  The metaphor of Microsoft breaks down at this point.  Unlike the Microsoft worker who can examine his or her results and change, the Christian is left with the problem, unable to fix it.  And this inability is instability, feeling inadequate, weak, and broken.  We can only go so far as being broken, and the rest is in God's hands.  And when we have reached the place of being broken we will be in a position of seeing our only hope.  Not hope in ourselves, because we are broken, but hope in someone who is able to change us. 

"Paul said if Christ ain't resurrected we've wasted our lives

Well that implies that our life's built around Jesus being alive" 

-Lecrae, lyrics from "Don't waste your life"

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, 

we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:19

What I can see is my brokenness, and if that's all there is then I am most to be pitied in this world, for I am only broken, but if Christ is alive then my brokenness is in the hands of God.  The only one who can change what is broken into what is whole.  I can see, but He is the one who changes me.

Build your life around Christ being alive by seeing and believing what is before you is being made into what God is doing.  

Jmegrey