Our church is providing another creation science event, with speaker Dr George Matzko (Bob Jones University).  The first topic was “Design in Nature,” which surveyed various ways in which the universe has been precisely planned.

Throughout the presentation, it was fascinating to see the precision of God in the natural world, such as the solar system, physical constants, and other factors which enable complex life on earth.  God’s accurate, appropriate and intricate designs have truly been “clearly perceived…in the things that were made.”  (Romans 1:20)

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork…. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”  (Psalm 19:1, 4)  The natural world is constantly telling us, “God is here.”  Theologians define this message as God’s general revelation, which speak of God’s existence, wisdom, and power.  Through the voice of His creation, God has clearly revealed Himself to all people at all times.

God has also communicated with us through supernatural ways, including miracles, visions, the Scriptures, and the person and work of Jesus Christ.  This is God’s special revelation.  Our primary information comes from the Bible as the written Word of God, which is the message of Jesus, God’s Word in person.

In church we rightly emphasise the Word, because God has ultimately purposed to exalt His Son, “that in everything He might be pre-eminent.”  (Colossians 1:18)  So we aim to be Christ-centred in our teaching and ministries.

But last night, we were reminded of the powerful value of God’s general revelation.  When we consider God’s work in nature, we feel a sense of awe at God’s might.  We are humbled by the immensity of His work.  Creation’s voice stirs us to worship God, sparking praise and thanks.

I also noted plenty of thoughtful questions (and helpful answers!) afterward, from both mature and newer Christians.  Believers must live by the Word, yet we also live in the natural world.  We observe mysteries in nature and wonder.  The environment struggles under the curse of sin.  Christians are often troubled by the conflicting voices which deny God’s existence.

Perhaps churches can improve in promoting God’s general revelation, for the benefit of believers and for outreach to the community?

I think we generally find it easy enough to minister in the body. We are part of the family and we expect to do our part. It’s easy enough being the biceps of the body, but what about when you’re the broken arm?

The humility of helplessness

There are seasons in our lives when we cannot minister to others as much as we’d like. There can be many reasons for this:

• We may be physically ill.
• We may be mentally or emotionally unable to function.
• We may be in all out warfare with our own sinful desires.
• We may be legitimately overworked in other areas.
• We may be seeking to address some sinful habits in our lives.
• We may be facing a trial that is threatening to overwhelm us.

There is something deeply humbling about meeting with the body and not ministering to others but instead letting others minister to us. So humbling, in fact, that sometimes we refuse to do it.

.

The frustrating patient

It’s a classic scenario. The teenage boy with a broken arm who’s climbing trees and playing sport. Mum keeps telling him he’s got to go easy on the arm, but he just can’t slow down.

When ministry is pride

To refuse to admit our weakness in moments of helplessness is pride. To insist on carrying on meeting the needs of others while avoiding the help of the body is to fail to admit our own need for the ministry of God’s grace through the body.

In other words, to focus on ministering when we should be focusing on our relationship with God is a deep offence against God.

• It is a practical denial of the gospel which rests on our admission of helplessness.
• It is a response of pride that avoids admitting weakness and helplessness.
• Worst of all, it assumes that Christianity is about what we do for God instead of what God has done for us.

Can helpless people minister?

I am not suggesting that helpless people shouldn’t minister. If helpless people couldn’t minister, Christians couldn’t minister because admitting our helplessness is the foundation of gospel living.

What I am saying is that there are seasons of life when we should probably step out of our role as creche worker or usher or teacher for a time. There are seasons when we should not, or cannot, minister as we would like to.

In those times, our hearts may condemn us. We may feel guilty for not doing as much as we used to. But we need to see the deep-seated pride that drives that thinking. We need to recognise that if God has put us in a place of helplessness for a time, that healing will come as we allow the body to minister to us in our need.

By and by, the broken arm will heal. And we will once again do the heavy lifting for a while.

Susan Boyle was the 47-year old Scottish woman who applied to the TV show Britain’s Got Talent.  When she presented herself, the judges and the crowd didn’t believe she could sing.  She didn’t look like a singer.  When she talked, she didn’t sound like a singer.  Then she started singing.

Susan Boyle was chosen as a finalist, although she was not the kind of finalist you would expect.

When God saves people, whom does He choose to save?

1) God chooses whomever He pleases.

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:15-16)

2) God chooses the minority.

“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

3) God chooses people you don’t expect.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…” (I Corinthians 1:27-28)

Susan Boyle did not look like a singer, but she proved she could sing, so people accepted her.  In contrast, God sees us as foolish and weak and low and despised.  We have all fallen short of his glory and cannot prove otherwise.

We could never expect God to accept us on our own merit.  Yet if you are born again, He has chosen you.  To what end?

“… so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”  (1:29)

Susan Boyle has something to boast about — her singing.  Christians have nothing to boast about, because our new song comes from God.  Everything we have comes from Him through Jesus.

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Ben Kwok

Those two posts lay the groundwork for this one. I’m going to try to summarise a Christian self image succinctly.

1) God made you and what he made was good.

You are made in God’s image. By God. And what he made was good. Your right to exist comes from God himself. You matter to him.

2) You rebelled against God.

You are a sinner. You are prone to rebellion and pride. You were born in sin and you have chosen sin. You’re also weak. You have very limited strength and knowledge.

3) God redeemed you.

If you are a believer, God took on flesh in order to take your condemnation in your place. That means that there are no standing charges against you. Anyone who wants to lay charges has to take it up with Jesus Christ himself (Romans 8:34).

Modern believers have difficulty with all three of these points.

Problems with #1 This is the person who has such a low view of himself that he dare not believe he has the right to exist. This is the person who will apologise to you when you bump into him. He needs to understand that he is not worthless and shameful. This person needs to go back to creation to understand the inherent worth of a person created in God’s image.

Problems with #2 This is the person who’s had his self-esteem bolstered his whole life. He’s been told he’s wonderful and, frankly, he agrees. This person has no problem seeing his own worth before God. What he has difficulty seeing is his rebellion against God. This person needs to be confronted with the darkness of his heart and the depth of his rebellion.

Problems with #3 This is the person who thinks he needs to earn God’s favour. He constantly judges himself and he’s come to one of two conclusions. a) He thinks he’s a pretty good guy. This is the arrogant and blind Pharisee; or b) He knows he’s not a good guy and beats himself up over it constantly. This guy is arrogant too, but for a different reason. He is arrogant because he thinks that if he tried harder, maybe he could earn God’s favour.

Both of these people need to be pointed to a Roman cross and a slaughtered lamb. Both need to recognise that salvation is only by God’s grace and that Jesus already took the condemnation. All of it.

Of course all of us fill these roles at times. And we fill different roles at different times.

Hopefully we can see how a healthy self image is crucial to living the Christian life. It is also important in the process of building disciples. I’m reminded of Paul’s exhortation to the believers at Thessalonica:

And we urge you, brothers,

admonish the idle,

encourage the fainthearted,

help the weak,

be patient with them all.

It is usually when staying the same becomes intolerable.

This may be a job change, relationship change, character change, etc etc.

Such changes can of course be for good or ill.

It is one thing to change a girlfriend but another thing to try and change your spouse.

I think you get my point.

In the realm of spiritual change and maturity, we should be motivated to change because of:-

1. The good mercies of God:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2

2. By conviction from God’s Word:

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:7-11

3. After divine chastening:

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

4. Following intense suffering:

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5:10

5. Because of the patience of God’s people:

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 2 Timothy 2:24-25

However, like the woman with the issue of blood, we come to Christ when staying the same has become intolerable.

It is often not the ‘higher things’ that move us but the desire to flee the consequences that have come of our own making or that have come about simply because we live in a fallen world.

The tsunami of our own troubles comes and we head for the hills of God for refuge.

That is not bad, it is good, but mature believers know there is a better way.

Why don’t we ask God to change us today, by a few more degrees, into the image of His Son, because that will please Him rather than simply because it works out best for us?

“Just because” is rarely a good reason.

“Why do I need a reason for everything I do?” you might ask.

Because that’s what it means to live deliberately. It means that at any given moment you know what you are doing and why, even if the what is “chillaxin’” and the why is “because I need some rest.”

Does this sound radical? Then you can be sure that you’re not a deliberate person. Not yet at least. But that can change.

Here are three exercises that might help if you want to become more deliberate.

1) Track your time for a week.

Use MS Outlook or Google Calendar to track everything you do in a week… everything. Eating. Sleeping. Work. Church. Watching TV. Surfing FaceBook. Everything.

Then head off to the coffee shop with the results and spend some time thinking about it. In ten thousand years, looking back, will you be content with how you spent this precious, limited block of time on earth? If not, what adjustments could be made in future weeks?

2) Write out your goals.

Do you know what your goals are? I find that writing my goals down gives them clarity and objectivity.

I keep three lists of goals.

a. Life goals. This is the big picture. What do I want on my tombstone? What do I want to have accomplished before I die?

b. Mid-term goals. This is maybe the next three years or so. What am I doing that can’t be finished this year, but that I’m working toward?

c. Short-term goals. This is what I would like to accomplish this year. This gives me concrete things to work on and guidance in daily decisions.

3) Write out your roles.

At any given time, could you say with confidence that you are meeting your responsibilities to God and to others? Since it is your roles that determine your responsibilities, you must know your roles in order to answer.

You may have many roles (child of God, husband, father, employee, church member, student, sports team member, etc.). Knowing your roles is the first step to meeting the obligations that flow out of those roles. I find putting them on paper helps to clarify them for me.

Does all of this sound a bit daunting? That’s why I pointed out in the first post on this subject that deliberate living is not for the faint of heart. It is hard work. But it is worth the effort to squeeze every drop of life out of our short exile in this place.

Grace to you.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever.’

Here’s the part that inspires me most.

…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Here, as you may have guessed, is the part that intrigues me most.

…and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever.’

At first I was surprised and saddened by this ending. Surprised because I didn’t see it coming and because he was obviously familiar with The Westminster Shorter Catechism. Saddened because I perceived him to be attacking what Scripture teaches to be the chief end of man.

On further reflection, perhaps he was right. Perhaps it was with too much haste that we drew this conclusion.

Perhaps we should have drawn this conclusion more slowly—in the same way that Thoreau drew his: by going “to the woods because [we] wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Then we would know that the chief end of man is indeed to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

May we not, when we come to die, discover that we had not lived.

Every day is precious. Don’t waste even one.

I’ve been thinking this through over the last two weeks as several people brought it up in the comments here and here. Here are my thoughts.

1) The opposite of intentionality is not spontaneity. The opposite of intentionality is traditionalism.

Traditionalism does something because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Intentionality does something because it seems to be the best way to do it.

Intentionality may lead a person to spontaneous action at one moment and to stick to a carefully thought-out plan the next. It all depends on what he is deliberately trying to accomplish.

2) When spontaneous is defined as doing whatever, whenever, then it’s not spontaneity at all. It’s just recklessness.

Spontaneous could be defined as “unplanned.” But there is a big difference between “unplanned” and “whatever, whenever.” Being deliberate frees you to be spontaneous without being reckless (more on that under #4).

3) Deliberate living will express itself differently in different personalities.

Both the accountant and the explorer must be deliberate. But they must also be spontaneous if they are to be successful in their pursuits.

Just like any other aspect of Christian character, intentionality will look different in different people. Joy looks different in different people. Love looks different in different people. So, deliberate living looks different in different people.

4) Being deliberate need not hinder spontaneity. In reality, it’s usually the opposite.

The opposite of spontaneous is “planned.” A person who is living deliberately will always have a plan to get from point A to point B. But since he is living deliberately, when an  opportunity arises to get from A to B in a better way than he’d planned, he is free to be spontaneous and take the opportunity because he knows exactly where he is going and is focused on getting there.

If he is bound by traditionalism, he will be likely to miss the opportunity. It is intentionality itself that frees him to seize the moment and act spontaneously.

For instance, it was precisely because Jesus was living deliberately that he found himself alone, by a well, and prepared to strike up a spontaneous discussion with a woman who came by. It was all the deliberate moments preceding, that prepared Jesus to spontaneously seize the opportunity with this woman.^[1]

I hope these thoughts are helpful. Perhaps they need some adjustment. That’s what the meta is for. Fire away.

.

^[1] Of course it’s not a perfect example. Since Jesus is God, it is debatable whether anything he did could be defined as spontaneous per se.

To be deliberate is to always move forward with the destination in mind.

Perhaps the most striking picture of the deliberate Christ is found in Luke 9:51:

“He set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

This is at least six months before his crucifixion, and yet Jesus Christ—the deliberate Christ—is moving forward with the destination in mind.

That kid knows where he’s going

Even twenty years earlier, we find young Jesus on his first visit to Jerusalem where his simple rationale is this:

“I must be about My Father’s business.”

This was the pattern of Jesus’ life. He knew exactly why he came, and everything he did, he did with the destination in mind.

He selected his disciples with the destination in mind.

He graciously tolerated and patiently taught his ever so slow-learning students with the destination in mind.

He sacrificed the comforts of a bed, a home, and a family with the destination in mind.

He spoke to passing strangers with the destination in mind.^[1]

Jesus Christ lived deliberately. He was intentional. He was proactive.

.

.

Eternal purposes

Yet we can trace the intentionality of Christ much further back than his time as a human on this planet. Peter tells us that Jesus “was foreordained before the foundation of the world”^[2] for this same purpose. And Paul takes it a step further when he points out that it was God the Father’s “eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord”!^[3]

I would suggest based on these truths that intentionality is part of the very nature of God. Indeed, that it is God’s eternal intentionality that has rescued us from our hopeless blindness and restored us to our eternal purpose—to glorify him and enjoy him forever!

Being deliberate is not something for those who are so inclined. It is the overriding pattern of our Saviour’s life, and as such, it is a Christian duty.

Every believer is responsible to conduct himself deliberately.

^[1] John 4:6ff.
^[2] 1 Peter 1:20.
^[3] Ephesians 3:11.