Because of God's love

Last night my family was watching Prince Caspian, the second movie in the classic series by C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia. I had seen it before, but if you've ever seen a movie more than once, you catch new things most every time. Well this was certainly one of those times. There is a scene near the end when Aslan (the Lion who represents/is the God figure in the story) is speaking to a group of characters in the movie.

One of the characters (who happens to be a mouse) asks Aslan to heal his body by giving him a new tail as his tail had been cut off in the recent battle. He asks Aslan to do this to restore his dignity. (we all know mice have no dignity without a tail) Aslan's response to him is what I find absolutely amazing and representative of how God operates in our lives. He responds to the mouse by saying:

"not for the sake of your dignity, but because of my love for you... I will do what you ask."

Throughout Scripture, we find these words:
- "It is because the Lord loved you..." (Deuteronomy 7:8)
- "Because of the Lord's great love..." (Lamentations 3:22)
- "For God so loved..." (John 3:16)
- "Because of his great love for us..." (Ephesians 2:4)
- "We love because he first loved us." (i John 4:19)

These are but samplings of the numerous passages throughout Scripture that depict God's love being the reason for his interaction and influence with mankind. I was enamoured that Hollywood would get something like this so right, a thing that believers so often forget. We may forget this truth and think God loves us because of our value, or because we are deserving, or for our sake, or he needs us... or, you name the reason.

I am thankful that my dignity, worth, value, or right-doing does not make me worthy of God's interaction in my life. I am thankful that I serve a loving God who first loved me. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."

Thank you Jesus for your love.

sc

What thrills your soul?

Came into the office today thinking about the joys of life... I am humbled at how much I have to be thankful for and how the Lord has blessed my family. In doing so, my mind wondered back to an old hymn I have not heard in years... All that thrills my soul is Jesus. The words go something like this... for your sake I will not sing it...

Who can cheer the heart like Jesus?
By His presence all divine?
True and tender, pure and precious,
O how blessed to call him mine!

All that thrills my soul is Jesus;
He is more than life to me;
And the fairest of then thousand
In my blessed Lord I see.

I am reading a new book by Mark Batterson entitled Primal. In it he describes a time when he traveled to Rome and toured ancient catacombs where early believers risked their lives to worship the one and only true creator God. About his experience, he says this,

...when you're standing in an ancient catacomb, the comforts you enjoy
make you uncomfortable. The things you complain about are convicting. And some
of the sacrifices you've made for the cause of Christ might not even qualify
under a second century definition.

You can't help but realize that these early believers who gave their lives in these places knew they served a God greater than any comfort, pleasure, or "blessing" in this world. The hymn writer understood this too.

Lord Jesus, help myself and others who read this to find the thrill of their soul in you and you alone. May you be our sufficiency and supreme joy. Guard us from valuing worldly joys, whether material or relational, above the joy and thrill that only you can give. Help us to live in such a way that you are always on our heart and in our mind. May we discern and always remember what matters most, and that is You. Amen.

Everything

So I normally would not post two videos in a row, but this one grabbed my heart once again. I had seen it several years ago... it is a interpretive skit to the song Everything by Lifehouse.

We serve a God who is passionate about his people. In the Old Testament it speaks of a God who is jealous for his people. (Exodus 34:14) Oprah misunderstood this jealousy and took it as man's sinful and selfish jealousy... a jealousy that you or I have when we want something we do not or cannot have... she ended up abandoning Christianity.

However, properly understood, the Bible speaks of this jealousy, not in terms of man's sinful jealous attitude, but as a passionate zeal for the affection of his people that rises when something threatens the coventant relationship between God and man. It is likened to the jealousy of a husband or a wife when something (sin) threatens their marriage relationship (whether it be work, things, time, people, or unfaithfulness).

I am glad I serve a jealous God who pursues me when when pain seems stronger and more powerful than the comfort of God, when trials seem more numerous than blessings, when temptations seem more fulfilling than God's goodness, and even when I choose the world over Him. Thank you Jesus for your love!