reflections

Beware of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God, and professing your faith in Him as the Savior of the world, while you blaspheme Him by the complete evidence in your daily life that He is powerless to do anything in and through you.
~ Oswald Chambers

Joy

We Praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. So if God loves us enough to make our joy full, He must not only give us himself; He must also win from us the praise of our hearts—not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings. If He is truly for us, He must be for Himself! -John Piper

It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. – C.S Lewis

Buffet

There once was a man who made a buffet restaurant. It was all you can eat. He gave each customer a certain amount of time that they could get food from the different buffet tables. Since he also made all the food, he wanted to give the best of each buffet section to the customers he loved, so he wrote some instructions and gave them to his customers. He wrote menus that said, "Eat these things! They are truly good. Do not eat these things, they just make you sick." He also told people when to partake of some foods, informing them that some foods are only good for the person at certain points in the meal. Eventually some people took things into their own hands and said, “Who is this owner man to tell me what to do? He doesn’t know best. He just likes making dumb rules. I’ll eat what I want, when I want.” Soon after eating some of the foods, they began to get sick and rot from the inside out.

Tathata

I was reading today about world religions, and an interesting concept caught my attention. Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes a principle called “Tathata”. Literally translated this word means “that-ness” or “such-ness”. For example, to practice Tathata a person is to take notice of the little things that make the world special. Like a particularly beautiful sunset, or a passing occurrence like a child saying something particularly profound without meaning to. Aren’t Christians called to do the same? But instead of wondering at the ability of the created to be profound, we are called to worship the Creator who gave it all meaning. Unlike Mahayana Buddhism, we have a personal God that arranged each one of those little things just for us.

Humility

This was taken from "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg

...When i try to do something good, I am intensely aware of it. And I tend to be aware of other people who aren't putting forth the same effort. Then I tend to think they should: I start to compare my effort with their sloth. The result is pride, comparison, judgmentalism, and a lack of love. (Ironically, these people may be 'more virtuous' than I in a thousand other ways; they may have recieved much less support and encouragement and teaching than I- But these thoughts are less likely to occur to me.)
One of the hardest things in the world is to stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother. So how can humility be pursued?

Toaster

What is a toaster? Merriam Webster tells us it is an electrical appliance meant for toasting. We define what it is by what its function is. To be a toaster it needs certain parts that are unique to a toaster. It needs a timer of some kind, some form of dials or buttons, heating elements, etc. But ultimately those same parts could be made into a hair dryer or some other common appliance.
What is a Christian? The Bible tells us that a Christian is a person made new, meant for giving glory to God. To be a Christian, one needs certain elements of faith and belief that are unique to Christianity. One needs to believe in Christ raising from the dead, being One with God, Forgiving our sins, etc. But in the end, those truths are meaningless if we don’t believe them. The word 'believe' implies more than acknowledging truth, it means living out. We are not defined by the pieces we are made of, but the things we do with those pieces.

Love?

Have you ever lost someone you loved, whether to death or simply separation? If so you know how at least for a time being, all seems meaningless without that person.
Our love for Christ needs to be the kind of love where everything is meaningless without him. Our hearts are all to empty and we seek filling through everything the world offers. Solomon knows all about that and said that all is vanity. “like grasping at the wind.” How silly is it to not listen to the wisest man in the world?
If we truly want to fill our thirst we need to exhibit a love for God even stronger than the love for that someone. All of life needs to be meaningless unless pursued for Him.
What does that love look like? It looks like a life lived in the Spirit, bearing the fruits as explained in Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”