Moving day

Today is moving day! I am moving from blogger to WordPress , the name will be  samwanders.com . Please follow the link and subscribe!

God is always ready

When you are at a crossroads in life, remember this thought: God is prepared for your circumstance, he is prepared for the storm that is coming into your life. You  may have no idea what's aroud the bend, but not only does Jesus know, he is ready to help you defeat it, endure it, or  put you back together in the event the storm defeats you.

Our identity in Christ

Being created in the image of God, we are only truly who we are by walking out this reality.  

Mankind was not just a part of creation, mankind was in many ways the pinnacle of God’s creation. It was only when he was creating people that God referred to creating a being “in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). Man was created to rule and govern over God’s creation (Gen 2:15). Everything was good, man had purpose, identity, and life was very good. Then came the fall, man’s separation from God, expulsion from the garden, and a cursed existence. We see the hereditary sinful nature of mankind as soon as there are two descendants of Adam. With the story of Cain and Abel we see stubbornness, pride, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, murder, and lying. Not just Lying to anyone, but lying to God! Sadly this does not stop with Cain and Abel. Soon mankind had grown and degenerated to the point where God sent a flood to wipe out all but one righteous family (Gen 6-8).  Through Adam’s sin we are all born separated from God, sinful, grasping for identity, purpose, and meaning. We fail in this, from trying to build the tower of Babel (Gen11:1-9), to the Nation of Israel’s constant cycle of turning away/God’s rebuke/turning back in the books of kings and judges. Thankfully God had a plan to bring us back into a relationship with him, a way to repair the rift between God and man. For just as Adam’s sin resulted in death and separation from God, the pure sacrifice of Christ resulted in life for all mankind. (Rom 5:18) Through the blood of Jesus we are more than just saved, it’s more than a “get out of hell free” card. Our very souls are renewed and we take on a new identity of the children of God! John 3:1&2 tells us that our identity is in being children of God, and while what we will truly be has not happened yet, it will be fully realised when we see God. We can know who we are and who we will become because God’s word tells us. Just as a sports team is known by their jerseys, and an employee is identified by their uniform or name tag, we are known by our love. That is how the world is to know who we are, by our love for each other (John 13:35).

As men and women living in a fallen world, our only hope of finding happiness and purpose in this life is by first accepting the reality that on our own we are lost. Without the context of God’s love, we are lost in the struggle for self identity. Then from knowing we are lost we position ourselves to be found by the love of God. Within the love of God we discover our true identity as a child of God. By finding our identity in being a son of God first, we find out who we truly are. From there we begin to walk in the love of God, and then our identity takes on a new level of existence as we begin to walk in love for others. Suddenly we begin to understand who we are, and where we fit. 

While separate, the issues of why does God do what he does and who are we/ where do we fit in this world are intertwined. Only by fully entering into having our identity grounded in begin a child of God do we release our illusion of control and the arrogance of questioning God’s actions and motives. We are more willing to submit to seasons of life where we struggle, trusting in God’s ultimate goodness. We are able to fully embrace life, and all that he has for us.  

The sovereignty and ultimate goodness of God

God’s sovereignty and will is without question.  Even though his heart is for us, God is the Lord, and his ways are above our ways, his wisdom is beyond our understanding. 

We see in the story of Job where he questions God about why he is suffering. Not that I blame him! Job was a righteous man, who “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil”-(Job 1:1). His life was blessed by God; he had many children, land, and wealth. God himself acknowledged Job as a righteous man. In fact God brings Job up in a conversation with Satan, asking if he had seen Job, and how faithful he is in his walk before the Lord. Satan points out how easy it is to worship God when all is going well, and God gives him permission to test Job. As all that can go wrong does go wrong for Job, we see even in his despair a refusal to turn away from God. While Job does not question God’s ability or authority to afflict him, he does question God’s reasons for doing so. Job’s friends come to comfort him, and ultimately accuse him of doing something wrong to incur the wrath of God in his life. In the end God himself speaks, asking, “Who is this that darkens council by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) God then challenges Job, and Job realises his error in questioning God’s actions and motives. Like anyone who is going through a trying season, Job wants to know why life isn’t fair. This is not answered but we see the futility of trying to understand why God does what he does. We also see this in the life of Abraham. After Abraham is blessed with Isaac, the child of promise, God comes to him and tells him to “Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains”-(Gen 22:2). As a father of three beautiful children I cannot imagine how I would respond to that! I’m sure that Abraham was floored by this command from the Lord. But he obeyed, gathering wood, supplies, and servants. He then saddles the donkey, and takes his son up the mountain to be sacrificed to the Lord. If ever there had been a time to question the actions of God, this must surely be one of them! As a child I wondered why Abraham didn’t argue with God. After all this was the child through which God himself had promised to make a nation out of Abraham! What was God thinking! Abraham however does not question God, and God proves himself faithful by stopping Abraham, and providing a ram to take the place of Isaac. 

I have been through many a season where things didn’t work out. It could have been a job I was trying to get and didn’t or difficulties in a Job that I did have. There have been times where I was honouring my wife, walking in righteousness, and loving my children and still bad things would happen. In those times I wanted to know why? Why is life so hard? What have I done to deserve this? Funny thing is, when God surprises me with blessings, rarely do I stop and question why he’s blessing me, or what did I do to deserve his blessing on my life. I just thank him, praise him, and keep going. I guess that is suppose to be the response in the face of a trial as well. To praise his name no matter what. At our wedding we worshipped to the song “blessed be the name”, and we have tried to make it the theme of our lives. We have often failed to do so, but I believe that the refrain from the song says it all, “You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, blessed be your name!”(Highlighting mine) We may not always know why we walk through what we walk through, or why God asks us to walk a particular path. We can, however, always know that God is good. Our hearts can choose to bless his name, even in the midst of life’s trials. God’s heart is always for us, and if we look closely we can see his hand working in the background of our lives.