Video Bible Lesson - What Does it Mean to Be Fearfully and Wonderfully Made? By: Jennifer Heeren

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

7/26/2020

What Does it Mean to Be Fearfully and Wonderfully Made?
By: Jennifer Heeren

The human body is a unique design of multiple systems that all work intricately together. The cardiovascular system gives you energy to move. The muscular system gives you the ability to move, lift, and hold things. The digestive system processes food into energy and discards waste. The immune system keeps you healthy. The hormonal system determines your gender. The eyes cause you to see. The nose lets you smell. The tongue and mouth let you eat and taste. The ears enable you to hear. And your skin enables you to feel textures. You were also blessed with a brain so you can think, process, and create.
God created you on purpose with love.
You were made with a hole in the center of your soul that only one thing fits. Until you find that very specific something, you will never be fulfilled. And that very specific something is God Himself. You were designed with an intense need of your Creator, God. Without a relationship with Him, you will always be searching for something to fill that void.
Drugs, alcohol, food, money, sex, material goods, occupations, hobbies, travel, success, fame—these are some of the ways in which we try to fill that empty space inside. But none of those things will ever fill it. They are like round pegs in square holes. The vacant areas at the edges will still leave you desiring more of something else. Whatever you attempt to put in there will dissipate because it never completely fills the space. Those things were never meant to fill the space; they never can.
Sadly, many continue to shove mismatched pegs into that hole. A little of this, a little of that… hoping that one day they will feel complete. They surmise that this thing over here didn’t work but maybe this other thing will do it. They just haven’t found the right thing yet but one day they hope they will.
People want to look to everyone and everything else before they turn to God.
Fortunately, God made a way for us to repent and turn to Him by sending His very own Son to make the way.
When you do finally realize that without God you are unable to make the most of yourself, that’s when things begin to change. The clay cannot mold itself no matter how hard it tries. However, God, the Potter, can not only mold His clay but He also knows what His original design of you was. He is both a Potter and an Architect with a Master Plan.
Do I always feel like I am fearfully and wonderfully made? No. Sin and pride always want to drag me back into my own way of thinking. The same thinking that kept me reaching for those mismatched pegs. Those thoughts tell me that I can do whatever I want, by myself, without God. They lie and they don’t even make sense. They say I can do anything but then turn around and say that I’m not good enough to do what I want to do. Feelings can’t be trusted unless they line up with the Word of God. And the Word of God tells me that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made for a specific purpose. Therefore, with God’s help, I will walk in that purpose as often as I can.
Whether I always feel it or not, I can trust God and His plans for my very life.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10)

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert

For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness (Galatians 5:5, RV).

There are times when things look very dark to me--so dark that I have to wait even for hope. It is bad enough to wait in hope. A long-deferred fulfillment carries its own pain, but to wait for hope, to see no glimmer of a prospect and yet refuse to despair; to have nothing but night before the casement and yet to keep the casement open for possible stars; to have a vacant place in my heart and yet to allow that place to be filled by no inferior presence--that is the grandest patience in the universe. It is Job in the tempest; it is Abraham on the road to Moriah; it is Moses in the desert of Midian; it is the Son of man in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is no patience so hard as that which endures, "as seeing him who is invisible"; it is the waiting for hope.

Thou hast made waiting beautiful; Thou has made patience divine. Thou hast taught us that the Father's will may be received just because it is His will. Thou hast revealed to us that a soul may see nothing but sorrow in the cup and yet may refuse to let it go, convinced that the eye of the Father sees further than its own.

Give me this Divine power of Thine, the power of Gethsemane. Give me the power to wait for hope itself, to look out from the casement where there are no stars. Give me the power, when the very joy that was set before me is gone, to stand unconquered amid the night, and say, "To the eye of my Father it is perhaps shining still."

I shall reach the climax of strength when I have learned to wait for hope.
--George Matheson

Strive to be one of those--so few--who walk the earth with ever-present consciousness--all mornings, middays, star-times--that the unknown which men call Heaven is "close behind the visible scene of things."

The How of the Christian Life

The How of the Christian Life
by Alex Crain

"…be it unto me according to Your word."
Luke 1:38

"How It's Made," the Science Channel's hit show, regularly makes the most of people's curiosity about how household items like gummie candy, aluminum cans, and flavored bacon actually go from raw materials to finished product. It's easy to become mesmerized when cameras are leading you behind the scenes into the inner workings of factories making a few of your favorite things. By the end of each segment, the mists of your own vague ideas about process and production have been utterly dispersed.

This week's reading in chapter four of Francis Schaeffer's True Spirituality is a bit like "How It's Made" in that he delves into the secret of how the Christian life is effectively lived. While many of us know this secret in theory, the daily mist of our own residual fallen nature makes it necessary to review the blazing truth so that we might see ourselves (and God) accurately and live out our faith practically.

Moving forward from last week's teaching in chapter four about the normality of believing in unseen things, Schaeffer issues the biblical call this week to engage in what he terms "active passivity" when living the life of faith.

Schaeffer points out that belief in the Holy Spirit is one thing. Now what do we do with that belief? 2 Corinthians 2:14 says that "the communion of the Holy Spirit" is to be with all true believers. We are to rely fully and constantly on Christ's promise to send us the Holy Spirit. He is the agent of the power and Person of the glorified Christ.

"There is not enough strength in ourselves, but placed before us is the power and work of the glorified Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Surely this is exactly what Christ meant when he said, ‘I will not leave you as orphans.'"
(John 14:18)

"As we look at the book of Acts, we find in the early church not a group of strong men laboring together, but the work of the Holy Spirit bringing to them the power of the crucified and glorified Christ. It must be so for us also."

"As with Mary in the virgin birth when she gave herself with her body to God in response to His promise, so we are in the same situation in [a certain sense] that we have these great and thrilling promises we have been considering, and we are neither to think of ourselves as totally passive, as though we had no part in this; nor are we to think we can do it ourselves."

"If we are to bring forth this fruit through us by the agency of the Holy Spirit, there must be a constant act of faith, of thinking: ‘Upon the basis of Your promises I am looking for You to fulfill them… bring forth Your fruit through me into this poor world.'"

"We do not have to beat ourselves or be dejected, [but simply say]"Be it unto me according to Thy Word." This is what I mean by active passivity. This is the how, and there is no other."

Finally, as if to say "this is really how it's done!" Schaeffer reemphasizes that this is not just theoretical access to the power of the crucified, risen, glorified Christ. This is access that we have in reality—in the here and now.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Are you depending on your own energy, cleverness, persistence, charisma and talents to present the Christian life as attractive to your lost friends and family members? By faith (Hebrews 11:6), gaze upon Christ—His atonement, perfections and promises. Respond with active passivity: "Be it unto me according to Thy Word."

God Wants My Whole Heart

God Wants My Whole Heart
By: Anne Peterson

And he (Jesus) answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. - Luke 10:27

Remember when you first heard about the Lord? You could not read the Bible enough, and you could hardly wait to get together with other Christians to share the latest thing you learned about God.

You shared the Gospel with others, hoping for opportunities. You didn’t worry about what someone might think of you, you worried about whether they knew Jesus or not. There was an urgency, a purpose in sharing.

In those days, when trials came, you would search the Bible for verses to help you through. You wanted to trust God, so you surrendered everything to him. You were in 100%. God had your whole heart. But somehow, over time, things changed. And the things that had been on the top of your list moved down a little.

Trials seemed heavier. Or somehow you felt less prepared to face them.

Maybe a disappointment weighed you down. Perhaps it was more than one. And that caught you off guard. After all, hadn’t you been close to the Lord? It wasn’t that long ago and you knew you had access to God’s throne room (Hebrews 4:16).

Maybe one disappointment led to another and you started feeling a little less special to God. You started listening to the lies the enemy whispered. Lies like: God doesn’t really care about you. If God cared, you wouldn’t be going through hard times. You started feeling distance between you and God. And your excitement to get into the Bible lessened. Maybe the worries of life or the desires for other things moved in when you weren’t looking, or maybe you outgrew the love you had (Mark 4:19).

In the beginning, you had so many answered prayers. It felt like you had a special connection with God. But it felt less like this when the trials got harder and harder. And memories you had became a little dimmed.

Sometimes all it takes for a rekindling of our love is remembrance. What was it that drew you to God in the first place? Had that changed? No, not at all.

God reached out to you, sending you someone to share about Jesus. You drank in every drop of living water, letting it seep down into your very soul. You learned you were a sinner, and that God loved you enough to send his own Son to die for you (John 3:16). You learned no one else would ever love you like God did (John 15:13).

God forgave all of your sins. He gave you access to heaven by accepting the sacrifice that Jesus made. All you had to do was accept the gift held out to you (Ephesians 2:8-9). And you did just that, grabbing onto it with both hands.

When we feel distance from our Father, it’s something that can be fixed. God didn’t move, we did. All we have to do is call on him. When Peter walked on the water, he did fine till he took his eyes off Jesus (Matthew 14: 28-30). Jesus didn’t shame Peter for slipping down, nor did he reprimand Peter. No. When Peter called out to the Lord, Jesus immediately reached out and lifted him up. And he does the same with us.

God loves us so much, he even knows how many hairs we have on our heads (Luke 12:7). God cares about us. And He’ll never stop caring.

I wonder when it happened, Lord,
this feeling we’re apart.
I know when I first met you,
that I gave to you my heart.

And then my Father showed me
that when trials came my way,
I’d pull my heart back slightly,
a little more each day.

I didn’t want the distance
and knew what I must do;
I handed back my heart to Him,
and all my love anew.

- Anne Peterson

God doesn’t want just part of me. He doesn’t want just Half of my Heart, like this song by Nathan Peterson. God wants my whole heart. That’s what Jesus told us (Luke 10:27).

A Prayer for Cares and Concerns

A Prayer for Cares and ConcernsBy Chrystal Evans Hurst

“Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)

Our key Scripture says in 1 Peter 5:7 we ought to cast our cares upon God. The word “cast” means to throw forcibly. As it’s used in Scripture, it implies more than a casual placing of our concerns at Jesus’ feet. Casting our cares upon God gives us a picture of forcibly tossing our cares and troubles as far away from us as they will go, trusting the God who loves us can catch them and knows exactly how to deal with all that concerns us.

The Amplified Bible version of that same verse says, “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].”

I must be consistent and deliberate about noticing the little things that concern me and placing them at the Father’s feet in prayer. And I must talk to Him about those things verbally or by jotting them in my journal to symbolize giving those things to Him.

Cast or throw them with all of your might at the feet of Jesus. Pray with faith, believing God does care and He is fully capable of handling your requests. Will the cares and concerns of this life keep cropping up? Yes. They most certainly will.

But as you consistently and deliberately cast your cares on Him, you’ll begin to see how far anxiety, fear, stress or worry move away from you as you learn to trust in Him.

Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

Dear Father in Heaven,

So much in my life is broken. I have so many concerns and cares, and they weigh me down. While I desire to cast my cares upon You, I find I usually pick them back up again, and they only add more anxiety and stress. Please help me learn to cast my cares on You as I learn what it means to rest and trust in You.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.