Tag Archives: Bible study

Heaven Pt. 160: You Are What You Praise

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Not to us, Lord, not to us
    but to your name be the glory,
    because of your love and faithfulness.

2 Why do the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven;
    he does whatever pleases him.
4 But their idols are silver and gold,
    made by human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
    eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears, but cannot hear,
    noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but cannot feel,
    feet, but cannot walk,
    nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them,
    and so will all who trust in them…

May you be blessed by the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

16 The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
    but the earth he has given to mankind.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
    those who go down to the place of silence;
18 it is we who extol the Lord,
    both now and forevermore.

Praise the Lord.

 Psalm 115: 1-8,15-18

Our God is in Heaven! He came to Earth for a time but even then he was not fashioned by the hands of man but by the hand of God in the womb of a woman. He was not fashioned out of wood or stone. No Pinocchio is our God. He was born. He walked among us for a time as a man. He lived. He breathed. He did miracles. He taught. He died. He atoned. He rose again. And He ascended to the right hand of God the Father where today He is making intercession for us. Our God is in Heaven and He has offered us the Earth.

The good news of the gospel is not just that Jesus did all those things historically but that today those things He did can affect us personally; They can change us and give us powerful lives. They can affect us, that is, if we will put away the things that draw us away from our created purpose, which is praising the Lord. They can affect us and change us if we will give up our idols.

Psalm 115 draws a pretty clear line between praising God and worshipping idols. Those who praise the God of Heaven are given the Earth to rule (remember Jesus said the meek will inherit the Earth). Meanwhile those who put their praise towards idols become just like them: mute, blind, deaf, nonsensical, unfeeling and ineffective.

Now on my side of the pond we haven’t yet gone back to melting gold into gods but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things here in the States we value, or worship more than Jesus.

Paul the apostle wrote, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:1-5

Here we just don’t give our gods names. I’m not sure that makes us more righteous than the ancient Greeks or Polynesians. Maybe it only makes us less creative. At any rate as I look to 2015 I am seeking the Lord and asking Him to show me anything I worship, value or fear over Him. That third item is interesting because I find that in fearing things I can also come to worship them.

Pray with me will you?Let’s together put our trust in the God Who is in Heaven and Who would give us the Earth!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bridges

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http://ceenphotography.com/2014/12/09/cees-fun-foto-challenge-bridges/

This week Cee has challenged us to display the idea behind BRIDGES  with our photography.

Please click the link above to see how Cee’s other contributors have displayed the concept.

Here are my thoughts:

I think Isaac Newton was right when he said,

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

The footbridge in Delft

The footbridge in Delft

This world desperately needs  more bridges and more bridge-builders.

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After all bridges are those things we cross to meet each other. Somehow we have come to think that f we cross over to meet people on the other side of things  that means we are coming into total agreement with them. Who taught us that?

Did Christ agree with us in our sin when He went to the cross for us? When he bridged the gap between God and man was that a tacit acceptance of or an agreement with our sin?

Or was it simply a sign that He understood that unless He came to us there was no way we were going to come back to Him?

A Celtic Cross in the cemetery atop the Rock of Cashel

The cross is the greatest bridge ever made.

If God crossed such a great divide to reach us, how is it that we think we are required to do less in coming to the side of those we disagree with? If Jesus could love and pray for those who wanted to kill Him (while never coming into agreement with them) are we to do any less in our current disagreements?

Now there’s a meditation to be thunk on for a bit!

God Has Commanded Us To Function

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

These quotes come to you from our missionary speaker at Cornerstone, Jason Fuentes. His sermon was entitled “God Has Commended Us To Function” and was taken from Luke 10.

“When religion says, “Do!” Christ says, “It was done on the cross.” Jason Fuentes

“Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good or good people better. He came to make dead people live!” Jason Fuentes

“Christian, you do not go to church. You are the church!” Jason Fuentes

“Our weaknesses become assets when put in God’s hands, but our excuses will always be liabilities.” Jason Fuentes

The Atlantic Sky from the shores of Doolin

The Atlantic Sky from the shores of Doolin

 

He Gave!

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

Autumn Rainbow In New England

“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans–and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused–and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”
― Sigrid Undset

Pastor Wrinkles On Why,I Can Make It Anywhere!

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http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/make-it-anywhere/

Today the Daily Post has asked…“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” goes the famous song about New York City. Is there a place — a city, a school, a company — about which you think (or thought) the same? Tell us why, and if you ever tried to prove that claim.

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I’ve never made it out of my hometown. Something of pain or shame exists in that admission and I am not really sure why. I suppose it means that somewhere in my younger self there was this dream that lived for a time in the understanding that I was made for “bigger” things… “bigger” places. Yet something held me at the borders of my own lands. What was it? A spell? A fear? A psychic wall? A dream? A Calling?

My mother wanted me to be a doctor. My father, I think, wanted me to be anything that got me away from this place that I never got away from. My sister has moved all over the world and my children (some of them) display the same signs of wanderlust that leads to adventure while I live like a Hobbit never wanting to stray too far from my own front door.

I think maybe the shame and guilt of only making it as far as my own garden might have more to do with the dreams of others than with my own dreams. For as long as I can remember I only ever aspired to a quiet life of pastoral bliss, walking the rocky New England Fields and listening to the bubbling of the stony fresh-water brooks that dot our landscape. I want to hear the twittering of the birds in the trees and feel the winds of these Massachusetts seasons as they pass over me in repose.

I want to see the world, truly see the world from my own vantage point, the place where I was planted by the Great Himself. I think it has been given to others to run the earth as they watch the sky. They must do that for themselves to succeed. If I can stand and occupy this little space for a time, my time, then that is “big” enough and I can make it “anywhere”, which after all is only ever really “here”.

 

Heaven Pt. 158:So Very High

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

The Heaven posts are a devotional word study through the Bible using every reference to the word “Heaven”.

The Way By the Cliffs of Moher

The Way By the Cliffs of Moher

“he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;”

Psm. 103:10,11

Sometimes in my place of prayer I become overwhelmed with a sense of my own sinfulness. I feel like Isaiah standing in the Temple of the Lord,  who said “ “Woe to me!…I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5

Does that ever happen to you?

At such moments I could easily be swallowed alive by the feelings of guilt if it were not for a truth buried even more deeply within me. That truth is Jesus loves me! Jesus forgives me! Though my sins were as scarlet He has made them white as snow! AND If Jesus has forgiven me who am I not to forgive myself?

The truth is His love is higher than the Heavens. How high is that? Well I guess it depends on which Heavens we are talking about?

Is it higher than the first Heaven the Heaven which the birds fly in? Well then that is about a mile high. That’s pretty high but I think God’s love is bigger than a mile.

Then is it higher than the second Heaven. the Heaven where the planets and stars dwell? Well that is much higher. We are talking light years not miles. And who knows where the end of the universe is? Well no one on this planet, but still our universe is measurable. I think God’s love for me is even bigger than that.

It is higher than the third Heaven, a place beyond the boundaries of time and space, framed in eternity a thing itself unaffected by time. The distance to it cannot be measured by any of our human standards. That is the love God has for me, immeasurable by my standards and yet it is even higher than that!

Let’s suffice it to say God’s love is so big and vast and immeasurable I cannot lose it. If I don’t want God’s love I purposely have to throw it away because there is no other way to get rid of it. Now there’s a guilt killer if ever there was one!

A Photo A Week Challenge: White

Posted on by under Photography

Nancy’s challenge to us this week is all about the word: WHITE

http://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/a-photo-a-week-challenge-white/

As soon as I saw the word my mind went immediately to….. SNOW

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But honestly snow is not all bad. Isaiah the prophet speaking for God said,

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

The Wrapper

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

As I was meditating in this mornings group prayer session the Lord keyed me in to the beauty of a particular song playing in the backgorund.

His voice echoed in my ear, “I wrap myself in beauty like you wrap yourself in clothing. Just remember my wrapping is only an outward expression of a deeper reality. The surface beauty you can perceive overlays a deeper beauty that you cannot.”

The Scripture came to mind, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the wonderful things God has prepared for those who love Him.” Corinthians

He may wrap Himself in beauty but He is more than that. He is beauty incarnate.

He may wrap Himself in light but He is more than that. “God is light and in Him is no shadow of turning!” I John

 

 

 

Pastor Wrinkles: Laboring To Rest Pt. 3

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles
Me reclining after walking up the "Rocky" stairs at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Me reclining after walking up the “Rocky” stairs at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

We have been discussing the paradoxes of Scripture in church these last several weeks. Yesterday I got to speak on the paradox of “laboring to rest” which we find in Hebrews 4:11. This post is the conclusion of the matter. So f you missed the first two section s they can be found at the links below:

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/11/30/pastor-wrinkles-laboring-to-rest-pt-1/

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/12/01/pastor-wrinkles-laboring-to-rest-pt-2/

What we have learned to this point is that the work…the labor we are called to do as Christians is the work of having faith in a living loving God. We are called to do that in a world that is constantly trying to steal our faith and get us to believe only in our own strength.

The writer to the Hebrews in the verses leading up to our opening verse in Hebrews 4: 11 makes this clear when he writes,

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,” Hebrews 4:1-3

Our work our labor is to believe and have faith in God and to allow that faith to propel us through life rather than our own strength.

Some people scoff at this way of living saying it makes God a crutch. They would say that God helps those who help themselves. But the truth is that we are a people who need a crutch.The world, and even our own inner monologues often tells us that we have to save ourselves, that we cannot rely on God so we have to trust in ourselves, our own strength. The problem is that every time we follow this line of advice we end up in trouble. Some people have gone so far as to make even going to Heaven a work that man can accomplish in his own strength. Others following that advice of working their way to Heaven have worked their way right out of trusting Christ and into Hell. I had one man tell me that if in fact he could not get to Heaven on his own merits he was not going to rely upon someone else’s sacrifice to get him into the pearly gates. That man died and for all his labor he ended up with an eternity of torment.

When the Bible tells us to labor to enter into rest it is not talking about a list of do’s and don’ts but about laboring to build faith in the work of Christ in our lives and this is indeed a labor for the whole world is set against it:

The world tells us to work to get ahead. Christ says trust me and obey me and I will give you the life I intend for you to have.

The world says work hard and pay your own way. The Lord says trust me, pray and do the things I tell you to do and I will supply all your needs.

The world says do good works and God might be impressed enough to let you into Heaven. Jesus says come unto me and trust my work on the cross to save you and then you can rest from your labors.

In the end we have a choice about how to labor. Laboring in our own strength leads us to exhaustion and ultimately failure. Laboring to trust God and His way for our lives leads to rest and peace and ultimately success. It seems like a no-brainer to me but which will you choose?