Hey Kids!

Psalm 82: 6

I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.”

This is a challenging bit of scripture, but the key is that it is scripture. If you value scripture as God’s word to us, then you have to deal with troublesome passages instead of reading over them and discarding them.

In context, God was talking about the lost people in the world. They are lost and without understanding, He said. His next words are, but I have made you Gods and sons of the Most High. In other words, if there are lost souls wandering around in darkness then activate your office as a god and as a child of the Most High to help them.

Father God has given us authority and dominion in the earth and of all the things we seem to misunderstand, this has to be one of the biggest. We keep begging God to do something, yet His response is, “Haven’t I made you a God? And, are you not my child, my lineage, a child of the Almighty? You have the authority to change the situation. I gave you power, might and dominion. I gave you the authority to operate in this realm. Exercise your authority.”

This challenges me and I hope it does you as well. I wrote an email today where I said, “God bless you,” not a bad sentiment, right? But no sooner did it flow out of my fingers, maybe even before I could finish typing it did the thought ring through my mind, “You bless them!” In other words, it is the story of Moses that God turned on me today. In Exodus 14: 15 – 16 is recorded this exchange, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to start moving. Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide the water.” Our God is kind and gentle but I hear Him saying through my filters, “Why are you whining to me when I have given you both the power and the authority to remedy this situation? Do what you have been commissioned to do.”

This is a good passage and a good theme to spend some time pondering. What has God empowered us to do? How is it that we can bless others? How do we use what God has given us to bring about His good in the earth? As always, we are delighted to hear your thoughts.

The Real

Joshua 24: 15

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Truth be told, you are going to serve some God. It might be the money God, the workaholic God, or recreation God. You may serve manna but there are so many things which capture our devotion. An idol is anything you put before God. What do you think about? What are you passionate about? It is great to be passionate about life, but it is easy to let those things supplant God.

We may not build an idol to the things that we serve but if you look around, I think you will find that sometimes we do. We just don’t acknowledge it; don’t recognize it. Most of us don’t bow down to a shrine and worship it but watch us on game day. We’ve got on our team colors, drinking from our logo cup and are glued to our televisions.  We are very invested emotionally in the outcome of the game and hang on every minute.

Other people put their jobs or careers on the throne of their lives. Truly, it can be anything. We just have to take a step back to make sure we aren’t making those things more important in our lives than our Heavenly Father. This verse warns us that we may become as the people of the world if we aren’t mindful. We could be serving the gods of the Amorites, or whatever “ite” is out there if we don’t decide to make Yahweh the highest priority of our life.

It’s easy to slip into life according to the world but take a bit of time to realign yourself just like you have to occasionally realign the tires on your car. This isn’t a reason for guilt, just an opportunity for a check-up to see if anything has pushed its way into God’s space. Living to God is what satisfies our souls and spirits. All the other things are fun, but just substitutes. Cling to the Real.

Bible Challenge

Psalm 82: 6

I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.”

We are all children of the Most High. Did you also know that we are all gods? Is that a difficult thought? For most of us the answer is probably, “yes.” This is the challenge of the gospel, we must learn to except God’s Word even when it challenges our thinking. The task is to come to understand what God is saying to us. Our first reaction to challenging passages may be to shy away from them or even disregard them completely. Hey, that is only natural. However, we don’t want to be natural people. Right? We want to live in the supernatural.

My prayer for all of you is that 2017 eclipses any previous year; that you have more interpersonal experience with God than ever before. I pray that this year brings you unparalleled interaction with the Holy Trinity. In order for us to receive and understand revelation from God, we must be open to ideas we have not encountered before. We have to accept God’s teachings and trust that in time He will show us the fullness.

So we begin this year being told we are gods. What does this mean for our lives? We shall accept that it is true and we have all year to learn how this truth impacts our daily lives. It should be a fascinating journey.