Clif McKinley Dot Com

Rob Bell referenced Psalm 50 in a video and in book I just watched and read.   So yesterday morning I decided to read it and here are some of my observations.

This is the Psalm that says “God owns the cattle on a 1,000 hills.”  I have heard this passage quoted a million times.  Those quoting it are trying to say that God has wealth and He can provide.  That is absolutley true, but that is not what this passage is talking about.    That is not the point at all.

When God says that, He is making the point that if He had a need, like being hungry, He would need help from us, BECAUSE He owns the cattle on a 1,000 hills.  He goes on to say that he doesn’t NEED our sacrifices, but what He wants is TRUE THANKS.  What He wants is for us to keep our viws.  What He wants is for us to trust HIm in times of trouble so that He can rescue us.  Then we can give Him glory.

In verse 22 He says,we all need to ”REPENT” of what you ask?  Ignoring Him.  WOW!  How guilty are we of that.  Ignoring Him, trying to do it on our own, being self sufficent.

I was going through Acts 3 this morning and I was struck by something. In Acts 3 we read the account of Peter & John and the healing of a man who was sitting and begging at the Temple gates. Here is the thing, the crippled man had been there for YEARS. He was 40 years old and had been begging at the gate for YEARS. Jesus had walked by this man. Jesus had gone into the Temple this way, Jesus passed by this man and never healed him. How many times did Jesus pass by this guy? Think about that. Jesus say this man in pain and begging and left him that way. WHY? Because Jesus knew the impact that his healing would have at a later date. Jesus could have healed the man and it would have been a miracle. But by waiting the miracle had a MORE profound impact. Because Jesus passed him by, it allowed Peter & John to announce to Jerusalem that the power of Jesus was alive and well. As a result many were brought to faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus knows what we don’t know and He sees what we can’t see. So if we are in pain and going through a struggle, Jesus knows and He hasn’t forgotten us. He knows when bring that healing, relief, that change, etc we are praying for will have the greatest impact for the Kingdom of God. So hold on and know that if Jesus seems to have passed you by, it just means He is sending a Peter & John along later.

v-1 “We can gather our thoughts, but the Lord gives the right answers”  We can try and firgure things out in our own wisdom, but the right answers to all of life’s questions are found in HIM

v-2″People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives” We have a way of justifying/rationalizing our actions, we like to view ourselves as always being in the right, but God know our real motives, we are not fooling Him.

v-3″Commit your work to the Lord, and hen your plans will succeed” Real success come from deep commitment, we must comitt & submit our plans to God and He will bring them to fruition.

v-9″We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” We can dream, we can scheme, but at the end of the day God has a plan and we need to trust Him.  He sets the course.

v-18″Pride goes before destruction, and  haughtiness before a fall” Pride, born out of ego or insecurity is destructive. hen are consumed with being recognized for our accomplishments, or boasting to gain recognition, we are on dangerous ground.  God gets the glory & He deserves the credit.  If you want to be seen by men, be careful what you wish for, you may end up being seen in a way you don’t want.  EMBARRASSING

v-32″It is better to be patient than powerful; it is better to have self control than to conquer a city” That says it plainly enough, patience & self control are fruits of the Spirit, not power and might.

v33″We might throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall” He is in Control, that is very comforting

I get that asked that question from time to time.

A couple of years back I had a mild heart attack and it caught me off guard. Obviously right? Anyway, since then I get asked probably once or more a month how is your heart?

Now in a physical sense it is great to ask that question? Let’s face it if it stops pumping I die, if yours stops pumping your dead too.  It is important to keep tabs on our heart.

But what about our other heart, the one Jesus talked about, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34) “But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you.  For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.  These are what defile you.” (Matthew 15:18-20)  Solomon the wises man that ever lived said something about the heart too, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Our heart, physically is the key to life, and it seems spiritually as well, “it determines the course of our life” who we really are is hidden in there.  Granted we have all developed filters that prevent us from saying certain things and that keep us from acting out, we have learned to behave, but Jesus said “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander” all come from our hearts.

I like crime stories, and I can’t tell you how many times I have watched one of those true life reports about a horrific crime and the guilty party (be it a murderer, a rapist, an abusive person) seems so nice and normal.  The BTK killer was a deacon in his local church.  No one suspected him.  Why?  Becuase he was good at hiding what was in his heart.

The truth is even though things smells rosy on the outside we can be hiding a sewer in our hearts. SCARY!  Jesus says all that stuff comes out of our hearts.  Solomon said to guard our heart so that it doesn’t get in there.

So I ask the question again, How’s your heart?

We are going to dig deep into all of this in March in the series “Down With The Sickness” I hope you will join us on the journey.

Faith is a persuasion, a firm conviction, based the facts about God’s character that causes us to place our trust in His promises.

It is being convinced that God is who He said He is and He can do all that He said He will do.

If we are “People of Faith” then why do do find it so hard to exercise faith?

Is it because our view of God is wrong?  Is He too small in our minds?  Is He unloving?  Uncaring?

Is it that we don’t understand His promises or just don’t know them?

I am reminded of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, yes I am that old, when Indy had to take the “leap of faith,” he was stepping out into a great chasm, dropping to certain death but he took the step and landed on solid ground.  He was driven by the need to save someone he loved and it pushed him to really let go and step out in faith.

Yes it was just a movie and it was in the script, bla bla bla, but the image still remains.  What keeps us from letting go and really trusting God with every area of our lives?  Is it that we are not as intimate with him as we need to be?  We don’t know him well enough to trust him?

Whatever the case we need to get to the place where we REALLY trust Him and take Him at His word.  I think that when we really begin to do that we will see some amazing things happen in our lives and in our churches.

Thoughts?

So we started a new series of messages based on the Henry Blackaby book “Experiencing God.”  I have tuaght this material a few times over the years  to youth and in a small group setting, but at this point in our churches growth and development it seemed like it was time to teach it again.

So throughout the series I will be doing some “Extra” teaching via the blog; I hope it is helpful and please use the comments feature to ask questions so that I can help you dive deeper in your personal encounter with God.

Ephesians 2

• 1-3 We were all born in sin and because of that we were all DOOMED.  WE used to live just like everyone else that doesn’t know Jesus, giving in to our every desire, basically slaves to Satan even though we probably didn’t understand it at the time.  (It is funny how we thought we were free before Christ doing whatever we wanted but actually we were in chains, but now that we have real freedom in Christ many treat it as restrictive.)  Anyway it is Satan that is at work in the hearts of those who do not know & obey God.  We all used to live that way, after all we were born with that nature, we were under God’s judgment like everyone else.
• 4-7 BUT God loved us sooooo much and His mercy (not getting what we do deserve) is sooooo great, He sent Jesus to pay our debt, it is only by God’s grace (getting what we don’t deserve) that we are able to be in relationship with God.  Jesus death on the cross satisfied the judgment of God, sin had to be paid for and Jesus took it on Himself so that we wouldn’t have to!  WE were raised Spiritually from the dead with Jesus, meaning our soul was dead, but when Jesus was raised from the dead, He made it possible for us to become Spiritually alive.
• 8-9 Our salvation is by God’s grace, His special favor, we received it when we believed, put our confidence in Jesus.  We can’t take credit for our relationship with God, it is a gift from Him to us, we didn’t earn it & we don’t deserve it, but He offered it to us anyway.  Our salvation isn’t a reward for all the good things we have done, just the opposite, it is a gift that cannot be earn, therefore we can’t brag about how wonderful we are, if it wasn’t for that free gift we would be lost no matter how good we are!
• 10 We are God’s MASTERPIECE, those are His words not mine.  When HE looks at us He sees a beautiful work of art, a priceless one of a kind treasure.  He made us new in Jesus so we can do good things (instead of giving into every evil desire) and that was His plan all along.
• 11-15 Paul talks about how we, the Gentiles (all non-Jewish people) were once Outsiders (much like those who are outside of the family of God now) we treated like with contempt.  Funny how the Jew treated the Gentiles is how many time we treat the unchurched and those that are searching.  But because of the death of Jesus we, the Gentile, were brought into the family of God.  Before we had no hope, we didn’t have the benefit of the promises of God but now we do because of Jesus act of sacrifice on the cross.
• 16-18  Now we are ONE, no longer to groups but one group, we can come to God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, because of the Son Jesus Christ.
• 19-22 Now the Gentile, us, are no longer Outsiders, but now are part of the family, no longer illegal aliens, but full fledged citizens.  We are now MEMBERS of GOD’S FAMILY!  Jesus is the foundation, the cornerstone  and we are joined together to form the CHURCH,  WE are the temple of God, we are were the Spirit of God lives, not ina build like in the Old Testament Temple, no He resides in the hearts of His people the church.

Ok I am starting a new series of Blogs per Danielle’s request.  She enjoys my perspectives when I p;reach/teach and wants to know what all the notes I scribble in the margins of my Bible look like.  Sooooooo because Danielle is so cool and just all around awesome I will honor her request and start sharing “My Notes” as it were. Hope you can glean something from them.

Ephesians Chapter 1

• It is easy to skim the first few verses of Paul’s letter and miss out on who is talking to,  his target audience is “God’s HOLY PEOPLE in Ephesus who are FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS of Jesus Christ.“   So as you read through Ephesians remember Paul is speaking to Faithful Believers, not pagans, not newbies, but Faithful Believers.
• Verse 5 tells us God’s plans have not changed, His plan has always been to adopt us into the family.  He did this through Jesus Christ.  And this relationship gives God great pleasure.  Being in relationship with us puts a smile on God’s face.  That is very cool!!!!!!!!!!
• V7-Our freedom was “purchased” but we are never treated as possessions.
• V7-Our sins are Forgiven, the debt is paid, no more bill collectors calling, we are free
• v12-God’s purpose is that we should “praise our glorious God.”  When we consider all he has done for us it really isn’t that hard to praise and thank God.
• V13-The Holy Spirit is given to us @ salvation and is God’s guarantee, good faith gesture, that He will give us what He promised.  The Holy Spirit is also proof that we belong to God.  Yet another reason to “praise our glorious God”
• V15-23 is a prayer that Paul prays for these Faithful Followers, understanding is a big theme here.  HE asks God to give them Spiritual wisdom & understanding so that they might grow in their knowledge of God.  This is important because there are a lot of competing voices that say “spiritual sounding” things, but can lead us down the wrong road, it takes Spiritual discernment from God to keeps on the right path.  Paul then goes on asking God to flood their hearts with light (very cool image) so they can (here is the word again) UNDERSTAND the future that was promised and realize (yet another word for understand) the inheritance we have been given.  HE continues praying that they will UNDERSTAND the greatness of God’s power that is available to us who believe.  It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead & seated Him in heaven, and the same power that gives Jesus authority over all things.  This power was given to Christ to benefit the church, so it is available to us to BENEFIT the church.
• So you could say It is Paul’s desire and definitely God’s desire that we UNDERSTAND who God is, who we are in Him, what He has promised us, and the power that is available to us for the benefit of the Body of Christ, the Church.