God's priorities - different from ours?

Jesus was a radical. He was a non-conformist who challenged the views of just about everyone He came into contact with. His life and teaching was different from most people. As God, He was showing us God's way. He said crazy things like "love your enemies", and "store up your treasures in heaven". 

I don't know if it's entirely legitimate to try and sum up all of Jesus' teachings about life in one word, but if I could I might choose the word "priorities". I think Jesus taught us that the priorities we humans generally accept and live by are considerably different from what God says should be important to us.

Every Christmas it seems there is a "must have" toy. Are you old enough to remember parents frantically searching and willing to pay any price to get their hands on a Cabbage Patch Doll? Maybe you are more from the Tickle Me Elmo generation. Every year it's something, and I learned this week that the toy every good parent just has to buy for their children this year is the "Hatchimal". It's a giant egg that, as the child plays with it, decides to "hatch". It lights up and the shell opens and inside is a furry little creature that does wonderful things.

The only reason I know this is that I saw a news report the other day where parents lined up from 4:00 am for a chance to buy one of the last Hatchimals expected in the toy store before Christmas. A few people were there looking for an opportunity to re-sell the $70 toy, currently available on Ebay for $250 and more. Most were parents willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure their child would be one of the privileged few to open a Hatchimal on Christmas morning. One parent with tears in her eyes shared how important it was that her daughter be happy, and apparently a self hatching stuffed bird is the key to that happiness.

This would all be really absurd if it weren't simply an example of a problem most of us have. We have lost our sense of what's important. Our priorities and God's priorities for us are way out of line. Here's what James had to say about that.

"You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

You might assume I am talking about the human tendency to want more and more money and bigger and better stuff. That's part of it of course, but it goes way beyond that. Why do so many married people have affairs? Because their selfish desire for something they don't have is more important than the people who will be hurt. Why do people lie and cheat and treat other people badly in the workplace? Because they want more power or prestige and that's worth more than whatever collateral damage they cause to themselves and others. 

Do Christians have priority problems? 

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. He said the second is to love our neighbour as ourselves. If these were really the guiding principles of our lives, think how they would affect our priorities. 

• we would spend time praying, and reading the Bible, and really getting to know God
• we would want God's will for our lives, ahead of our own plans
• we would act in ways we know please God instead of doing what feeds our selfish desires
• we would put the needs of others at least on a par with our own
• we would give God his rightful place in our families, instead of a token acknowledgement 
• we would teach our children what's really importatant, instead of teaching them that happiness comes from opening a Hatchimal at Christmas
• we would give God his rightful place in our schedules instead of being so busy with our own priorities that there is no time left for God
• we would invest our time and resources in things that are eternal instead of the stuff we will leave behind
• we would treat others the way we want to be treated instead of always wanting to get our own way

Since I've used the "must have" toy as an illustration, I want to tell you a story. When we lived in Edmonton we were good friends with a couple that earned more money than just about anyone else in our church. The dad grew up as a missionary kid in Africa, and both he and his wife had inherited a healthy set of Godly priorities. The time of my story was during the Cabbage Patch craze and they had a daughter exactly in the age group that was crazy over the dolls. We went to their house at Christmas and were surprised to be joined by two homeless men Brian encountered and invited for Christmas dinner. During our visit the daughter was very pleased to show us her "Cabbage Patch" doll, which wasn't a Cabbage Patch at all, but a cheaper copy she was just as happy with. These are just examples of how they lived every day.

It's been a long time and we haven't been in touch with that family for many years, but I will always remember and respect them as a couple who had their priorities right, and consciously built those priorities into their children. 

We have a culture that promotes selfishness, and a God who promotes selflessness. I'm faced with a choice, and so are you. Which one are you buying into? Which one are you teaching your children? Are God's priorities reflected in your life and family?

  

AT THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL

The Gospel message is simple, right? Yes... and no. What we need to understand about the Gospel to come to faith in Christ is straightforward, to the point that many children have clearly understood and accepted this truth. Yet when we look beyond the simplicity and explore in depth what the Bible teaches us about God's plan of salvation there is so much more. Our appreciation for God and what He has done grows and grows as we discover the heart of God and the richness of this plan we call The Gospel. That's what we've been trying to do this fall in our "Grounded & Growing" classes, and once again no one has been more impacted by these discoveries than I.

We have been working to uncover God's plan from where it began, with creation, and follow it through to the amazing sacrifice Jesus made so we can be restored into relationship with God. One thing shouts out to me in every step of God's plan. GOD LOVES US!!!

I have been a follower of Jesus for more than 50 years, and I have to confess its really only been in the last couple of years that I have really come to understand and appreciate how much God loves us. I didn't really get what John meant when he wrote the words "God is love." I didn't really understand the fact that since the beginning of time as we know it God has been a loving Father reaching out to us, longing to bring us into a perfect relationship with Him, like Adam had on the day he was created in the garden. 

One of the things that has most helped me see this truth is the story Jesus told of the prodigal son. Jesus, who knows and understands the character of God in a way that by far exceeds anything we could imagine, described the Father's reaction when his wayward son came home. The love and compassion is overwhelming.

We can easily infer from Jesus words the Father watching the road in hope and anticipation of the day when his son would return. Not so he could scold or berate or punish, but so he could wrap his arms around his son and welcome him back into the family. Restoring that relationship with his son was uppermost in the heart of this loving compassionate Dad.

God has often been seen by those who don't know better as a stern and vengeful tyrant waiting to pour fire and brimstone on those who don't follow His every whim. That's not the God of the Gospel. That's not the God I know.

I know a God who created mankind so He would have someone to share His immense love with. I know a God who for thousands of years has used every means to draw His wayward children back to Himself. I know a God who allowed His own perfect Son to suffer and die and take on the sin of world because He loved us so much He just had to make a way for us to come back home. I know a God who has patiently endured mankind's sin and rebellion for millenia while extending His grace and invitation to return to Him. I know a God who is lovingly preparing a home for us where we can live for eternity.

People find it easier to see what they want to see in the life of Jesus. In Jesus we see love, compassion, grace, and mercy. They somehow have the impression that Jesus is the nice part of the trinity,  and that He holds God the Father back from pouring out His wrath on us. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus said in John 14: 9 "anyone who has seen me has seen the Father". One of the things Jesus did was to demonstrate to us the character of God. He personified the love of God. 

Isn't God also a holy God who can't tolerate sin? Absolutely! He said the wages of sin is death. But he didn't make this pronouncement from a heart of anger and vengeance, but from a broken heart. That's why the verse in Romans goes on to say "but the gift of God is eternal life". 

God hates sin. In fact He can't stand it. What He hates even more is the fact that His people are captive and under the sentence of death that sin brings. Because He loves us. So much so that at a tremendous cost to Himself He made a way. That's the Gospel. That's why John says "God is love".