They have a lot of energy, love the Lord, and have a huge heart for teens. In fact, This Sunday, after worship, all the teens will gather in the teacher’s lounge for some pizza and a chance to catch up with and pray for each other.
We kicked off “At The Movies” last Sunday by saying God is…For You.

We illustrated some of the ways in which our God demonstrates that he is for us by reflecting on a passage in Scripture where Jesus healed a woman (a nobody) who had been bleeding for 12 years. We also looked at the same passage in Scripture where Jesus brought back to life the daughter of a temple leader (Jairus–an important somebody). We said if you want to know more about God, look at His Son, Jesus. We marveled that Jesus always takes notice of the individual in every crowd. We used a clip from the movie “The Kings Speech” to help illustrate a God who is for you, transforming you from the inside out and helping you produce fruit of love, joy, Peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control.

This Sunday, we will look at another amazing characteristic of God…That God is…ACTIVE. Michael will use some clips from the movie Transformers II to help us better know our incredible God personally. I hope you will be able to make it to Radiant Life this Sunday for worship.

Too often we just whine to God about what’s going on that we think is unfair and then we go on about our lives. Many of us, we never stop to listen to what God might want to communicate to you.

Here are SOME beautiful things about God.
God REVEALS Himself to us. He’s not trying to hide from us. God wants you to KNOW Him FULLY.

1) He has REVEALED Himself
In His Son, Jesus
In Nature
In people
In His Word (teaching)
Through the Holy Spirit

The GOOD NEWS is that you CAN Know God.

2) God is a relational God.
He DESIRES a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with You.
He has made it possible
He pursues you
But He won’t force himself on you
He has been waiting patiently for you to:
*Come to terms with the ugly sin that is inside you
*Admit it
*Ask God to FORGIVE you and set you FREE
*Trust that what Jesus did on your behalf was more than enough
*Surrender your life to God
*Ask Him to live inside you and make you NEW

3) God Speaks

If you will stop to listen,
God will often speak to you.

How will He speak?

All sorts of different ways.
God can speak audibly. I’ve never heard His audible voice, but I know people who have,
and I believe that He can.
God can also speak through His Word (Bible). Every single day, He can speak to you through His Word (Bible).
God can speak to you through circumstances.
If you look around, God can speak to you through other people.

God will often speak to you, and sometimes, He won’t, because He is God.

NOW, here’s the deal.
If you will take the time to listen to God, when He speaks, you may not like what He says. This was the case for Habakkuk. It was also the case for Paul. He had what was known as a thorn in his side, or in his flesh, and he prayed over and over again. “God, I know You can do something about it. Please do. Take it away. Remove it.”

Three times, he begged, “God, I’m pleading with You. Take it away. I’m pleading with You. Take it away. I’m pleading with You. Take it away,” and God said basically, “I could, but I’ve decided not to. My answer to you is no. Why? Because I am going to do something even better than take it away, and you may not understand, but I am going to teach you that My grace is all that you need. You see, I could do that, but I’m not going to, because I’m going to do something different inside of you.” (1 Corinthians 12:1-8)

What do you do, when you hit this crisis of belief? (The Dip)
“Where are You, Good? I don’t understand.”

you stop and you listen.
“God, what are You saying? Good, where are You?”

Habakkuk brought some very difficult questions to God
and essentially accused God of not being fair.

And I would have to agree 100% with Habakkuk. God is not fair.
Here’s the kicker –
The fact that God is not fair is one of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL things about God.
What you talkin’ about Willis? (obscure Different Strokes reference)

Here’s the deal.
God is absolutely, and completely, JUST.
But He’s not FAIR.
This is why the story of God is called the Gospel: the GOOD NEWS.

Let me explain it.
The truth is everyone of us was born with a sin nature.
That simply means that we can not live up to God’s standard of Holiness.
You and I fall short. We disobey God.
We lie.
We steal.
We dishonor the name of God.
We don’t keep the Sabbath day holy.
We dishonor our parents.
We are greedy.
We hold grudges.
We say hurtful things.
We hurt people who hurt us.
We are self-centered.
We cheat on our taxes.
We don’t forgive.
We speed and break the law in both big and small ways.
We commit adultery.
We ignore and even avoid the poor.
We lust.
We gossip.
We judge.
Need I go on?
It’s simply disobedience. And our disobedience is nothing to wink at. It’s serious.

Are you still with me so far?

among other consequences, sin separates us from God.
Our disobedience separates us from having an authentic relationship with people.

Sin creates all sorts of havoc on our lives. Just ask any married couple (especially if they have kids) to tell you how painful and devastating and humiliating it is to have to deal with the consequences of having a spouse who cheated.

Sin destroys.
The consequences of our sin leads to death and separation. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. (John 10:10)

When you begin to see the consequences of your sin it affects you and others,
You start to feel kind of bad about your sin. You see sin for what it is: destructive. (Galatians 5)
Sure, there may be temporary pleasure or escape. But eventually the consequences of your sin and mine will always catch up to you. (Numbers 32:23)

You ought to feel a holy fear about your sin. It’s a serious offense to rebel and disobey the God of the Universe.

Since God is just, He must punish sin.

If God was completely FAIR, you would have to pay the penalty for your own sins. The only thing worthy would be Hell (and complete separation from God) forever and ever. God will not force you to love and obey Him. He gives you and I the choice to choose Him or reject Him.

That’s it.

But because God is just…
And because He’s NOT FAIR to you…
you don’t have to pay the penalty for your own sins… (John 3:16-17)
If you choose to put your faith in God’s perfect Son (Jesus).

God sent His Son, Jesus
the Lamb of God,
the perfect sinless One,
who was slain for the sins of the world
to shed His blood,
and HE became sin for us.

He was killed in order to completely atone for our sin payment.

I mean, God poured out His wrath upon Jesus (His Only Son)
and Jesus died (in order to take on the penalty for our sin) and He raised again.

Jesus conquered both sin and death.

Jesus completely paid the sin-price for you and me.
He took the punishment that you and I deserved to take.
He paid a debt that He did not owe (mine and yours) because I owed I debt I could not pay.

If you put your trust in Jesus
Scripture says you will be spiritually born anew
and all of your old sin will be forgiven,
and you’ll be changed,
and you will be filled with the Spirit of God,
and all of a sudden, you will be entirely different. Made new. Free.

You will belong to Him.
You’ll be Heaven bound…
but you will also have His divine purpose on earth…

and I’ll just tell you up front…
It doesn’t mean you’re going to get more money.
Doesn’t mean you’ll be prettier, healthier,
and doesn’t mean you’re going to get a bigger house,
because that’s not what it means to follow Jesus. (Luke 14:26-28)

Trusting God means dying to your self. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

It means your life will count for the glory of God,
and it may get worse before it gets better,
but it doesn’t matter because you’re following Jesus.

For many of you it’s time to step across the line and say,
“Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God,
and I surrender my life to You.
Take me.
Forgive me of my sins.
I give it all to You.
Jesus, I give my life to You.”

One of the most beautiful things about God is that HE IS NOT FAIR.

Awkward!

What if you could have a completely open and honest conversation (back and forth) with God? Would you do it? What would you say? ask?

What if God gave you complete freedom to speak openly with Him about anything and everything? Would you take Him up on this sort of invitation? Would you be able to articulate, To God, the questions, frustrations, pain, confusion you’ve had throughout your life?

If you were able to have such a conversation face to face, would it somehow strengthen your faith in God? Why? How?

What would you say and how would you say it? Just you…and God…speaking freely. How would you imagine that conversation taking place? What feelings would you experience? Do you imagine that it would clear things up for you?

I wonder if my phone could do this?

Love this.

Really?

Maybe you are waiting on something more serious, like
Unemployment Check
To get pregnant
To get well
For your husband to start leading your family towards God
For your marriage to heal
For the sadness to go away

What are you WAITING on right now?

Would you mind sharing your story with me in the comment section
Or email me chris@radiantlifefellowship.org or inbox me a facebook message.

You would be doing me a HUGE favor by sharing with me what you are waiting on.

While we were out of town, celebrating, Jenny’s mom (affectionately known as Grandma) came to stay with our kids. Our kids have both daily and weekly chores that they are responsible for completing. We do not pay them to do the chores. Occasionally, we will celebrate something extra special that they do (they had a great attitude, shared something, went above and beyond, etc.) with something they get to choose from the family Treasure Box.

On one occasion Grandma asked our youngest child to pause the Wii playing and do his chore. 99% of the time (after some “but dad?” complaining) he will obey. In this moment, Jake’s answer shocked Grandma with his response. “NO!” is what he said emphatically. In fact, all our other kids stopped dead in their tracks. The house became like a ghost town. I think a tumble weed blew across the living room separating Grandma from Jake. A western-movie-like face-off was now in action. This was a totally unexpected response from our 6 year old.

I have to say, Grandma handled it beautifully and Jake obeyed and eventually apologized to all of us.

Have you ever been totally blown away by an UNEXPECTED RESPONSE from someone you thought you knew pretty well?

It’s no secret that I am a fan of the prophet and the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. We are in a series, at church, called Permission To Speak Freely that is taking us through the whole (3 CHAPTERS) book.

My last post described the tone of messy questions the prophet Habakkuk was bold enough to ask God. For some of you, it might seem a little awkward or strange honestly crying out to God with such brutal questions. Is it even legal? Yes.

So Habakkuk cries out to God with His questions about how it doesn’t all line up. He looks around him at how corrupt the people of God have gotten. He wants to know why God is not doing anything about it.

God speaks to the Prophet. I find this very comforting. God responds.
But God’s what God says in his response to Habakkuk’s questions is shocking.
5 The Lord replied,
“Look around at the nations;
look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn’t believe
even if someone told you about it.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
and conquer other lands.
7 They are notorious for their cruelty
and do whatever they like.
8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs
and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9 “On they come, all bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind,
sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10 They scoff at kings and princes
and scorn all their fortresses.
They simply pile ramps of earth
against their walls and capture them!
11 They sweep past like the wind
and are gone.
But they are deeply guilty,
for their own strength is their god.”

God says to Habakkuk that He is going to punish the Judean people for their disobedience to Him. the method He chooses to punish them is the shocking part. He is going to raise up a far more evil people (the Babylonian people) to come and destroy the Judean’s (when compared to the Babylonians were not so bad).

This obviously did not seem fair to Habakkuk.

And Habakkuk goes “Huh? That doesn’t make sense.”

Habakkuk’s name means ‘to embrace’ or to ‘wrestle’ and that is what Habakkuk decides to do with God when he felt like God was not being fair.

Habakkuk struggled with God’s answer. It didn’t seem to be fair and he understood God to be fair.

Is that your understanding of God? That he is fair? What if I told you that according to the Bible, God is not fair. How would that change your image of God? I will explain in the next post and I think you will agree with me on this one.

The church is the people of God doing the will of God with the leadership and power of God.

I love our church. I love the people. I love the mission God has given us. I love the adventures we have been on together over the last year and a half.

One of the values I love about our church is the desire to know one another better. We love creating shared experiences and memories. The memories we make, TOGETHER, have a way of binding our hearts together. When one of us is hurting or struggling, it should make all if us want to do something to help. When one of us has something to Celebrate, then all of us should celebrate.

Our staff had an idea of taking the whole church on a weekend camp out. We’ve never done anything like this before. Like a lot of things we have done, it could be risky. But the benefits of building closer relational bonds among our church people far outweighed the risks. We can get a years worth of relational bonding in a weekend when you compare it to the 1 hour and 15 minutes we spend together on a Sunday in worship. So we are going to STEELE CREEK PARK AND FAMILY CAMPGROUND on the weekend of June 24-26th.

I know several of you have expressed an interest in doing a baptism at the lake where we will be camping. I think that would be awesome. Please let me know if you or someone you know wants to be baptized and we will make it happen and your church family will celebrate with you.

If you have not signed up, yet, to go Camping with your church, please do so now! It won’t be the same without you.

I know some of you are not campers and maybe you don’t have camping equipment. If that’s the case, we can help. But you have to let us know. I have an extra tent. I know of others who have extra camping supplies you would need and you can borrow.

check out THIS SITE for more details. Also contact me chris@radiantlifefellowship.org or christine@radiantlifefellowship.org to get your questions answered.

We would be so honored if you would decide to come Camping with us. We also totally understand if you can’t. We’ll love you either way. By the way, that weekend, we will not be holding worship services at Blythe.

Maybe you’ve noticed that there are so many questions that are so difficult to answer.
Think about it:
*Why do they say that an alarm clock is going off, when it is really coming on?
*Why do they say they you drive on a parkway, but you park on a driveway?
*I slept through the night, like a baby. (we all know that’s not right)
*If you throw a cat out of a moving car, is it called kitty litter? (I am not a cat fan)
I know those are not the most difficult questions to answer. In fact as I get to know more of you, I realize your life has not turned out like you thought it would. You have some very difficult questions about life. I believe you will definitely be able to identify with the Old Testament prophet: Habakkuk.

Here’s a sample of the driving question Habakkuk: “Why don’t you seem fair God?”

How long, O LORD, must I call for help?
But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
but you do not come to save.
Must I forever see these evil deeds?
Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
I see destruction and violence.
I am surrounded by people
who love to argue and fight.
The law has become paralyzed,
and there is no justice in the courts.
The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
so that justice has become perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2-4)

Habakkuk is one of the 12 MINOR prophets (That doesn’t mean he never played in the majors; like he never got the Nike contract or their own sports drink).

We know less about Habakkuk than any of the other minor prophets. We do know that he lived in Judah, during the divided Kingdom. We know he was most likely a Temple Musician. At some point he became a Priest and then a Prophet.

You might wonder “What is a Prophet?”
A Prophet (in the Bible) is someone who would typically speak on behalf of God.
God would say “Habakkuk, here’s what I want you to tell my people.”
And so Habakkuk would say “Thus says the Lord”
And he would speak, to them, whatever God told him.

Habakkuk was unique in that instead of God just telling him what to tell God’s people, Habakkuk went to God on behalf of God’s people. He asks God the tough questions that the people were already thinking.

Now the book was written in about the year 600 BC. It was a time period where Gods people were becoming very corrupt: Violence, People in power abusing their authority, Sexual misconduct, Corruption, People taking advantage of each other, Stealing, Crime, hatred… A lot like what we see around us today, right?

Basically Habakkuk has 3 major problems with God
1) GOD You don’t seem to care. You are letting all these things go on in the world that don’t seem fair, so therefore God, you must not even care.
2) You GOD aren’t doing much…when I know you could.
3) And GOD what you are doing doesn’t seem fair.

In other words, what Habakkuk is saying is — “GOD if I were in your shoes, I would do things totally different.”

Be honest. How many of you have ever thought something like that?
Is that even legal to ask those sort of questions to God?
Do you and I have Permission To Speak Freely To God?

Is God going to punish me for even feeling this way?
Is it even appropriate to say; “God, I don’t understand. You don’t seem to care. You could do something here to help and it seems like you are not. What you are doing seems totally unfair.”

It is ABSOLUTELY not only a good thing to question God, But there are times when questioning God, like this, could become a significant part of your faith journey.

Do me a favor. Would you mind sharing with me some of your very difficult (and messy) questions you have for God? I will go first in the comment section.