Filled with the blessing of seeing God move, I headed to the gym around 9am today and while I huffed and puffed on the treadmill in my meager attempt to keep up with the pace of my neighbor, I received yet another blessing.
As I ran, I listened to a sermon by David Platt, author of Radical. In the sermon he recounts a time when he was hiking in a remote mountainous area, braving treacherous conditions to share the Gospel with an unreached people group. One evening as his team rested at their mountain camp after a day of seeing many people saved, David glanced out over the countryside and thought, "Look at all we are doing. God must really be glad to have me on his team." Then he grabbed the book he brought with him and picked up where he had left off reading last…
Almighty God, just because He is Almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one. Yet if we look at the popular conception of God, that is precisely what we see. Twentieth century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, if not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent him as a busy eager, somewhat frustrated father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan of bringing peace and salvation to the world. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancy frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers not only for the heathen, but also for the God who has tried so long and so hard to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear thousands of people enter Christian service for no other reason than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation that His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities have been unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive for much of Christian activity today.
A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy
As Mackenzie and I prepare to go to Haiti and are privileged to witness miraculous and generous ways that God is moving may, we also be quick to remember that God is incomprehensible great with or without us. So God we say, Here we are! Send Us! Not because you need us, but because you love us. And we by your grace, love you and delight in you and want Your Glory known among all peoples.
Promise for Today:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1-4