What do I Need?

Phil, Phil, Phil........

Lot's of stuff in the book of Phil.

I finished reading the book of Philippians today and I was struck by something.

NEED

So here is what Paul says about need in Philippians Chapter 4.

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have leaned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

That last little part on there is great....it's daily inspiration to hang on the fridge...I can do all things....I LOVE THAT.

Here is a little problem I found with that one.

I found that I was approaching God with some spectacular plan of my own design and pretty much telling him that "I can do ____________ through Christ who gives me strength.  Right God? Right?"

Then thinking, "Come on power of God to do whatever I want."

Except that God is not a genie in a lamp, and he is not Santa Claus.

He is God.

And thinking about that makes my heart pound a little harder, because God is beyond my ability to explain, or comprehend and I certainly don't wield an ounce of power over him and I'm pretty sure he can't be manipulated my my crafty little plans.

So doing "all things" must have a deeper meaning than getting God's power to do what I want.

So I had to think about something else too.

Paul says he knew what it was to need and to have plenty.

I have had a lot of experience with having plenty, most of us in the western world have.

We have so much that we have to do things like go on diets and purchase magazines about controlling clutter, or hire organizers to tame the stuff in our homes.

I'm not against having plenty, in fact I think it's very nice, and I think God is okay with having plenty too.

It's what we do with the plenty that concerns him (but we'll save that fun topic for another day).

Need

I have known for a long time that God will supply my needs.  He has a long track record with me and many other people of doing so.  He has met my needs in some very creative ways and more often than not he has given me my wants too.

But not always.

Because you know what happens to a person who gets everything they want.

It is something called, a spoiled, rotten brat.

And God doesn't want a bunch of spoiled rotten brats running around.

So sometimes he strips us down I think.  He clearly did it with Paul.  Paul's life was in danger many times, and ultimately he lost his life for the sake of Christ.  It is believed that he had his head chopped off.

So I started thinking, "Didn't Paul NEED his head?"

Why did God not supply that need?

Then I thought of another story I heard just the other day about a missionary who ended up being shipwrecked and slowly died of starvation.

His last act in this life was to write praise to God as he lay dying.

That guy needed some food and God didn't give it to him.

So how are we to take this all in?  Clearly there are things people need to live and sometimes they don't get them.

We have two choices:  

1. We can decide that God must not REALLY supply what we need, which would make him a liar and not very good at all.

OR

2. God defines our needs in a very different way.  He is ultimately good and gives us what we need according to his big, giant plan.

In the past thirty two years I have learned too much about God to doubt his ultimate goodness.  I waver at times, I definitely have questions, but when it comes down to a final answer I know that God is good.

And I also know that he is not a liar.

Because I wouldn't waste my time on a God like that, I'd just do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted because it God is bad AND a liar he is definitely not getting my allegiance.

The truth is, he has my allegiance, because he has shown me countless times that he is good, and trustworthy and truthful.

So what do I do with need?  How do I quantify what is a need?  To stay alive I need three things; food, clothing and shelter from the elements.

If I live somewhere really warm, we could probably take it down to one: food.  Because really and truly if you life somewhere balmy the last two won't really kill you if you don't have them.

Except that would be embarrassing... and pretty unreasonable.

However, is the ultimate goal of life just to stay alive?  

Good luck with that one, because no one is getting out of this life alive.

Here is what I think this really all comes down to.

If you are a follower of God he has a plan for your life and a deadline for your life.

He will give you everything you need to carry out the plan, and then he'll take you out of here.

So needs are really all of his deciding if you have given your allegiance to him.

When if comes down to what we REALLY, REALLY NEED, there is only one thing.  We need to know God, we NEED to know that when we leave this world we will meet him and he will accept us.

This is a need he HAS undeniably supplied for everyone and it came a a great personal sacrifice to himself.

He gave us Jesus, his death to pay for or sin, and his resurrection to prove that there is life after death (I'll write about that soon) and hope that this life is not all there is.

So all REAL needs are met, we just have to ask God to give us a relationship with him.

His answer will be yes, so don't worry about that.

"He has given life, and godliness, and the knowledge of him who called us, for his own glory and goodness."
So go ahead and trust him.
He's good, he's good, he's goooooooooooooooooood.

Amen

Still in Phil

Couldn't resist that blog heading.  I love rhymes.

I'm still reading in Phillippians, though my reading today also took me to Mark 3 and 4 and Hebews 6 and 10.

Please don't be under the impression that I read this much Bible every day, it's just that I'm sick and laying in bed and reading is a great way to pass the time between the naps and eating chicken soup.

The book of Phil is one of my favorites.  It holds one of my favorite verses:


2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

Before we go any further I have something to make you laugh, as you know the Bible has many versions and I frequent a website called biblestudytools.com to compare them, because though I own a few translations, I don't have nearly as many as biblestudytools.com.

Here a a few variations on Phil. 2:14

Do all things without protests and arguments; (Bible in basic English)

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:(KJV)

And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations: (Douay - Rheims)

(hee, hee, YE....do ye, do ye, do ye)

Haced todas las cosas sin murmuraciones ni discusiones, (La Biblia de las Americas)

(!Que bueno!)

Faites toutes choses sans murmures ni hésitations, (French)

(Oui ye)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing ;(NAS)

But here is my all time favorite:

Do everything without kvetching or arguing,(Complete Jewish Bible)

Quit ye your kvetching!!!!

I have to admit I kvetch all the time....ye.

And, when I don't kvetch out loud, I kvetch in my head.

But, I do get the idea.  It means not to be a whiner and not to be argumentative.

This is loud and clear to me now because as I sit writing, my children are supposed to be doing their chores.  A couple of them are, and they are doing it without kvetching, this is very attractive and wonderful.  The others are complaining, and procrastinating and arguing about who does what.

Kvetching is totally unattractive and somewhat infuriating.

My real favorite part of this passage is the shining like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life part.

The word of life.

Do you know what the word of life is?

Its' all over the Bible.

One of the best word of life verses is in John 1:12

"To all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God."  

That's the word of life.  You can be one of God's children, all you have to do is ask God to forgive you and understand that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid for every bad thing that you or anyone else has ever done.

Wala!

The shining like stars in the universe is kind of nice too.  That is apparently a very beautiful way of saying that as you tell people that God loves them and wants a relationship with them you will end up looking pretty good yourself because you are doing what God designed you to do.

When I think about people that do this, it's true.

Billy Grahm (very sparkly)

Jim Elliot (wow)

Beth Moore (shiny)

Grandma Han (ohhhh)

I know, they aren't really glittery, but there is something amazing about their person, it is as if God himself is shining through them.

And that's all I have for today.

http://www.xenos.org/teachings/?teaching=1126