you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Posted by jaked | Filed under a smart guy once said..., i don't need no stinking label
bto – you ain’t seen nothing yet 
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i’ve been pretty spastic in my quiet times lately, not specifically studying any particular book at the moment. i’ve actually been going back to verses i’ve memorized in the past and, in order to get a better understanding of them, reading them in context with the verses around them. this morning i was reading john 1. the verses i had previously memorized were the first couple verses:
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
a fantastic way to start a book in my honest opinion, but that’s not the point you can read about book openings here. anyway what recently stuck out to me is found later in chapter 1 where Jesus is first assembling the men who would be responsible for really his entire ministry and who would live and die for the cause. most specifically nathanael. nathanael must have been a friend of philip who Jesus had invited to follow him just before.
philip, just like anyone who had just found out something incredible, rushed off to tell his friends, specifically nathanael, who’s hanging out under a fig tree. “we have found him of whom moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of nazareth…” (vs45) nathanael responds to this with “can anything good come out of nazareth?” i love nathanael’s response. the biting sarcasm, the criticalness, i think we probably would be been friends… but curiosity won out and nathanael came to see who it was that philip was talking about.
Jesus saw nathanael coming and said to him, “behold, an israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (vs47) nathanael was taken back at this assessment of himself and asked Jesus how he knew him. and Jesus answered him, “before philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, i saw you.” ok now things are getting weird for nathanael. how could this guy have seen him without actually being there? something about this seemed amazing yet unbelievable.
this little glimpse into the power of God was all that nathanael needed to be convinced that this was the Son of God, the true King of Israel. Jesus replied to this pretty amazing conclusion with this, “because i said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? you will see greater things than these.” basically Jesus was telling him, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
it’s cool putting myself in nathanael’s place, because i’ve gotten to see God do some pretty cool stuff. providing for needs, changing lives, (my own included) and pull off the unthinkable… but i haven’t seen anything yet… i haven’t seen, what Jesus said was coming, “truly, truly, i say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
a diary of private prayer
Posted by jaked | Filed under a smart guy once said...
this is a pretty cool prayer template that i found by john baillie:
o Father in heaven, who didst fashion my limbs to serve Thee and my soul to follow hard after Thee, with sorrow and contrition of heart i acknowledge before Thee the faults and failings of the day that is now past…
my failure to be true even to my own accepted standards:
my self-deception in face of temptation:
my choosing of the worse when i know the better:
o Lord, forgive.
my failure to apply to myself the standards of conduct i demand of others:
my blindness to the suffering of others and my slowness to be taught by my own:
my complacence toward wrongs that do not touch my own case and my over-sensitiveness to those that do:
my slowness to see the good in my fellows and to see he evil in myself.
my hardness of heart toward my neighbors’ faults and my readiness to make allowance of my own:
my unwillingness to believe that Thow hast called me to a small work and my brother to a great one:
o Lord, forgive.
on replacing God…
Posted by jaked | Filed under a smart guy once said..., so i was thinking the other day...
in reading the “pursuit of God” by a.w. tozer this weekend, this quote has been messing with me.
there is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always possess. it covets “things” with a deep and fierce passion. the pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant… they are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. the roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one root lest we die. things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.
this has been something that has actually been in my thoughts alot lately… especially due to my lack of transportation situation. God has really been doing some work in my heart when it comes to the topic of conversation of possessions. i’ve never been “rich” but there was a time in my life when i really never had to necessarily go without. there’s just alot of that stuff (a car, decent computer, money to eat out, a bike, etc.) that i seriously took for granted. now having most of that been taken away (which i can see was God’s doing to really teach me this lesson) i can see where the severe disconnect between me putting my whole dependence on Him instead of just talking about doing it.
God has a funny way of teaching us things. being without a car has been super frustrating for me. having to be a burden on people for rides around town having to have students pick me up for appointments, i’m not going to lie to you, it’s been a pretty big strike at my pride. i’m incredibly grateful to “work” at a “job” where i am loved by the people i “work” with and serve and they’ve been nothing but loving and helpful. but i’ve seen how instead of relying on God i’ve ended up relying on people.
another side of this is the side where i’ve substituted God’s gifts with God himself. i’ve seen it in some of my prayers where they arn’t necessarily about God himself but more about what would really help me out if he would do. less about His goodness, mercy, faithfulness, justice, and love and more about what He should do for me.
i’ll admit it, i’m pretty thick sometimes, especially when it’s about me and my downfalls. i’m just thankful i serve a patient and very forgiveness God. He’s definetly teaching me things, and being the man (can i put that?) i am i’ve got to learn the hard way.
leave it to a guy who died almost 50 years ago to figure out what needs to be broken down in my life.
what about you? what’s something you’re replacing God with?
UPDATE: it looks like pete wilson of cross point church has written about the same thing, using the same quote of tozer’s book on his blog. crazy…
